Ennio Morricone

 

[1928 -] True Living legend of composition for films, the Roman Ennio Morricone had his name forever associated with the Italian westerns of the 60s. With the amazing of more than 500 soundtracks composed for film and frequent quality of them, the talent of this Italian composer can only be described as a phenomenon.

 

Formed at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, Morricone began his career as an arranger and composer of popular songs in the late 50's and early 60 – for names like Gino Paoli, Mina Mazinni, Milva, Jimmy Fontana and specially Gianni Morandi. The music of Il Federale (1961) directed by Luciano Salce was his first work for cinema and the great success of Per Un Pugno Di Dollari (A Fistful of Dollars, 1964), directed by Sergio Leone, established Morricone in the film market. With the success of the following films of Leone – Per Qualche Dollari in Piu (For a Few Dollars More, 1965) and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1967) – Morricone became marked as the main composer of spaguetti-westerns. He would make a remarkable expansion in his line of work during the 70s by experiencing with electronics and avant-garde procedures. The years of 1965-1975, a period of great productivity in the Italian market (and in the European cinema in general), enabled the composer ot exercise in various genres. In this way were very important to his writing and experimental will, soundtracks for horror and suspense films like The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970) or Spasmo (1974). Also established himself as the leading composer of political cinema, which marked Italian cinema in the early 70s in films as Burn (1969), La Califfa (1970), Indagine Di Un Citadino  Sopra Ogni Sospeta (1970), La Classe Operaia Va in Paradiso (1972), Sacco & Vanzetti (1973) and 1900 (1976).

 

In the 80s, started to recycle his writing, but even so delivered great works as Tragedia Di Uomo Ridiculo (1981), Butterfly (1981), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Untouchables (1986), The Mission (1987) and Frantic (1987). Even with the fall in productivity in the European market, Morricone continued active in international concerts and productive partnerships as the prolific collaboration with Giuseppe Tornatore director for whom he would do, among others, Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1989), Stanno Tutti Bene (1990), Una Pura Formalità (1994), La Leggenda Del Pianist Sul'Oceano (1999), Malena (2000) and The Best Offer (2013). His son Andrea Morricone also follows career as a film composer.