Ennio Morricone

Famous Italian composer, arranger and conductor Ennio Morricone was born in Rome in 1928. He has been familiar with the music since the very childhood: Ennio’s father was a trumpeter, and young Morricone decided to follow in his footsteps. At the age of nine Ennio entered the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, where he got the priceless experience and knowledge that allowed him to develop his talent and to fulfil the incredible potential. Years of the Second World War had a huge influence on Morricone, and all his anxieties and recollections became a part of his creativity. The musician wrote the soundtracks for the films, and many of them were chosen because of the war theme, which was close to Ennio.

When Morricone was sixteen he played in Alberto Flamini’s group, and there is no doubt that such an important experience played a great role in the arrenger’s development. After that Ennio worked in a theatre: he began as a musician, but later he started working as a composer. For many people Morricone’s name is first of all associated with the music from their favorite movies. Indeed, the composer got the world recognition due to the numerous soundtracks. All together Ennio created music for more than 400 movies and TV series, which had been filmed not only in Morricone’s motherland, but also in Germany, USA, France, Spain and Russia.

The composer was given various awards for his genius creations, and in 1987 Ennio got two awards in a row for the music for “The Untouchables”: the Golden Globe Award and the Grammy Award. During the whole career of cinema composer Morricone was nominated for Grammy for five times, and such attention form the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is absolutely deserved. The musical experts noted the highest level of soundtracks for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Le Professionnel, Il Decameron and many other movies. However the very word “soundtrack” is not really appropriate here. Morricone creates music that completes this or that film or TV series, but it can easily live by itself. Of course, Ennio wrote not only soundtracks, but also the chamber instrumental music, and in the middle of the eighties he went on tour in Europe while conducting the orchestra by himself.

Undoubtedly, Ennio Morricone is one of the most talented and brightest musicians of the twentieth century, and his creativity is versatile and delicate. His arrangements include elements of jazz, classics, folk and even rock and roll, but all his compositions are always worked out perfectly, they do not have any unnecessary details. It is quite difficult and probably senseless to talk about the genius composer’s music – one must listen to it and feel it.