Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

Ennio Morricone And The Landscape Of The Imagination

July 6, 2020, by JimC

 

He closed his eyes in the shade, with the scent of roses in his throat, and let the music roll through his soul, a saraband which caressed the face of death as lovers caress the face of their beloved. The darker instrument overwhelmed his senses with waves of ecstatic melancholy, in one moment brutal with exaltation, as delicate as candlelight in the next. Nothing he had known, not merely heard but known, had prepared him for such transcendence. What possessed him to allow his soul to yield to its force? What sorcery could conjure such specters and send them roaring through his heart and on and away into an eternity nameless and unknown? And when each note ended where did it go? And how could each be and then not be? Or did each echo until the end of all things and from one far rim of Creation to the other?

— Tim Willocks, The Religion

*

The music of Ennio Morricone forms an integral part of the landscape of my imagination. I was drinking in the strange, subversive, stylized Westerns of Sergio Leone at the same time I was imbibing the fantasy works of Robert E. Howard and the pulp Westerns of Ben Haas (John Benteen) and Gordon D. Shirreffs in great draughts — and Morricone’s sound seeped from one mythic realm into another, imbuing everything it touched with a permeating weirdness evocative of a desert mirage.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Ennio Morricone, the Oscar winner whose haunting, inventive scores expertly accentuated the simmering, dialogue-free tension of the spaghetti Westerns directed by Sergio Leone, has died. He was 91.

The Italian composer, who scored more than 500 films — seven for his countryman Leone after they had met as kids in elementary school — died in Rome following complications from a fall last week in which he broke his femur…

“The music is indispensable, because my films could practically be silent movies, the dialogue counts for relatively little, and so the music underlines actions and feelings more than the dialogue,” Leone, who died in 1989, once said. “I’ve had him write the music before shooting, really as a part of the screenplay itself.”

*

My favorite performances of Morricone’s work are those of the brilliant Danish National Orchestra.

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Comments

  1. Ugly Hombre says

    July 6, 2020 at 10:20 am

    Sad news the great man will be missed by millions- what a life he had.. play his music in my truck over and over again, no better music driving or other wise in the world

    RIP Ennio Morricone, God Speed.

    And thanks.

    Reply
  2. Padre says

    July 6, 2020 at 12:46 pm

    His soundtrack for The Mission was one of my favorite albums to write to in seminary. At the time I never made the connection with his work in westerns. Such an incredible talent!

    Reply
  3. J.F. Bell says

    July 6, 2020 at 12:58 pm

    Tough to beat his western scores. Still, off all the music he composed I think my favorite has to be his work for Once Upon a Time in America.

    There’s not too many could do what he did. We’ll be hard-pressed to replace him.

    Reply
  4. Black Tyrone says

    July 7, 2020 at 2:50 pm

    Jim, my son is a student of film composers . He part time taught at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston for a short while Remember Goodwill Hunting? and provided a weekly film course showing with context . Also an independent film maker himself. Seems he knows more than most. Thanks for this tribute. I also am trying to revisit as often as possible. You lost me on the “utility kilt” Ha Ha Black Tyrone Im a serious reader of Kipling and Haggard and not just Quartermane and Ayesha

    Reply
  5. Lee Logue says

    July 7, 2020 at 3:30 pm

    Addio Maestro, dormi facilmente.
    And he rode into the sunset one last time….. E grazie per tutto!

    Reply
  6. lane batot says

    July 8, 2020 at 10:15 am

    One of my favorite Soundtracks of his is from the “Marco Polo” TV mini series–the one made back in the 80’s. I have a Record Album of that(and no functioning turntable, alas), but haven’t been able to get a CD(OR a DVD of the series, which I would also love to have!). I’ll havta recheck Amazon, but past efforts have shown impossibly exorbitant prices for both(this will inspire me to check again!). That was one of the first(REVOLUTIONARY!) collaborative efforts of China and the U. S. to produce a film together–something rather common nowadays! Although such might be discouraged at the moment with anything to do with China being a favorite scapegoat……

    Reply
  7. Jerry N says

    July 10, 2020 at 9:26 am

    Have to admit I got a little trail dust in my eye listening to the good the bad and the ugly…

    Reply
  8. Quixotic Mainer says

    July 11, 2020 at 7:39 am

    Ecstasy of Gold will always be my favorite Morricone tune. It really captures the “dragon sickness”, aspect of a quest for loot of any variety . There will never be another like him!

    Reply
    • JimC says

      July 11, 2020 at 10:02 am

      Haven’t heard that term used in a while and it is so perfect. And you’re right— Ecstasy captures it perfectly. Firing it up right now…

      Reply

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