Composer Spotlight : Ennio Morricone

We were so saddened about Ennio  Morricone’s passing earlier this month and so we wanted to dedicate this week’s Composer Spotlight on the life and incredible work of Morricone. 

Ennio took after his father and played in Jazz bands through the 40’s, and then started ghost writing for film and theatres. 

Known as the ‘composer who changed the sound of cinema’, Ennio was made famous for his scoring of Spaghetti Westerns between 1960-1975, notably A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly- which were directed by his close friend Sergio Leone. Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the best-selling, iconic scores in the world. 

Throughout his career, Ennio Morricone composed over 400 scores for cinema and television, with his music being reused in the likes of popular TV shows such as The Simpsons and The Sopranos. 

Ennio Morricone influenced so many with his work including Hans Zimmer. And it wasn’t just composers who were inspired by Ennio’s work. Gnarls Barkley’s hit single ‘Crazy’ and Muse’ ‘City of Delusions’, were influenced by Morricone. Alex Turner also cites Morricone as an influence on his writing on The Last Shadow Puppets album The Age of the Understatement. 

Ennio Morricone’s composing work led to some incredible accolades: six Oscars and an Academy Award (for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, three Golden Globes, 10 David di Donatello, eleven Nastro d’Argento, two European Film Awards, the Golden Lion Honorary Award and the Polar Music Prize. 

Amazingly, despite his success in Hollywood, Ennio never bothered to learn English and remained in Rome for most of his life, 

"I was offered a free villa in Hollywood," he said. "But I said, 'No thank you, I prefer to live in Rome.'"