Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera Ridolfi and Mario Morricone, a musician. At the time of his birthItaly was underfascist rule.[17] Morricone had four siblings – Adriana, Aldo,[a] Maria, and Franca – and lived inTrastevere in the centre of Rome. His father was a professional trumpeter who performed in light-music orchestras while his mother set up a small textile business.[18] During his early schooldays, Morricone was also a classmate of his later collaboratorSergio Leone.[19]
Morricone's father taught him to read music and to play several instruments. He entered theSaint Cecilia Conservatory to take trumpet lessons under the guidance of Umberto Semproni.[17] He formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at age 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program that he completed within six months. He studied the trumpet, composition, andchoral music under the direction ofGoffredo Petrassi, to whom Morricone would later dedicate concert pieces.
In 1941 Morricone was chosen among the students of the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to be a part of the Orchestra of the Opera, directed byCarlo Zecchi on the occasion of a tour of theVeneto region.[20] He received his diploma in trumpet in 1946,[21] continuing to work in classical composition and arrangement.[17] Morricone received theDiploma in Instrumentation for Band Arrangement with a mark of 9/10 in 1952. His studies concluded at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in 1954 when he obtained a final 9.5/10 in hisDiploma in Composition under Petrassi.[22]
Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and he was encouraged to develop his natural talents.[23] In 1946, he composed "Il Mattino" ("The Morning") for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, first in a group of seven "youth" Lieder.[24]
In the following years, he continued to write music for the theatre as well as classical music for voice and piano, such as "Imitazione", based on a text by Italian poetGiacomo Leopardi, "Intimità", based on a text by Olinto Dini, "Distacco I" and "Distacco II" with words by R. Gnoli, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone and five instruments with words by poetSalvatore Quasimodo, and "Verrà la Morte", for alto and piano, based on a text by novelistCesare Pavese.[24]
In 1953, Morricone was asked byGorni Kramer andLelio Luttazzi to write an arrangement for some medleys in an American style for a series of evening radio shows. Many of his orchestral and chamber compositions were written in 1954 -1959:Musica per archi e pianoforte (1954),Invenzione, Canone e Ricercare per piano;Sestetto per flauto, oboe, fagotto, violino, viola, e violoncello (1955),Dodici Variazione per oboe, violoncello, e piano;Trio per clarinetto, corno, e violoncello;Variazione su un tema di Frescobaldi (1956);Quattro pezzi per chitarra (1957);Distanze per violino, violoncello, e piano;Musica per undici violini, Tre Studi per flauto, clarinetto, e fagotto (1958); and theConcerto per orchestra (1957), dedicated to his teacherGoffredo Petrassi.[24][25]
Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.[26]
Morricone's career as an arranger began in 1950, by arranging the pieceMamma Bianca (Narciso Parigi).[27] On occasion of the "Anno Santo" (Holy Year), he arranged a long group of popular songs of devotion for radio broadcasting.[28]
In 1956, Morricone started to support his family by playing in ajazz band andarranging pop songs for the Italian broadcasting serviceRAI. He was hired byRAI in 1958 but quit his job on his first day at work when he was told that broadcasting of music composed by employees was forbidden by a company rule. Subsequently, Morricone became a top studio arranger at RCA Victor, working withRenato Rascel,Rita Pavone, Domenico Modugno, andMario Lanza.
Throughout his career, Morricone composed songs for several national and international jazz and pop artists, includingGianni Meccia (Il barattolo, 1960),Gianni Morandi (Go Kart Twist, 1962;Non son degno di te, 1964),Alberto Lionello (La donna che vale, 1959),Edoardo Vianello (Ornella, 1960;Cicciona cha-cha, 1960;Faccio finta di dormire, 1961;T'ho conosciuta, 1963; and alsoPinne, fucine ed occhiali,I Watussi andGuarda come dondolo[29]), Nora Orlandi (Arianna, 1960),Jimmy Fontana (Twist no. 9;Nicole, 1962),Rita Pavone (Come te non c'e' nessuno andPel di carota from 1962, arranged byLuis Bacalov),Catherine Spaak (Penso a te;Questi vent'anni miei, 1964),Luigi Tenco (Quello che conta;Tra tanta gente; 1962),Gino Paoli (Nel corso from 1963, written by Morricone with Paoli),Renato Rascel (Scirocco, 1964),Paul Anka (Ogni Volta), Amii Stewart,Rosy Armen (L'Amore Gira),Milva (Ridevi,Metti Una Sera A Cena),Françoise Hardy (Je changerais d'avis, 1966),Mireille Mathieu (Mon ami de toujours;Pas vu, pas pris, 1971;J'oublie la pluie et le soleil, 1974), andDemis Roussos (I Like The World, 1970).[30][31]
In 1963, the composer co-wrote (with Roby Ferrante) the music for the composition "Ogni volta" ("Every Time"), a song that was performed byPaul Anka for the first time during theFestival di Sanremo in 1964. This song was arranged and conducted by Morricone and sold more than three million copies worldwide, including one million copies in Italy alone.[32]
Another success was his composition "Se telefonando". Performed byMina, it was a track onStudio Uno 66, the 4th studio album by Mina. Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines,Hal Blaine–style drumming, a string set, a 1960sEuropop femalechoir, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade No. 7 song had eight transitions oftonality building tension throughout the chorus. During the following decades, the song was recorded by several performers in Italy and abroad including covers byFrançoise Hardy andIva Zanicchi (1966),Delta V (2005),Vanessa and the O's (2007), andNeil Hannon (2008).[33]Françoise Hardy – Mon amie la rose site in the reader's poll conducted by the newspaperla Repubblica to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina.[34]
After graduation in 1954, Morricone started to write and arrange music as aghost writer for films credited to already well-known composers, while also arranging for many light music orchestras of the RAI television network, working especially withArmando Trovajoli,Alessandro Cicognini, andCarlo Savina. He occasionally adopted Anglicized pseudonyms, such asDan Savio andLeo Nichols.[36]
In 1959, Morricone was the conductor (and uncredited co-composer) forMario Nascimbene's score toMorte di un amico (Death of a Friend), an Italian drama directed byFranco Rossi. In the same year, he composed music for the theatre showIl lieto fine byLuciano Salce.
1961 marked his real film debut with Luciano Salce'sIl Federale (The Fascist). In an interview with American composerFred Karlin, Morricone discussed his beginnings, stating, "My first films were light comedies or costume movies that required simple musical scores that were easily created, a genre that I never completely abandoned even when I went on to much more important films with major directors".[37]
WithIl Federale Morricone began a long-run collaboration with Luciano Salce. In 1962, Morricone composed the jazz-influenced score for Salce's comedyLa voglia matta (Crazy Desire). That year Morricone also arranged Italian singerEdoardo Vianello's summer hit "Pinne, fucile, e occhiali", a cha-cha song, peppered with added water effects, unusual instrumental sounds and unexpected stops and starts.[38]
Morricone wrote works for the concert hall in a more avant-garde style.[39] Some of these have been recorded, such asUt, a trumpet concerto dedicated toMauro Maur.[40]
From 1964 up to their eventual disbandment in 1980, Morricone was part ofGruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (G.I.N.C.), a group of composers who performed and recordedavant-garde free improvisations. The Rome-based avant-garde ensemble was dedicated to the development ofimprovisation and new music methods. The ensemble functioned as a laboratory of sorts, working with anti-musical systems and sound techniques in an attempt to redefine the new music ensemble and explore "New Consonance".[41]
Known as "The Group" or "Il Gruppo", they released seven albums across theDeutsche Grammophon, RCA, and Cramps labels:Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (1966),The Private Sea of Dreams (1967),Improvisationen (1968),The Feedback (1970),Improvvisazioni a Formazioni Variate (1973),Nuova Consonanza (1975), andMusica su Schemi (1976). Perhaps the most famous of these is their album entitledThe Feed-back, which combinesfree jazz and avant-garde classical music withfunk; the album frequently is sampled byhip hop DJs and is considered to be one of the most collectable records in existence, often fetching more than $1,000 at auction.[42]
Morricone played a key role in The Group and was among the core members in its revolving line-up; in addition to serving as their trumpet player, he directed them on many occasions and they can be heard on a large number of his scores.[43] Held in high regard in avant-garde music circles, they are considered to be the first experimental composers collective, their only peers being the British improvisation collectiveAMM. Their influence can be heard in free improvising ensembles from the European movements including theEvan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, the Swiss electronic free improvisation groupVoice Crack,John Zorn,[44] and in the techniques of modern classical music and avant-garde jazz groups. The ensemble's groundbreaking work informed their work in composition. The ensemble also performed in varying capacities with Morricone, contributing to some of his 1960s and 1970s Italian soundtracks, includingA Quiet Place in the Country (1969) andCold Eyes of Fear (1971).[45]
Although his first films were undistinguished,[clarification needed] Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director and former schoolmateSergio Leone. Before being associated with Leone, Morricone already had composed some music for less-known western movies such asDuello nel Texas (akaGunfight at Red Sands) (1963). In 1962, Morricone met American folksingerPeter Tevis, with the two collaborating on a version ofWoody Guthrie's "Pastures of Plenty". Tevis is credited with singing the lyrics of Morricone's songs such as "A Gringo Like Me" (fromGunfight at Red Sands) and "Lonesome Billy" (fromBullets Don't Argue).[47] Tevis later recorded a vocal version ofA Fistful of Dollars that was not used in the film.
The turning point in Morricone's career took place in 1964, the year in which his third child,Andrea Morricone, who would also become a film composer, was born. Film director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone'sdifferent version of theWestern,A Fistful of Dollars (1964).[48]
Because budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices,jew's harp, trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards à laJohn Ford. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to thetaciturn man's ironic stance.[17]: 69–77
As memorable as Leone'sclose-ups, harsh violence, and black comedy, Morricone's work helped to expand the musical possibilities of film scoring. Initially, Morricone was billed on the film as Dan Savio, a name they had used onDuello nel Texas to help its appeal on the international market.A Fistful of Dollars came out in Italy in 1964 and was released in America three years later, greatly popularising the so-calledSpaghetti Western genre. For the American release, Sergio Leone followed Morricone andMassimo Dallamano's lead and decided to adopt an American-sounding name, Bob Robertson. Over the film's theatrical release, it grossed more than any other Italian film up to that point.[49] The film debuted in the United States in January 1967, where it grossedUS$4.5 million for the year.[49] It eventually grossed $14.5 million in its American release,[49] against its budget ofUS$200,000.[50][51]
With the score ofA Fistful of Dollars, Morricone began his 20-year collaboration with his childhood friendAlessandro Alessandroni and his Cantori Moderni.[52] Alessandroni provided the whistling and the twanging guitar on the film scores, while his Cantori Moderni were a flexible troupe of modern singers. Morricone in particular drew on the solosoprano of the group,Edda Dell'Orso, at the height of her powers "an extraordinary voice at my disposal".[53]
The composer subsequently scored Leone's other twoDollars Trilogy (orMan with No Name Trilogy) spaghetti westerns:For a Few Dollars More (1965) andThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). All three films starred the American actorClint Eastwood asThe Man With No Name and depicted Leone's own intense vision of the mythical West. Morricone commented in 2007: "Some of the music was written before the film, which was unusual. Leone's films were made like that because he wanted the music to be an important part of it; he kept the scenes longer because he did not want the music to end." According to Morricone this explains "why the films are so slow".[54]
Despite the small film budgets, theDollars Trilogy was a box-office success. The available budget forThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was aboutUS$1.2 million, but it became the most successful film of theDollars Trilogy, grossingUS$25.1 million in the United States and more thanLire 2.3 billion (1.2 million EUR) in Italy alone. Morricone's score became a major success and sold more than three million copies worldwide. On 14 August 1968 the original score was certified by theRIAA with a golden record for the sale of 500,000 copies in the United States alone.[55]
The main theme toThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, also titled "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", was a hit in 1968 forHugo Montenegro, whose rendition was a No. 2Billboard pop single in the U.S. and a U.K. No.1 single (for four weeks from mid-November that year).[56]
"The Ecstasy of Gold" became one of Morricone's best-known compositions. The opening scene ofJeff Tremaine'sJackass Number Two (2006), in which the cast is chased through a suburban neighbourhood by bulls, is accompanied by this piece. While punk rock band TheRamones used "The Ecstasy of Gold" as a closing theme during their live performances,Metallica uses "The Ecstasy of Gold" as the introductory music for its concerts since 1983.[57][58] This composition is also included on Metallica's live symphonic albumS&M as well as the live albumLive Shit: Binge & Purge. An instrumental metal cover by Metallica (with minimal vocals by lead singerJames Hetfield) appeared on the 2007 Morricone tribute albumWe All Love Ennio Morricone. This metal version was nominated for aGrammy Award in the category ofBest Rock Instrumental Performance. In 2009, the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artistCoolio extensively sampled the theme for his song "Change".[59]
Ennio Morricone while recording a soundtrack with his favorite trumpet player and friendMauro Maur – Forum Studios in Rome
Subsequent to the success of theDollars trilogy, Morricone also composed the scores forOnce Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Leone's last credited western filmA Fistful of Dynamite (1971),[60] as well as the score forMy Name Is Nobody (1973).[61]
Morricone's score forOnce Upon a Time in the West is one of the best-selling original instrumental scores in the world today, with as many as 10 million copies sold, including one million copies in France,[62] and more than 800,000 copies in the Netherlands.[63][64][65]
The collaboration with Leone is considered one of the exemplarycollaborations between a director and a composer. Morricone's last score for Leone was for his last film, the gangster dramaOnce Upon a Time in America (1984). Leone died on 30 April 1989 of a heart attack at the age of 60. Before his death in 1989, Leone was part-way through planning a film on theSiege of Leningrad, set during World War II. By 1989, Leone had been able to acquireUS$100 million in financing from independent backers for the war epic. He had convinced Morricone to compose the film score. The project was cancelled when Leone died two days before he was to officially sign on for the film.
In early 2003, Italian filmmakerGiuseppe Tornatore announced he would direct a film calledLeningrad.[66] The film has yet to go into production and Morricone was cagey as to details on account of Tornatore's superstitious nature.[67]
Association with Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Sollima
With Leone's films, Ennio Morricone's name had been put firmly on the map. Most of Morricone's film scores of the 1960s were composed outside the Spaghetti Western genre, while still using Alessandroni's team. Their music included the themes forIl Malamondo (1964),Slalom (1965), andListen, Let's Make Love (1967). In 1968, Morricone reduced his work outside the movie business and wrote scores for 20 films in the same year. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment forMario Bava's superhero rompDanger: Diabolik (1968).[72]
In 1970, Morricone wrote the score forViolent City. That same year, he received his firstNastro d'Argento for the music inMetti una sera a cena (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1969) and his second only a year later forSacco e Vanzetti (Giuliano Montaldo, 1971), in which he collaborated with the legendary American folk singer and activistJoan Baez. His soundtrack forSacco e Vanzetti contains another well-known composition by Morricone, the folk song "Here's to You", sung by Baez. For the writing of the lyrics, Baez was inspired by a letter from Bartolomeo Vanzetti:"Father, yes, I am a prisoner / Fear not to relay my crime". The song was later included in movies such asThe Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.[73]
TheDollars Trilogy was not released in the United States until 1967 whenUnited Artists, who had already enjoyed success distributing the British-producedJames Bond films in the United States, decided to release Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns. The American release gave Morricone an exposure in America and his film music became quite popular in the United States.[75]
One of Morricone's first contributions to an American director concerned his music for the religious epic filmThe Bible: In the Beginning... byJohn Huston. According to Sergio Miceli's bookMorricone, la musica, il cinema, Morricone wrote about 15 or 16 minutes of music, which were recorded for a screen test and conducted byFranco Ferrara. At first Morricone's teacherGoffredo Petrassi had been engaged to write the score for the great big-budget epic, but Huston preferred another composer.RCA Records then proposed Morricone who was under contract with them, but a conflict between the film's producerDino De Laurentiis and RCA occurred. The producer wanted to have exclusive rights for the soundtrack, while RCA still had the monopoly on Morricone at that time and did not want to release the composer. Subsequently, Morricone's work was rejected because he did not get permission from RCA to work for Dino De Laurentiis alone. The composer reused the parts of his unused score forThe Bible: In the Beginning in such films asThe Return of Ringo (1965) byDuccio Tessari and Alberto Negrin'sThe Secret of the Sahara (1987).
Morricone never left Rome to compose his music and never learned to speak English. But given that he always worked in a wide field of composition genres, from "absolute music", which he always produced, to "applied music", working as orchestrator as well as conductor in the recording field, and then as a composer for theatre, radio, and cinema, the impression arises that he never really cared about his standing in the eyes of Hollywood.[76]
In 1970, Morricone composed the music forDon Siegel'sTwo Mules for Sister Sara, an American-Mexican western film starringShirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood. The same year the composer also delivered the title themeThe Men from Shiloh for the American Western television seriesThe Virginian.[77]
In 1974–1975 Morricone wrote music forSpazio 1999, an Italian-produced compilation movie made to launch the Italian-British television seriesSpace: 1999,[78] while the original episodes featured music byBarry Gray. A soundtrack album was only released on CD in 2016[79] and onLP in 2017.[80] In 1975 he scored theGeorge Kennedy revenge thrillerThe "Human" Factor, which was the final film of directorEdward Dmytryk. Two years later he composed the score for the sequel toWilliam Friedkin's 1973 filmThe Exorcist, directed byJohn Boorman:Exorcist II: The Heretic. The horror film was a major disappointment at the box office. The film grossedUS$30,749,142 in the United States.[81]
The Mission, directed by Joffé, was about a piece of history considerably more distant, asSpanish Jesuitmissionaries see their work undone as a tribe of Paraguayan natives fall within a territorial dispute between the Spanish and Portuguese. At one point the score was one of the world's best-selling film scores, selling over 3 million copies worldwide.[84][85]
Morricone finally received a second Oscar nomination forThe Mission.[86] Morricone's original score lost out toHerbie Hancock's coolly arranged jazz onBertrand Tavernier'sRound Midnight. It was considered a surprising win and a controversial one, given that much of the music in the film was pre-existing.[87] Morricone stated the following during a 2001 interview withThe Guardian: "I definitely felt that I should have won forThe Mission. Especially when you consider that the Oscar winner that year wasRound Midnight, which was not an original score. It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces. So there could be no comparison withThe Mission. There was a theft!"[88] His score forThe Mission was ranked at number 1 in a poll of the all-time greatest film scores. The top 10 list was compiled by 40 film composers such asMichael Giacchino andCarter Burwell.[87] The score is ranked 23rd on the AFI's list of 25 greatest film scores of all time.[89]
In a 2001 interview withThe Guardian, Morricone stated that he had good experiences with De Palma: "De Palma is delicious! He respects music, he respects composers. ForThe Untouchables, everything I proposed to him was fine, but then he wanted a piece that I didn't like at all, and of course, we didn't have an agreement on that. It was something I didn't want to write – a triumphal piece for the police. I think I wrote nine different pieces for this in total and I said, 'Please don't choose the sixth!' because it was the worst. And guess what he chose? The sixth one. But it really suits the movie."[88]
"He doesn't have a piano in his studio, I always thought that with composers, you sit at the piano, and you try to find the melody. There's no such thing with Morricone. He hears a melody, and he writes it down. He hears the orchestration completely done", said Levinson in an interview.[93]
In 2009, Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to compose the film score forInglourious Basterds.[99][100] Morricone was unable to, because the film's sped-up production schedule conflicted with his scoring of Giuseppe Tornatore'sBaarìa.[101] However, Tarantino did use eight tracks composed by Morricone in the film, with four of them included on thesoundtrack. The tracks came originally from Morricone's scores forThe Big Gundown (1966),Revolver (1973) andAllonsanfàn (1974).[102][103]
In 2012, Morricone composed the song "Ancora Qui" with lyrics by Italian singerElisa for Tarantino'sDjango Unchained, a track that appeared together with three existing music tracks composed by Morricone on thesoundtrack. "Ancora Qui" was one of the contenders for an Academy Award nomination in the Best Original Song category, but eventually the song was not nominated.[104] On 4 January 2013 Morricone presented Tarantino with a Life Achievement Award at a special ceremony being cast as a continuation of theInternational Rome Film Festival.[105] In 2014, Morricone was misquoted as claiming that he would "never work" with Tarantino again,[106] and later agreed to write an original film score for Tarantino'sThe Hateful Eight, which won him an Academy Award in 2016 in the Best Original Score category.[107] His nomination for this film marked him at that time as the second oldest nominee in Academy history, behindGloria Stuart.[108] Morricone's win marked his first competitive Oscar, and at the age of 87, he became the oldest person at the time to win a competitive Oscar.[109]
Morricone wrote the score forthe Mafia television seriesLa piovra seasons 2 to 10 from 1985 to 2001, including the themes "Droga e sangue" ("Drugs and Blood"), "La Morale", and "L'Immorale". Morricone worked as the conductor of seasons 3 to 5 of the series. He also worked as the music supervisor for the television projectLa bibbia ("The Bible").[113]In the late 1990s, he collaborated with his son Andrea on theUltimo crime dramas, resulting inUltimo (1998),Ultimo 2 – La sfida (1999),Ultimo 3 – L'infiltrato (2004) andUltimo 4 – L'occhio del falco (2013).[114] ForCanone inverso (2000) based on the music-themed novel of the same name by thePaolo Maurensig, directed byRicky Tognazzi and starringHans Matheson, Morricone won Best Score awards in theDavid di Donatello Awards andSilver Ribbons.[115]
In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked withHayley Westenra for a collaboration on her albumParadiso.[119] The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best-known film compositions of the last 50 years.[120][121] Westenra recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010.[122][123][124]
Since 1995, he composed the music for several advertising campaigns ofDolce & Gabbana. The commercials were directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.[125]
In June 2015, Morricone premiered hisMissa Papae Francisci (Mass for Pope Francis) at Rome'sChiesa del Gesù[132] with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta and choruses from the Accademia Santa Cecilia and the Rome Opera Theater.[133]
Before receiving his diplomas in trumpet, composition and instrumentation from the conservatory, Morricone was already active as a trumpet player, often performing in an orchestra that specialised in music written for films. After completing his education atSaint Cecilia, the composer honed his orchestration skills as an arranger for Italian radio and television. In order to support himself, he moved to RCA in the early sixties and entered the front ranks of the Italian recording industry.[134] Since 1964, Morricone was also a founding member of the Rome-based avant-garde ensembleGruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. During the existence of the group (until 1978), Morricone performed several times with the group as trumpet player.[135]
To ready his music for live performance, he joined smaller pieces of music together into longersuites. Rather than single pieces, which would require the audience to applaud every few minutes, Morricone thought the best idea was to create a series of suites lasting from 15 to 20 minutes, which form a sort ofsymphony in variousmovements – alternating successful pieces with personal favourites. In concert, Morricone normally had 180 to 200 musicians and vocalists under his baton, performing multiple genre-crossing collections of music. Rock, symphonic and traditional indigenous instruments share the stage.[136]
On 15 October 1987 Morricone gave a concert in front of 12,000 people in theSportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium, with the DutchMetropole Orchestra and the Italian operatic sopranoAlide Maria Salvetta.[139] A live-album with a recording of this concert was released in the same year.[140]
On 9 June 2000 Morricone went to theFlanders International Film Festival Ghent to conduct his music together with theNational Orchestra of Belgium.[141] During the concert's first part, the screening ofThe Life and Death of King Richard III (1912) was accompanied with live music by Morricone. It was the very first time that the score was performed live in Europe. The second part of the evening consisted of an anthology of the composer's work. The event took place on the eve ofEuro 2000, the European Football Championship in Belgium and the Netherlands.[142]
Morricone performed over 250 concerts as of 2001.[143] The composer started a world tour in 2001, the latter part sponsored byGiorgio Armani, with theOrchestra Roma Sinfonietta, touring London (Barbican 2001; 75th birthdayConcerto, Royal Albert Hall 2003 with singerDulce Pontes), Paris,Verona, and Tokyo. Morricone performed his classic film scores at theGasteig in Munich in 2004.[144]
He made his North American concert debut on 3 February 2007 atRadio City Music Hall in New York City. The previous evening, Morricone had already presented at the United Nations a concert comprising some of his film themes, as well as the cantataVoci dal silenzio to welcome the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. ALos Angeles Times review bemoaned the poor acoustics and opined of Morricone: "His stick technique is adequate, but his charisma as a conductor is zero."[145]
On 22 December 2012 Morricone conducted the 85-piece Belgian orchestra "Orkest der Lage Landen" and a 100-piece choir during a two-hour concert in theSportpaleis in Antwerp.[148]
In November 2013 Morricone began a world tour to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his film music career and performed in locations such as theCrocus City Hall in Moscow,Santiago, Chile, Berlin, Germany (O2 World, Germany), Budapest, Hungary, and Vienna (Stadthalle). Back in June 2014, Morricone had to cancel a US tour in New York (Barclays Center) and Los Angeles (Nokia Theatre LA Live) due to a back procedure on 20 February. Morricone postponed the rest of his world tour.[149]
In November 2014 Morricone stated that he would resume his European tour starting from February 2015 along with Dulce Pontes.[150]
On 13 October 1956, Morricone married Maria Travia (born 31 December 1932), whom he had met in 1950. Travia wrote lyrics to complement her husband's pieces. Her works include the Latin texts forThe Mission. Together, they had four children: Marco (b. 1957), Alessandra (b. 1961), conductor and film composerAndrea (b. 1964) and Giovanni (b. 1966), a filmmaker who lives in New York City.[151] They remained married for 63 years until his death.
Morricone lovedchess,[156] having learned the game when he was 11. Before his musical career took off, he played in club tournaments in Rome in the mid-1950s. His first official tournament was in 1964, where he won a prize in the third category for amateurs. He was even coached by 12-time Italian championIMStefano Tatai for a while. Soon he got too busy for chess, but he would always keep a keen interest in the game and estimated his peakElo rating to be nearly 1700.[157] Over the years, Morricone played chess with many big names including GMsGarry Kasparov,Anatoly Karpov,Judit Polgar, andPeter Leko.[157] He once held GMBoris Spassky to a draw[157] in a simultaneous competition with 27 players, where Morricone was the last one standing.[158]
On 6 July 2020, Morricone died at theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico in Rome, aged 91, as a result of injuries sustained to hisfemur during a fall.[159][160] Following a private funeral in the hospital's chapel, he was entombed in Cimitero Laurentino.[161]
Morricone's influence extends into the realm of pop music.Hugo Montenegro had a hit with a version of themain theme fromThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly in both the United Kingdom and the United States. This was followed by his album of Morricone's music in 1968.
Morricone's film music was also recorded by many artists.John Zorn recorded an album of Morricone's music,The Big Gundown, with Keith Rosenberg in the mid-1980s.[162]
Morricone'sSergio Leone Suite of haunting melodies from the scores he composed for several of the films byLeone, and performed by Morricone,Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra, andYo-Yo Ma on cello, was recorded byCBS/Sony (93456) and is featured on Classical radio stations such asWSMR,[163] aSarasota, Florida, radio station.
Morricone collaborated with world music artists, such as Portuguesefado singer Dulce Pontes (in 2003 withFocus, an album praised byPaulo Coelho and where his songbook can be sampled) andvirtuoso cellistYo-Yo Ma (in 2004), who both recorded albums of Morricone classics with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and Morricone himself conducting. The albumYo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone sold more than 130,000 copies in 2004.[164]
Morricone inspired the namesake ofMorricone Youth, a New York band dedicated to playing music from film and television, founded by musician and radio host Devon E. Levins in 1999. In addition to composers likeLalo Schifrin andJerry Goldsmith, the band has performed music from a large spectrum of Morricone's film career, ranging from his work in the spaghetti westerns to The Exorcist II, as well as original Morricone-inspired pieces.[167]
Radiohead drew inspiration from the recording style of Morricone for their 1997 albumOK Computer.[168]
Singer and composerMike Patton was heavily influenced by Morricone's more experimental oeuvre[169] and in 2005 he commissioned a compilation album,Crime and Dissonance, of the lesser-known soundtracks by "E Maestro" that was released on his ownIpecac Recordings label.[170]
Muse cites Morricone as an influence for the songs "City of Delusion", "Hoodoo", and "Knights of Cydonia" on their 2006 albumBlack Holes and Revelations. The band went on to perform the song "Man with a Harmonica" live played by Chris Wolstenholme, as an intro to "Knights of Cydonia".[172]
Sea Girls' song "Lonely" was written on the day of Morricone's death and is influenced by his music, particularly on the filmThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It was released as a single in February 2022.[178]
Sabaton, known for their history based music, based their song on "Audie Murphy (To Hell and Back)" partly on Morricone's style, according to the band's singer.[citation needed]
Morricone sold well over 70 million records worldwide during his career that spanned over seven decades,[179][180] including 6.5 million albums and singles in France,[181] over three million in the United States and more than two million albums in South Korea.[182] In 1971, the composer received his first golden record (disco d'oro) for the sale of 1,000,000 records in Italy[183][184] and a "Targa d'Oro" (it) for the worldwide sales of 22 million.[185]
Morricone received his firstAcademy Award nomination in 1979 for the score toDays of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978).[86] He received his second Oscar nomination forThe Mission.[86] He also received Oscar nominations for his scores toThe Untouchables (1987),Bugsy (1991),Malèna (2000), andThe Hateful Eight (2016).[86] In February 2016, Morricone won his first competitive Academy Award for his score toThe Hateful Eight.[187] Morricone andAlex North are the only composers to receive theAcademy Honorary Award since its introduction in 1928.[188] He received the award in February 2007, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music."[189]
In 2005, four film scores by Ennio Morricone were nominated by theAmerican Film Institute for an honoured place in the AFI'sTop 25 of Best American Film Scores of All Time.[190] His score forThe Mission was ranked 23rd in the Top 25 list.[191] Morricone was nominated seven times for aGrammy Award. In 2009 The Recording Academy inducted his score forThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) into theGrammy Hall of Fame.[192][193] In 2010 Ennio Morricone and Icelandic singerBjörk won thePolar Music Prize. The Polar Music Prize is Sweden's biggest music award and is typically shared by a pop artist and a classical musician. It was founded by Stig Anderson, manager of Swedish pop groupABBA, in 1989. AVariety poll of 40 top current film composers selectedThe Mission as the greatest film score of all time.[194]
^Alain Silver & Elizabeth Ward, ed. (28 November 1988)."Filmography of neo-noir".Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd ed.). Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. p. 438.ISBN978-0-87951-479-2.
^Doggers, Peter (7 July 2020)."Ennio Morricone (1928–2020), Avid Chess Fan".Chess.com.It took place in 2000 in Turin with 27 players and included Morricone's son Andrea and Paolo Fresco, CEO of Fiat at the time. Morricone was the last player standing in that simul, and Spassky had to concede the half point.
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Sorbo, Lorenzo: "The Dramatic Functions of Italian Spaghetti Western Soundtracks: A Comparison between Ennio Morricone and Francesco De Masi" In:Stoppe, Sebastian (2014).Film in Concert. Film Scores and their Relation to Classical Concert Music. Glücksstadt, Germany: VWH Verlag. pp. 161–174.doi:10.25969/mediarep/16802.ISBN978-3-86488-060-5.
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