Ennio Morricone was not only the most important film composer of the 20th century, he was also the busiest. Morricone, who died Monday in Rome at age 91, is best known for his early work with Italian “spaghetti western” director Sergio Leone in films including “A Fistful of Dollars” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. “
A composer sublimely in his face, during his first Morricone he created music that went against a central principle of form. He did not offer subtle emotional guidance or obvious evidence that appealed to hearts. Rather, their scores added completely new layers and tones to movies. Serving as a sort of whimsical and stubborn Greek chorus, one that could turn dark and sinister in an instant, their work played a co-starring role. Here are 10 essential Morricone scores.
Ennio Morricone.
(Associated Press)
1. “The trilogy of dollars” (1964-1966). Morricone’s trio of movies with Leone and Clint Eastwood overturned the film’s score, as the Beatles were overturning pop music during that same period. Beginning with a smooth acoustic guitar accompaniment and a whistled melody that becomes the film’s central theme, the opening minutes of the score for “A Fistful of Dollars” accompany the opening credits. Setting a tone, the music builds gradually and gracefully as Morricone adds instruments one by one: a fluttering flute slides like a sparrow, then the beat of a wooden block, a distant bell. We go up until a male chorus starts singing, the volume goes up, and the intro explodes with drama.
Both sequels, “For a Few More Dollars” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” gallop through similar terrain: harmonica and whistles galore. His theme for the latter has become sound shorthand for “Western Gun Duel at Sunset”. But Morricone composed for over 500 films in his life, and the “Dollar Trilogy” was just the beginning.
Main theme of “The good, the bad and the ugly”.
2. “The Battle of Algiers” (La Battaglia di Algeri) (1966). Opening with drums suggesting a march toward war, Morricone turned away from westerns for this drama about a rebellion against French colonialism in North Africa. In collaborating on the score with his friend, conductor Gillo Pontecorvo, inventive music used indigenous Algerian rhythms as a way of criticizing the effects colonialism had on culture. Combining European and North African musical ideas, Morricone and Pontecorvo underscored the tension that fueled the conflict.
Battle of Algiers by Ennio Morricone
3. “The Big Gundown” (1968). This score is just weird. Filled with booming bombardment and an army of timpani drums, the opening theme is as creative as two minutes as you’ll find it in the movie. Like a booming drum, seemingly recorded in an empty grain silo, breeds more percussion, a vocalist laments without words. Sometimes the Morricone orchestra burns with punk-rock intensity. Also the title of a tribute album by New York jazz avant jazzman John Zorn, “The Big Gundown” is a wild journey. That same year, Morricone scored another western, “Il Mercenario”. It is just as trippy.
Full score for “The Big Gundown” by Ennio Morricone
4. “Il Gatto A Nove Code” (1971). Do you want to be impressed? Take an hour to play Morricone’s score for director Dario Argento’s film, released in the United States as “Cat o ‘Nine Tails.” Leaving aside any fantasy for this sinister story, the composer worked with a small group of musicians: percussion, upright bass, strings, mysterious voices, piano, wind instruments, noise, to make an emotionally dense minimalist masterpiece. As a score, it is brilliant. As a standalone audio experience, it’s one of the best albums of 1971. (In the insert below, check out the second track, which starts at 2:40).
Ennior Morricone’s score for ‘The Cat or’ Nine Tails’.
5. “Novecento” (1976). Working as a team with filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci in an epic historical drama, Morricone had become so distinguished in the mid-1970s that he seemed to delight in endless expectations. With more silence and dialogue than Leona’s spaghetti westerns, “Novecento” employed Morricone sparingly. As if to make the most of his time, the composer embraced massive string sections to create a pastoral landscape similar to John Ford’s westerns – an impressive outdoor orchestration almost overwhelming in volume.
Score for “1900” by Bernardo Bertolucci.
6. “Days of Heaven” (1978). “He didn’t know me very well, so he made suggestions,” Morricone joked to an interviewer about his experience working on Terrence Malick’s film about a family struggling to live in the Texas panhandle before World War I. Notoriously stubborn, the composer met his partner in Malick. Intransigence seems to have paid off: Morricone’s score earned him his first Academy Award nomination.
Ennio Morricone’s suite for “Days of Heaven”.
7. “The Thing” (1982). By the time director John Carpenter approached Morricone to work on “The Thing,” they were both considered auteurs. After deciding on the score for the alien invasion movie, Carpenter, who composed his own synthesizer music for his movie, “Halloween,” flew to Rome to meet Morricone. The composer made 20 minutes of creepy orchestral music without having seen the movie, and Carpenter edited this music to appear at key moments. The director increased Morricone’s score with his own synthesizer compositions. The tag team effort has since become an archetype of the horror genre.
Ennio Morricone and John Carpenter’s theme for “The Thing”.
8. “The mission” (1986). With one of Morricone’s most impressive opening themes, “On Earth as It Is in Heaven”, the score for Roland Joffe’s award-winning film about the 18th century mission of the Spanish Jesuit priest to Argentina and Paraguay mixes liturgical music with rhythms tribal, evoking ancient tones. mix with a subtle orchestration. It earned Morricone his second Oscar nomination.
Ennio Morricone, “The Mission”
9. “The untouchables” (1987). In the mid-1980s, Morricone was in a state of high-profile scores. Although less playful and experimental than in the 1960s and ’70s, his work was further expanded with Brian DePalma’s story of Al Capone, the Ban, and the Chicago mob. Best of all is the film’s opening theme, which features Morricone highlighting the harmonica that echoed its use in “The Dollars Trilogy,” and uneven rhythmic arrangements that were inspired by early jazz.
Ennio Morricone’s score for “The Untouchables”.
10. “The H8teful Eight” (2015). Morricone’s latest major scoring project came at the behest of longtime fan Quentin Tarantino and sparked controversy after German Playboy incorrectly translated an interview by Morricone to suggest that he called Tarantino “a jerk.” After Morricone threatened a lawsuit, the publication withdrew the interview and apologized. Whatever Morricone’s feelings about the conductor were, he drew on his vast repertoire of ideas to create a grand and exclusively Morric score. The film earned him his only Academy Award.
Ennio Morricone’s score for “The Hateful Eight”.
