Farewell to Il Maestro
It was so sad to hear of the death of Ennio Morricone the morning of July 6, 2020. Ennio Morricone was well liked in this house. In fact, we used one of his tunes for my mother’s funeral service, My Name is Nobody. I used to put tapes together for the local shops, and this track was on one of them, at Age Concern where my mother worked. People there associated the tune with her, so I decided to use it. It’s such a joyful, up-lifting tune, and it fitted. I also used his tracks on many other tapes for the shops.
I don’t intend to write too much. I don’t really have too many words, which is unusual for me. You can say I am a big fan. I have lots and lots of Ennio Morricone CDs, his music has been with me a long time now. I love that swept-away feeling that comes with the music, uplifting and heart-breaking and sumptuously romantic. I have his challenging and avant-garde material, too. I don't like it as much as those romantic melodies. But they break the pace and add variety.
I’ll just cite some articles paying tribute
Epic and mythic, Morricone ‘created inspirational melodic voices and so he was often closer to what might be called a songwriter.’ I love melody. Everything begins with the melody for me. I have a sweet tooth, too. Morricone’s melodies are overwhelmingly seductive and rich, each with a shrewdly measured spoonful of sugar that is Morricone’s trademark. And, frankly, addictive. I am an addict. I will have to admit to not being much of a film buff. But I do have favourite films, and I do tend to stay with them like old friends or members of the family. I am very loyal to old friends and family. Cinema Paradiso is one of my most favourite films, and I shall shortly be settling down to see the night out with the director's cut, some 2 hours 48 minutes if memory serves me correctly.
‘His music for Cinema Paradiso in 1988, composed with his son Andrea, gives full rein to a swirlingly emotional Italianate extravagance. The main themes are for piano, strings and saxophone and they are there to carry the wistful ideas of melancholy and nostalgia. For me personally, this sweet trolley is a little bit overburdened, but it was a devastatingly effective musical accompaniment and this sad, unashamedly sentimental picture wouldn’t have half the impact without the inspirational supercharge of poignancy in the score.’
Personally, I have no idea whatsoever what the writer means by being ‘overburdened’ by the sweet trolley here. But fair play, he is spot on when he writes of Morricone’s ‘wonderful gift for melodrama in music’ and his ‘thrilling musical ability to go straight for the emotional jugular.’ And I will confess to loving the sad and the unashamedly sentimental, with a taste for the melancholy and the nostalgic. I've been blessed with a wonderful past. Of course, life is an optical illusion. Those wonderful pasts are made by people living for the future, with hope in their hearts and love in their actions. Nostalgia traps you by denying you a future; the past was not that good, was it? Watch Cinema Paradiso and answer the question yourself.
One thing that is certain is that Ennio Morricone was indeed an ‘extraordinary creative force in cinema.’ He was a legend, and legends never die.
Yo-Yo Ma paid tribute
“I'll never forget the way Ennio Morricone described music as “energy, space, and time.” It is, perhaps, the most concise and accurate description I’ve ever heard. We'll truly miss him. This is the Love Theme from "Cinema Paradiso."
‘Dare we compare the five notes of Ennio Morricone’s famous “coyote call” in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” with the four opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony?’ asks John Zorn
‘Ennio Morricone was more than one of the world’s great soundtrack composers,’ continues Zorn, ‘he was one of the world’s great composers, period. For me, his work stands with Bach, Mozart, Debussy, Ellington and Stravinsky in achieving that rare fusion of heart and mind.’
Comparisons are invidious, and will have us arguing over the relative merits of various composers, instead of appreciating their unique contributions. I think that people who appreciate music appreciate what each artist offers, without the need for comparison. Mr. Morricone himself placed his acclaimed oeuvre in a modest perspective. “The notion that I am a composer who writes a lot of things is true on one hand and not true on the other hand,” he said. “Maybe my time is better organized than many other people’s. But compared to classical composers like Bach, Frescobaldi, Palestrina or Mozart, I would define myself as unemployed.”
For my part, I am glad that he was employed as much as he was. I write a lot, probably too much, and have maybe put aside too much time for writing. But as a modest unknotter and weaver of various philosophical strands, I am grateful to have had the music of Ennio Morricone as my soundtrack, helping to keep thoughts and words in touch with the ecology of the human heart whilst raising sights to the transcendent source and end of all things. I must have written tens of thousands of words with the music of Ennio Morricone in my ears. In an interview, he said: “It’s key that the music says what isn’t said and what you cannot see.” I can only write when I hear music.
Of course, I listen to Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and my own favourite, Mahler, and many more. Their music conveys the unsaid (and unsayble) and the unseen. And Ennio Morricone's music does that, too. As Zorn rightly says, ‘Morricone’s music is just as timeless.’ I’ve been listening to Ennio Morricone’s music my entire life, and I am sure his music will be with me the rest of the way.
Zorn describes how The Ecstasy of Gold from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly hit him with the same power as modernist masterpieces like The Rite of Spring, Ives’s Fourth Symphony and Varèse’s Arcana; ‘it shares their complex rhythmic invention, unique sound world and lush romantic sweep.’ It is that sweeping, seductive quality that stands out every time for me. Zorn writes of ‘the soaring lyricism’ which Morricone took from his Italian heritage, describing Morricone as ‘one of those musicians who could make an unforgettable melody with just a small fistful of notes. His meticulous craftsmanship and ear for orchestration, harmony, melody and rhythm resulted in music that was perfectly balanced; as with all master composers, every note was there for a reason. Change one note, one rhythm, one rest, and there is diminishment.’
Morricone was an innovator, too, spanning both popular music and the avant-garde, taking a fresh approach whenever he was presented with a challenge, trying new sounds, new instruments, and new combinations. Zorn says Morricone rarely drew from the same well twice. I’m not sure that this is true. I recognize Morricone’s familiar themes and tropes, and absolutely love them. There is a style, a distinctive sound, and a unity to his work.
I like that Morricone lived a relatively simple life in a beautiful apartment in Rome, rising as 4:30 in the morning, taking walks and composing at his desk for hours on end. He traveled little. I live a simple life, writing from my little room, rising not so early, going to bed late, enjoying walks and, until very recently, travelling not at all. Until a 2014 visit to France, I had not had a holiday since 1983.
Zorn describes Morricone as ‘a magician of sound.’
‘He had an uncanny ability to combine instruments in original ways. Ocarina, slapstick, whistling, electric guitar noises, grunts, electronics and howls in the night: Anything was welcome if it had dramatic effect. By the 1960s, the electric guitar had become central to his palette and he was able to blend it into a variety of unusual contexts with dramatic flair.
Zorn describes Morricone’s openness as ‘the way of the future.’
He could explore extended techniques on a trumpet mouthpiece in a free-improvisational context in the morning; write a seductive big-band arrangement for a pop singer in the afternoon; and score a searing orchestral film soundtrack at night.
Morricone’s mastery of a wide range of genres and instruments ‘made him a musician ahead of his time.’
Whilst Morricone is best known for his film work, Zorn underlines his large catalog of “absolute” music — his classical compositions:
There the music comes straight from his heart. And yet what he accomplished in the challenging and restrictive world of film music is nothing short of miraculous. There, his immense imagination, sharp ear for drama, profound lyricism, puckish sense of humor and huge heart find voice through a magnificent and masterly musicianship. Artistic freedom was his credo, and his impeccable taste and innate sense of energy, space and time was palpable.
Morricone’s work will live on long after he has gone: ‘His sonic adventures stand on their own merits both in the context of the films he scored and on their own terms as pure music. This was his magic.’
Zorn concludes:‘He was more than a musical figure. He was a cultural icon. He was the maestro — and I loved him dearly.’
I’ve spent two whole days listening to nothing but Ennio Morricone. There’s a million tributes out there, well deserved. I’ll remember him for those sweeping, seductive melodies that transported you somewhere else, even on a cold and rainy day in the north of England.
“I will tell you a real story,” he said. “When I left the conservatory my ambition was to write music for the concert hall. I did not want to be at the service of another art. So, at 35, I said: ‘Okay, when I turn 40 I will stop writing film music.’ I said the same as I approached 50 and 60 and 70. Now I am sure, at 90, I will stop writing film music. Ha.” When the 'watch chimes' at whatever time past midnight tonight, anyone with the heart of the matter in them should join me in raising a glass to the man whom only death could finally persuade to leave put down his pen and baton.
I’ll just pick my favourite Morricone tracks. I make no great claim here with regard to selection, they are just my personal favourites, with many obvious choices:
Un Sacco Bello (Tema Di Marisol Settimo)
Non Rimane Più Nessuno
A Heart Beats In Space
Secret Of The Sahara
Metti Una Sera A Cena
Chi Mai
Cinema Paradiso
My Name Is Nobody
Forza G (Quella Donna)
Mesa Verde
Pour Barbara
Come Un Madrigale
L'assoluto Naturale
Il Vizio Di Uccidere
Lolita
C'Era Una Volta Il West -Titoli Di Testa
L'America Di Jill
Per Le Antiche Scale
Per Amore
Una Pistola Per Ringo – Titoli
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Come Maddalena
Buona Fortuna, Jack
A Fistful Of Dynamite
My Name Is Nobody
Sacco And Vanzetti
The Encounter (The Master And Margarita)
What Have You Done To Solange?
Per qualche dollaro in più
Bianco, Rosso E Verdone (Mia Cara Nonnina)
Alla Serenita' ('la Donna Invisibile')
Le Vent, Le Cri
Once Upon A Time In The West
La ragione, il cuore, l'amore
Messico E Irlanda
La Bambola
Metti Una Serra A Cena
Giù la testa
C'era una volta il west (Edda's version)
Romanzo
Ninna nanna in blu
The endless game
A Fistful Of Dollars
Frantic
For Love One Can Die
Lontano
Also ... my favourite female singer actually recorded a Morricone tune
Françoise Hardy, Je changerais d'avis (Se Telefonando)
I should also mention the album that Ennio Morricone recorded with another favourite singer of mine, Hayley Westenra, Paradiso.
I love this in particular:
Per le Antiche Scale - Davide Formisano
One of Morricone's final works was a Mass for Pope Francis.
I'll end with the lines towards the end of Cinema Paradiso
"You're like me," the mother of Salvatore, the famous film director, tells Salvatore on his return home. "You're too attached to the past. I'm not sure it's a good thing. Being faithful has its drawbacks. Fidelity brings loneliness."
I have always had the music.
Here's a little film I made by way of saying goodbye