14A: Ennio Morricone
A “film score” is music that plays in a movie. Music can add drama, tension, or emotion. Usually it’s an instrumental, recorded by an orchestra. (Question 1 – What’s an instrumental?) Here’s a composer talking about what it’s like to make music for a movie. (Start at 4:14)
One of the most successful film composers ever is Ennio Morricone. He was born in Rome in 1928. (Question 2 – What country is Rome in?) Ennio has composed over 400 scores for movies and television, and 100 classical works.
Many people are familiar with his work on “Spaghetti Westerns” in the 1960s and 1970s. (He worked a lot with the filmmaker Sergio Leone. He was Italian and he made cowboy movies. “Spaghetti Westerns.” Get it?)
The 1966 movie The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly is one of the most famous movies of all time. The score is equally famous. Check it out.
Another famous movie and score is A Fistful of Dollars. Ennio was known for using whistling, clanking and other unusual effects. Listen to how the music works with the movie. (Start at 1:00)
Ennio Morricone has influenced many musicians who grew up watching his movies – country singer K.D. Lang, rapper Coolio, and dance band the Pet Shop Boys, to name a few. The heavy metal band Metallica starts its concerts with “Ecstasy of Gold,” which is an Ennio score. Listen to how the music starts quietly, and then builds. And listen to the crowd sing the melody.
Most musicians write their songs with a guitar or piano. Not Ennio. He doesn’t even have a piano in his studio. He hears a melody and orchestration in his head, and writes it down. Then, he assembles an orchestra to play it. Crazy, isn’t it? Here’s an example of “sheet music” for one of his compositions. So, this might be what he’s creating in the picture below.
In 2016, he won his first ever Academy Award for the movie The Hateful Eight. The Academy Awards are the biggest awards for movies. Here is the movie’s director talking about how he worked with Ennio. (Start at 4:30)
Lastly, here is Ennio talking about writing music for films. Heads-up: Ennio doesn’t speak English, but there are subtitles – which means the words are written in English on the screen. It goes kind of fast. (From 0:00-1:35)
Answers:
1 — An “instrumental” is a song with music only, and no singing.
2 — Rome is in Italy.