Ennio Morricone RIP
10th October 2020 · Music Ennio Morricone (November 10, 1928 – July 6, 2020)
There are few familiar songs – tunes – that one never tires of hearing. Too many become overplayed and overfamiliar almost to the point of irritation, or lose the emotional power they once had to become little more than aural wallpaper.
Only a handful surpass that familiarity, either through some sort of personal connection with the listener – or their sheer genius – to lift the heart the moment you hear them.
I have no personal connection to Ennio Morricone’s music, though I did do a CD booklet and some publicity for him once and he was… let’s say, quite a “difficult” character to deal with. I’m not even especially fond of the film.
So my abiding love for this must be down to its sheer genius.
I remember when I was working with the Maestro as everyone called him – and rightly so, for a man who composed more than 500 film works – his name didn’t ring a bell with most of my friends.
But as soon as I attempted an aural impression of this piece’s opening motif, literally everyone knew exactly who I meant. Which made it all the more strange that the man himself despised the term “spaghetti western” and regarded these soundtracks as a minor part of his repertoire, preferring the more “classical” works.
Anyway, I feel privileged to have had the chance to see him conduct his orchestra at the O2 just 18 months ago with Mark Wilkinson and glad that he deigned to perform this.
RIP Ennio Morricone – Maestro