Ennio Morricone: biography, interesting facts, music, movies, listen

Ennio Morricone

"The best music in the movie is the music you hear. Music that is not heard is no good for a movie, no matter how good it is." These are the words of the composer, whose melodies became almost more popular than cult pictures where they sounded. Ennio Morricone, artisan and genius, who proved that film music is not an auxiliary instrument, but a full-fledged protagonist.

short biography

The Roman Ennio Morricone was born on November 10, 1928. His father was a famous jazz trumpeter, his mother was engaged in raising five children. Ennio had no doubts about his purpose, at the age of 6 he began to compose music, and at 13 he became a student at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory. First of all, he studied playing the trumpet, replacing his father in the ensemble at the age of 16, but at the same time he studied composition. Already as a student, Morricone began working as a composer at the theater and arranger at recording studios, radio and television. He is rightly called the father of modern arrangement. Thanks to his hard work, Ennio graduated from the Conservatory as a trumpeter, instrumentalist and composer, having completed 12 years of study. He wrote the music for his first film, "The Death of a Friend" at the age of 31. The first fame came to him in the period of work on the paintings of Sergio Leone.

In 1956, the composer married Maria Travia, who wrote lyrics to many of his songs. The couple had four children. Despite the fact that Morricone throughout his career was the largest author of film music of two continents, he had no catastrophic luck with obtaining the largest international cinema awards. He was awarded 1 of 5 possible Grammy, 3 of 9 possible Golden Globes. He received his first Oscar in 2008 for his contribution to cinema, after 5 unsuccessful nominations. And the only competitive "Oscar" Morricone waited only for the 88th year of his life - for the film "Abominable Eight".

In 2005, Morricone became the Grand Officer of the Order of Merit for the Italian Republic, the country's main award, and 4 years later - the holder of the French Order of the Legion of Honor. Despite the close creative ties with Hollywood, the composer works exclusively in his native Rome and does not speak English.

Interesting Facts

• Sergio Leone made a total of 7 films, 6 of which feature Morricone music. No less devoted to the composer and Giuseppe Tornatore, who invited him to collaborate in 12 of his 14 films. According to the total number of paintings, the tandem of the maestro with Mauro Bologoni leads the world with 16 films.
• D. Tornatore said about Morricon: "He is not just a great film composer. He is a great composer."

• Maestro wrote a new song "Ancora Qui" for the Tarantino film "Django Unchained". But after hearing the processing of his music in the final version of the song, he stated that he would never work with the director from now on. However, after seeing the script of the “Abominable G8,” he changed his mind, since Tarantino gave him complete creative freedom. The composer consciously wrote music that was different in style from his previous works in this genre, since the story seemed to him more adventures than a classical western. Morricone worked in a short time - all music was created in a month, several compositions were taken from materials not used in the process of working on the horror "Something" (1992).

• Despite the fact that Leone was a classmate of Morricone, he came to order music primarily to the composer, and not to an old acquaintance. Moreover, he did not even recognize him when he first met.
• When the first trailers of the Untouchables began to be shown in cinemas, the music for them was taken from the film Mission, as the soundtrack was not yet ready.
• The composer’s creative baggage contains two films, the original name of which is “1900”: “The Twentieth Century” by Bertolucci and “The Legend of the Pianist” by Tornatore.
• Despite the creative profession and many superstitions, Morricone is an absolute pragmatist with regard to his business. He believes that the reasons for his phenomenal performance are skill and focus, not the inspiration and talent that many of his colleagues rely on. Over the years of hard work, the maestro has developed a clear daily routine, which he meticulously follows. He gets up early, does gymnastics and walks, goes to bed on time. His working day lasts more than 10 hours!
• As acknowledged by the maestro, nothing stimulates creativity as short deadlines for project delivery. He wrote his best melodies precisely in the conditions of a rapidly advancing deadline. And the music, on which he could work for months, was mediocre.
• The composer’s business card is the use of the female voice as an instrument. His techniques for introducing a typewriter, cans, whistle, various sounds and noises into the score are widely known. At the beginning of the western "Once upon a time in the Wild West" for 20 minutes, none of the heroes said anything. The soundtrack of this long scene is also the work of Ennio Morricone.
• The songs of the composer were performed by: Mina, Peter Tevis, Luigi Tenko, Alberto Lionello, Milva, Toni del Monaco, Enrico Pianori, Barbara Baldassarre, Gianni Morandi, Helen Merril, Celine Dion.
• In several films Ennio Morricone worked with co-authors. Thus, in the film “The Battle for Algeria,” he became the director, Jillo Pontecorvo - more nominally, but such were the requirements of the contract. Two creators for a long time could not work together. The director was not satisfied with anything that was written by the composer. The crucial date of the premiere was at the Venice Film Festival, and the full version of the soundtrack has not yet been written. One evening Pontecorvo came up with several notes, he sang them to Morricone and he wrote one of the main melodies of this film based on them.
• Morrricone does not compose at the piano, but at the table — he just thinks over the idea and then writes notes.
• The composer’s many refusals to work with the American film industry in the first half of the 1980s were due to the fact that he was paid little. Morricone admitted that he was too modest to ask for a raise in fees, which in America he had the lowest possible. Only after the release of the film "Mission" (1986), he became one of the highest paid composers in the world.
• Despite his principle - to conduct only his own compositions, the composer starred in D. Tornatore's film “They are fine” as a conductor of the orchestra performing Verdi’s “La Traviata”.
• In 2015, a European tour of the maestro in 12 countries gathered 150,000 spectators. Most of the 20 concerts were sold out.
• Morricone is extremely superstitious. He considers purple unlucky to be number 17, especially if it falls on a Friday.

Creative portfolio

Enumerating Morricone’s films is like giving a list of stars in the sky - there are more than 500 of them. Even the maestro himself admits that he no longer remembers many. Started Morricone as a film composer in the late 50s, but by 1970 the number of his films exceeded one hundred. Among them stand out "The Good, the Bad, the Angry", "Once Upon a Time in the Wild West" and other pictures by S. Leone that cannot be imagined without the music of Morricone. They were familiar from childhood, and Leone, in violation of the usual practice, asked to write music for the film before the shooting. He knew that Morricone's tunes would set the artists on the right emotions, so he often included them on the set. Subsequently, in the same way, the composer will work with Giuseppe Tornatore. In 1964 the first work with Bernardo Bertolucci "Before the Revolution" was published, in 1966 - with Pierre Paolo Pasolini ("Birds big and small").

The next decade brought co-creation with such directors as Dario Argento ("The Cat on the Nine Tails"), Terrence Malik ("Days of Harvest"), the Taviani brothers ("Allonzanfan", "Glade"). French cinema also became interested in Morricone’s music: in 1974, Robert Enrico’s film The Secret was completed, in 1975, Fear Over the City by Henri Verneuil, in 1980, The Banker by Francis Giraud.

The heyday of Morricone's career came in the 80s. "Mission" by Rolan Joffe, "The Untouchables" by Brian de Palma, "Professional" by Georges Lautner, "Something" by John Carpenter, "Once Upon a Time in America" ​​by Sergio Leone, "The Indomitable" by Roman Polanski, "The New Cinema" Paradiso "by Giuseppe Tornator," Swazi me "Pedro Almodovar," Hamlet "Franco Zeffirelli. The cult television series" Sprut "stands apart, which the maestro joined in from the second season, having composed amazing melodies for him - transmitting the heat of criminal passions and the lyrics of personal dramas with female vocals. Despite so bright Started, it was also a period of reducing the number of films. Morricone began to pay more attention to concert music and conductor of activity. In total he wrote more than 100 different orchestral works, including the solo instruments such as the harpsichord, tympanum, marimba, a magnetic tape.

The 90s are the composer's Hollywood Decade, in which Bugsy and Barry Levinson's Exposure, Wolfgang Petersen's "In The Line of Fire", Mike Nichols's "Wolf", Oliver Stone's "Turning", Adrian Lyne's "Lolita", The Legend of the Pianist and Malena by Giuseppe Tornatore.

In the new century, Ennio Morricone also worked on the Russian film - Vladimir Khotinenko’s drama "72 meters". For him, it was not the first experience of cooperation with cinematographers of our country. In 1969, he participated in the creation of a joint Italian-Soviet film "The Red Tent", where he wrote the soundtrack for the international version of the film (the Soviet one came out in a different montage with A. Zatsepin’s music). The maestro writes music for the overwhelming majority of D. Tornatore’s films - “The Stranger,” “Baariya,” “Best Offer,” “Two in the Universe.” Collaboration with Quentin Tarantino in the work on The Abominable Eight was not smooth due to creative differences, but this film brought the maestro with most official awards, including Oscar and Golden Globe, and also became a new appeal to the Western genre after 40 -year break. For Tarantino, “Abominable Eight” was the first picture of the original soundtrack, before it he used only previously written music, including Morricone himself.

Since 2001, the maestro has been active in concert, conducting his works. During this time, more than 100 concerts were given on 5 continents. In 2015, as part of a concert tour, Morricone visited Russia.

The best music of Ennio Morricone

• Chi mai ..., "Professional". If Ennio Morricone had not written anything but "Chi mai ...", he would still have gone down in history as the greatest melodist of the 20th century. The maestro has repeatedly used in his films music to less successful and well-known predecessors. This case was no exception - the tune "Chi mai ..." was written by him ten years earlier for the film "Maddalena". In "Professional" she appeared thanks to Jean-Paul Belmondo, who heard her on the radio and convinced the entire creative team of the film to include it on the soundtrack.

"Chi mai" (listen)

• Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, "Bad, good, evil". Everything ingenious is really simple. The melody created on the basis of two notes enters the listener from the first acquaintance due to its infectiousness and unusual instruments - ocarina, soprano flute and human voice. The single with this theme, released in 1967, took 2nd place on the Billboard Hot 100 chat.

"Bad, good, evil" (listen)

• Cockeye's Song, "Once Upon a Time in America". Grief and loss, light and hope - an unforgettable tune played on a pan-flute.

"Cockeye's Song" (listen)

• Le Vent, Le Cri, "Professional". The melody of the initial credits, because of which you can not even go to watching a movie, listening to it again and again.

"Le Vent, Le Cri" (listen)

• La morale, Sprut. In the debut season of the series, the famous composer Ritz Ortolani worked on music. But it was with the advent of Morricone "Octopus" found its melodic face. Millions of viewers in different countries of the world were fastened to the screen not only famously twisted intrigue, but also a charismatic title theme.

It’s hard to believe, but in 2017, 89-year-old Morricone performs on the concert tour “60 Years of Music,” dedicated to the anniversary of his creative work. The composer himself stands behind the conductor's stand, managing a large symphony orchestra and a chorus with a total of more than 200 people! The maestro is full of strength and creative plans, which means that we are expected by new musical impressions with which for more than half a century he has been generously bestowing the whole world.