Ennio Morricone

You've never heard of him, but you've definitely heard him. Ennio Morricone has become Rome's most famous classical music composers to ever come out of the city. Over the past year he has preformed in various European cities and just recently preformed at radio city music hall, his first ever performance in the United States. He has collaborated with such classical stars such as violinist Yo-Yo Ma. Like all good music, his music takes you to another place, puts you in a certain mood. We all know that feeling that comes to all undergrads, whether its blasting Kanye as you pregame, Phish as you smoke, belting out the lyrics to "Red red wine" on your girls night out, "Sweet Caroline" after the sox win, That complicated R.E.M. song on karaoke night. 30 seconds to Mars as you put on your emo clothes, singing along to Led Zeppelin in your car. Or if your anything like my wannabe-gotti sophomore year roomate; cranking Jadakiss at all times and getting written up until you get in trouble with housing services. You get the picture. Music moves people. So what does this have to do with a guy who waves his conductor's wand to an orchestra of people, and more importantly, what does this have to do with movies??

Because Ennio Morricone also just might be the greatest film composer of all time. Here's an example of his work, you may know it...



It all started when he teamed up with Italian director Sergio Leone. These Italian versions of westerns or "Spaghetti Westerns" was born and would go on to become arguably one of the most popular genres in film history. Clint Eastwood would not have a career if it weren't for spaghetti westerns. They were revolutionary for there iconic characters and cinematography. But what made these films truly legendary was the epic music. Morricone being the go to guy on all these films from A Fistful of Dollars to The Good, The Bad & The Ugly to Once Upon A Time In The West. Directors like Quentin Tarantino(Kill Bill) and Robert Rodriguez(Once Upon A Time In Mexico), huge fans of the spaghetti westerns, have even sampled Morricone's music into their work. Here's an example. In my opinion, this is the best scene from Kill Bill: Volume 2, the song used is Morricone's "L'Arena" sampled from the film The Mercenary.



His music is so epic and influential, that films shot and edited their sequences to coincide with Morricone's music. You can see that in the Kill Bill clip from above which even Tarantino would admit to; quote "To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I'm writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music...". In Once Upon A Time In The West, Morricone not only completed the films score before shooting was done but he also brought other sound design ideas to the table such as telling director Sergio Leone to use the ambient sound of the land to heighten the drama, an aspect that is now a staple in most spaghetti westerns. Here's another example of all this from one of the dramatic opening scenes of Once Upon A Time In The West. You can just clearly see how all the sound and music from Morricone influences all the other artistic decisions the film presents.



His body of work doesn't just end at Spaghetti Westerns. He's created scores for such acclaimed films as In The Line Of Fire, The Battle Of Algiers, The Untouchables, Malena, Cinema Paradiso, Bulworth, The Mission and Sergio Leone's final film Once Upon A Time In America. He has been nominated five times for the academy award yet never brought home the golden statue. On Feb 25th, Oscar Night, he will not only finally get one, but arguably receive the most acclaimed of all, the lifetime achievement honorary oscar. Deservedly so in my opinion. The final scene music in The Good, The Bad & The Ugly gives me chills just thinking about it. Music touches us all. It's all about emotions and the feeling we get out of it. With movies, we don't really think about it that way since everything is visual. But without a great composer like Ennio Morricone, I'm not sure if we could even appreciate those visuals in the first place.