Musical matters
 

Ennio Morricone is one of those composers and musicians who really spend most of their lifetime creating, producing, and experimenting with music. To Morricone, this is not just a job, it is an obsession. However, the public often tend to categorize a man's work by some, possibly outstanding, examples of his creative output.

Ennio Morricone is not merely a soundtrack-writer: before he ever started writing for the movie industry, he was busy arranging songs for popular singers. During the time he spent with the "Gruppo Improvisazione Nuovo Consonanza", he wrote a couple of musical pieces that did not have much in common with the stuff he used in his movie scores.

In fact, most of the compositions and arrangements do not have anything in common with a fixed conception of musical styles. Over the past decades, Morricone created songs for artists like Andres Bocelli, Zucchero Fornaciari or Angelo Branduardi, but also chamber music and experimental pieces.

The music of Ennio Morricone has always been open-minded: sometimes you can hear influences from Frescobaldi, Bach, or Stravinsky, then again it's the musical avantgarde that shines through. These musical facets in Morricone's work have not been widely known for a long time, but in recent years quite some concerts have held place that not only showed that the Maestro is an excellent conductor, but also presented some of his less popular musical pieces.

Whether the artist Ennio Morricone will be widely recognized as a musician or merely a composer of moviescores, only time will tell. However, given the enthusiasm of the great man from Trastevere, it is most likely that movie lovers as well as musical connaisseurs can expect some great work by Morricone for years to come.

(ml MMI, t&a: rh)
 
>>German Morricone tribute site
 


 
Scene from "Once upon a time in the West" featuring a much remembered melody line by Morricone
 
 

ENNIO MORRICONE
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