Ennio Morricone for beginners

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Sorry if this has already been discussed, but I was wondering if any of you could offer a starting point of albums? I heard 'metti, una sera a cena' a few months ago and thought it was lovely, and then recently I saw Bertolucci's 1900 and was struck by the painterly quality of the film and the music...beautiful, a little bit sad and tinged with memories. I have never actively sought out a film music composer before, and I know he has done dozens of scores, so it can be slighty daunting of where to start!

― Evangeline, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i can't be of that much help i'm afraid, but i do love Che C'Entriamo Con Noi La Rivoluzione? (from maybe 1972ish?). don't know if this is the name of the film also, or just a track, but i definitely think you should track down the soundtrack with this piece on it

― gareth, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm getting married in June, and we're going to come on stage (literally) to the main theme from 'Once Upon A Time in The West' - which is THE most beautiful piece of music I have ever heard.

The whole Soundtrack is well worth a listen.

― Zanny Gognet, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Rhino did a really nice two-disc intro/retrospective a few years back- -it starts with the great spaghetti-western stuff and rolls all the way up through the Satanic disco tune he did for Exorcist II: The Heretic and the more reserved elder-statesman scores he did in the '90s, such as The Untouchables. That would be an excellent place to start, although you can hardly go wrong with any of the scores for early Leone films.

― lee g, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Rhino set, "A fistful of film music" is a real winner - the second disc is a bit weak comparatively but this is partly because the first disc is a total goldmine. in addition to the great western stuff, it features the opening song to pasolini's "hawks and sparrows" with the credits set to music and the jaw-dropping opening song from "the bird with the crystal plumage." i have to stop drooling.

― dave k, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I heard 'metti, una sera a cena' a few months ago

This happens to everyone with a Sinister connection. I quite like the 'Mondo Morricone' compilations of his 70s porn stuff.

― N., Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the main gripe is that not one single compilation has the 'days of heaven' stuff on, the main title tune is ab-so-lootly gargeous.

the early stuff (as compiled on 'mondo moriconne' and 'more...' is ace too, but the very best is - obviously- 'once upon a time in america' which is beyond brilliance.

― piscesboy, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Avoid the two Virgin comps from the 80s, Film Music, which may appear somehow definitive. They jump around too much stylistically and chronologically, and they include less of his wildly original arrangements than I had hoped for.

― Curt, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I never saw the movie, but the soundtrack to The Mission is lovely.. very dark and foreboding, with rich melodies. Was the movie any good?

― Andy, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Mission is a pretty good film. It has Deniro and, I think, Jeremy Irons in it. I think the soundtrack is good enough to stand alone, though. I really can't imagine the movie without the soundtrack.

― Todd Burns, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

All I remember about the film The Mission was its drawn out, violent ending which I believe argued that conquistadors were bad. Oh, and before that there was some beautiful scenery.

― Curt, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

See "Once Upon A Time In The West" and you'll see how musical themes attach to characters, suspense is hung/built over a three hour _musical_ event, the themes both main and subplot/character are developed and extended. That 5 minutes of dripping water at the beginning could be part of the soundtrack. Complete integration. Really an audio-visual feast, before such things were heard of or called said. Italian "post-opera" (thank Ennio),.. "post-op" anyone ?

― George Gosset, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

GG is OTM here. If anything he underplays the importance of sound in the opening credits sequence (the greatest ever btw), i.e. not just water dripping but the squeaking whirly thing, the fly etc. Morricone's music to OUATITW was sort of the culmination of the techniques he was trying out in Leone's Dollars trilogy. There are plenty of good Dollars music highlights compilations around.

Also search: "Once Upon A Time In America". (And, personally, I like the title theme to "The Untouchables" tho' I make no claim of greatness in this instance.)

― Jeff W, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

CINEMA PARADISO and ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA are two of the most beautiful soundtracks I've ever heard.

― Joe, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

I'm getting married in June, and we're going to come on stage (literally) to the main theme from 'Once Upon A Time in The West' - which is THE most beautiful piece of music I have ever heard.

Not to belittle your wedding or anything, but isn't that the theme in the movie where she arrives in town to learn her husband and his entire family's been killed?

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 23 September 2005 11:35 (twenty years ago)

oh wow brilliant. personally i will go down the aisle to the sounds of 'the good, the bad and the ugly'.

― N_RQ, Friday, 23 September 2005 11:46 (twenty years ago)

So you and your spouse are accounted for - is The Good the Vicar?

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 September 2005 11:47 (twenty years ago)

i like big fat men like you. when they fall they make more noise.

― N_RQ, Friday, 23 September 2005 11:52 (twenty years ago)

Is that a quote from the film?

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 September 2005 11:55 (twenty years ago)

nah.

― N_RQ, Friday, 23 September 2005 11:56 (twenty years ago)

Wow, it should have been!

― Raymond Douglas Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 September 2005 11:58 (twenty years ago)

yeah, it was really.

― N_RQ, Friday, 23 September 2005 11:59 (twenty years ago)

This was my first Morricone compilation. I throw it out there as an alternative to the Rhino comp. The nice thing about this set is that the liner notes describe the plots of the films.

― Brakhage (brakhage), Friday, 23 September 2005 14:26 (twenty years ago)

well, this cd only has a couple morricone songs on it, but they are all really good (my fav is "dies irae psichedelico") and the other songs are all from italian film composers like giuseppe de luca and piero piccioni. It's Barry 7's[of add n to (x)] connector's 2.

plus there's that great john cage quote on it:

Peggy Guggenheim, Santomaso, and I were in a Venetian Restaurant. There were only two other people dining in the same room and they were not conversing. I got to expressing my changed views with regard to the French and the Italians. I said that I had years before preferred the French because of their intelligence and had found the Italians playful but intellectually not engaging, that recently, however, I found the French cold in spirit and lacking in freedom of the mind, whereas the Italians seemed warm and surprising. Then it occurred to me that the couple in the room were French. I called across to them and said, "Are you French?" The Lady replied. "We are," she said, "but we agree with you completely."

― bj, Friday, 23 September 2005 16:37 (twenty years ago)

six years pass...

http://www.richmix.org.uk/whats-on/event/morricone-in-love/

They have scheduled some Morricone on Valentine's day.

Has anyone seen hs scores played by bands? Experiences? (I know Morricone likes to conduct his own scores, not at all the same thing)

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 18:06 (thirteen years ago)

two years pass...

NY?LA shows for beginners and others this month. No way paying $80, but might try scalpers once show has started.

http://www.enniomorricone-usa-2014.com/index.php?p=CONCERTS&ms=m2&l=en&

― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 6 March 2014 17:23 (eleven years ago)

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