My favorite film composer (RIP). Don't know of anyone with more talent in this area.
The Sundown, from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, is only played once during the film ... and is majestic.
What are your favorite Morricone scores?
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My favorite film composer (RIP). Don't know of anyone with more talent in this area.
The Sundown, from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, is only played once during the film ... and is majestic.
What are your favorite Morricone scores?
by Anonymous | reply 61 | October 30, 2022 11:25 PM |
Definitely “Once Upon a Time in the West.” Each character had their own descriptive score.
I was sad at how the 2007 Academy Award was presented by a befuddled Clint Eastwood and the magnificence of the Once Upon a Time in the West music wasn’t showcased.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | April 20, 2021 2:05 PM |
The man was a genius.
My personal favorites - and it's hard to whittle them down - are "Cinema Paradiso', 'Days of Heaven', and 'The Mission' (which is arguably the finest original film score ever composed and was robbed of an Academy Award).
by Anonymous | reply 3 | April 20, 2021 2:09 PM |
Listening to The Mission now ... sublime.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | April 20, 2021 2:19 PM |
R3 I did not know Cinema Paradiso was composed by Morricone! I wept so much at the ending! (Spoiler post).
John Williams has a lifetime legacy as well, but no way comes as close as Ennio Morricone’s. Truly a genius.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | April 20, 2021 2:25 PM |
Since we've sampled others, here's 'Days of Heaven'.
(A great movie, with breathtaking cinematography by Nestor Almendros.)
by Anonymous | reply 6 | April 20, 2021 2:42 PM |
I so badly wanted to see him in concert. It was amazing he was still performing into his 90s. It would have been fabulous to see a performance at the Verona Colosseum as he did yearly.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | April 20, 2021 3:31 PM |
This is her latest Morricone. I love the melody.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | April 20, 2021 3:41 PM |
Almost two dozen films he scored are up on the Criterion Channel in a special "festival," including some Italian rarities.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | April 20, 2021 4:20 PM |
EM's music makes any movie better than it is. For example, that POS "Frantic" (Polanski-88).
by Anonymous | reply 11 | April 20, 2021 6:38 PM |
This is very true of the rather terrible Lolita, r11, which he also scored. Amazing music:
by Anonymous | reply 12 | April 20, 2021 6:47 PM |
The variety (and sheer number) of films he worked on in astonishing. This weird pop tune from Bertolucci's Partner (1968), for instance.
(Song starts around 0:35)
by Anonymous | reply 14 | April 20, 2021 6:56 PM |
I saw Morricone conduct in Vienna in 2017, and he was amazing. There was nothing over the top of grandiose about his conducting, but he made the orchestra sound wonderful.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | April 21, 2021 9:55 PM |
I watched the giallo What Have You Done to Solange? not too long ago and I thought it was TERRIBLE, despite having a pretty good reputation for a giallo film. However, I really liked the Ennio Morricone score!! He added a touch of class to an otherwise shitty Italan b-picture.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | April 21, 2021 10:41 PM |
His soundtrack for The Mission was voted the all-time greatest score in 2012
by Anonymous | reply 19 | April 21, 2021 10:45 PM |
R10
I saw what you did there.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | April 21, 2021 11:08 PM |
Bump
by Anonymous | reply 21 | May 5, 2021 1:11 AM |
He could get pretty "groovy" as well.
What new wave band copped this vibe? Their cop is brilliant.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | May 5, 2021 1:12 AM |
Without a doubt, his "Once Upon A Time In America". I love every minute of that soundtrack.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | May 5, 2021 1:43 AM |
The gift that keeps on giving ... this is sublime:
by Anonymous | reply 26 | October 4, 2021 4:51 PM |
After Jean-Paul Belmondo died I watched a few of his movies that I hadn't seen before, two of which Morricone scored. "The Professional" (1981) has some very memorable music and is an OK thriller; everything about "Le Marginal" (1983) is forgettable.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | October 4, 2021 5:15 PM |
Do remixes count?
Ecstasy Of Gold, originally from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
by Anonymous | reply 31 | October 4, 2021 8:31 PM |
Morricone also did pop music. "Se Telefonando" 1966 performed by Italy's magnificent Mina. Morricone wrote the piece and orchestrated it.
Gorgeous Monica Vitti & Delon featured in the clip. How the camera loved them
by Anonymous | reply 32 | October 4, 2021 8:43 PM |
Thanks r32!
by Anonymous | reply 33 | October 4, 2021 10:20 PM |
One of Morricone's colleagues who got less recognition was Mario Nascimbene (1913–2002).
One of his most exciting scores, 'The Vikings' (1958), uses the scary sound of an horn in a minor key.
The same instrument is used disastrously in the great failure called 'Alexander the Great' (1956). The horn sounds away in the background like a lost sheep while Harry Andrews and Richard Burton strut around wearing silly costumes.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | October 5, 2021 9:56 PM |
I can't get enough of r26. So beautiful
by Anonymous | reply 35 | October 6, 2021 12:15 PM |
The Criterion Channel had a recent "salute" to Morricone, featuring some of his most obscure credits. The sleaziest movie (and schlockiest Deliverance-style score) was 1976's "Hitch-Hike"/"Autostop Rosso Sangue". Franco Nero, Corinne Clery (frequently stripped bare), and David Hess.
The American West is faked up in the hills of Italy around Aquila. It's a gas!
by Anonymous | reply 36 | October 6, 2021 12:47 PM |
He could rock out as well.
Hmmm...what famous band copped this motif 12 years later?
by Anonymous | reply 37 | October 6, 2021 1:30 PM |
One of the reasons Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage was so creepy was due to the child-like la-las throughout the score . . .
by Anonymous | reply 38 | October 6, 2021 1:47 PM |
Perfect ... I feel there is no way the film itself could live up to this score.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | October 7, 2021 7:49 PM |
Once Upon a Time in America
Orca (terrible movie but beautiful music)
The Mission (particularly the oboe solo)
by Anonymous | reply 40 | October 7, 2021 7:59 PM |
[quote] the oboe solo
Lovely, schmaltzy but appropriate for this movie about Catholic missionaries.
Richard Strauss also knew how to handle the oboe.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | October 8, 2021 1:26 AM |
R41, the oboe may be barely breathing, but the heart of rock and roll is still beating
by Anonymous | reply 42 | October 8, 2021 1:30 AM |
R42 Did Huey Lewis handle oboes?
Musicians tell us that the oboe is the most similar of instruments to the human voice.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | October 8, 2021 5:16 AM |
Did you know that orchestras tune their instruments to the oboe. C. Everyone tunes their instrument to the oboe's C.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | October 13, 2021 10:54 PM |
I thought they tuned to A, r44
by Anonymous | reply 45 | November 2, 2021 10:22 PM |
R45 You are correct. They tune to A. My mistake.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | November 3, 2021 8:46 PM |
Cinema Paradiso.
What a fucking gorgeous, perfect movie, from start to finish.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | December 29, 2021 9:10 PM |
Bumping an old thread because I just came across an exquisite performance of 'Cinema Paradiso', performed by Chris Botti and the Boston Pops Orchestra, featuring Yo-Yo Ma.
It's from Botti's recording 'Chris Botti in Boston.'
If you like Ennio Morricone, it doesn't get much better than this.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | February 19, 2022 3:35 PM |
All these posts and no love for Legend of 1900?? Morricone's score was a character in the film (and without question the star)!
I never tire of watching the piano-during-storm-at-sea scene.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | February 19, 2022 4:36 PM |
I love this version of For a Few Dollars More.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | February 19, 2022 4:51 PM |
Beautiful arrangement of one of my favorite themes from "Lolita."
A forlorn youtube commenter states: "The soundtrack of my life.....haunting, hopeless and yet somehow enchanted."
by Anonymous | reply 52 | March 1, 2022 3:01 AM |
I couldn't remember who Morricone lost the Oscar to for The Mission. I looked it up on Wikipedia and it was Herbie Hancock for 'Round Midnight.
The Mission is one of those scores, like John Barry's Somewhere in Time, that you can't deny how great it is.
Once Upon a Time in America is another favourite. So haunting and so beautiful.
I also love his score for the Warren Beatty/Annette Bening flop "Love Affair". Such an underrated score.
His score for John Carpenter's The Thing is one of his more unusual scores as it is electronic. Madness that it was nominated for a Razzie for Worst Score (!).
by Anonymous | reply 53 | March 1, 2022 3:08 AM |
I don't think the DL has ever had a thread specifically about 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐝, 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐠𝐥𝐲 (1966); I have a question somewhat pertinent to its Morricone soundtrack, so perhaps here is as good a place as any to ask it.
I've read that there is only one piece of diegetic music (music within the film which the characters themselves can hear) in the film, pointing to 'The Story of a Soldier' (where camp prisoners perform the song to cover over the sounds of Tuco being beaten), but there is at least one other: the "Hurrah" song sung by the wagonload of drunken rowdies who drop off Maria at the boarding house (approx. 00:29:06 in the theatrical version). Are there any fans of the film here who can make out the lyrics they're singing? I'm optimizing a subtitle file to include everything insofar as possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | June 11, 2022 2:21 AM |
Am I really the first to mention his beautiful “Regan’s Theme” from the seminal sequel Exorcist 2: The Heretic?
I also love his score for Days of Heaven. And The Untouchables.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | June 11, 2022 2:24 AM |
Had no idea he scored Exorcist II, r55
by Anonymous | reply 56 | June 11, 2022 8:43 AM |
Morricone's greatest pieces are almost films unto themselves:
by Anonymous | reply 57 | October 30, 2022 8:09 PM |
The main theme from Once Upon a Time in the West. Sublime.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | October 30, 2022 10:52 PM |
The thing about Morricone was no matter how good or bad the film was, he always brought his A-game.
Regan's Theme from The Exorcist is really stunning. And probably the best thing about the film.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | October 30, 2022 11:13 PM |
I have not seen this film so can't speak to how well the score works in context, but I love this bit of music from L'immoralità.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | October 30, 2022 11:25 PM |
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