With over 160 titles to his name, Ennio Morricone has had a revoluntionary impact on the way films are scored. Born in Rone in 1928, Morricone studied at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory and began scoring movies in the early 1960s. He now splits his time equally between scoring films in Italy and Hollywood. Morricone has been Oscar nominated five times for the films Days of Heaven, The Mission, The Untouchables, Bugsy and Malena, but has never won.

Other Resources:
The Ennio Morricone Fan Page
Movie Music U.K. Also check out this biography by Sergio Miceli: Ennio Morricone: La musica, il cinema, Ricordi - Mucchi, Milano 1994

Reviews:

Mission to Mars (2000)
. . . As a cinematic spectacle, Hollywood will need to go some to top the expansive vistas of Mars, the incredible beauty of space, and the almost balletic way life in orbit is depicted by De Palma's camera. Aurally too, Mission to Mars is a complete triumph, with Ennio Morricone's score leading the way. For the most part, Morricone eschews the traditional "spacey" sounds that clutter many of today's science fiction films, instead composing from the heart. The romance of discovery, the beauty of space, the emotional connections that exist between the protagonists, the heroic sacrifices that are made for the good of others, the awe and wonder experienced when setting foot on a new planet. These are the things that Morricone's music illustrates, and illustrates beautifully.

The first five cues on the album are introspective, quiet and peaceful in tone, lacking the orchestral pomp and bombast that one might usually associate with a journey into the far reaches of the galaxy. The opening track, 'A Heart Beats In Space', begins as nothing more than a series of ascending string scales accompanied by gentle electric guitar ambiences, an undulating flute line, a trumpet soloist, and a choir full of soothing female voices, before slowly moving into the first performance of the score's main theme. 'A Martian' and 'A World Which Searches' all reprise the main thematic content, the former predominantly on a synthesiser, complemented by voices, and which swell intermittently to emotionally-heightened orchestral crescendos in a manner which is sometimes not too dissimilar to the warm-sounding space epics penned by John Williams. 'And Afterwards' briefly dabbles in some angular, abstract shifting electronic tones that briefly resurrect memories of 'The Conversation' from Close Encounters, before returning into lyrical mode for the beautifully tragic 'A Wife Lost', with its Titanic-style synthesised voices.

The mood changes for good with the controversial church organ cue, 'Towards The Unknown', which is less successful on CD than it is in the film, but still manages to generate a great deal of unease in the listener. Stark organ tones, repeated in clusters, and an anxious electronic pulse increase in urgency and volume as the track progresses through the gradual inclusion of heavy bass drones and harsh, isolated string chords. The piece underscores a desperate scene in which the rescue crew vainly search for the tiny holes in the hull of their ship, damaged in a mini-meteorite storm, and which is draining the precious oxygen from the atmosphere. Although certainly an unconventional choice of orchestration, the organ does not sound as out of place as one might expect, and it at least shows that Morricone is willing to try new and unique ways of film scoring, no matter what the circumstances.

However, it is the final four cues which are the undoubted standouts of the album, beginning with the 13-minute 'Sacrifice of Hero', which accompanies the fateful spacewalk as the four rescuers are forced to abandon their craft high above Mars's surface. What begins as an exercise in tension gradually develops into a terribly moving lament for the human spirit. A new arrangement of the main theme, which is actually not too dissimilar from the one he wrote for the Golden Globe-winning Legend of 1900, emerges, accompanied by a bold and bright horn countermelody and a heartbreaking movement for woodwinds and strings, while a bed of snare drums keep time underneath, continually drawing militaristic parallels with the romantic image of glorious death in battle. When the full might of the choir joins the fray during the rousing, patriotic 'Where?', you know you are hearing the work of a complete and utter genius. The score concludes with 'All The Friends', a pastoral coda with a Mission-esque oboe statement.

I cannot recommend this score highly enough. Fans of Morricone's lyrical work will find themselves in raptures at the glorious nature of the Italian maestro's themes, while admirers of his innovative and challenging scoring techniques will nod in appreciation of his bold choices of orchestration. Although the score is likely to be tarred with the same brush as the film, it would be unwise to simply lump the music in with all the other stodgy sci-fi scores that are written for stodgy sci-fi pictures. With a little more care, and with a better ending, Mission To Mars could have been a space odyssey for the generation, and despite the shortcomings of the film itself, Morricone's music genuinely deserves a higer level of recognition.
-- Movie Music U.K.

Malena (2000)
Ennio Morricone's fifth and final score of 2000 is for the Italian romantic-comedy-drama Maléna, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, for whom Morricone has written several classic scores, not least the incredible Cinema Paradiso. What's interesting about Maléna is the fact that, unlike 99% of Morricone's output of late, it has been the recipient of quite a bit of publicity, mainly through its association with the Miramax marketing machine. A second Golden Globe Best Score nomination in a row has been secured for the Italian maestro - following his success with The Legend of 1900 last year - and is backed up by a high profile soundtrack release. The only difference between this and 1900, though, is that Maléna is worthy of the praise.

To quote from the Miramax press kit, Maléna is a film about a beautiful young widow who inspires a young boy's independence and courage amongst the chaos and intolerance of war. The film stars Monica Bellucci (recently seen in Under Suspicion) as Maléna Scordia, the most ravishing woman in a sleepy Sicilian village, whose husband is away fighting in World War II. Attracting lustful glances from the men of the town, being the recipient of scornful gossip from their jealous wives, and followed wherever she goes by children on bicycles, Maléna thinks her life could not get any more difficult - until news reaches her that her husband has been killed in action. But solace comes from an unexpected place: one of the children who follow her, young Renato Amoroso (Giuseppe Sulfaro), decides to help Maléna through her suffering, and becomes her "secret shadow", ensuring that the classical beauty is able to come to terms with her loss, and with the narrow-mindedness of her neighbours.

Despite his recognized talent as a composer in the romantic and dramatic genres, eccentric comedy music has also always been one of Morricone's fortes - as the music in cues such as 'Hypocritical', 'Walks in the Town', 'People's Whispers' and the highly rhythmic 'Orgy' suggest. The tenderness of an acoustic guitar and the warmth of the string section vie for attention with a surprisingly jovial brass section in oompah-band time, and a series of oddly-metered descending phrases that bounce around the woodwinds and swirl away into nothingness. These cues are obviously intended to depict Maléna's life in her Italian village, as she goes about her business while being stared at, whispered about, and pursued by hordes of kids. The irony and downright peculiarity of Maléna's plight is perfectly summed up by Morricone's off-kilter comedic sensibilities.

The music that will remain in the heart longest, though, are the ones that concern pure, unadulterated romance - cues such as 'Maléna' and the especially the extended 'End Titles' simply ooze grace and charm and beauty, in a manner not dissimilar to the sounds heard in, and the aforementioned Cinema Paradiso - there's a longing, unrequited quality in the solo viola and solo flute performances that breaks the heart. The solo viola is also present in other cues, notably 'In the House', adding a depth and resonance to the music, while 'Sex Thoughts' features an attractive, moody trumpet and saxophone duet playing a sultry variation on the comedic theme.

In addition to these, two other cues stand out from the others for their total uniqueness: 'Lynching' is one of Morricone's rare pure action cues, a dangerous-sounding, throbbing sequence of moody percussion ostinatos and surprisingly violent orchestral dissonance that is quite unlike anything I have heard from Morricone, at least in any of his mainstream works. At completely the other end of the musical spectrum is 'Movie of Other Times', Morricone's personal affectionate homage to the Golden Age of film scoring, where he intentionally apes the composing styles of Max Steiner, Alfred Newman and others in a cue which seeks to illustrate little Renato's love of the cinema.

In a year in which Morricone has written scores as brilliant and diverse as Mission to Mars, Vatel, Canone Inverso and Maléna, surely the time has come for him to be acknowledged by his peers on an international level. Despite having two Golden Globe wins (and further a nomination for this score), some sort of recognition from the Academy Awards is surely long overdue. Maléna could well be the score to buck the trend - especially with the Miramax marketing machine at its back. Whatever the case, Maléna is a special score, and is indicative of the great things European film music has to offer.
-- Movie Music U.K.

Soundtrack album covers: