Category: Ennio Morricone

From The Spaghetti Western Database
Jump to: navigation, search
Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928 in Rome), is an Italian composer famous for his film scores, especially in Spaghetti Western. He has composed over 500 scores for Films and TV shows, but only about 30 of these are for Western. Morricone's sparse style of composition for the genre is particularly exemplified by the soundtracks of the classic spaghetti westerns, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ( Sergio Leone, 1966) and Once Upon a Time in the West ( Sergio Leone, 1968). 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 film music. Ennio Morricone also worked under the aliases Dan Savio and Leo Nichols .

Short biography

Born 1928 in Rome he grew up as the son of Mario Morricone and Lobera Ridolfi. In school he had a classmate named Sergio Leone who became a well known director of Spaghetti Westerns. Morricone was educated at the Conservatory of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in the trumpet and composition under Goffredo Petrassi, and choral music and choral direction. In 1956 he married Maria Travia, with whom he has 4 children. In 1962 he began writting scores for films and in 1964 he met his old school friend Sergio Leone who was looking for a composer for his new film Fistful of Dollars. It turned out that both formed one of the greatest director/composer partnerships (like Hitchcock & Herrman,...). It was then his career really started and between 1964 -1975 he wrote about 25 scores a year. He is still composing music for films and touring the world with his orchestra, or conducting his music with other orchestras.Finaly 2007 he received the Honorary Oscar for his all his soundtracks...

Good to know

  • Alessandro Alessandroni, a childhood friend of Morricone's, always whistled in his songs.
  • Sergio Leone was a classmate of Morricone.
  • Bruno Nicolai is considered his "student".

Filmography

External Links

Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.