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Author	Topic: SPAGHETTI WESTERNS/MORRICONE

Gae Oscar® Winner	I just thought I'd mentioned that I got out my old dusty soundtracks of "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" "Fistful of Dollars","Few Dollars More" to record some tracks for one of my 10 year old piano pupils. Now I dont know if this is purely as a nostalgic response to the music but listening to some of the scores I was really emotionally affected it. As well as the "Main themes" of course specific tracks were "Ecstasy of Gold" "60 seconds to what?" (with its great movimg trumpet solo and Organ section)and the "Trio" showdown music. Is it just me showing my age or is it true that with the plethora of new soundtracks/composers around, there is very little music of substance and emotional impact. I always buy new soundtracks but very rarely find scores that affect me the same way as some of the older "classics" such as mentioned above. Maybe I have lost that feeling of awe and wonder and youthful naivety and become more cynical with age or just need to be more selective and just try to buy the newest classic scores and avoid the duds! Does anyone agree with me about "Morricone's" classic music and the point I,m TRYING to make or am I totally WRONG!!! Discuss! This sounds like a University Seminar! Gae
posted 04-15-1999 02:57 PM PT (US)

Magdi Oscar® Winner	Gae, off course we'll always have special feelings for our first records /soundtracks and they affect emotionally in a certain way. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" was my second soundtrack so I know what you mean... But there are younger composers who sometimes write music with great emotional impact: Patrick Doyle ("A Little Princess"), Bruce Broughton ("Carried Away"); David Arnold ("Last of the Dogmen") George Fenton ("Shadowlands") or Thomas Newman ("Shawshank Redemption" and a lot more.
posted 04-15-1999 03:56 PM PT (US)

pietari Oscar® Winner	I think the lack of originality in modern film composing might make you a bit numb to fully appreciate most mainstream scores, but there still are plenty of scores out there that can just make shudder. Try Ottman`s Incognito, if that doesn`t inspire you, then nothing will. I think it is even better than Little Princess. FAvorite track from Morricone`s older scores :Goodbye Colonel, what a great trumpet solo! Pietari
posted 04-19-1999 12:30 PM PT (US)

Gary W. Radovich Oscar® Nominee	There's very few listening experiences to equal Morricone's Italian Westerns, especially his Sergio Leone scores like FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, THE GOOD THE BAD & THE UGLY and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (and many of his other westerns like THE BIG GUNDOWN, FACCIA A FACCIA, GUNS FOR SAN SEBASTIAN, 2 MULES FOR SISTER SARA, E PER TETTO UN CIELO DI STELLE, IL GRANDE SILENZIO are also superb). The Italian musical tradition of melody and sentimentality are clearly evident in Morricone's scores, along with Rota, Trovaioli, Rustichelli, Ciccognini, Ortolani, Piovani, etc., and seems to elevate the Italian film composers a little bit. Morricone is still capable of turning out wonderful scores like THE MISSION, NUOVO CINEMA PARADISO, IL QUARTO RE and detests being thought of as only a composer for westerns. He, in fact. turned down quite a few western scoring assignments in the 1970's in order to break out of the cycle he felt was beginning to typecast him. Thank goodness the bulk of his work is readily available on CD or vinyl and we can always take pleasure in his unique talents.
posted 04-20-1999 07:02 PM PT (US)

PeterK FishChip	I can't believe this discussion stopped! Morricone, Morricone, one of the few who's continually re-invented himself over the years... and so many years, to boot. Can we add anymore to this discussion? What did people think of The Mexican score, now that they've seen it in "action" so to speak? Morricone's 60s work is still being imitated, some 30 years later. Amazing.
posted 03-06-2001 10:36 PM PT (US)

joan hue Oscar® Winner	"I can't believe this discussion has stopped." Well, PeterK Fishchip ( )the Tiomkin topic received about 3 responses so far, the Copland topic received about 6 replies, and Ben Hur is still under twenty responses. SIGH. Now go back and note the topics that go on and on and on. Tragic. I know Morricone has said that he won't score westerns. He hasn't in about 30 years. (??) He didn't want to be pigeonholed. Still, I wish he'd do another one just so I could hear another reinvention of his style. NP Fist Full of Dollars. [Message edited by joan hue on 03-06-2001]
posted 03-06-2001 11:03 PM PT (US)

soundtrackman Oscar® Winner	I'm not sure if the topic is Morricone or Emotion in Film Scores. Certainly Morricone isn't the only film composer who could knock your socks off musically and emotionally. His genius is in how amazingly off-beat his music and instrumentation was (not so much "is" anymore). Listen to the screaming vocal on "Navaho Joe" - who else would even try that, never mind make it work? Or the in-your face guitars and trumpets in his Spaghetti westerns, or the harmonica in "Once Upon A Time in the West." The instrument almost becomes a character in the film. No filmmaker would let a composer do that anymore. Something else about Morricone. He always surprised me. For that matter, all my favorite composers used to surprise me - Goldsmith, Williams (I remember wondering what Williams would do with "Jaws"). Sadly, I believe there are no surprises anymore. And, to get back to the other topic, very little emotion. I believe Bruce Broughton in a recent Intrada interview pinned it - directors don't want emotion anymore, they want texture; they want "cold" music. And that's what they get. Remember that film music is work for hire, so composers must deliver what their customers want or their music gets thrown out. Compare "Gladiator" to "Ben Hur." Maybe that's a bit unfair, but it still says a lot about what Hollywood wants right now. For me, I find myself dusting off those old LPs more and more. Not just Morricone. Just rediscovered Bernstein's "The Sons of Katie Elder." They just don't write 'em like that anymore. God, I'm getting old...
posted 03-07-2001 05:55 AM PT (US)

H Rocco Oscar® Winner	Morricone doesn't want to be "typed"? Out of the hundreds of scores he's done in every genre imaginable, he's worried about being "typed"? As popular and memorable as his western scores are, I'd wager that THE MISSION outsold them all, and that's hardly a western. Morricone was up for the nominal western HEAVEN'S GATE, but allegedly lost the job for falling asleep during the screening
posted 03-07-2001 08:57 AM PT (US)

Luscious Lazlo Oscar® Winner	SOUNDTRACKMAN SAID: "His genius is in how amazingly off-beat his music and instrumentation was (not so much 'is' anymore)." This is a profound truth. Early Morricone is brilliantly weird. It reeks of originality. And simultaneously it's deeply moving. Steve Reich once said something like: "I don't want people to listen to my music because they think it's interesting. I want them to listen to it because it moves them." Early Morricone is not only a sui-generis bolt of weirdness. It's also emotionally profound. http://wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=1912&starttime=00:17:24 THE HELLBENDERS by Morricone [Message edited by Luscious Lazlo on 04-03-2003]
posted 04-03-2003 08:38 AM PT (US)

Luscious Lazlo Oscar® Winner	From Stephen Woolston's review of THE PROFESSIONAL: "Ennio Morricone has scored over 400 films and, in doing so, may have written lots of redundant music. He re-uses themes sometimes. He re-uses embryos of themes a lot. He re-uses basic structures greatly. Sometimes he carves whole scores out of just one theme. But he never fails to sound fresh. He never fails to sound distinctive. His music never gets lost in the crowd, and his genius for writing music that makes passive ears attend with interest rarely fails. Why? Because he is a writer of memorable melodies in tune with emotion, treated in a slightly quirky way that makes them stand out as different." From John Mansell's review of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST: "Many referred to the movie as Leone's opera, once critic saying that it was an opera where the arias were stared rather than sung." http://wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=5138&starttime=00:05:09 BEAT #3 by Morricone [Message edited by Luscious Lazlo on 04-03-2003]
posted 04-03-2003 08:40 AM PT (US)

Gae Oscar® Winner	Wow, has it really been 4 years since I first posted this? Talk about messages "From Beyond the Grave"!! Gae NP NOSFERATU
posted 04-03-2003 01:36 PM PT (US)

soundtrackman Oscar® Winner	I started reading this thread with interest, then saw the date - 1999! Then I saw my own post. Gee... anyhow, I still agree with myself (??!). In the intervening years, through the generosity of several people here, I have expanded my Morricone collection further, and I only like his stuff more. He's a truly unique voice in a field that no longer has many unique voices left. The wonderful thing, is that in these three years, thanks to some European labels and FSM and Varese here in the U.S., lots of scores we never expected to hear are available. This includes expanded Morricone (like "The Big Gundown") but mostly other composers, like Michel Legrand - another unique voice - in his previously unheard score to "Cat Dancing" and his newly redone "Ice Station Zebra." So, let's hear it for the old guys! Mark T.
posted 04-04-2003 06:21 AM PT (US)

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