Ennio Morricone for Dummies

We often find ourselves celebrating great figures, recognizing their merit based on what we already know about them, without really knowing what made them so admired and respected in the first place. It's a matter of historical memory that sometimes slips through the cracks, often for generational reasons, and that isn't always easy to recover. Because while younger fans appreciate a given figure for their latest work, often unaware of past masterpieces, those who know the whole story may find it superfluous to tell it, assuming everyone already knows it.So it happens that we often talk to young enthusiasts who admire directors like Hitchcock or Scorsese because they've seen "Psycho" and "Shutter Island", but who might not know "Taxi Driver" or "Vertigo".

Same story with Morricone. He's one of the most respected Italian artists at home and abroad, and generally one of the greatest film composers of all time (perhaps the greatest, full stop), yet many people know him - and love him - for the new wave of visibility he's enjoyed in recent years, thanks above all to his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino has always been a huge fan of both Morricone and the spaghetti westerns Italy produced in the '60s and '70s, from which he's repeatedly borrowed styles and music. After all, the Oscar he won this past weekend for the score of "The Hateful Eight" (which remains a gorgeous soundtrack, whatever its detractors say) actually revolves around themes originally written for John Carpenter's John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982), and many of Tarantino's musical cues are lifted from old Morricone soundtracks (the most famous examples are probably the theme from "The Mercenary", reused in "Kill Bill Vol. 2", and the one from "Allonsanfàn" in "Inglourious Basterds").

So today we're doing what for many is superfluous and for many others is necessary: we're going back through ten past masterpieces that built the Morricone legend. For some this will be a refresher, for others a discovery, and for everyone a chance to relive the wonder that a great film score can offer. These are the ten compositions that we believe are essential to understanding Morricone, chosen from a career spanning more than 50 years - a career from which dozens of other works were inevitably left out (the pain of every list). As for those, you'll have to rediscover them by following your own instincts, okay?

The Legend of 1900 (1998)

One of Morricone's most demanding and committed scores, given that the protagonist was a pianist considered among the best in the world in Tornatore's story. It's particularly romantic, at times moving, for almost the entire film - except for a 15-minute sequence in the middle, where the arrogant jazzman Jelly Roll Morton challenges 1900 on his own ship. And well, that duel has a winner. For anyone seeing these images set to this music for the first time: consider yourselves warned, you'll be left speechless.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

Gian Maria Volontè's most famous film, playing a dark, unscrupulous character who would long stand as the sick seed of Italian society. The score is powerful, and the use of the marranzano (a recurring feature in Morricone's soundtracks) is ingenious - almost a lament over a mysterious, lethal advance, as disturbed as the film's protagonist himself. It's said that Stanley Kubrick drew heavily on this music for inspiration. It's been reused countless times by political investigative TV programs.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Here we open the huge western chapter of Morricone's career, which stands as the main source of pride in his body of work. Sergio Leone was the director who brought out those qualities the most, choosing him for every one of his films, right up to "Once Upon a Time in America", which was no longer a western (and which, unfortunately, you won't find in this rundown, or Leone would have monopolized the whole overview). The previous film, however, still was a western, and it stands as one of the finest of the genre: "Once Upon a Time in the West" boasts one of the most original and daring stories in the entire western genre, and its score is masterful as well as remarkably varied. Above you'll find one of Morricone's most beloved pieces of all time (if you've ever heard it live, you know exactly what we're talking about), and we're forced to leave out the wonderful harmonica theme, which we recommend you enjoy directly in the film's final duel.

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

There would be so much to say here that maybe it's best to say nothing at all. This film and this score gave birth to the myths of the Italian western, of Sergio Leone, of Clint Eastwood, and produced one of the most emblematic musical themes ever associated with the western genre. All achieved with practically just a flute, a gunshot and a face carved from stone. Immortal.

Bianco Rosso e Verdone (1981)

Something few people remember is that Morricone was also brilliant at scoring comedies. He composed the soundtracks for many of Luciano Salce's films (the director of “Fantozzi“, whose soundtrack, however, was written by another great, Fabio Frizzi), and he also scored Carlo Verdone's early films. First “Un sacco bello” (which also boasts a remarkably successful soundtrack) and then “Bianco Rosso e Verdone”, in which Morricone outdoes himself with one of his typical strokes of genius: a jaunty, playful theme that reworks the notes of the Italian national anthem. Patriotism that brings a smile to your face.

The Sicilian Clan (1969)

The marranzano returns for one of those gangster films better known for its score than for anything else. Here the music is simply perfect: as weary as omertà, as sad as resignation, and, in its rising crescendo, as tragic as the mafia itself. One of the compositions most cited by Morricone fans.

The Mission (1986)

“The Mission” was one of Morricone's most singular works. Singular because of the unusual mix of cultures in the film that inspired the score: harmonious, natural and constantly evocative. It was also one of his emotional peaks, even though the music of “The Mission” is among the kind that needs a bit more atmosphere to be fully appreciated. It doesn't steal the scene, but exerts a gentle, constant pull on the listener, who, if in the right frame of mind, sinks completely into it. Magic translated into music.

Dimenticare Palermo (1990)

Thrillers, in any case, are what best showcase Morricone's talents. More than half of his compositions were written for dramatic films, revealing his ability to create pathos through motifs that often remain unforgettable. Themes like those for “Frantic” and “The Untouchables” were left out of this selection; to represent the dramatic power of Morricone we chose instead a relatively minor film, “Dimenticare Palermo”. It may be less of a “cinematic masterpiece” than the others, but it has a gripping musical theme that multiplies the tension of the images. Without a score like this, this would have been a film nobody remembered.

Cinema Paradiso (1988)

One of Morricone's most harmonious works, celebrating his intense artistic relationship with Tornatore. For a director who knows how to tell stories with an old-fashioned style, a composer who dusts off his classical sensibility with an orchestral composition that does nothing less than establish balance and pluck at the strings of inner emotion. Not exactly one of the most striking soundtracks Morricone ever made, and yet one of the most historically beloved. Here you don't discover his most brilliant side, but rather the one most capable of forging an emotional bond.

1900 (1976)

We close with drama. Bertolucci's masterpiece told an epic story that demanded an atmosphere capable of capturing the full power of history. For the soundtrack's central theme, Morricone took all the space and time he needed: the piece begins with great slowness and builds in constant ascent, sweeping you up and carrying you through the film's entire spectrum of feeling, between sought-after glory and events that change the destinies of people. In four minutes of music alone there is everything a great story can convey, and without which a great story stops being great. That is what Morricone was for cinema.

(Article originally published on Aural Crave)

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