Ennio Morricone single-handedly "invented" the typical style of Italo Western film music. US-American Western film music used to be lush orchestral scores, instead Morricone used electric guitars, whistling, screaming, Mariachi trumpet playing, various percussion instruments, etc. The music for "A Fistful of Dollars" was something people have never heard before.
However, I can see a similar approach in Masaru Satō's music for Kurosawa's Samurai movies with its sparse instrumentation and inclusion of jazz elements. The whole score is in stark contrast to the music of earlier Jidai-geki movies, which also favoured large sweeping orchestral music.
Given the fact that "A Fistful of Dollars" was basically a remake of Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", I have been wondering if Morricone had been influenced by Satō in any way.
Your first big film success was A Fist Full of Dollars, whose score is very different from that of the Hollywood Westerns. Your cultural perspective is obviously different. What were the stimuli?
The stimulus was the film itself. Leone had made an ironic and, in a certain sense, a grotesque film in that it was funny, a caricature. It was necessary to respect the clarity that Leone wanted for his characters. Besides, I was not, and am not, a specialist in American folk music, so what sense was there in my treating the characters like Americans? If that is required, use an American composer.
So, I treated Leone’s characters by attempting to re-invent, in my way, American folk, bearing in mind certain musical and technical data. And then the caricatured treatment of the characters encouraged me to introduce strange sounds into the score so that the character would have the charisma Leone wanted.
Morricone and Leone were classmates, so it’s not impossible to think they might have watched Kurosawa’s work together. However, it’s more likely that Morricone’s influences were coming from a ‘60s Italy that was in a continuous state of near-revolt, where folk music was explicitly being rediscovered in opposition to the establishment (which, in Italian musical terms, meant opera and prewar songs). Using “the people’s” instruments was a statement as much as a stylistic choice.
https://youtu.be/qwb3P0fuM1c That's awesome. So many crappy movies these days. 50+ years old, its amazing to me the quality is so high as well. I'm going to have to rent this.
7 years ago Bruce Springsteen in Milan used this song as the intro theme for his concert and it was the best thing ever. Still get shivers looking at the video
Morricone scored most of the films that Elio Petri and Gian Maria Volonté made together... that's another iconic film partnership that Morricone was part of, though less centrally in this case.
I have a spotify playlist with a bunch of Morricone's pieces on it, and oddly I discovered him as a teenager listening to a super weird goth band called Fields of the Nephilim, whose schtick was basically dressing up as vampire cowboys, and they sampled Morricone as a leitmotif throughout a whole bunch of their songs. Most familiar will be this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcg-iCBivbw
It's easy to miss that there was a lot of truly great art wrapped up with what we were taught was kitsch, camp, and schmaltz.
Didn't think I'd ever see The Fields of the Nephilim mentioned on HN :) I first saw them live at the Glasgow Rooftops club when they released Dawn Razor back in 1987. As you mention the music basically riffed off of the Spaghetti Western genre and took it to a darker place. That first Neph gig was a genuinely unsettling but amazing event...the lighting, the band's sartorial schtick with the long "dusters" coated in flour (I believe), the thumping beat and McCoy's growl. Add to that, the Rooftops was a bit of a shadowy seedy joint littered with shady customers and the gig not starting until after midnight.
The first track on the Dawnrazor album is a cover/rework of Morricone's "The Harmonica Man" which sets the album up quite nicely:
As an aside from the Morricone thing, they were one of the best live bands I've seen in all my gig going history having been to see them aroun 10-12 times over the years.
> It's easy to miss that there was a lot of truly great art wrapped up with what we were taught was kitsch, camp, and schmaltz.
I had a similar revelation seeing Don Rickles perform about 12 years ago. I went to see Rickles with a friend, but my primary motivation was to feel superior by basking in the kitsch of a dinosaur comedian from my parents' generation.
What I ended up seeing was a remarkably talented man who could sing, dance (in his 80s!), tell a joke, and hold the audience in the palm of his hand.
He toured with live performances very frequently, only retiring from live music last year, at age of 90. I saw him twice and both were filled with really serious fans of all ages.
While he was prolific (350+ movie scores credits on imdb), I really feel as I am re-experiencing the movie while listening to Morricone's soundtracks, more than from any other composer, especially for "Cinema Paradiso", "Frantic" and, I think, the most meaningful Spaghetti Western, "Duck, You Sucker" (!).
I don't know most of his work, but I've had two channels into it in my life.
1. I have distinct childhood memories of the score from Once Upon a Time in the West from when my dad watched it (and then watching it myself). It still stirs something deep, that's not just nostalgia.
2. Following Mike Patton's musical journey and finding the haunting version The Ballad of Hank McCain in collaboration with John Zorn - from an album composed entirely of covers of Ennio Morricone tracks (The Big Gundown).
I'm a very big fan of him. It's so sad but we all knew he was in the late stages of his life.
He was for me the biggest composer of the second half of 20th century, which just happened to do music for films (also for some Italian pop music, but it was less prolific there).
Metallica introduced me to his music and then I explored a lot. Had a privilege to witness his performance live once. Ennio Morricone is a legend! RIP Maestro!
He never had the public recognition he deserved unfortunately. I'm still surprised at how many people can whistle many of his pieces without knowing who he is.
My impression is that he's very well known here in Europe. Sure, not as much as whoever the year's pop sensation is, but Morricone is one of the few modern composers many people know by name.
His death is now a major headline on news sites from several different countries, too.
In France at least (and in Italia I guess) Morricone is very well known. If you would ask people to cite at least one famous score composer Morricone would probably be cited amongst the first, closely followed by Vladimir Cosma.
Actually it is not Morricone public recognition that we should worry about since it is already quite wide, but the fact that he's almost the only Italian composer to get all the fame, while there is so many of them that deserve better recognition, including Morricone collaborators such as Bruno Nicolai and Allessandroni which is responsible for the infamous whistling in Morricone scores.
I suspect it's a cultural and generational thing. These days many Americans can't name the modern composers who score the films they watch.
For the generation who grew up with the Fistful series, they probably know Ennio Morricone is extricably linked to Sergio Leone, much in the same way my generation knows John Williams and George Lucas are linked.
Of course his soundtrack work is immortal. However, he also composed some iconic Italian pop songs! His most famous one is probably Mina's "Se Telefonando". [1]
1. How did Adam and the Ants never get sued over "Jolly Roger"? [1] The melody and even the arrangement are pretty much a straight copy of Morricone's "The March of the MacGregors" [2] from the movie "7 Guns for the MacGregors". Morricone should have at least got songwriting credit on "Jolly Roger", but it is just credited to Marco Pirroni and Adam Ant.
2. There are some interesting covers of Morricone songs. The Ramones did "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" in some of their live shows. Their version was pretty straightforward...if you heard it in isolation you would not have thought "Ramones".
Wall of Voodoo did "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly". Their version sounded like a Wall of Voodoo song.
Great music stays great even if arranged for and played on instruments quite different from what it was written for. An example of that is the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's version of "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" [3].
3. If all that comes to mind when you hear the name Ennio Morricone is a bunch of great spaghetti western music, it is worth getting a compilation or two of his work and listening to it.
One of my favorite Morricone creations is main theme for one of the greatest horror films of all time, John Carpenter's 1982 remake of The Thing.[1]
I can't find it now, but in an interview Carpenter said something like that when he first worked with Morricone on this film, the latter came up with a very flowery, melodic theme, and Carpenter went to visit him but had trouble getting his ideas across to Morricone because of the language barrier, so he just said (through a translator): "Less notes"[2], and this is what Morricone came up with.
[2] - Which reminds me of the "too many notes" scene from Amadeus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6_eqxh-Qok), but unlike Mozart, who took offense, Morricone seems to have taken the suggestion in stride and come up with a classic.
So very sad :( One of my all time favourite composers. Such emotive music that bring back so many memories, not least my wife walking down the aisle to me to Gabriel's Oboe. RIP.
Fagen: But isn't it true that the Leone films, with their elevation of mythic structures, their comic book visual style and extreme irony, are now perceived as signaling an aesthetic transmutation by a generation of artists and filmmakers? And isn't it also true that your music for those films reflected and abetted Leone's vision by drawing on the same eerie catalog of genres - Hollywood western, Japanese samurai, American pop, and Italian Opera? That your scores functioned both "inside" the film as a narrative voice and "outside" the film as the commentary of a winking jester? Put it all together and doesn't it spell "postmodern", in the sense that there has been a grotesque encroachment of the devices of art and, in fact, an establishment of a new narrative plane founded on the devices themselves? Isn't that what's attracting lower Manhattan?
Another of the great melody writers is gone. He will be missed. His Cinema Paradiso theme is one of my all-time favorites -- not the love theme that's most commonly associated with the film, but the main theme, which plays during the opening. It's so infinitely tender and nostalgic.
A lot of people have seen the Clint Eastwood "Man with no name" westerns but if you haven't watched "Once Upon a Time in the West" I would definitely check it out. One of the best movies I've seen and if you're not fan of westerns (which I wasn't) you will appreciate the genre some more after seeing this movie.
[+] [-] spacechild1|5 years ago|reply
However, I can see a similar approach in Masaru Satō's music for Kurosawa's Samurai movies with its sparse instrumentation and inclusion of jazz elements. The whole score is in stark contrast to the music of earlier Jidai-geki movies, which also favoured large sweeping orchestral music.
Given the fact that "A Fistful of Dollars" was basically a remake of Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", I have been wondering if Morricone had been influenced by Satō in any way.
[+] [-] charlysl|5 years ago|reply
Your first big film success was A Fist Full of Dollars, whose score is very different from that of the Hollywood Westerns. Your cultural perspective is obviously different. What were the stimuli?
The stimulus was the film itself. Leone had made an ironic and, in a certain sense, a grotesque film in that it was funny, a caricature. It was necessary to respect the clarity that Leone wanted for his characters. Besides, I was not, and am not, a specialist in American folk music, so what sense was there in my treating the characters like Americans? If that is required, use an American composer. So, I treated Leone’s characters by attempting to re-invent, in my way, American folk, bearing in mind certain musical and technical data. And then the caricatured treatment of the characters encouraged me to introduce strange sounds into the score so that the character would have the charisma Leone wanted.
Not that I know much about it, but I find music in some old japanese movies very interesting, like Woman In The Dunes (https://youtu.be/UFbJ9iDeZgg) or Kwaidan (https://youtu.be/v_OFoOwzPZY)
[+] [-] toyg|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vanderZwan|5 years ago|reply
Guess that makes "Once Upon A Time In The West" the one where he fused the US-American style with his own
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcg-iCBivbw
[+] [-] charlysl|5 years ago|reply
https://youtu.be/AHe07HT5NQA
Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone has to be one of the greatest partnerships in film history, so many unforgetable moments:
https://youtu.be/qwb3P0fuM1c
Here is a very good old interview, with several references to their collaboration:
https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2016/12/11/morricone-interview...
Their last film together:
https://youtu.be/Jj5Xczethmw
[+] [-] lukebennett|5 years ago|reply
Hear hear, one of the most evocative pieces ever written, sends shivers down my spine every time. A real masterpiece.
[+] [-] x87678r|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] flaviocopes|5 years ago|reply
https://youtu.be/Qm3lYTtJ8gs
[+] [-] frandroid|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] motohagiography|5 years ago|reply
It's easy to miss that there was a lot of truly great art wrapped up with what we were taught was kitsch, camp, and schmaltz.
[+] [-] teh_klev|5 years ago|reply
The first track on the Dawnrazor album is a cover/rework of Morricone's "The Harmonica Man" which sets the album up quite nicely:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLkqtb_AVjQ
As an aside from the Morricone thing, they were one of the best live bands I've seen in all my gig going history having been to see them aroun 10-12 times over the years.
[+] [-] busyant|5 years ago|reply
I had a similar revelation seeing Don Rickles perform about 12 years ago. I went to see Rickles with a friend, but my primary motivation was to feel superior by basking in the kitsch of a dinosaur comedian from my parents' generation.
What I ended up seeing was a remarkably talented man who could sing, dance (in his 80s!), tell a joke, and hold the audience in the palm of his hand.
* edit: I also love this song by Morricone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G54OHh8lib0
[+] [-] aphrax|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] e40|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Erwin|5 years ago|reply
While he was prolific (350+ movie scores credits on imdb), I really feel as I am re-experiencing the movie while listening to Morricone's soundtracks, more than from any other composer, especially for "Cinema Paradiso", "Frantic" and, I think, the most meaningful Spaghetti Western, "Duck, You Sucker" (!).
[+] [-] jyriand|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BLKNSLVR|5 years ago|reply
1. I have distinct childhood memories of the score from Once Upon a Time in the West from when my dad watched it (and then watching it myself). It still stirs something deep, that's not just nostalgia.
2. Following Mike Patton's musical journey and finding the haunting version The Ballad of Hank McCain in collaboration with John Zorn - from an album composed entirely of covers of Ennio Morricone tracks (The Big Gundown).
I'll need to educate myself further.
[+] [-] aarroyoc|5 years ago|reply
He was for me the biggest composer of the second half of 20th century, which just happened to do music for films (also for some Italian pop music, but it was less prolific there).
Requiescat in Pace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3SAOQfMA44
[+] [-] markosaric|5 years ago|reply
Metallica introduced me to his music and then I explored a lot. Had a privilege to witness his performance live once. Ennio Morricone is a legend! RIP Maestro!
[+] [-] HenryBemis|5 years ago|reply
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hmtzRo-Qro8
Anyone who hasn't been in a Metallica concert, it is totally worth it, especially their (always the same) intro!
[+] [-] abbadadda|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dmos62|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rad_gruchalski|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maaaaattttt|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kleiba|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ACS_Solver|5 years ago|reply
His death is now a major headline on news sites from several different countries, too.
[+] [-] ddrdrck_|5 years ago|reply
Actually it is not Morricone public recognition that we should worry about since it is already quite wide, but the fact that he's almost the only Italian composer to get all the fame, while there is so many of them that deserve better recognition, including Morricone collaborators such as Bruno Nicolai and Allessandroni which is responsible for the infamous whistling in Morricone scores.
[+] [-] _pferreir_|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rorykoehler|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] balls187|5 years ago|reply
For the generation who grew up with the Fistful series, they probably know Ennio Morricone is extricably linked to Sergio Leone, much in the same way my generation knows John Williams and George Lucas are linked.
[+] [-] baud147258|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] flobosg|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pozdnyshev|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] hirako2000|5 years ago|reply
He probably never cared for public fame.
[+] [-] lou1306|5 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6fpSiE953w
[+] [-] efrafa|5 years ago|reply
Great cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIipUjO2ckk
[+] [-] tzs|5 years ago|reply
1. How did Adam and the Ants never get sued over "Jolly Roger"? [1] The melody and even the arrangement are pretty much a straight copy of Morricone's "The March of the MacGregors" [2] from the movie "7 Guns for the MacGregors". Morricone should have at least got songwriting credit on "Jolly Roger", but it is just credited to Marco Pirroni and Adam Ant.
2. There are some interesting covers of Morricone songs. The Ramones did "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" in some of their live shows. Their version was pretty straightforward...if you heard it in isolation you would not have thought "Ramones".
Wall of Voodoo did "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly". Their version sounded like a Wall of Voodoo song.
Great music stays great even if arranged for and played on instruments quite different from what it was written for. An example of that is the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's version of "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" [3].
3. If all that comes to mind when you hear the name Ennio Morricone is a bunch of great spaghetti western music, it is worth getting a compilation or two of his work and listening to it.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR4n-oo32Jg
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peGmy_oRz38
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLgJ7pk0X-s
[+] [-] pmoriarty|5 years ago|reply
I can't find it now, but in an interview Carpenter said something like that when he first worked with Morricone on this film, the latter came up with a very flowery, melodic theme, and Carpenter went to visit him but had trouble getting his ideas across to Morricone because of the language barrier, so he just said (through a translator): "Less notes"[2], and this is what Morricone came up with.
[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfcc9U35hPY
[2] - Which reminds me of the "too many notes" scene from Amadeus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6_eqxh-Qok), but unlike Mozart, who took offense, Morricone seems to have taken the suggestion in stride and come up with a classic.
[+] [-] zabil|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|5 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajM4vYCZMZk
[+] [-] lukebennett|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] graeme|5 years ago|reply
I’ve listened to Morricone scores more often than I can count. This is very sad news. He was still working too.
[+] [-] jawilson2|5 years ago|reply
Fagen: But isn't it true that the Leone films, with their elevation of mythic structures, their comic book visual style and extreme irony, are now perceived as signaling an aesthetic transmutation by a generation of artists and filmmakers? And isn't it also true that your music for those films reflected and abetted Leone's vision by drawing on the same eerie catalog of genres - Hollywood western, Japanese samurai, American pop, and Italian Opera? That your scores functioned both "inside" the film as a narrative voice and "outside" the film as the commentary of a winking jester? Put it all together and doesn't it spell "postmodern", in the sense that there has been a grotesque encroachment of the devices of art and, in fact, an establishment of a new narrative plane founded on the devices themselves? Isn't that what's attracting lower Manhattan?
Morricone: [ shrugs ]
[+] [-] vixen99|5 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlQh4PeB8PE
[+] [-] xabi|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brushfoot|5 years ago|reply
https://youtu.be/BvD8EiibPVo
[+] [-] bori5|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jborak|5 years ago|reply