Ennio Morricone: Essential Scores from a Movie Maestro

“Ennio Morricone was more than one of the world’s great soundtrack composers—he was one of the world’s great composers, period. He was one of those musicians who could make an unforgettable melody with just a small fistful of notes.” – John Zorn 
 
A jaunty electric guitar riff. A wailing harmonica. A powerful vocal crescendo. The unique elements of an effective film score make it instantly recognizable, sometimes even more so than a famous actor's face. Such is the case for many of the over 500 original film and television scores written by Italian composer Ennio Morricone (1928–2020), the so-called Maestro of film music, who, according to composer John Zorn, “was always open to trying new sounds, new instruments, new combinations—rarely drawing from the same well twice.”  
 
Ennio Morricone developed his ear at a young age as cultivated by his musician father, who encouraged his studies on the trumpet. Though he started his career in television, providing music for Italy’s first-ever broadcast in 1954 on through contemporary productions, Morricone is best remembered for his film scores, most specifically his collaborations with Dario Argento, Sergio Leone, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Elio Petri, and Giuseppe Tornatore in his native Italy, and Brian De Palma, Terrence Malick, and Quentin Tarantino in Hollywood. Over a career spanning eight decades, Morricone’s influence on cinema music will be felt for generations to come. This series offers an overview of many iconic scores from across the Maestro's multifaceted career.