RIP Ennio Morricone

Maestro Ennio Morricone has died

Cinecitta News
July 6, 2020

Ennio Morricone died in the night in a Roman clinic. He was 92 years old. The Oscar-winning composer had fallen and broken his femur, an accident that was fatal to him. Winner of two Oscars, Morricone has also won with his soundtracks three Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, six Bafta, ten David di Donatello, eleven Silver Ribbons, two European Film Awards, a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and a Polar Music Prize. In 2017 he received the honor of Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. He was an Academician of Santa Cecilia.

Venerated master of the cinematographic world, Ennio Morricone has enriched hundreds of films with his musical talent, building, from Italy, his reputation with music for legendary films set in the American wild West. Morricone is famous for soundtracks for Italian-style western films, collaborating with directors such as Sergio Leone, Duccio Tessari and Sergio Corbucci, with titles such as the Dollar Trilogy, A Pistol for Ringo, The Big Gundown, The Great Silence, The Mercenary, My Name is Nobody and the Trilogy of Once Upon a time. Among the many music films also Nuovo Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore and Novecento by Bernardo Bertolucci. In 2007 Morricone received the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement after being nominated 5 times. In 2016 he obtained his second Oscar for the scores of the Quentin Tarantino film The Hateful Eight, for which he also won the Golden Globe.

Born in Rome on November 10, 1928, he composed more than 500 melodies, often immortal, for cinema and television, his touch as an arranger characterized the Italian pop music of the 60s (between Edoardo Vianello, Mina and many others ), but his true passion was symphonic music, experimentation and musical innovation, in the wake of a master like Goffredo Petrassi and the improvisations of the Nuova Consonanza group to which he contributed to give new life since 1964. Son of trumpeter and graduate at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in the same subject and in the direction of an orchestra, among the many awards of his long career he even had the header of an asteroid.

70 million records sold, the U2 guitarist The Edge who claims to consider him always knows his musician of reference, groups like Metallica or Ramones who open their concerts with a tribute to him, Quentin Tarantino who used his melodies two times (Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds) paying tribute to him until convincing him to sign an original soundtrack for The Hateful Eight with which the musician won his first Oscar.

Despite hundreds of scores that have made history, it is always the partnership with Sergio Leone that acts as the ideal theme for Morricone's cinema. The two met on school desks, in elementary school, and when the novice director turned to him in 1964 (For a Fistful of Dollars) he still does not know that much of his unexpected triumph is due to the inventions of the musician, forced to work without orchestra and with little money, capable of transforming a whistle, a trumpet, a shot into the most formidable synthesis of the western epic. The friendship between the two will never fail and will mark a successful career until the last film by Leone Once Upon a Time in America, which also for the musician represents one of the most complex and important compositional challenges.

In the world it is the "spaghetti western" that opens the doors of Hollywood to Morricone with directors such as John Carpenter, Brian De Palma, Roland Joffé, Oliver Stone and titles such as The Untouchables or The Mission, in Italy there are many filmmakers who with he boast an almost symbiotic relationship. It is the case of Elio Petri for which Morricone invents the sounds of Investigation of a Citizen or of Gillo Pontecorvo who writes with him the score of The Battle of Algiers that inspires Queimada and who will be among the closest friends to the end.

"Every time - he said - I try to make a soundtrack that appeals to both the director and the public, but above all I must like it too, because otherwise I'm not happy. I must be happy before the director. I can't betray my music". In his maturity he began to perform in public as conductor of his compositions. And, in front of his orchestra, Morricone revealed his chameleon flexibility every time: contemporary composer, creator of epics for the wider public, nostalgic singer of secret emotions. It is no coincidence that, in 2007, on the stage of the Oscar it was Clint Eastwood who gave him the coveted statuette: Eastwood would not have existed without Leone and Morricone. And the musician had found in the actor the first symbol of his beloved music worldwide. In January of this year he had received the Lifetime Achievement Award from President Elisabetta Casellati. '' I think the next season will be beautiful. We will see you in the great hall of Santa Cecilia. Now stay at home, '' he said then in April in the salute to the public of the National Academy during the lockdown in a video published on the website of the musical institution on the occasion of Christmas in Rome.

The funeral will be held in private form "in respect of the feeling of humility that has always inspired the acts of his existence". This was announced by the family through his friend and lawyer Giorgio Assumma. Morricone, reads the note, died "at dawn on July 6 in Rome with the comfort of faith". Assumma adds that the master "has preserved until the last full lucidity and great dignity. He has greeted his beloved wife Maria who accompanied him with dedication in every moment of his human and professional life and was close to him to the extreme breath, thanked his children and grandchildren for the love and care they have given him. He has dedicated a moving memory to his audience from whose affectionate support he has always drawn the strength of his creativity. "

"A sad day for culture, with Ennio Morricone one of the great Italian masters leaves us, a musician of refined skill who with his melodies has been able to excite and make the whole world dream that has reciprocated him with the most important prizes and awards, starting from the Oscars for his legendary soundtracks". So the Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, Dario Franceschini clings to the family. "I was lucky enough to meet him and I will not forget that energy and strength that he was able to transmit even with just one glance. I am close to family members on this sad day”.

MORRICONE, Ennio

Born: 11/10/1928, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Died: 7/6/2020, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Ennio Morricone’s westerns – composer:

Gunfight at Red Sands- 1963

Bullets Don’t Argue - 1964

Fistful of Dollars – 1964

For a Few Dollars More - 1965

A Pistol for Ringo -1965

The Return of Ringo - 1965

7 Guns for the Mac Gregor- 1965

The Big Gundown - 1966

Fort Yuma Gold - 1966

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - 1966

The Hellbenders - 1966

The Hills Run Red – 1966

Navajo Joe – 1966

Up the MacGregors! - 1966

Face to Face - 1967

The Great Silence - 1967

Guns for San Sebastian - 1967

And for a Roof a Sky Full of Stars – 1968

Blood and Guns – 1968

Death Rides a Horse – 1968

The Mercenary – 1968

Once Upon a Time in the West - 1968

The 5-Man Army – 1969

Companeros! – 1970

Two Mules for Sister Sara – 1970

The Virginian (TV) – 1970-1971

Drummer of Vengeance – 1971

Duck You Sucker - 1971

Long Live Your Death – 1971

What Am I Doing in the Middle of the Revolution? – 1971

My Name is Nobody - 1972

The Return of Clint the Stranger – 1972

Sonny & Jed 1972

They Call Me Providence - 1972

Another Try, Eh Providence? – 1973

The Genius – 1975

Buddy Goes West – 1981

The Pussy Cat Ranch – 1981

L’ultimo pistolero – 2002

Trick Saddle - 2003

Red Dead Revolver – 2004

Duel - 2008

Dusty - 2008

A History of Dollars – 2008

A Greek Western Tragedy – 2009

An Indian Named Joe - 2009

Django Unchained – 2012

No More Heroes - 2013

The Hateful Eight – 2015

Seth’s Gold – 2015

The Gum of the West - 2016

Six Bullets to Hell - 2016