Ask legendary Italian film composer Ennio Morricone what he might have wished to accomplish had he not utterly devoted his life to music and he doesn't hesitate: "I would like to have been a world chess champion." The response is as surprising as it is telling, a clue to the inner workings of a mind that's created an astonishing body of orchestral works, chamber music, pop songs, and no fewer than 400 film scores since the early '60s. The handful of quirky, inventive "spaghetti Westerns" he scored for the late Sergio Leone (and other directors) would have been enough to secure his legend (a legacy that sometimes rankles him), but Il Maestro's canon is as stylistically broad as it is deep, wed to a work ethic that seems almost superhuman; in 1972 alone, the composer scored some 22 films!

He's received Academy Award nominations for Days of Heaven, The Mission, The Untouchables, and Bugsy; the star of the last, Warren Beatty, once called Morricone "the most significant composer in the world today." Il Maestro's latter-day partnership with director Giuseppe Tornatore yielded the magic, elegiac Cinema Paradiso (for which the composer shared an Oscar with his son, Andrea), while their sixth collaboration, The Legend of 1900 (the director's English-language debut), resulted in yet another career highpoint--winning the 1999 David di Donatello Award (Italy's equivalent to the Oscar) for best score. Legend tells the bittersweet story of a young man dubbed "1900" (Tim Roth) who is born and raised and lives his entire life on an ocean liner without ever setting foot on dry land. But 1900 also discovers a seemingly supernatural gift for the piano, and his transcendent music essentially becomes the film's spiritual core. By thematic necessity, Morricone's score incorporates American Jazz Age sensibilities, but the composer weds it to his own sublime gifts to produce yet another baffling feat of musical alchemy. In a rare interview, Morricone spoke with Amazon.com writer Jerry McCulley from Rome via an interpreter.

Amazon.com: The Legend of 1900 implies that certain music is god-given, or inspired by a higher consciousness. Do you ever consider that notion as it applies to your own work?

Ennio Morricone: I can only tell you what others think of me. I have a lot of question marks as it applies to my own music. Some say that I am an epic, mystical, and sacral composer; is this true? I don't know. Maybe so. Maybe this is what actually distinguishes certain moments of my music, certain intervals and passages, and perhaps that's what inspires an audience. Obviously, however, with the great helping hand of the film.

Amazon.com: Where do you draw inspiration from?

Morricone: Well, I would say nothing; I don't draw upon anything but myself. However, any person that has the creative calling and profession has to draw upon something. As far as I'm concerned, I've got some old musical loves and passions that I go back to: Frescobaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, da Palestrina, my maestro Petrassi [Morricone's teacher at Rome's Academy of Santa Cecilia], Igor Stravinsky, Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and a few others. These composers I have eaten, drunk, and digested, and obviously they've gone into my system, become part of me, my flesh and blood. What I do then is write. Surely, no one can say when I write that my music resembles that of Stravinsky or Bach, or the others I've mentioned. But when you eat a chicken, it's not that the chicken's blood becomes part of you--you just eat chicken, right?

Amazon.com: By necessity, The Legend of 1900 draws heavily upon early American jazz. How did you approach that challenge?

Morricone: I couldn't really engage in any experiments for this film. You see, the film was destined to go to an American audience and therefore from the point of view of history it had to be accurate and very faithful to reality. I've written jazz music before, but for this film only I sought the historical counsel of an Italian musicologist and a performer who specializes in jazz, Amadeo Tomassi. He guaranteed the historical accuracy and philological perfection of the music.

Amazon.com: What is the inspiration for your marvelous melodic sense?

Morricone: It's not easy to try to be comprehensible to people, to have them understand your music. There's also this desire not to create a rather standard, obvious, or trivial melody. To me, when I talk about inspiration, it's a balance between two components: one that's not trivial or banal, and the other that's not overly refined.

Amazon.com: It seems you've created a unique musical language that's continuing to evolve.

Morricone: Maybe that's true. I always try to do that. I always look for something, and sometimes if you're seeking something you'll make a discovery. Other times a bit less. But in film, the composer has the duty to always find something.

Amazon.com: What are some of the scores you're most proud of?

Morricone: I never answer this question because I have well in excess of 400 offspring. And a father can never distinguish one child over another! Rather, I could say that the less fortunate, but beautiful, films with good music are the ones that are closest to my heart.

Amazon.com: With a family that size, it must be a full-time job simply remembering their names!

Morricone: It's true; I try to remember their names, but some escape me! But I don't forget the directors.

Amazon.com: What is the biggest misconception about your work?

Morricone: That's difficult to say. When people meet me they say, "Oh, you worked on the spaghetti Westerns with Sergio Leone!" When you consider that the Westerns I worked on, others as well as Leone's, they account for just 8% of my productions. In addition to those films, I think I worked on some pretty important other films.

Amazon.com: You've accomplished fine work for Hollywood, yet you've seemed very reluctant to fully embrace its sensibilities.

Morricone: I don't know what it means to "embrace Hollywood." Perhaps that's why I've never embraced it. What is the "Hollywood" to embrace?

Amazon.com: Perhaps the notion that many people seem eager to sell their soul to work on a Hollywood film.

Morricone: Maybe that's true. I don't think anyone would sell their soul; they'd sell their mother maybe! I wouldn't sell my soul or my mother. Since I don't have anyone writing specifically for me, I'm very happy to do the films I'm asked to do, but not all of them.

Amazon.com: Unfortunately, I know many motherless children in Hollywood, Maestro.

For the millionth time, Ennio Morricone will win the Oscar this year. At last. I've rarely been so sure of a winner (I'm still up in the air about Best Picture -- probably AMERICAN BEAUTY). And I haven't even heard the score yet.

I mean, Hanz Zimmer has got one, yes?
Next year it can go to Trevor Rabin or Vanilla Ice.

... in other similar threads I was more careful to say "he'll win IF he's nominated ..."

Last I heard he was selling skate boards and bikes from his shop somewhere in Florida?!

Have you been in for a chat with him yet your H'?....ask him from me 'where did it all go right'!

I've heard the next $$imp$$om/Bucksheimer movie will feature a score composed by Vannila Ice, composed by Milly Vanilly, Based on Tupac Sharur's last cd, Orchestrated by A LOT OF PEOPLE, conducted by etc, etc, etc...

Keeps talking about "once I'm big in Hollywood again ..." Sometimes I get the impression he thinks he's still in Hollywood, California, rather than Hollywood, Florida.

He goes into the corner video store every so often and marches straight behind the counter without saying a word to anyone except -- the parrot there. He will speak to it very straightfaced and at SOME CONSIDERABLE LENGTH about how the aliens are taking over (Bill Clinton is their principal stooge, in his view) and always concludes this spiel with several repetitions of "O.J. did it! O.J. did it!" in parrot-tones. So far the parrot has not responded in kind, despite the encouraging tone of voice. The guys who run the place completely ignore him, so I guess he's considered harmless. I had a lengthy conversation with him in this vein just last week, when I ran into him at the used CD store (a nagging reminder of his former triumphs) and found him amazingly suggestible, so perhaps his "theories" are subject to momentary whim.

And some people think Ennio has no sense of humour (those bank manager glasses, I think), but that comment about some people selling their mother was quite mirthful.