How Ennio Morricone changed the music in cinema

Director Sergio Leone several times did not cut scenes, so that the soundtrack of Ennio Morricone could run through the cowboy movies.

When composer Ennio Morricone died at the age of 91 on July 6, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte wrote: “His music makes us dream, emotions, thoughts, these notes will never be erased.The Nastro d’Argento cinema award ceremony on the evening of 7/7 was dedicated to him. Actor Robert Benigni gave his award to Morricone, thanking the composer for “making Italy resonate in the world”.

Ennio Morricone is considered one of the most famous film composers – each participated in 520 film and television projects. Photo: Muthmedia GmbH.

In non-Italian filmmakers, director Edgar Wright was one of the first to pay tribute to Ennio Morricone on Twitter: “He can turn an average film into a must see, a good film into an art film and a great movie is a legend. His music never disappeared from my speakers.

For movie enthusiasts, Morricone is a prestigious name no less than a top director or actor.The famous films he composed were Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
Morricone’s culmination was the songs he composed for the 1960s Spaghetti Westerns (Italian cowboy film) series. Originally a classmate, director Sergio Leone asked Morricone to write music for A Fistful of Dollars, the first part. in the Dollars trilogy starring Clint Eastwood starring. Instead of the traditional guitar sounds like in old cowboy movies, Morricone incorporates a variety of musical instruments such as the ocarina flute and the Jewish harp, intermingling electronic guitars with sounds like whistles and human voices.The BBC comments that the combination of sounds emphasizes the emptiness of the surrounding landscape and the brutal reality depicted in the film.

The theme song for Morricone’s 1966 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, with wolf, drumming, electric guitar and singer Edda Dell’Orso’s voice, quickly became a hit. worldwide, number one in the UK in 1968. The New York Times critic Jon Parele writes: “In Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns, Morricone’s music was never in the background. when it is a conspiracy, sometimes it is a criticism, with vivid melodies that are equally evident in the faces of the actors.