Bread And Circuses Relieved By A Class Act From Italian Composer And Humanist Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone official site.

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"Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer especially noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores of more than 500 films and TV series. Although only 30 of these are for Western films, it is for this work which he is best known. Morricone's sparse style of composition [sic] for the genre is particularly exemplified by the soundtracks of the classic [spaghetti] westerns The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966) and Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968). His more recent [sic] notable compositions for film include the scores for The Mission (Roland Joffé, 1986), The Untouchables (Brian DePalma, 1987), Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988), and Lolita (Adrian Lyne, 1997). He received the Honorary Academy Award (Lifetime Achievement Award) in 2007, only the second film composer to be so honoured." (Wikipedia, "containing unencyclopedic list".)

Was Leopold Stokowski and his associates the first, in 1942, for their work on Walt Disney's Fantasia?

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Music
The Top 10 Scores of Ennio Morricone
by Andy Trudeau

With something like 400 scores to his credit, covering virtually every genre of film, the Ennio Morricone canon is extensive. This is a list of my 10 personal favorites.

Since many of Morricone's older scores have been reissued time and again, I won't list disc labels or numbers. A visit to any good CD shop should turn up what is currently in print.

As a general rule, you should avoid concert samplers. Much of Morricone's best known music fits so carefully to his orchestrations and performers that to hear it played in a different setting, by less than virtuoso players, is like drinking very warm beer.

Oscar Nominated Scores

Morricone's best U.S. scores cover a nice range, from the gently lyric, to action-dramatic to choral/symphonic.

Malena
The Untouchables
The Mission

Spaghetti Westerns

Morricone may have closed the door on writing any more western scores, but these three find him at his best. They are full of unusual instrumentations, winding melodies and often feature the superb solo work of whistler Alessandro Alessandroni and vocalist Edda dell'Orso.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Duck, You Sucker! (aka A Fistful of Dynamite)
Once Upon a Time in the West

Other Scores

What a range, from the nostalgic lyricism of Paradisoto the eerie soundscape of The Red Tent. Listen to these scores and you will understand why everyone calls Morricone "maestro."

Cinema Paradiso
The Thing
The Red Tent
Once Upon a Time in America

Source: National Public Radio

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Composer Ennio Morricone made his U.S. concert debut conducting the Sinfonietta Orchestra of Milan, in December 2006.

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2007 Academy Award Film Score Winner, for Babel, Gustavo Santaolalla, born in El Palomar, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, in 1952.