Morricone

[cigar joe]

One of my favorite, non Leone, Morricone soundtracks was the one he did for "The Big Gundown" this one ranks first below the Leone soundtracks, in my opinon. I actually have the vinal, but will see what I can find of it in a newer version. Check it out if you have never heard it. The title track reminds me of "Ecstacy of Gold".

[shorty larsen]

Morricone deserves a forum site for himself!!!!

This man have worked in almost 500 movies, and you always find his sores excelent. From m y own part, after almost 10 years of research, and only have 70 cd's of him.

Morricone did 10 or 15 other scores for "spaghetti western", of course not with Leone anymore.

I think that Morricone began to parody his own style at one point, and this was a serious contribution to the "fall" of the spaghetti western style.

Don't forget that one of the reasons OUTW had not a great succes in the US is that the spaghetti western "genre" was exhausted by italian and american movie makers who copied the Leone style. In 1969, when OUTW was released, american public was tired of spaghetti westerns, (of "bad" spaghetti western we should say).

And ironicly (I don't know if you spell it like this) the best spaghetti western movies didn't have any succes at all.

Speaking of Morricone, I have 6 or 7 spaghetti western scores (not counting the Leone's ones) and they're not that fabulous.

Don't forget that Leone (and 30 years later, Giuseppe Tornatore also) was the only movie director who alowed Morricone to compose the music before the making of the movie. It's incredible. I read somewhere that Morricone composed the socre of OUTW with a strident Harmonica, which was not plannified at all by Leone. It seems, (it only seems, I'm not sure) that Leone was so surprised by this idea that he included the name "Harmonica" for Bronson and he changed a little bit the story in order to introduce the story of the harmonica between Henri Fonda and Charles Bronson.

[visitor]

"I actually have the vinal, but will see what I can find of it in a newer version."

An expanded cd was put out about a year ago, but the sound was in poorly remastered mono.

[visitor]

morricone web board address
http://pub36.bravenet.com/forum/show.asp?usernum=3017524795

[shorty larsen]

Association between Leone and Morricone was similar to the Ennio Morricone/Giuseppe Tornatore relanshionship.

Tornatore always let Morricone to make the movie score before even the first scene shot.

Tornatore has particular reasons for doing this: for "Cinema Paradiso" for example, the scenes were shooted while the actors could actually listen to the score that was already finished.

This was very important in order to create an atmosphere or a "mood" to the scene. The actor were able to "feel" on  the set the sentimental and sad atmosphere.

[Jon]

70 Morricone Cds!I only have about 30,although obviously all the Leonescores,Fistful of Dynamite being my favourite.I would say his best non-Leone scores thatI know of are 1900,Everybody,s Fine,Wolf and some of the Dario Argento scores[oh and The Thing].He doesn,t seem to be scoring many films nowadays does he?

[Il Buono]

I think 1900 was his latest...  Yes, it's too bad he doesn't do scores much often anymore.  I think he's still the best film composer ever

[shorty larsen]

Wow guys, the man's 72 years old. Allow him to rest a little!!!! Hahaha!!!

I know that in this moment he only writes music film if he is particulary interested with the story of the film.

He spends his time giving concerts all around the world.

Did you know that the nearly 500 film scores composed by Morricone is only the 25% of his total music production?

But how can this man be so inspired???

I think it has to do with the italian sensibility. Sorry to say this, but it will NEVER be a composer such as great as Morricone in the USA, because it all has to do with a particular sensibillity and a particular mood from the italian people.

Check another of his great scores: "Queimada" or "Burn" in the Us, with the ENORMOUS Marlon Brando.

[Jon]

I wasn,t knocking the guy! But I think you,ll agree that it is a shame that one can now rarely go into a cinema and hear his music now.The last films I think he did were Mission to Mars and Malena,and both scores were very good.Atleast one can probably look forward to his next collaboration with Giuseppe Tornatore-they seem to have a similar relationshop to the one Morricone had with Leone.

[shorty larsen]

Yeah, I saw Cinema Paradiso today (again, I forgot the number of times that I have saw this movie).

The association between the sensibility of the images and the music is amazing.

I read that Morricone refused to work whith Tornatore at the beginning, until Tornatore proposed him to create the score before the movie shot, allowing him to be even more "creative" (if this could be possible).

They have an excellent relationship by now.

Anyway, even if Morricone produced some very good film scores in the 90's and begining of the 2000', I personnally think that the 60'/70'/80's were his best period. And I would say that the 70' was, by far, the best decade.

The 80's and the 90's were the Hollywood period, in wich Morricone was "accepted" by Hollywood and was proposed many movie scores such as Brian de Palma "Untouchables" and "Mission to Mars" , Roland Joffe "The Mission", Oliver Stone "U Turn", Mike Nichols "Wolf" (with Jack Nicholson), "State of Grace" with Sean Penn (Great great movie about the irish mob, unforgettable music score), among others.

But, to me, his best period is the 70's. He was at the best of his creative capacities, and it was a decade full of oportunities and experimentations in music.

Check for example all the Bossa Nova influence on Morricone music in the late 60's and 70's.

This Bossa Nova Influence is now (in the 2000's) called "lounge". You can find many compilations  called "Morricone lounge", very good ones.

What do you think about this?

[Il Buono]

I don't really know about Morricone's scores (except for the Leone films and some other spaghettis).  I have seen The Mission, State of Grace, the Untouchables and probably others, but I really can't recall the music.  Maybe it has been too long...  but I still think that his scores for Leone are the best I've ever heard.  There's some extravagant feeling coming from it, and still it sounds so familiar.  It is really memorable and I can only recall themes like Psycho, Star Wars and Indiana Jones to sound so integrated in my mind...

[cigar joe]

Never heard of Morricone Lounge, can you down load any on Kazaa?

[Jon]

Shorty,haven,t heared the Morricone lounge CDs but I think it just shows how ahead of his time he was.I have one non-soundtrack CD of his called Chamber Music which is quite simply bizzarre!I didn,t like it at first but it has grown on me.I read somewhere that he prefers writing that sort of music,very experimental and atonal.

I think that one of the reasons he is so great is that he can seemingly write any sort of music be it jazz[OUATIA],minimalist[The Thing],even rock[4 Flies on Grey Velvet].His music can be funny,sad,romantic,scary etc.Most people go on about John Williams and how good he is,but while he has written some terrific music[Star Wars,Indiana Jones etc.],you can always tell it,s him and he almost always the same instruments the same way.Whilst with Morricone it is hard to believe that,for example,A Fistful of Dollars,Nuovocento/1900 and The cat o,Nine Tails are the work of the same composer.

I also consider Cinema Paradiso one of my favourite films,especially the 3 hour version which is so much more emotional-the 2-hour version misses out half the story!All the Tornatore films I have seen are good but I don,t think he has topped Cineme Paradiso yet.

[shorty larsen]

Dear Il Buono: I don't know where country you are from and your profile doesn't tell it.

If you're american, you must know that Morricone has made more of 500 music soundtracks. And the "hollywood" production is only the 10% or the 15%.

There are plenty of european movies soundtrack wich were never released in the US. Morricone has made great; magnificent scores for italian and french movies all over the 60's and the 70's. I can tell you that Morricone has more "epic" productions than you think.

[shorty larsen]

Cigar Joe: you won't be able to find some good Morricone music on Kazaa. I would say that you won't be able to find any good music at all on Kazaa.

Kazaa is not a good search site for music.

I would say to try on imseh, may be, but it's not even sure.

Regarding Morricone "lounge", what I wanted to say is that all the lounge movement that you find now in music likes very much Morricone. The "lounge" compilations of Morricone are remakes of Morricone's tracks from the 60's and 70's.

Cigar Joe, if you are really interested in Morricone "lounge" cd's check this sites on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005CCVK/qid=1046723757/sr=1-24/ref=sr_1_24/104-3723336-0948746?v=glance&s=music

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005OO1I/qid=1046724308/sr=1-230/ref=sr_1_230/104-3723336-0948746?v=glance&s=music