Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone (Rome, November 10, 1928-ib., July 6, 2020) was an Italian composer and conductor known for having composed the soundtrack of more than five hundred movies and television series. He received an honorary Oscar in 2006 and won the Oscar for Best Original Score in 2016 for The Hateful Eight. In 2020 he was awarded the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, shared with fellow composer John Williams.

His compositions are included in more than twenty award-winning films, as well as performing symphonic and choral pieces. Notable, among others, are his works in spaghetti westerns films, directed by his friend Sergio Leone, such as For a Fistful of Dollars from 1964, Per qualche dollaro in più from 1965, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly from 1966 or C'era una volta il West from 1968. However, His work spanned a multitude of composition genres, thus making him one of the most versatile composers in the history of cinema and also one of the most influential of the 20th century. His compositions for Days of Heaven in 1978, La misión in 1986 or Cinema Paradiso in 1988 are classified as authentic masterpieces.

Biography

Born in Rome, Morricone began playing the trumpet as a child and by the age of six had already composed his first work. He studied at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia at the age of nine, where his father, Mario Morricone, who was a musician, enrolled him. When he was twelve years old he entered the conservatory, enrolling in a four-year harmony program, which he finished in six months. He received his trumpet diploma in 1946 and from that year he began working professionally composing the music for Il Mattino (The Morning) . After graduating in 1954, he began as a ghostwriter, composing film scores, which were attributed to famous musicians of the day. He soon gained popularity composing background music for radio shows and soon after made the leap to the big screen.

In the 1950s he received a diploma in instrumentation. He was also awarded by fellow composer Goffredo Petrassi a diploma in composition. In 1955, Morricone dedicated himself to arranging the music of other composers who were already established in the cinema. Soon after, Sergio Leone, a childhood friend of Morricone's, would ask him to be the composer of the soundtracks for his films. Together they created a different take on the traditional western with the film A Fistful of Dollars (1964), which was later known as the spaghetti western. In this area, they later made several more films together, such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Duck Down, Damn! (1971).

In the 1980s and 1990s, Morricone continued composing for Leone in films of a different style such as Once Upon a Time in America (1984), for which he could have had an Oscar, if he hadn't His score has been disqualified from being nominated on an academy technicality for not seeing its composer's name included in the end credits, a soundtrack that many also classify as the best soundtrack in film history. He also composed for other directors such as Roland Joffé in The Mission (1986), Brian De Palma in The Untouchables of Eliot Ness (1987) or Giuseppe Tornatore in Cinema Paradiso (1988). Other more recent notable compositions are in the films Malèna (2000), Campos de Esperanza In 2005 he composed the soundtrack for the film about Pope John Paul II "Karol" the man who became Pope and the second part of him & # 34; Karol & # 34; The Pope, the Man. (2005) or Baarìa (2009).

Morricone has received two Grammy Awards, three Golden Globes, five BAFTAs, ten David de Donatello, eleven Nastro d'argento and the Polar Music Award in 2010, the latter considered the Nobel Prize for music. At the 2006 Academy Awards, he received the honorary Oscar "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." In 2016, he received the Oscar in the category of Best Original Score for the film The Hateful Eight, after having been nominated six times in this category in previous editions, thus becoming the longest-serving winner in that category in the history of the Awards. Oscar. Throughout his career, Morricone has sold more than 70 million records.

One of his main works was a Mass created on the occasion of the bicentennial of the restoration of the Society of Jesus completed in 2014 and premiered in the Church of the Gesù on June 10, 2015 in honor of Pope Francis.

Morricone died in Rome on July 6, 2020 at the Campus Biomédico University polyclinic hospital, at the age of ninety-one, as a result of complications caused by a fractured femur after suffering a fall at home for several days before.

Top Awards

Oscar Awards

Ennio Morricone with his friend and collaborator the trumpetist Mauro Maur in the historic recording room "Forum Studios" in Rome

Golden Globes

BAFTA Awards

Grammy Awards

In 2009, the 'Recording Academy,' agency that awards the Grammy Awards, included the soundtrack of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, from 1969, in the 'Grammy Hall of Fame'.

David de Donatello

Nastro d'argento

Delivered by the 'Italian National Union of Film Journalists'.

Other awards

• 1969: Spoleto Film Prize.
• 1972: Cork International Film Award for The Califa.
• 1981: Critics Award for Registration The Lawn.
• 1988: Silver Ribbon of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, by The Untouchables of Eliot Ness.
• 1989: Nintendo Winner Annual The day before.
• 1989: Leopardo de Honor de Festival Internacional de Cine de Locarno.
• 1990: Grand Prix of the Sacem XLIII Festival de Cannes Foundation Cinema Paradiso.
• 1992: Grolle de Oro for his career (Saint Vincent).
• 1993: Ephebo de Plata Jona che visse nella balena.
• 1994: Golden Soundtrack Award dell'ASCAP (Los Angeles).
• 1995: Golden Lion for all his career at the Venice International Film Festival.
• 1996: Rome City Award for Poetry.
• 2008: Order to the Artistic and Cultural Merit Pablo Neruda.
• 2008: Daniele Paris International Prize (Frosinone).
• 2008: Race of Saturn at the International Golden Film Festival Alatri.
• 2009: Aosta Valley Autonomous Region Trayectoria Award delivered during the Musicastelle regional festival.
• 2009: Italy-United States Foundation Award.
• 2010: a crown of honorary laurel Europclub the region of Sicily Province of Mesina.
• 2010: Polar Music Prize, Stockholm.
• 2016: Oscar the best soundtrack.
• 2020: Princess of Asturias Award for Arts (together with John Williams).

List of works

Cinema

Documentaries

• 1962: Gli italiani e le vacanze
• 1964: I'm bad.
• 1971: Oceano
• 1974: Sesso in confessionale
• 1975: Macao
• 1975: Escola Aberta
• 1976: Ariel Limon
• 1978: Forza Italia!
• 1980: The Fantastic World of M.C. Escher
• 1982: Maja Plisetskaja
• 1983: Ballot
• 1989: 12 registi per 12 cità
• 1990: Ennio Morricone: the music blackli occhi
• 1994: Rome Imago Urbis: Part I - Il mito
• 1994: Rome Imago Urbis: Part II - L'immortalità
• 1994: Rome Imago Urbis: Part III - Gli acquedotti
• 1994: Rome Imago Urbis: Part V - I volti
• 1995: Rome Imago Urbis: Part VI - The gestation
• 2001: A mondo è possibile
• 2002: Carlo Giuliani, ragazzo
• 2002: I sogni nel mirino
• 2006: Adolfo Celi, un uomo per due culture
• 2009: Salvare Procida
• 2013: Vengeance rides a horse
• 2015: The Sun is Dark
• 2016: Voyage of Time (Post-production)

Other compositions

• 1978: "The World Cup", official march of the 1978 World Cup, held in Argentina.
• 1987: "It Couldn't Happen Here" Co-written song with Pet Shop Boys, included in his album "Actually".
• 1989: I Promessi Sposi, T.V. miniserie. Original Sonora Band.
• 2011: Eat a Delfino, Italian T.V. miniserie.
• 2013: "La Soledad", special arrangement for Laura Pausini's famous song on her compilation album "20 - Great Successes".
• 2015: "Missa Papæ Francisci. Anno Ducentesimo. A Societate Restituta", Mass in honor of Pope Francis for the fulfilment of the 200 years of the restoration of the Jesuit order.