Morricone, Maestro

When I was ten years old, my grandmother passed away from liver complications. Around that time, my father had been playing the soundtrack of Once Upon a Time in the West, a film or spaghetti western by Sergio Leone. The opening theme features a woman's haunting voice singing without words and accompanying the music's beautiful phrases and arcs. There is nothing like it, nothing better (unless it's another Morricone composition, be it The Mission, Cinema Paradiso, or Love Affair). For years, every time I heard that music, I thought of my grandmother and nursed the dull ache of loss and loneliness, just as Jill in the movie must have felt when she found the man she was to have married and his family slaughtered and left lying about their home.

That's how it began, but from there, I cannot seem to trace my musical acquiantance with Morricone. I only know the various scores that are now in my collection - Cinema Paradiso, Love Affair, The Mission, The Legend of 1900, Malena and of course, Once Upon a Time in the West. Some became familiar to me before I even watched the film itself, others I picked up after watching a movie and learning the music composer was Ennio Morricone.

I saw Cinema Paradiso when I was at university (I had the soundtrack long before my viewing though) and was amazed at how the music was just as important as the wonderful screenplay by Giuseppe Tornatore. This was the first of Tornatore's and Morricone's joint efforts in film. And what a perfect pairing it was. The movie is about a young boy's friendship with the local movie projectionist and the unflinching and powerful influence films have on their lives. The music - certainly the supporting role or even co-star in the film - is, in one reviewer's words "a virtual musical love letter to the power of films and their music." Cinema Paradiso the film did very well in terms of movie awards, earning the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes and an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. But I was shocked to learn that Ennio Morricone didn't even get nominated for the score that has become legendary (vocalists like Karrin Allyson, Josh Groban, Opera Babes have added lyrics to the tunes and made them their own, musicians have covered the themes over the years). Ennio Morricone has been nominated five times at the Academy Awards, but has never won once.

Last year, my parents and I paid a visit to the city of Verona for a day, and as we passed by the Arena amphitheater - a Roman theater that's used for concerts now - I saw a poster and learned with great dismay that Ennio Morricone was holding a concert there two days later! I would have left Verona by then! I wished I'd known he would be there, then I would have certainly planned our trip around that performance. Although I doubt I would have been able to secure tickets to a famed location where a famed composer would be performing.

The Italian music composer is perhaps the most prolific, the most talented, and the most versatile composer in our day. He's written over 400 scores for Italian and American films. Some of the American films include: A Fistful of Dollars, The Untouchables, Once Upon a Time in America, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Lolita, Bulworth and Mission To Mars.

You'll find many of his albums here. Footlight.com has the widest range of his music available, although the prices aren't the lowest and shipping costs quite a bit if you're shipping outside the US. However, they do stock many titles that Amazon.com lists as out of stock. Japan seems to have several titles produced specially for their own market and if you're ever there, it'll be good to pick up the exclusive titles.

Here is a nice site that lists his film compositions.

The official site is in English and in Italian.

There are many Morricone scores, and fans cling to some but turn away from others. I don't believe I'll ever get to hear them all or even half of his repertoire, but I'm fortunate to have listened to a few of the great ones. My favored choices are Cinema Paradiso and Once Upon a Time in the West, perhaps because of the images they constantly create in my mind, two of which have been, and still bring great meaning to my days - movies and a grandmother I lost too soon.

Posted by Monoceros at April 1, 2003 9:14 PM