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Italian composer, Ennio Morricone, the mastermind behind many iconic Spaghetti Western soundtracks is no more

Italian composer, Ennio Morricone, the mastermind behind many iconic Spaghetti Western soundtracks is no more
By Sohani Mittal Ennio Morricone, the Italian composer whose haunting scores to Spaghetti Westerns like ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ and ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ helped outline a cinematic era, has died Italian wire service ANSA said on Monday. He was 91. Ansa said Morricone had broken his femur some days agone and died during the night in a clinic in Rome. Born in Rome in 1928, Morricone wrote scores for a few four hundred films however his name was most closely connected with the director Sergio Leone with whom he worked on the now-classic Spaghetti Westerns as well as Once Upon a Time in America. Morricone worked in the majority film genres— from horror to comedy— and a few of his melodies square measure maybe additional renowned than the films he wrote them for. Shortly after Morricone’s death was confirmed, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tweeted: “We will always remember, with infinite gratitude, the artistic genius of the Maestro #EnnioMorricone. It made us dream, feel excited, reflect, writing memorable notes that will remain indelible in the history of music and cinema.” He was nominated six times for Oscars — for “Days of Heaven,” “The Mission,” “The Untouchables,” “Bugsy,” “Malena” and “The Hateful Eight,” winning for the last of these — and in 2006 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences presented him with an honorary Oscar for “his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music.” He was only the second composer in Oscar history to receive an honorary award for his body of work. He contributed the original score to Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” in 2015 after having made some earlier comments about being unhappy with the way his music, originally composed for other movies, had been used in earlier Tarantino films. Morricone said his one big regret was never having worked with Stanley Kubrick. Although he most well-liked to figure in Rome — and magnificently refused to talk any language aside from Italian — he worked with a large vary of filmmakers on either side of the Atlantic, including Sergio Leone (“Once Upon a Time in America”), Gillo Pontecorvo (“The Battle of Algiers”), Bernardo Bertolucci (“1900”), Terence Malick (“Days of Heaven”), William Friedkin (“Rampage”), Roman Polanski (“Frantic”), Brian De Palma (“The Untouchables”), Barry Levinson (“Disclosure”), Mike Nichols (“Wolf”) and Giuseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradiso”). Morricone was therefore busy within the 60’s and 70’s that he usually didn’t conduct his own music. From 1965-73, he wrote nearly one hundred fifty scores, quite several composers produce in an exceedingly period. several were for films never released within the U.S., that led to small however turned on cult of record consumers United Nations agency didn’t see the films however doted on the music.  But in general, Morricone devoted more time In later years to classical composition, writing more than 50 works for chamber groups, symphony orchestra, solo voice and choral ensembles.  In addition to his honorary Oscar, he received seven of Italy’s David di Donatello awards, another Golden Globe for “The Legend of 1900,” a Grammy and another BAFTA for “The Untouchables,” ASCAP’s Golden Soundtrack Award and the career achievement award of the Film Music Society. In recent years he had conducted concerts of his own music around the world, including a notable American debut at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in 2007. Although he was scheduled to conduct at the Hollywood Bowl in 2009, the event was cancelled and he never returned to L.A. Morricone is survived by wife Maria Travia and their four children, three sons and a daughter.

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