Wednesday,
February 28,
Ennio Morricone:
Genius Music Scorer Awarded Lifetime Achievement Oscar
The
ANNOTICO Report
Italian
composer Ennio Morricone
received a Lifetime Achievement Award at
the Oscars. He has scored over 504 films
and television shows Among the well over 400 features, five of those
soundtracks were nominated for an Academy Award. None won.
There can be little doubt that no composer (or anyone else, for that matter)
has worked on so many movies or on such a mind-bogglingly wide variety of them.
His fame is for the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, particularly "A
Fistful of Dollars," "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and
"Once Upon a Time in the West" although I'd elect "Duck, You
Sucker" and "Once Upon a Time in America" as the greatest Leone
films, in no small part because of the goofy sounds Morricone
supplied for the former and the lavish sweep he gave to the epic structure of
the latter.
Poke
into Morricone's vast oeuvre and you can't miss the
harrowing drumbeat tattoos from "The Battle of Algiers."
The
woozy yet realistic soundtrack to Pier Paolo Pasolini's
perverse "Salr" raises the film's already
over-the-top shock quotient to an intolerable level. Morricone
scored "Cinema Paradiso" as though he were
the world's greatest barista, measuring with absolute precision how many
grains of sugar are needed to counter a perfect espresso's bitterness. His
"Carmina Burana"-meets-Bartsk
music makes "The Mission," an otherwise failed movie, indelibly
memorable. But Morricone can just as merrily be a
sonic slasher for creepy sex-crazed Italian
exploitation flicks. Were it possible to track down
"Beach Party, Italian Style" from the early '60s, the reward would
likely be a hoot for the ears.
The theme from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" will surely be played
more than once tonight at the Kodak Theatre. It's a signature tune for a
composer whose very essence is to have no signature tune, which means it was a
hit and people associate it with Morricone. It's also
a udacious music. The
whistle, the whoop, the '60s rock guitar, the ocarina, the quick-tongued
trumpets, the simple harmonies, the catchy melody are a combination never
before associated with the American West or anyplace or anything else.
A master of nonassociation, Morricone
does not Mickey Mouse. That is
The rest of Morricone's subversiveness
is purely musical and cultural. He mixes what should not be mixed. Now 78, he
spent his formative years in the '50s studying in
He learned impeccable technique from the leading academic Italian composers of
the time. He absorbed the experiments of young Italian firebrands, notably Luciano Berio, including their
work with electronically produced music and their layering of found sounds on
tape. John Cage was all the rage in
By Mark Swed
Times Staff Writer
February 25, 2007
TONIGHT, the Italian composer Ennio Morricone will receive an honorary Oscar. The Internet
Movie Database lists 504 films and television shows that he has scored (and two
more that have been announced). Among the well over 400 features, five of those
soundtracks were nominated for an Academy Award. None won. The lifetime
achievement award is his consolation prize, and he is none too happy about
that.
For a composer to have written hundreds of hours of music some of it amazing, a lot of it
distinctive, a bit of it famous, the vast majority
(including more than 100 concert works) unknown not winning an Oscar has been a badge of
distinction, as Morricone told the Associated Press
recently. He is one of the great film subversives. And the consolation Oscar,
along with an inevitably cornball tribute on the telecast, represents the
mainstreaming of Morric one.
But the truly weird part of this hommage,
however gushy or gauche, is that it will not be altogether inappropriate. Just
as you cannot give Morricone too much credit, you
cannot dumb him down too low. His music may represent the rebellious
avant-garde, but it also sinks to unembarrassed sentimentality. It furthermore
carves out an enormous amount of highbrow, middlebrow, lowbrow and
bargain-basement-brow stylistic territory in between. And that is the source of
his genius.
There can be little doubt that no composer (or anyone else, for that matter)
has worked on so many movies or on such a mind-bogglingly wide variety of them.
His fame is for the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, particularly "A
Fistful of Dollars," "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and
"Once Upon a Time in the West" although I'd elect "Duck, You
Sucker" and "Once Upon a Time in America" as the greatest Leone
films, in no small part because of the goofy sounds Morricone
supplied for the former and the lavish sweep he gave to the epic structure of
the latter.
Poke into Morricone's vast oeuvre and you can't miss
the harrowing drumbeat tattoos from "The Battle of Algiers," director
Gillo Pontecorvo's consummate
re-creation of the Algerian struggle for independence.
The woozy yet realistic soundtrack to Pier Paolo Pasolini's
perverse "Salr" raises the film's already
over-the-top shock quotient to an intolerable level. Morricone
scored "Cinema Paradiso" as though he were
the world's greatest barista, measuring with absolute precision how many
grains of sugar are needed to counter a perfect espresso's bitterness. His
"Carmina Burana"-meets-Bartsk
music makes "The Mission," an otherwise failed movie, indelibly
memorable. But Morricone can just as merrily be a
sonic slasher for creepy sex-crazed Italian
exploitation flicks. Were it possible to track down
"Beach Party, Italian Style" from the early '60s, the reward would
likely be a hoo t for the ears.
The theme from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" will surely be played
more than once tonight at the Kodak Theatre. It's a signature tune for a
composer whose very essence is to have no signature tune, which means it was a
hit and people associate it with Morricone. It's also
audacious music. The whistle, the whoop, the '60s rock guitar, the ocarina, the
quick-tongued trumpets, the simple harmonies, the catchy melody are a
combination never before associated with the American West or anyplace or
anything else.
A master of nonassociation, Morricone
does not Mickey Mouse. That is
The rest of Morricone's subversiveness
is purely musical and cultural. He mixes what should not be mixed. Now 78, he
spent his formative years in the '50s studying in
He learned impeccable technique from the leading academic Italian composers of
the time. He absorbed the experiments of young Italian firebrands, notably Luciano Berio, including their
work with electronically produced music and their layering of found sounds on
tape. John Cage was all the rage in
Never just for effect
MORRICONE doesn't switch-hit to be funny or outrageous. He takes himself
deadly seriously. I interviewed him once a number of years ago, and he quickly
dismissed the notion that his music was in any way ironic. If that is so, I
haven't a clue where his musical wild streak comes from. He cares a great deal
about his concert music, but does anyone else? He became noticeably angry when
I told him I didn't know this music, although he admitted that neither
recordings nor scores were easy to come by. How to explain that for a composer
of his stature, hardly anyone plays the concert works outside
Morricone's conducting at the U.N. even of
spaghetti-western hilarity was dull and pompous, if accomplished. And don't
call them spaghetti westerns in his presence. He may mix musical metaphors with
delirious sensuousness and wage endless musical food fights with film, but Morricone is offended by any suggestion that art and food
can be equated. But perhaps we are not supposed to take anything from this
bewildering composer with a straight face.
This explains why Morricone cannot ultimately be
mainstreamed. In a CD released last week, "We All Love Ennio
Morricone," the composer defeats the best (or is
it the worst) efforts of such greats as Yo-Yo Ma, Herbie
Hancock, Renie Fleming and Bruce Springsteen, all of
whom attempt to make the composer fit into their straitjackets and are no more
successful than the inconseq uential
Ciline Dion.
The disc, unbelievably, appears to have Morricone's
blessing. He wrote the transitions between songs so Andrea Bocelli
could segue to Metallica with the least ruffling of
feathers.
Every track is awful ambiguous
music made into predictable pablum. But maybe it is
also Morricone's ultimate act of subversion. He now
is his own victim. Go figure.
No, don't bother. You won't get anywhere. He is one big mystery. And that is
why I love Morricone.
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