The "Official" Ennio Morricone Thread

[Zeuhlmate]

I might be able to understand that. First, it's almost all written to external dramatic arcs - and unlike opera or other program music, the music is of secondary importance in the final result. Second, most of it consists of miniatures and relatively brief tunes; there are no grand musical structures of the sort one would find in a symphony, no complex and sophisticated thematic development. And finally, while Ennio's film music has vast creativity and ingenuity, it doesn't have all that much depth - it's effectively gebrauchsmusik, it's cranked out quickly for the purpose of making him a living, and whatever "soul" it has is partly commercial calculation and partly an accident. I should add that I'm not saying he's incapable of depth, but that since it isn't necessary for most of what he does, he does not usually strive for it.

For me I also miss the interplay between musicians, (non written) solos, instrumental stunts, and a feeling of intention in the music it self...
But there are lots of really good scores and ideas, even though I find some of it a bit on the library music side..

[Baribrotzer]

Listening to Sempre Piu' Verita' - my first impression was to admire the orchestration and enjoy the way the arrangement progress - all seem to be enjoyable yet "normal" in a good way but as the track advances I start to realize something is happening here on another level - the way the rhythm is constructed is really tricky, those brass accents are juxtaposed with the drums and the rest of the rhythm section... so unpredictable and sophisticated yet subtle - so impressive...

It's fairly simple at heart, yet there are so many subtleties - not only the rhythm, but in the harmony, as each layer and variation adds a new tonal extension. Especially when you realize that, considering his usual working methods, he probably wrote the whole thing in one pass, with no editing or redoing. All those sophisticated syncopations, all those cross-harmonies that keep opening doors at unexpected angles - and he might have scribbled it out in fifteen minutes or half-an-hour. It's like a great jazz musician improvising, but improvising onto score paper instead of with his instrument.

Shows you what someone who really knows music, and knows it inside out can do.

[Udi Koomran]

... he probably wrote the whole thing in one pass, with no editing or redoing. - and he might have scribbled it out in fifteen minutes or half-an-hour. It's like a great jazz musician improvising, but improvising onto score paper instead of with his instrument.

What makes you think he scribbled this in 15 min ?
Sure he is a real master that has hones his skills through years of studying and then working very hard for like 20 years ( this was composed in 1969 ) but From reading his bio he makes a point about how much thought and care he dedicates to his craft - he states each film is like a challenge for him - which might sound like a cliche but considering his quantity/quality ratio its probably true

[Udi Koomran]

Shows you what someone who really knows music, and knows it inside out can do.

Yup
I remember a conversation I had with Kurt Bude the horn player from UZ and Present who teaches in the academy in Brussels and obviously knows the work of both Trigaux Denis Vander etc. and he stated that for him these guys are talented and unique but that they lack a deeper knowledge of harmony etc. and that their music will always seem somewhat limited to him and that if once a composer with who received a serious education based on tradition and this combined with a sense of experimentation creativity and a will to push the envelope would produce great music
So reading your lines I think he was describing Morricone
Sorry for my poor English

[chalkpie]

What makes you think he scribbled this in 15 min ?
Sure he is a real master that has hones his skills through years of studying and then working very hard for like 20 years ( this was composed in 1969 ) but From reading his bio he makes a point about how much thought and care he dedicates to his craft - he states each film is like a challenge for him - which might sound like a cliche but considering his quantity/quality ratio its probably true

Yeah - that is speculating at best. Maybe he did work quickly, but unless each composition was personally documented via a diary or similar, do we really know?

[alucard]

Yeah - that is speculating at best. Maybe he did work quickly, but unless each composition was personally documented via a diary or similar, do we really know?

From what I read his favorite working method was first to discuss with the film director about his Ideas. He preferred always someone with a quite precise idea. Then Morricone developed some themes and ideas , proposed them I supose on piano and when the director agreed he started writing the score and gave in the 60's often his finished score to Bruno Nicolai to lead the orchestra for the recording. Seen his organised character I think he dedicated most of his time to write on a very regular daily routine. Btw I read also that Strawinsky had a very similar routine working style.

[Udi Koomran]

It's fairly simple at heart, yet there are so many subtleties - not only the rhythm, but in the harmony, as each layer and variation adds a new tonal extension. All those sophisticated syncopations, all those cross-harmonies that keep opening doors at unexpected angles

Another example of this : Sai Cosa Faceva Stalin Alle Donne -
what a lovely piece and he is really toying with the rhythms and the dynamics - superb !

[Baribrotzer]

What makes you think he scribbled this in 15 min ?

Two factors:

1. This particular piece of music has the same chord progression going around and around and around - it's a version of passacaglia form, and the kind of thing he would have been playing and writing since childhood.

2. And his enormous natural ability, his extensive training, his decades of experience, and his resulting ability to work really fast.

For music of this specific type, a significant part of writing it brilliantly yet quickly is having dozens of potential possibilities at your fingertips, and being able to instantly run through them in your head - something I'm sure he can do without effort. So the marvelous effects of syncopating the brass accents by a sixteenth, or having harmonizations appear that aren't quite in the key you'd expect weren't the matter of extended trial and error it would be for me, or for most of us. They were as obvious and quick to him as choosing the right word to say what we mean.

And as strange as it sounds, I meant that as a compliment , a description of just how able and knowledgeable he is - that he didn't need to work very hard on composing it because he'd already put in thirty years of work at learning to compose that ably and that fast.

I remember a conversation I had with Kurt Bude, the horn player from UZ and Present, who teaches in the academy in Brussels and obviously knows the work of Trigaux, Denis, Vander etc. He stated that for him these guys are talented and unique but that they lack a deeper knowledge of harmony, and that their music will always seem somewhat limited to him. And that if a composer received a serious education based on tradition, and combined this with a sense of experimentation, creativity and a will to push the envelope, he would produce great music.

That's what I've been saying for a while. Morricone has forgotten more about music than I've ever known or will ever know, and I suspect that may be true about not just me, but most or even all composers with a rock background. And not only us rock guys, not only the jazz guys, but many modern classical composers who never had that kind of rigorous, old-fashioned training in composition as a craft to be mastered. Santa Cecilia Academy taught him to be a professional composer, a man who could write music for a living, as a career; as such he was expected to know, not just a lot, but everything about how music went together and how to create it.

So reading your lines I think he was describing Morricone.

He certainly could have been.

[Udi Koomran]

Dig the the bass and 12 string guitar playing in unison and the organ going apeshit
Made me wonder those 12 string tones on this Le Foto Proibite Di Una Signora Per Bene were played by Alesandroni ?

[Baribrotzer]

Made me wonder those 12 string tones on this Le Foto Proibite Di Una Signora Per Bene were played by Alesandroni ?

Hard to know, although the date could provide a clue - the earlier it was, the more likely. I wonder how much of that he actually wrote out. Only the riff? With the kind of experienced session-men he used, you can get better results from just verbal directions and a lead-sheet to, say, the drummer and organist on this session. And it would save time.

[Udi Koomran]

I love this sort of 12 string guitar sound reminds me of course of the great Ralph Towner -this sound was featured on quite a few of these gialo early 70's scores and usually playing dissonances

[alucard]

Dig the the bass and 12 string guitar playing in unison and the organ going apeshit
Made me wonder those 12 string tones on this Le Foto Proibite Di Una Signora Per Bene were played by Alesandroni ?

Great track,
love 12 string guitars, I bought last year a great 70's Yamaha 12 string. Yes I think its Alessandroni, but as the musicians are not mentionned on the records and even Morricone doesn't always remember who played.
Read the following article : a couple of years ago the daughter of one of the guitarist who played on Morricone soundtracks in the 60's tried to sue Morricone and other composers saying that her father had played solos on these score. Here is the article :
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...arist-daughter

BTW speaking about trademark sounds: I have listened yesterday to the Morricone score : La Moglie la piu belle (1969) interesting but he uses the mouth harp so abundantly on this score, that it got on my nerves at the end.

[Udi Koomran]

BTW speaking about trademark sounds: I have listened yesterday to the Morricone score : La Moglie la piu belle (1969) interesting but he uses the mouth harp so abundantly on this score, that it got on my nerves at the end.

Only Morricone can take an instrument that is often associated with lightens mischief and humor and turn it into something sinister and foreboding as he did in plenty of acores
Yes I agree sometimes it feels overdone once you are done listening the the entire score of The Sicilian Clan heh heh

[alucard]

R-3338952-1326447606.jpeg.jpg

Zenabel (1969) film by Ruggero Deodato
Music composed and arranged by Bruno Nicolai
music conducted by Ennio Morricone

One of the few scores where Morricone and Nicolai changed roles. Erotic Cape and dagger flic with lots of medival pastiche and Rota like cirkus music. Allessandroni is present on guitar and also I Cantori moderni, the usual suspects. The composing style of Nicolai is quite different from Morricone, more chromatic, maybe linked to his main instrument organ. A couple of tracks sound like Hindemith and the fake medieval tracks are also quite interesting. Not one of the best Nicolai ,but worth to be checked out.

[alucard]

Cuore Di Mamma (1969) film by Salvatore Semperi

Music composed and orchestrated by Ennio Morricone
Orchestra conducted by Bruno Nicolai
Choir(s) : I cantori Moderni di Allessandroni & Le Voci Bianche di Renato Cortiglioni

Interesting score, travelling through music history , in the beginning some baroque inspired tracks, one close to Vivaldi featuring trumpet. Some classic vienna school pastiches, 'Comenciano I problemi' a Ligeti inspired track ( with a reprise and alternate takes on the Saimel release) and 'Ninna per adulteri' a beautiful minimal composition for solo voice, my favorite version is version 2 where the lead vocalist hums the theme.

[Udi Koomran]

Yeah good score
Too bad the sound is a bit muddy...
my version is from the 2004 Saimel Bandas Sonoras ‎
I like the way he mixes and juxtaposes these different styles here -

This is a really good one too

[Udi Koomran]

Escalation 1968
What a diverse and eclectic piece of music.here is one of those famous highly regarded scores that didn't click for me for quite a while but reading Alan Bishop's review made it clear I might be missing a great score
Here is what he wrote
"I shamelessly push my favorite Morricone scores onto friends and strangers alike and have been doing so for the greater part of my life. Escalation is a very easy sell. If you don’t buy it for the front cover image alone I would call for an execution squad to end your life immediately but there is plenty more to love about this record. The title track is the precursor (in stylistic approach) to the main score from Giu La Testa (A Fistful of Dynamite/1971) — a Morricone signature flirtatious orchestral pop theme catapulted to the heavens by an impossible to forget “Wah Wah Wah” female vocal chorus line. There are sparse, moody segments with Indian sitar, as well as the venerable, almost ‘Catholic Rock’ track, Dies Irae Psichedelico. Although it clocks in at slightly less than 30 minutes, this is an LP that is sequenced well and one you should own and play often."
I couldn't find any YT clips to two of the best tracks
Collage N1 and the sublime Carillon Erotico

[Udi Koomran]

Finally reissued on vinyl
For me one of his best scores
http://www.twoheadeddog.com/ennio-mo...u-un-furto-lp/la.jpg

[Baribrotzer]

an interesting video from a 1967 German TV ( NDR) production about Il Grupo Di Improvisazzione Nuova Consonanza
Featuring -

Mario Bertoncini
Walter Branchi
Franco Evangelisti
John Heineman
Roland Kayn
Ennio Morricone
Ivan Vandor
Frederic Rzewski[/QUOTE]

Notice that the instrumentation is pretty close to a jazz band - trumpet (Morricone), trombone, tenor sax, piano, organ, cello, upright bass, drums, percussion - although they don't draw much from the jazz vocabulary, even from the most "out" of free jazz. Also, like many free jazz bands, the members frequently switch over to second, third, fourth, or fifteenth instruments.

[alucard]

Escalation 1968
What a diverse and eclectic piece of music.here is one of those famous highly regarded scores that didn't click for me for quite a while but reading Alan Bishop's review made it clear I might be missing a great score
Here is what he wrote
"I shamelessly push my favorite Morricone scores onto friends and strangers alike and have been doing so for the greater part of my life. Escalation is a very easy sell. If you don’t buy it for the front cover image alone I would call for an execution squad to end your life immediately but there is plenty more to love about this record. The title track is the precursor (in stylistic approach) to the main score from Giu La Testa (A Fistful of Dynamite/1971) — a Morricone signature flirtatious orchestral pop theme catapulted to the heavens by an impossible to forget “Wah Wah Wah” female vocal chorus line. There are sparse, moody segments with Indian sitar, as well as the venerable, almost ‘Catholic Rock’ track, Dies Irae Psichedelico. Although it clocks in at slightly less than 30 minutes, this is an LP that is sequenced well and one you should own and play often."
I couldn't find any YT clips to two of the best tracks
Collage N1 and the sublime Carillon Erotico

Love this one, I have listened to it recently. BTW about the same time I have listened to a B movie soundtrack,( film by Jesse Franco : Vampyros Lesbos) by two German musicians Siegfried Schwab & Manfred Hübler. It's a bit the same psychedelic athmosphere with lots of sitar. Worth to be checked out.

[Udi Koomran]

Yup Vampyros Lesbos is a fine score indeed

[Udi Koomran]

Blimey!!

I just revisited this what a vibe !
reminded somehow of this one

both initially feel like a wild freaked out jam but with more listening more carefully you realize its casrefully structured ..

[Zeuhlmate]

[Rarebird]

I just discovered Alessandro Alessandroni, the whistler in several soundtracks, has died, aged 92.

[alucard]

I just discovered Alessandro Alessandroni, the whistler in several soundtracks, has died, aged 92.

He was a childhood friend of and an important contributor to Morricone (together with I Cantori Moderni, the choir he founded and with whom he recorded a lot of Morricones (and other) soundtracks. A part from being an excellent whistler he was a also a composer and multi-instrumentalist. His main instrument was the guitar, that he played on several Morricone soundtracks.

R.I.P.

Interview with Alessandro Alessandroni

http://www.comingsoon.net/horror/new...vils-nightmare