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Ennio
Morricone Mini biography: A classmate of director
Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great
director/composer partnerships (right up there with
Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann,
Fellini & Rota), Ennio Morricone studied at Rome's
Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he specialised in
trumpet. His first film scores were relatively undistinguished,
but he was hired by Leone for Per un pugno di dollari
(1964) on the strength of some of his song arrangements.
His score for that film, with its sparse arrangements,
unorthodox instrumentation (bells, electric guitars,
harmonicas, the distinctive twang of the jew's harp)
and memorable tunes, revolutionised the way music
would be used in Westerns, and it is hard to think
of a post-Morricone Western score that doesn't in
some way reflect his influence. Although his name
will always be synonymous with the spaghetti Western,
Morricone has also contributed to a huge range of
other film genres: comedies, dramas, thrillers, horror
films, romances, art movies, exploitation movies -making
him one of the film world's most versatile artists.
He has written nearly 400 film scores, so a brief
summary is impossible, but his most memorable work
includes the Leone films, Gillo Pontecorvos _Battaglia
di Algeri, La (1965)_ , Roland Joffé's The Mission
(1986), Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) and
Giuseppe Tornatore's Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988),
plus a rare example of sung opening credits for Pier
Paolo Pasolini's Uccellacci e uccellini (1966). It
must be stressed that he is *not* behind the work
of the entirely separate composers Bruno Nicolai and
Nicola Piovani despite allegations made by more than
one supposedly reputable film guide!
(see
here)
Honorary
Oscar 2006 goes to composer Ennio Morricone
congratulations
Morricone most heartily
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