All language subtitles for Ennio.2021.1080p.TiMVSN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-gattopollo

He's a very enigmatic character,
even if he doesn't seem like it.

Serious. Very serious.

Always very...

very absorbed.

He's got this amazing quality
of always being himself,

but, at the same time,
always being someone else.

We're talking about a genius.

Ennio Morricone is the great exception
to all the rules.

He has a great talent,
very well hidden,

which erupts every time he writes.

I've never seen a marvel
like Ennio Morricone.

We’re witnessing, to put it cautiously,
a draft of a guaranteed masterpiece.

Well, he is a legend...

working with Ennio Morricone
was like getting a medal.

A very peculiar man.

He was crazy.

That's for sure.

Ennio's world has not been
totally discovered yet.

I never thought
that music would be my destiny.

I wanted to be a doctor.

My father said:
"No, he will study the trumpet".

He sent me to the conservatory
to study the trumpet.

That's how it went.

It was my dad who decided
I was going to be a trumpet player.

I didn't decide anything.

As you can see,
I was just a kid.

I was very weak at solfege.
In the first quarter, I got a 3 out of 10.

My father became very strict.

During holidays, I wasn't allowed
to play any bingo or card games...

And then I improved.

I was six years old
when my father taught me the treble clef,

and explained to me
the position of the notes on the staff.

His father played the trumpet

in a regimental band.

He played in cinemas
where they did variety shows.

There was a record player in my house.

And, since I used to listen
to "Il Franco Cacciatore",

I wrote music for hunting,
for two horns...

That kind of useless stuff.

When I was ten,
I tore it all up.

I started studying the trumpet
when I was 11.

I got my diploma at 16.

My father used to tell me
that there was a boy,

the son of the trumpeter,

he would go to the pit
with his music manuscript,

and fall asleep.

He played the trumpet,

and would often fall asleep
when he was not playing.

Mario Riva was the presenter
at the Casina delle Rose.

Ennio Morricone's father was there
and they played together.

An extraordinary trumpet player,

but my father was very strict.

He was very careful with his spending.

He had the same trumpet his whole life.

When his dad gives him the trumpet
and says:

"This instrument allows me to feed you,
you'll do the same for your family",

that was it.

He bought me a second-hand trumpet.

It was cheaper and he bought
whatever saved him money.

He's a musician
and couldn't be anything else.

I remember that
when the Germans were here,

and then the Americans,

I went from one hotel to another
with a small orchestra.

They only gave us food for playing,
they didn't even pay us.

Some of my colleagues
used to put a small plate on the drums

for soldiers to make a donation.

The family only lived on the father’s trade.

There was a time when is father became
ill, and Ennio, a boy, had to replace him

in nightclubs
and in entertainment orchestras.

Playing the trumpet to earn enough to eat

was a terrible humiliation.

And this...

I felt this humiliation.

So, I stopped loving the trumpet.

I took my father's place,
and I played until 2, 3 a.m.

I used to get up early in the morning
to go the conservatory,

and then I had to do my homework.

I showed up with a split lip
to the trumpet exam,

I was... tired.

My exam was...

Nothing special.

I got a 7.5.

was also studying complementary harmony.

I didn't stick to the rules,
I enriched them, I made them flourish.

And Roberto Caggiano, my teacher,
at the end of the course, told me:

"Now you must study composition".

And I listened to Caggiano.

These...

Goffredo Petrassi, was one of the greatest
composers of classical music of 1900.

And he was, for me, an amazing teacher.

When I was in my seventh year,

I had to take a class
in advanced composition,

there were two distinguished teachers.

Petrassi was one of them.

Music is an intellectual matter.

I studied his scores, which liked,

the way they were written.

The handwriting,
the beauty of the handwriting.

Every unison was not in unison,

because he added something to it.

Those scores were a school themselves.

I chose him, I chose Petrassi.

Morricone has always made it clear,

he had chosen Petrassi as his teacher.

The secretary told me:

"Maestro, it's not possible.
Petrassi's class is full of students".

"If you don't send me to Petrassi,
I will quit this conservatory."

What you want to do is search
for that composer's techniques

and make them your own.

was very shy, at first,

because everyone in that class was good.

Extraordinary composers.

Ennio Morricone's origins
were much more humble

compared to his peers.

The conservatory was for the elite.

In front of those giants,
I was so small.

I felt almost, almost humiliated.

He felt a bit inferior.

It was unusual for a trumpet player
to study composition.

So, Ennio Morricone was,
in my opinion, discriminated against.

The first thing that Petrassi asked me
to do, for a few months, was dances.

The tarantella.

The bourree.

The jig.

The boogie-woogie.

The samba.

I was not happy.

He didn't give me any indication
of his satisfaction.

At beginning I've always had
the impression

that even Petrassi
underestimated Ennio a bit,

that he was not interested enough
in this person.

Finally, once I was done with the dances,

he explained the Ricercare to me.

And he commissioned me a Ricercare.

That was when I stopped making mistakes.

He gave me great satisfaction,
as my teacher.

It was a counterpoint,
in four parts, five parts,

it was very interesting,
the form that preceded the Fugue,

of which Frescobaldi was the leader.

A century before Bach,

he made hints of counterpoint,
of two melodies together.

Those famous ten years with Petrassi

are those in which Ennio fed
on bread and Palestrina.

Bread and Monteverdi,

therefore he knows counterpoint
like nobody else in the world.

Petrassi was so influenced by Stravinsky

that he passed on this passion
to Morricone.

I listened to one of Stravinsky’s
most sublime pieces.

"Symphony of Psalms".

I heard it conducted by Stravinsky,
when I was very young.

At Santa Cecilia. It was a rehearsal.

The door was open, just a crack,

and the orchestra was playing there.

And I...

I have always been
impressed by that piece.

When I was studying composition,
I didn't show anything to my father.

I stayed in my room, and I wrote,

I wrote and wrote.

He was a very attentive
and smart student.

I was happy and also optimistic
about his future.

But I was studying,
and I was working.

He played the trumpet at the Sistina.

I was the first trumpet added.
I played in all the revues.

Walter Chiari, Tognazzi,
Rascel, all the comedians.

Dapporto, Wanda Osiris, Macario, Toto...

Something beautiful was
the last walkway of the dancers.

I complimented them as they walked over.

I looked at them and named
all the titles of the American songs

I had played in the past.

"My Dream."

And they would smile at me.

But when the show ended,
I could not miss my trolley bus,

so I put away the trumpet
and made a mad dash home.

Music, maestro!

I used to write arrangements on the sly.

Petrassi didn't know.

He found out later.

The first one who called me
was Carlo Savina.

Savina once complained

about an arrangement, in a striking way.

He threw the music sheets.

Sometimes, I did some experiments.

Savina would call me angrily,
and would tell me:

"The sharp was missing,

the flat was missing,

what’s that note, it's not clear..."

savina was tied to a somewhat old concept.

Whereas Morricone's arrangements
were extremely modern.

One, two, three.

My first film experiences were
in film orchestras, playing the trumpet.

I played in some beautiful performances
with Lavagnino,

Franco D'Achiardi, Enzo Masetti.

One soundtrack in which I played
was "Fabiola" by Alessandro Blasetti.

For the final exam in composition
we had to write an opera scene.

I did a double Fugue.

Two subjects and two countersubjects,

about Glaucus, who was in a stormy sea
and about to land,

And what I wanted to create was
something twisted, yet so elegant,

so sinuous, so sensual.

I wanted to make all this...
but I couldn't do it.

The committee, included Guido Guerrini,
the conservatory’s director,

Goffredo Petrassi and Virgilio Mortari.

Quite opposite personalities.

Guerrini couldn't understand
Petrassi's music.

There was a sort of rivalry.

So he asked me a trick question:

"Why did you divide
a double bass pizzicato

where you put the open string
with the upper octave?"

"Why did you do that?"
Petrassi didn't let me answer.

He attacked the director:

"What kind of question is that?"

Petrassi got angry, yes.

I got a 9 and a half.

I remember it well because I got a 9,

and I was very envious
of that 9 and a half.

I walked out of the conservatory,

And as always, I accompanied Petrassi

to 181 Germanico Street, his home.

That time...

we both got emotional.

He was crying, and so was I.

H promised me
he would find me a job.

He meant as a teacher at the conservatory.

But nothing happened.

"When I went into the military service,
the put me in the band right away.

The colonel commissioned me
band orchestrations.

We played in the streets.

My girlfriend, Maria, would follow me.

Running.

She was so cute.

He married Maria
who was exemplary among us.

because she was just like her husband.

She was a calm woman.

Always smiling
We used to call her the Madonna

Always smiling.
We used to call her the Madonna.

When I finished the conservatory,

I was like a naked composer
facing the world around him.

I wanted to protect myself
from this loneliness.

So I wrote
my first concerto for orchestra,

When it came to my musical choices,
my mother used say:

"Please, Ennio, write me a nice melody,

a beautiful song".

She pestered me saying:
"Write a nice song.

She pestered me, saying:
"Write a nice song.

You always must make a nice melody

That’s how you will become famous".

I could hear him playing
from morning until night.

At that time, he wasn’t composing
music for films yet.

He was very poor.

Maria worked
for the Christian Democracy party,

and without telling me,
she got me hired at RAI.

On my first day, the director
of the center on Via Teulada called me.

He said: ''Maestro, I must warn you
that you won't have a career here.

Also, as a composer,
you cannot be performed at RAI''.

"What am I doing here?"
And I immediately quit the job.

Thanks to Petrassi I went to Darmstadt,

to the contemporary music festival.

It was a time of confusion
for contemporary music.

John Cage came to Darmstadt
to critique it.

He did a concert
playing just two notes on the piano,

he turned the radio on, and then off,

he made a bang, turned some pages...

I had the idea,

surrounded by colleagues,
which were all composition graduates,

Franco Evangelisti, Boris Porena,
Aldo Clementi, Egisto Macchi, and others.

I told them, you'll make a sort of...

a grunt.
You make a laryngeal sound.

And then I conducted this...

At that moment, the Nuova Consonanza
Improvisation Group was born.

It was a breakthrough group.

They didn't use the traditional techniques
of sound emission.

Those techniques were always extreme.

we wanted to make traumatic sounds.
That's what we called them.

You weren't supposed
to recognise the trumpet.

I played it in different ways,

putting a hand in front of the bell,
pushing the pistons in halfway,

so it came out
like a strange mewing sound.

It was also awful!

Basically, a different way
of making music.

They worked with sound,

rather than melodies.

In fact, melodies were almost banned.

Ennio worked with melody every day.

It seems like a conflict, a cinematic stunt.

I used to do all the arrangements
for the Quartetto Cetra.

They would choose the songs.

They used to give me a kind of notebook

and I had to instrument
that notebook for the orchestra.

They chose songs that people knew,

but they used different words.

In each episode,
there were many songs,

but they only gave me the notebook
the day before airing,

and the next morning, we recorded.

So I used to spend the nights writing.

He would be what they called
"the slave" in musical slang,

which meant doing arrangements for others.

But his name would never appear.
For television or film music.

One of the first was Cicognini,

a great composer who was making
a film directed by De Sica.

I arranged and conducted
this song and this chorus.

The Maestro Ennio Morricone.

One day a baritone arrived at RCA.

He sang songs from the '30s.

And I heard some amazing arrangements.

Maestro Morricone, famous arranger.

And the name Ennio Morricone came up.

I was called in to save RCA
which was going bankrupt.

With "Il Barattolo", it was saved.

There was this sound
which is the sound of a can.

Everything sounded very '60s.

But the can is a foreign element
that has nothing to do with the context.

The information is a shock
to the listener of the song.

Meccia, the singer, was almost scared,

but Ennio was already someone
who looked around for cans,

rolling them around.

People were used to melodic music,

Italian music was very melodic
up until then,

so these noises were a novelty.

You used a typewriter
as a musical instrument.

Yes, exactly. A proper, written part,
played by a real performer.

For "Pinne, Fucile ed Occhiali", we used tubs

with water to create the splash effect

which didn't come out how Ennio wanted it.

we tried putting detergent in it,
putting covers over it,

because he wanted a dive
that sounded like...

A water sound.

Each song had a stroke of genius.

He blended trumpets with female voices
and trombones with male voices.

A totally new sound.

He revolutionized RCA.

The arrangers back then were so boring.

The arrangers at RCA were
Morricone and Bacalov.

I requested Morricone
because I thought he was more brilliant.

I wasn’t wrong.

These things here, very simple,

were very successful.

Then I added some piano.

The dignity of the composer,

that my teacher had taught me,

I felt I had to use it

in the simplest of the professions,
even the lowest,

redeeming it with the principles
of dodecaphonic music

transposed into tonal music.

He would give colour to these songs,
turn the into something else.

I'm not worthy of you.

I don't deserve you anymore.

There was counterpoint in it

There was no reason for it,
an accompanying chord was enough.

There was always counterpoint.

I think he basically
invented the arrangement.

Until then, songs were just accompanied.

Before Morricone,
there was only the accompaniment.

The orchestra followed the chords,

it was the background.

He started personalizing the songs.

I was trying to add something
superior to the song itself.

But I didn't think I was an innovator.

I used to see him writing
while he was talking on the phone,

he would write the arrangement,
the violin part, the trumpet part.

And he would carry on like this,
while on the phone.

He stands in front of a piano,

he looks at the keys and writes.
He writes the score.

He could imagine the sounds.

He looks at the keys and writes.

Without playing them.
He just hears them.

He had the music in here, inside.

The orchestra is conducted
by Ennio Morricone.

Can you hear it?
There is also a trick.

Many arrangements

start with something very catchy,
right at the beginning.

Conducted by Ennio Morricone.

He did an extraordinary arrangement
for Paul Anka, with an amazing beginning.

-Ten seconds and you were riveted.
-The song started, and he sang.

Ennio came up with musical phrases

that could constantly
run after each other.

They became the trademark of the song.

This device immediately
identified the song.

The greatest artists of the time
wanted Morricone.

I also worked with Chet Baker.

He played the trumpet
in an extraordinary way.

So dark that it sounded like a flugelhorn.

My father, at the age of 55,
was losing his skills on the trumpet.

I didn’t put trumpets in what I did.

So as not to offend him.

This was a dramatic moment
in our relationship.

And my mother used to say:
"Why don't you call dad to work?"

And I never told her that
he was no longer a great trumpet player.

So I didn't call his colleagues either.

I felt this was the right thing to do.

When he died,
I started calling the trumpets again.

All he cared about was music.

He was so absorbed by music,
that nothing else mattered.

And he was absent.
Continuously absent.

For me he created miracles.

The singles were made
with a commercial intent.

So I needed to work on the rhythm.

The albums, very few of them were sold.

So there, I could use my ideas.

He managed to add cultured quotations.

he starts it
with Beethoven's ''Moonlight Sonata''.

It was a nocturne, by Beethoven,

I thought it was consistent
with a song called ''Voice at Night''.

He did the arrangement of ''Ciribiribin''
for four pianos.

I used the incipit of...

The beginning of the melody,

I took it as a cue
for arranging the whole song.

That arrangement was a complete invention.

I remember he once said:

''There is only one arrangement of a song:

the one I created''.

But he would plain to you why.

And 99 times out of 100, he convinced you.

One in 100, he didn't.

Zambrini wrote the song
''In Ginocchio da Te''.

He did the first arrangement of my music.

We went into the recording studio,

Ennio gets on the podium
and starts conducting.

And we listen to it.

I could see the lyricist and producer
Migliacci from the recording studio

turning his nose up at it.

It was very sweet.

''It's not good, it needs some rhythm.''

''There must be a part with momentum.''

-''So, now what do we do?''
-''We have to redo it.''

He did not bat an eyelid.

He went home, and he wrote again.

The next Friday,

he was already a bit on edge.

He asked me to sing live.

So I start.

And Migliacci on the other side...

He wasn't happy.

''Ennio, this is not good either.
It's still too soft.''

I told him:
''Ennio, you need to redo it''.

''But this is a melodic song!''

We said: “In this way
it's impossible to dance''

''I won't do it again. Get someone else.''

And they said, ''You have to.''

''Make it desperate, put some rage in it...''

So he calls again everybody.

A group of 40, 50...

backup singers, eight of them,

guitarists, keyboardists,
pianists, harpsichordists

and also trombones, horns...

He goes home, mad as hell.
He starts writing again.

-The next day...
-He shows up.

''It's the last time, I won't try it again.

This is the rubbish you like.''

He throws it on the table.

''Take this pile of crap.''

He gets on the podium and starts.

I remember it very well.

The piano.

Migliacci was like...

''Ennio, this is amazing.''

''No, it's awful. I don't like it.''

But it was great.

Then he added all the responses.

I'll come back..

to you on my knees...

And, of course, they made the film.

And Ennio did the soundtrack.

You could tell
that I was a peculiar arranger.

A bit more difficult.

I noticed he was at RCA less and less.

Luciano Salce knew me

and he asked me to compose the score
for ''Il Federale''.

It was the first time
my name would appear on a film.

It was a debut, for way of saying.

''Gunfight at Red Sands'',
and ''Bullets Don't Argue''

are Ennio Morricone's first two westerns,

both from 1963.

Initially, he uses pseudonyms.

Nobody knows that Ennio Morricone
is working on these westerns.

Dan Savio was a friend of my wife,

so I used her name.

He doesn't want to reveal
to Petrassi and his colleagues

that he is doing westerns.

I remember I made up
the horses riding with the guitars.

Sergio Leone called me

because he heard the music
of these two westerns.

He came to my house.

He asked me to do his film.

However, I...

I knew that face.

And I said: ''Are you the Leone who
went to school at the Carissimi?''

''Yes, that's me.''

''I'm Ennio Morricone.''

They were schoolmates.

There's a beautiful photo,

with all the schoolchildren
in their smocks,

and you can recognise
Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone.

Two former schoolmates
who meet again to work.

And they become inseparable.

On the same afternoon,
he took me to see a Japanese film.

He explained to me that
''A Fistful of Dollars''

had something in common with it.

Years earlier, Ennio had written
an arrangement for a western record

for an American singer.

I said: ''Let me hear something of yours.''

And he had a record, with a baritone voice.

A very original arrangement
for a western song.

I said: ''Why don't you find me
the backing track?''

I took the whole arrangement,
as I wrote it.

He invented a new melody.

Done with a whistle.

Ennio calls me and says:

''Give me a little whistle,
I need to do something''.

Afterwards, I said to him:
''Not quite a little whistle!''

That's how ''A Fistful of Dollars'' began.

A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS

It was a real turning point.

It was the music
of an out-of-the-ordinary composer.

An unprecedented tone.

We'd never heard anything like it.

An electric guitar, the lashes of a whip.

The piffero.

The anvil, the whistle.

-The bell.
-He set out a new language.

It was a culture shock, for those times.

When Sergio took me
to the editing room to watch it,

for the duel between Volonte and Eastwood
he used the ''Deguello''.

The trumpet piece
from the movie ''Rio Bravo''.

It fit perfectly.

Leone said to me: ''We'll keep this''.

I said, ''Sorry, Sergio, I can't accept that,

you want to use an existing piece
in the main scene,

and I just do the background music''.

And I said: ''I quit''.

Sergio gave up the ''Deguello''.

But he said:

''Please, give me an imitation.
It fit so well''.

I thought of a song,

one that I had written
years earlier for a TV show.

Sung by one of the great Peter Sisters,

a contralto with a deep,
extraordinary voice.

I said: ''I'm going to show Sergio''.

Obviously I instructed
Michele Lacerenza, the trumpeter,

to do those flutters on the trumpet.

Like in the ''Deguello''.

For best music score:
Ennio Morricone, ''A Fistful of Dollars''.

Morricone, a few words.

A few words with Morricone.

-You didn't expect this award.
-No.

-Is this your first award?
-Yes.

Do you often work
on background music for film?

He looked very young to me.

He had this round face and these glasses,

like one of the Peanuts,

like Charlie Brown, or a grown-up Linus.

Ennio was present in a lot of Italian films.

And I used to have a lot of fun
listening and imagining

how he had worked with the director.

FISTS IN THE POCKET

I took big risks with first-time directors.

I tried to make different music.

Ennio is reserved, a believer.

I was impressed

by how he became very involved, in an anti-religious film.

I wrote a lullaby, sung by a female voice,

immersed in dissonant sounds

of a metallic, vibrating surface.

I'm happy I did those kinds of films.

They weren't as commercial as the others.

Time later Sergio Leone and I
went to see again ''A Fistful of Dollars''.

And we admitted to each other
that we didn't like it.

I never loved the music of this film.

I always encouraged Sergio,
in later films, to forget it.

But he insisted:
''Give me some trumpet, do the whistle''.

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE

There was friendship between them,

there was complicity,

but also a lot of discussions.

Also, let's say, violent ones.

Cut it.

In the scene
where Sergio wanted the trumpet,

I had the idea to quote
the opening of Bach's ''Toccata and Fugue

in D minor''..

The music of his westerns,
which he considers basic,

had a structure,

a wisdom, a deliberate architecture,
which was impressive.

Sergio Leone,
with ''For a Few Dollars More'',

began to understand
the importance of the soundtrack

by Ennio Morricone in his films.

And he realised that Morricone
was beginning to have an audience.

After a long time,
I met Petrassi and he told me

that he liked my music
for the cinema very much.

And he mentioned a film
that I didn't expect.

''For a Few Dollars More''.

And I was shocked.

Because I thought I had written
better music than that.

And he said: ''However, I know
that you will make up for it.

I know that you will make up for it.''

I don't think Petrassi appreciated
this work he did.

Same as I didn't appreciate it very much.

We really were, in a way,

archaic.

What do you think about the collaboration

between composer and director
in film music?

I would define it totally anti-artistic.

Composers who came out
of Petrassi's school

never had a good opinion of my profession.

My work with the cinema.

And this sort of isolated me.

He once phoned me, when he was young,

and it was very moving.

He said I was a purist
while he was a traitor.

He was divided, also because
the environment forced him to be.

Who are you?
Are you this or are you that?

Ennio had a kind of inferiority complex.

For having given up the purity of the composer,

the vision of Petrassi.

But Petrassi betrayed that idea too,
more than once.

Petrassi also did soundtracks.

However, while Petrassi never thought
that film music was real music,

Ennio thought it was.

Petrassi couldn't understand

what was special about Ennio.

His ability to identify
with a situation, a scene.

Petrassi probably couldn't do that,
just like I couldn't.

And I think that
even Petrassi was not entirely free

from an inferiority complex.

I also did ''The Bible''

directed by a certain director
called, I think, Huston.

He put a lot of effort
into writing that music.

But Huston didn't accept it,

because, according to him,
it was too difficult.

So I think it's the end
of my work with the cinema.

It almost seemed like fate,
and an unjust fate.

I was called by Dino De Laurentiis...

to replace my teacher, Petrassi.

The musical production
was a co-production between

RCA and Dino De Laurentiis.

And Dino said to me:
''Do a piece on the Creation.

We'll give it to Huston,
if he likes it, you'll do the whole film.''

I simulated the light,

a trickle of water,
which then widened and swelled,

and then it burst with the fire.

Then the animals, the birds...

All this dynamism. Then it started again.

Maria went to a synagogue

and took some ancient Hebrew texts
which Ennio set to music.

Huston came several times.
De Laurentiis came several times.

They all seemed very happy.

I got the job.

At that point, De Laurentiis said to me:
''What do we care about RCA?

Just do the film with me''.

And I said: ''I have an exclusive with RCA,

I can't do this rudeness to them''.

I went to RCA and talked to the president.

I said: ''This is a great opportunity
for me, unique, rare.

Let me do 'The Bible'''.

''No, you can't do it.
You have a contract with us.''

And I didn't do it. Of course, I didn't.

Despite everything,
Petrassi's point is clear.

He states that writing for the cinema,
for commercial music,

is, for an academic musician,
like prostitution.

So he is morally condemned.

Guilty.

Guilty.

At first, I felt guilty,

but I slowly redeemed this feeling.

So much so that by writing,
I wanted my revenge.

I wanted to conquer...

this...

guilt.

Gillo Pontecorvo wanted to meet me.

I didn't expect such an important director.

I was intimidated because
he was different from the others.

He was a big guy.

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS

And I wrote even this piece...

It was one of my variations
on Frescobaldi's theme.

There were three notes:
A, B flat and B natural.

And then the contrary motion:
F sharp, F natural, E.

It's about what I had learned.

I am made up of everything that music was,

the music I studied.

A little to your left.

Pasolini already, had a list of records
that I had to put in the film.

He said to Ennio: ''So, maestro,

I would like this Bach part here.

I said, ''Excuse me,
but I'm a composer who writes music,

I don't take other people's music
and put in a movie,

this is not possible.

I have to refuse''.

And he said:
''In that case, do what you want''.

I wrote that rhyme,

between serious and funny.

there was ''music by Ennio Morricone''
and I sang...

sang, kind of, a laugh.

Until that moment, Pasolini
only used Bach's music.

Then, he switched to Morricone.

The music in Sergio Leone's first films
felt below what I could do,

because I was a slave to Sergio's vices,

then I came up with the theme
which was the coyote's howl.

And I went...

It's dramatic but fun,
and he liked it very much.

THE GOOD

THE UGLY

THE BAD

Let's focus on Ennio Morricone.

Ennio, do you realise
that your story is unique

in the history of Italian music?
You created two best sellers in two years,

two records with movie soundtracks

that were two incredible, tremendous hits.

I was lucky.

I don't think so. You are good.

I went to spy,

I bribed the projectionist,

I went to the copyist
and tried to look at his score.

Following his work, I know
he's an artist who never sought fame.

This is Maestro Morricone.

You may not recognise his face,
but you know his name.

Morricone specialized
in music for western movies.

Obviously, every western
from that period came to me,

and I had to work on them,
because that was my destiny at the time.

A funny story about Ennio:

you make a movie, you show it to him.

The first time he watches the movie,
he falls asleep.

He falls asleep
like the gunslingers in the West,

who seemed asleep,
but then they shot you first.

He had watched it anyway,
he already knew,

what he said was already
right on the mark.

''The Great Silence'' by Sergio Corbucci
was set all on snow...

All on snow.

Horses galloped without making any noise.

The leading character was mute.

Corbucci said to me:

''This is the best music
you've created for me.''

I said: ''Thanks Sergio,
it's because you can hear it.''

In the movies,
mixing sound without a balance

can damage the movie and the music,

which is an abstract element added
to the film and it's not necessary.

But when we want to hear it,
we need to let it be free.

There was a period when I tried to reduce the notes

in order to communicate something
the audience could remember.

I had one of my first ideas
while I was paying the gas bill.

It was the song ''Se Telefonando''

that Mina asked me for.

And there I tried out
the three notes for the first time.

They were three and in 4/4 time.

The stress never falls on the same note.

It was a very important discovery
for tonal music,

because it also became catchier.

See, it's another note.

The three notes...

It's always there,
but it's different for each measure.

He could repeat the same thing
without making it stale.

I never abandoned
the experience with fewer notes,

because I always liked to have a little fun.

Ennio was at the piano and told me:

''Now I'll play you two themes
that cross each other.''

I often write two themes
without realizing it,

One theme into the other
to make them more agile.

And he played me two themes
that cross each other.

I am not ashamed to say
that I didn't like that theme.

I told the director, Peppino Patroni Griffi:

''I would discard this.
Be patient and listen to me.''

And he told me I was mad.

'''Love Circle'' I find brilliant.

Because it's minimalist,
what's trending now in music.

Peppino was right,

because I can't judge my own themes.

That's why, from that moment on,

I made my wife listen all the themes I wrote.

If she liked them,
I played them for the director.

Directors only heard
the pieces that my wife liked.

I remember that Ennio was never alone.

Maria was always with Ennio.

This woman who was a mother,
a wife, and a partner,

but who watched over his talent
in a wonderful way.

Because it's a sacrifice.
For love, she was his first applause.

She, not knowing about music,
could give me an honest opinion,

so that's what I've been doing for years.

She created a defensive perimeter

so that Ennio Morricone's
genius could be free.

I always wondered how Ennio could be both

a movie musician
and an experimental musician.

When I write for movies, I am a composer.

When I am write for myself
I am someone else,

so I become a very diverse
and opposite composer,

that it feels like I have a double face.

''Suoni per Dino'', written by Ennio Morricone

for Dino Asciolla and tape recorder,

musically expresses what the author thinks

about the disturbing issues
that trouble today's society.

They interviewed him: ''How can
a composer of spaghetti western music

have this experimental nature?''

He never gave up experimental music,

he even tried to use it in movies.

When Elio Petri met me
for the first time he told me:

''I only work once with a composer,

so bear in mind that this is the first
and last movie that we'll make together.''

I created very difficult music,

but the main character was a painter
who was existentially confused

and it felt right to call
the Nuova Consonanza Improvisation Group,

in which I played,

and use my previous composition
for 11 violins,

to which I added
percussion and a female voice.

We improvised in front of the movie,
in sync with the mad painter's dreams,

so paints were spilling, boards fell over,

and the music somehow replaced the noises.

The movie and the music
were critically acclaimed,

but the movie flopped.

I felt responsible for this failure.

During a concert in Florence,
a stage-hand got on stage,

took a ladder and started shaking it.

The old wood made a sound...

After ten minutes, that man got off
and left, the concert was over.

I told that to Sergio... and he understood.

The first 20 minutes of ''Once Upon a Time
in the West'' are concrete music.

It was the result of what happened
with the ladder in Florence.

Somehow, the noises were music.

That character plays the harmonica
more than he speaks,

so it is a voice.

Entrusting so much of that character
to Ennio meant putting yourself in his hands,

and it's no coincidence that my father
never worked with another musician.

It's an extremely seductive music.

It seduces you, envelops you,

gets stuck in your head.

They gave me the music
and I just read and performed.

I didn't practice it first.

I heard that it was a beautiful melody.

Music that we've kept
listening to all our lives.

It became part of the fabric
of our daily lives.

The voices, the sounds, the noises
the tone, the mood,

the short phrases.

Ennio uses them for what they are.

Notes are like construction
materials for a building.

The bricks are the same in all buildings,
but the buildings are not the same.

Those were the bricks
he used to build his cathedrals.

I didn't want to be categorised as someone
who only composes music for westerns.

Lattuada encouraged me
to write symphonic music.

They're all violins played divisi,
then all the strings, but especially violins.

And I tried for truly symphonic music.

Actually, my most difficult piece
is a different one.

The score for ''The Sicilian Clan''
took a great effort.

Good evening Mr. Malanese,

I hope you're not too surprise
to see me.

I told to you,
to come when you wanted.

There's the first exposition
of the main theme...

And then I added
as a second counterpoint Bach's name.

B is for B flat, A is for A,
C is for C, and H is B natural.

Which is Bach.

He created a counterpoint
that managed to combine

each part with its own voice,
the drums, the double bass,

and air the instruments that come in.

That's Bach's name, I changed the order.

And behind..

The funny thing

on the theme that supported Bach's name,
there is a Sicilian theme.

At a first listen it seems like a piece...

but no, it hides
an immense amount of knowledge.

All the composers
were fascinated by this B A C H,

but that doesn't matter.

Notes are no longer important.

What's important is
what a composer makes out of them.

The names, the names!

I had already edited the music
for ''I Cannibali'' by Liliana Cavani.

In the same building
Gillo was editing ''Queimada'',

and from afar he heard
a choir of that music.

When Liliana Cavani was not there
he went to the editing room

and took her tape with that piece,

put it over his beach scene
and it fit perfectly

That music in my movie felt
like a secular hymn to freedom.

We got in a fight.

He wanted me to take that piece away
from Liliana Cavani and use it in ''Queimada''.

Exhausted Gillo told me:
''Fine, then write me something similar.''

I noticed, when I watched
Pontecorvo's movie,

that the theme was from ''I Cannibali''.

It was clear they were similar!
They were different, but similar.

I was in the crossfire.

I remember a time when he said to me:
''Do you want to improvise Abolisson?''

Just like that, with no notice,
as I was about to go on stage.

Of course!

The human voice is very magical,
because it comes out of our body,

without needing an instrument.

By the end of the '60s,

Ennio Morricone was a guarantee
for producers and directors.

In 1969 alone, 21 movies
with his music were released.

Ennio's huge success made people envious.

They weren't only envious,
but they copied him too.

Then envy turned into slander.

''You made 18 movies in one year,
how's that possible?

You didn't do all of them, right?''

He sat like this.

He was so fast at writing music
that it seemed like he was writing a letter.

He had a clarity of ideas
when he imagined music.

He was clear, simple.

How many film scores did you compose?

I don't... I never counted.

I was sure Elio Petri and I
wouldn't work together again,

but then he called me
for all of his next movies.

For ''Investigation of a citizen above suspicion''
I wrote a little arpeggio.

During the mixing Elio called me
and showed me the first part.

And I said: ''Elio, what a damn is this?''

He had changed the music.

He had used the music I had composed
years before for an horrible movie.

Elio said to me: ''It's great.

Look, Bolkan is about to be killed,

look how well the choir works.''

Ruggero Mastroianni, the editor,
was there on my left.

He said: ''Ennio,
don't you see that's extraordinary?''

And I replied: ''How can you
like this music for this scene?

It doesn't fit with it.''

I slowly gave up.

I told him: ''Do as you like.''

The lights went on,

and Elio said something
that still moves me when I think of it.

''You created the best music
I could ever imagine.

You should slap me in the face.''

A brilliant idea that weaves together

everything that Ennio had done until then

and that launches him towards his future
is ''Investigation of a Citizen''.

I was traumatised by ''Investigation''.

It ma e me realise at it was possible
to create very different music

from what even Morricone did until then.

I remember the music
more than the movie.

In fact, the music carries the movie.

He invented a musical format
which is film music.

He may be the inventor of film music.

How will you kill me this time?

I will cut your throat.

Kubrick liked that music
and called me for ''A Clockwork Orange.''

He liked that music so much
that he wanted me to do an imitation of it.

We agreed, but Kubrick called Leone,

who t him that I couldn't do it
because I was working.

My composer Ennio Morricone
is working on

my ne movie called:
''A Fistful of Dynamite.''

But it wasn't true.
I was mixing ''A Fistful of Dynamite''.

The music was done,

so Kubrick gave up on me
without even calling.

It's my only regret
about a movie that I didn't work on.

One, two, one two three four.

I dreamed about being
in a Morricone theme.

Wonderful, wow.

But instead, there were
four people in the recording studio.

So he passed one scene and said...

He gave instructions and then recorded...

Ennio developed multiple scores

and tried them out
in a certain type of thriller movie.

and iriad mam oui
in a certain type of thriller movie.

He looked at me, a little bit angry,

and asked: ''What are those?''

I told him: ''They are records...
In case we need inspiration...''

''Throw them away.''

Please, open up!

I experimented
with a writing style I'd never tried.

He wrote music in scores, in strips.

Musicians in the studio
improvised on Ennio's outline,

he was playing the trumpet...

Based on what was happening on-screen

he pointed to the number
of the strip to be played

by a specific musician.

So I have him start, then I have her start,

and everyone needs
to have their instrument ready

to start at any time,
because it's not written.

So when a director would say,
''That's good'',

I couldn't do it the same way again.

This allowed me to do
the unexpected in movies.

After the third movie,
Salvatore, Dario's father,

said to me: ''What are you doing?
It's all the same music.''

He said:.''You made
the same music for three movies.''

It wasn't true.

Ennio defended himself saying:
''I don't make the same music.''

But it seemed the same.

Because dissonant music
destabilises the senses.

But I applied this idea to other movies.

and got to the 23rd multiple score.

Maybe at a certain point
he overdid it a little.

He start receiving his first rejections
or warnings, because they told him:

''Ennio, if you keep writing like this,
you won't have a job anymore.''

Obviously I changed my writing style.

Morricone was already a myth.

Joan Baez was one
of the greatest symbols of American youth.

Ennio speaks English, sort of,

and Baez speaks Italian, sort of,

but music is a universal language.

She sang on a temporary piano and drums,

so I put the orchestra over her voice.

And she told me:

''Nobody, not knowing me directly,

could have written to this exact point
of my best vocal range.''

She said: ''It's a miracle.''

That song soon became a hit

and we kept asking ourselves:
''Why? How was this possible?''

The fact that my melodies were successful

doesn't mean that I was wrong
to be against the traditional melody.

I think that we are
out of melodic combinations.

Supposedly, Ennio Morricone
doesn't love melody.

He said so.

But he is a musician
with a very strong melodic vein,

that comes out
the more he tries to suppress it.

Melody? Someone who is so good
at creating it can't despise it.

He's lying.

But maybe, it's in what we could
playfully call composer schizophrenia,

that lies that totally different spark.

One of his rules is
strictness applied to creation,

and the fact that he plays chess proves it.

I mean, he lives
in a mathematical, geometrical world.

It's an almost transcendental,
spiritual approach.

His pieces with the greatest impact
play on an exhausting tension,

whose resolution is
almost ecstatic for the viewer.

I myself had to give up
on listening analytically

and just let go.

His music makes each of us feel
like it was secretly written for us.

Why do people remember Morricone's music?

Because when you listen to it
you can't forget it.

My head is full of music,
something I will have to write,

then I get an interesting, important idea.

So I often seem reserved,
like someone who doesn't like to talk.

He's an extremely timid person,

with a profound determination.

So speaking to him about music is
to speak with the abyss inside him.

He believes in his music,

that it's never a servant to the image.

In fact, Ennio says:
''I am like a chameleon,

I change colour depending
on the director I work with,

but I am always myself.''

I think that he always tried to understand

the director he was with
and then work on their soul.

In this respect,
Ennio was a good psychologist,

because to be able to deal
with personalities which were so complex

and sometimes so troubled,
you have to be a very good psychologist.

With Pasolini
and the other directors he worked with

he always found a way to express himself.

He is truly a dictionary.

If ten good composers
work with the same director

and write for the same movie,

they will all write very different music.

This dramatic reasoning means

how difficult it is to write movie scores.

Because if there are that many solutions,

the hardest part of a composer's job is:

what is the right music,
which one fits the best?

This is the composer's agony.

For ''Allonsanfan'' we said:
''Ennio, in the end there's a dance.

We need music for shooting that.''

He did the accompaniment for us.

And we liked it very much.

So we thought that accompaniment
was the music of the dance.

And they shot the movie
with that rythm.

But when we edit a movie,

we can't proceed without music.

So we put together the most varied music,

the most diverse musicians.

Then Ennio came to see the editing and said:
''That's good, but why am I here?''

And he left.

To imitate the others music.

I didn't like not being able
to think by myself.

I never liked it.

We ran down the stairs.

''No, you have to do it.''

''I'm not doing it.''

Eventually I accepted,
but I'll create the music by myself.

When we were in the recording studio
for the final dance,

Ennio said: ''I prepared a melody for you.''

''No! We don't want a melody.
We like it like this, Ennio.''

''Just listen.''

We jumped on him,
because it was even better.

The director oversees everything:

screenplay, set designs, costumes,

acting, lights, framing.

But not the music.

He sat at the piano
and did the melody with his voice...

I have a bad voice,
it's definitely not good.

He played some music for me on the piano,
but I didn't understand a thing.

The film director couldn't know
the orchestration I'm going to do.

I didn't dare doubt
what Morricone improvised at the piano,

I knew that that sound
would become strings, winds.

A director can't understand
the final result from a description.

You cannot describe music,
it needs to be listened to.

Some movies inspired me straight away

to write a certain music, of a certain type.

During the first screening of ''1900'',
a rough cut,

Ennio started
writing the theme immediately.

It was dark, I happened to have a piece
of paper and I started writing notes.

I wrote that.

It seemed like he created,
with music, a parallel movie.

Ennio moves inside the music.

There's nothing he cannot give you.

If, while he's recording, you say to him:

''Why don't you make this
into a piece that resembles Verdi?

His talent instanty gushes out.

He can instantly create a song like Verdi
and you wonder what opera it's from.

But it's not an opera.

It's Ennio.

''1900'' received heavy criticism

and someone faulted the music too.

Zurlini called me and said:

''I will write an article in your defence.''

It was really nice of him.

The Tartars are the dreams
of youth that are lost.

At a certain point Zurlini wanted
to hear the themes so I played with the piano...

And he went: ''That's enough, it's good.''

It's incredible not knowing
how the theme developed,

not even the orchestration,
he knew nothing.

But when a director trusts you,
he trusts you.

Farewell, Drogo.

I invented the piece
with the five war trumpets

that suggested that an army was coming

but didn't.

The last time that I played the trumpet

was when Gillo Pontecorvo
got married at the Campidoglio.

He asked me if I could
play the wedding march.

I took the trumpet, even though I hadn't
practised in a long time, and played...

On the trumpet.
He was very happy.

Terrence Malick was
an important director for me.

I went to watch the movie

and when I got back to Italy
I wrote 18 ideas.

When we analysed the movie,

he had me create a piece
that was really important to me.

It was a kind of symphony of fire.

I never had an epistolary relationship
like the one I had with him.

A movie musician has
to be able to do anything,

from symphonies to popular songs.

Listen, honey,
all you had to do, did you do it?

Sergio Leone produced my first movies.

During the production
of ''Un Sacco Bello'', Leone told him:

''You should do something like Titina,

but sweeter, more like Chaplin.''

Morricone said: ''Listen, it's better
if you just give me the screenplay.

I'll read it and get a sense of it.''

Maestro, what do you want me to do for you?

And he answered: ''Love, love.''

We went back two days later.

Morricone played five or six notes.

Leone said to Morricone:

''See? I gave you a good tip.''

''But that's Titina,
what does Titina have to do with this?''

''No, but it's around there.''

I remember when Morricone came
and Leone said:

''I want that pan flute all over the movie.''

Morricone replied:
''We will use it where it's right, Sergio.

You can't put the pan flute on everything.''

''But the pan flute is...''

''Let me take care of putting
the pan flute to good use.''

Ennio and Sergio were partners in life.

Sergio went to him to tell him
about the movies he wanted to write.

The collaboration with Sergio began
when he described the movie to me.

He described it to me in great detail,
even explaining the framing.

I think that my father
depended on Ennio's music,

and wanted his movies to depend on music.

The music in my father's movies
was much more than a soundtrack.

It essentially was the dialogue of the movie.

Often Sergio made me
start writing some musical themes

before he started filming.

I remember Ennio playing the music
from ''Once Upon a Time in America''

many years before the movie was made.

During those years, Sergio had many doubts

and sometimes he asked:
''Let me hear the other theme.''

It was a theme made of silences and pauses...

things that I love.

It is a theme that I wrote, in America,

for the movie ''Endless Love'' by Zeffirelli.

For a certain scene, he told me:

''Here there is a song written
by another composer.''

So I refused to make that movie,
because it had a song by someone else.

-And I'm not okay with that.
-Dad often asked Ennio

to bring him even the discarded themes.
The unused ones.

I made him listen to Zeffirelli's theme
which became Deborah's theme.

He loved it.

And I must say, I still like it too.

Without that music...

I couldn't imagine it any other way.

If had to see the movie
without hearing that music...

Leone wanted Ennio's music
to echo during the filming.

And that even the speakers
would spread Ennio's music.

The actors shot their scenes
with the background music.

On set there was
Morricone's music. It was crazy.

Camera.

Ready, mark, 144, 18 take one.

Action.

Listening the music on shooting
affected everybody.

It affected the actors, the crew.

You feel like you've already,

I wouldn't say
watched the movie, but felt it.

Great actors such as De Niro,
who are very attentive to live recording

with the background music, said:
''I keep the music, it helps me''.

In the field of high-brow music,
Ennio Morricone

was a familiar name
but it didn't arouse any particular interest.

But that was my world.

The great academic musicians
of the previous generation

have struggled to recognise
Ennio Morricone's talent.

In this sense, the definitive revelation
was ''Once Upon a Time in America''.

This music cannot be written
by someone who isn't deeply a musician.

Here, his music
fascinated me on a higher level.

It's a music that doesn't
pass over things superficially.

But it gets inside, it creates them.

And when I realised that,
then I understood Morricone too.

Not before.

Boris Porena wrote to Ennio
a letter of apology.

But it wasn't an apology to Morricone.
It was an apology to a historical period

to himself, to...

for not being able to grasp it,

for being so blind, so deaf
in the face of the power of ideology.

He belonged to another world.
Essentially, he had snubbed him.

And it took some time
before many of them...

would bow... to his genius.

When I read this letter to Ennio,

he stood up

and he cried. Liberated, in a way.

I remember when I came out
of the movie, I said: ''Damn...

there is something here

that goes beyond what we normally think of
as music for movies.''

I was grieving over the massacre
of the Indians and the Jesuits.

But the movie was so beautiful,
without music.

I could only ruin it.

''You don't need music for this movie''.

''No, impossible!

''The Mission'' comes at a particular time
in Ennio's life

in which he decided to leave film music.

And this movie comes along by surprise

in his existential decision.

''This is Ennio''

''I thought...

I have a little idea''.

It's very strange, my behaviour
in writing ''The Mission''.

I almost didn't control it.

I wrote this music
without controlling myself.

For a piece of absolute music

Ennio could even write for a year.

And a score like ''The Mission''
two months.

Here, this is another example
of Ennio's secret rooms.

I mean, you're seeing
something pretty phenomenal.

I first wrote the oboe theme.

But since the movie takes place in 1750

I was also influenced
by the ornamentations of the time.

The double mordent, the double gruppetto

the acciaccatura, the appoggiatura.
All these elements

that enriched the melody.

Mordent...

Acciaccatura..

The mordents.

And it seemed right
to give the film a motet.

Following the rules
of the Second Vatican Council.

And then..

the ethnic theme of the Indians...
a primitive music.

So within the motet

I wrote another theme,

a rhythmic one.

The amazing thing

is that the oboe theme

was combined with the motet.

The theme of the motet
was combined with the ethnic part.

The ethnic part
could be combined with the oboe theme.

So all three themes
could be combined together.

All of this happened unintentionally.

Almost as if there was something

that suggested it to me,
the music... its logic.

Herbie Hancock.

Good jazz musician, good composer,
good pianist. I don't dispute that.

But the main character
played existing pieces.

So the music was half repertoire

and should not have been
in Original Music category.

In fact, when the Oscar was announced

the audience protested.

I left quickly.

He was the best.
Everybody knew he was the best.

However, he didn't get
the recognitions he deserved.

Because ultimately,
they didn't understand him.

You switch between movie music

and chamber music compositions.

I've been increasing this activity
for a while now.

I'd given it up for the movies
but now I'm doing it again.

Also because I don't want to die
only working for the cinema.

For years up to now

he also worked as a composer
of cultured music.

With compositions of great value,
of a high artistic and aesthetic level.

Petrassi was in the front row
at one of Ennio's concerts.

And seeing Ennio so respectful

of his master, it was clear
that he'd never really cut the umbilical cord.

When producer Franco Cristaldi called him
to offer him ''Cinema Paradiso'',

Ennio at first said no.

Franco called me back shortly after.
He said: ''Read the script.

And then you'll tell me''.

The house phone rang.

''I am Ennio Morricone, can we meet?''

Please.

I went there, very excited.

He asked me if I wanted
Sicilian music, folk music.

I didn't think about anything like that.

Then he looked at me

and he said: ''I'll do the movie''.

It was ''Cinema Paradiso''.

And I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.

It was a life lesson.

Because Ennio treated me as an equal,
and I was just a newcomer.

While he already done
350 of his 500 films.

And the more he sought
to get away from the cinema

the more the cinema pursued him.

For the ''Untouchables'',

I wrote all the themes in New York
and De Palma was always enthusiastic.

The last day when we had to say goodbye

he surprises me and says:
''I need a triumphal piece for the police''.

I say: ''All right, I'll write it in Rome
and then I'll send it to you''.

I sent him nine demos,
with a letter where I said:

''Please don't choose number six.

Because it's really
the one I like the least''.

Which did he choose? Number six.

Ennio's greatness stems from

not only the music
he writes for a certain scene,

but also his approach to the scene.

When he represents violence,
he doesn't match the image.

He's totally detached.

Hi ability lies
in showing you another point of view.

With the scene at the station,
I decided to put in waltz.

This waltz with the carillon,
gave me the chance

to slightly change
the very tense development of the scene.

De Palma did not agree.

But, as many directors do, he accepted it.

A few months later I got
a statement he made in a newspaper.

Saying that my choice was right,
and he had...

criticised it.

Giving me great satisfaction
and great professional honesty.

Ennio Morricone got
the nomination for the third time.

for this film by De Palma.

-Are you excited, Maestro.
-I don't get so excited about it anymore.

By the third time, I'm used to it.
In fact, I'm sure I won't get it.

Why do I like chess?

Because it teaches the struggle of life.

The sense of resistance.

The desire to improve.

Resistance to contrary things
like what comes from the opponent.

Who tries to win and I try to win.

In a non-bloody way.

He wanted me to do the same thing again.

The problem is that Ennio,
compared to us directors and editors,

has a more interesting capacity
for interpreting cinema than we do.

To find an idea right away

means that is it attached to the movie.

With the images there's a real marriage,
like love at first sight.

Sometimes this didn't happen.

And it was very hard for me.

During ''Sostiene Pereira'',
he was pretty upset about this movie.

Ennio says: ''I didn't know
where to turn to find an idea.

One day, right below Ennio's house

there was a demonstration
with people banging on drums.

There was a strike
and I heard the famous percussion...

I took this beat
and I used it for the whole movie.

Listen, boy, sit down.

The Ten Commandments don't say it.
But I say it.

The reasons of the heart...

are the most important.

He takes up the rhythmic formula of '68.

''Ce n'est qu'un Debut
Continuons le Combat'',

He transforms it into the framework
of the musical part.

And it becomes Pereira's determination.

Those rhythms

gave him the input to make music

which contained something... revolutionary.

I said: ''I'd like a song from that era,''
one I had found. That's when we argued.

But he was right.
He had created a wonderful song.

In my opinion,
a score must be meaningful itself

In order to provide a good service
to the film to which it is applied.

He can awaken in your soul

energies you didn't know you had
and that were asleep.

During the sessions with the orchestra

he came into the control room
and threw himself on the couch.

And he could sleep for 20 seconds,
like Napoleon.

''Do not disturb the Maestro,
he's sleeping''.

In 20 seconds, he was ready,
and he was back in there.

Conducting like a lion.

For ''The Legend of 900''

he began to compose the themes
while I wrote the script.

We went hand in hand
constantly consulting each other.

Even during the shooting.

It was like, for some mysterious reason,

Ennio identified
with the character of the young pianist

who would have never abandoned
the ship of his music.

On the wave of grief in New York,
Ennio Morricone composed...

The symphony that Ennio Morricone has dedicated to the tragedy of Sept 11, 2001.

It was a composition
born under the tragic impact

of the attack on the Twin Towers.

In memory of all the massacres
in human history.

A big orchestra

a choir, someone who says a few words

and these tapes of ethnic music.

Look how many disciplines are together.

Listening to that music, I felt

everything we saw in our homes

during what was happening in New York.

He knows how to express
the feelings he feels inside,

through the music staff, like nobody else.

I don't regret writing music for cinema.

If anything, I came gradually

to find convergences
between absolute music and film music.

One rubbed off on the other.

These convergences, even in concept,

are fundamental and important in my life.

At a certain point

the two souls... met.

I want to thank the Academy

for this honour you've given me.
Giving me this coveted award.

I dedicate this Oscar
to my wife Maria who loves me very much.

She's been there for me all these years.

And I love her the same way.

This award is for her, too.

At the Royal Albert Hall in London

as soon as he came on stage,
the whole audience stood up

and gave him a really long applause.
It gives you goosebumps.

It's an honour for Italy in the world.

Truly a giant, an extraordinary artist

The Maestro

Ennio Morricone.

There really isn't any place in the world,
from South America to Asia,

not to mention Europe,
where he is not welcomed...

in a huge way, like a pop star.

On the occasion of his 40-year
career Morricone will conduct the...

I remember one of his
film music concerts in Paris

with the audience going wild.

When I went to his dressing room,
I decided to say:

''Ennio, are you convinced that this

is the great music of the 20th century,

tout court?''

And he said: ''I'm thinking about it''.

At first I thought that music
applied to cinema was humiliating.

Then little by little, no.

In fact, today I think that film music

is full-fledged contemporary music.

It was a turning point in maturity.

He found an impressive artistic youth.

And he convinced me.

He brings his musical loves with him.

The beginning of the fugue
of Stravinsky's ''Symphony of Psalms''.

Tarantino was obviously
crazy about Leone's movies so

he probably expected
a different kind of music.

What could I have written
so as not to travel the same road?

I wrote a symphony, a true symphony.

Morricone was a good chess player,
and brought Tarantino to his own turf.

I felt like I was avenging myself
on the Western movie

to cut it short with the past.

Tarantino... is hyperbolic.

Ennio gave him the answer:

''To determine if one is Mozart or Beethoven
200 years must pass.''

When you open a page by Beethoven

maybe you can't play it.

But the writing is clear.
With Ennio, everything is clear.

Chopin, Tchaikovsky
they've endured for so long.

Why not Ennio Morricone's music scores?

I agree with Tarantino.

I think he achieved
an extraordinary position.

For his ability to look back,
and his ability to look forward.

To music as it was,
and to music as it will be.

Ennio taught us how to behave
with one's own legend.

Something extraordinary happened to him

to be recognized as a world Maestro,

at the height of his creativity.

And that made him a happy composer.

He deserves that and more.

Because he's hard-working,
he's a great musician.

Without acting like an artist.

We went to do some concerts.

He was shocked that, in Israel,

the passport man knew who he was.

He's not someone with big head,
but by now he's like some kind of icon.

It is so evident to the people.

To the people of the world.

And then they also use

little themes of mine
within their creations.

I believe that he has alwa s been ahead
with language.

In fact, he dictated the language.

And so he can only be seen
as a precursor.

He is the precursor of cross-disciplines.

Ennio's music also grabs the kids.

He is honest.

To recreate the colour he wanted

certain sounds were

reproduced, sampled

used in various albums
of pop rock artists.

They don't deny their personality,
in this mysterious liking

that they have for my work.

Without Ennio Morricone

most of us wouldn't be here.

Linguistically
we would be different, poorer.

His lesson is speechless, because
no one ever went to a class by Ennio.

If you listen to a lot of music,
you always find something Ennio-like.

Someone who used strings the way he does.

Piano the way he does. But it's not him.

He is the music.

The music that comes out no matter what.
Whatever he writes.

Maybe even independently
of his consciousness.

When I did the first film, it was 1961.

I said to my wife:
''In 1970 I will quit cinema''.

Then in 1970 I said: ''I'll quit in 1980''.

In 1980 I said: ''I'll quit in 1990''.

In 1990 I said: ''I'll quit in 2000''.

Now, I don't say anything.

Ennio managed to merge

prose and poetry.

It completely disrupted up the mould.

The normality that becomes exceptional.

Ennio almost always has an elevation.
Something that makes you think...

that makes you float.

Ennio's music transcends

and so it travels to other galaxies.

The God of music speaks
through him as if he were possessed.

His music is... eternal.

When you start to describe him,
you realize that

a lifetime would not be enough.

He will go down in history

and there will always be Ennio's music.

He's part of our family.

He's like a relative.

Music should be thought
before it is written.

It's a problem.

It's a problem that is always there
when you begin a composition.

And in front of the composer
sits a blank page.

What do we put down?

On that page.

What do we put on that page?

There's a thought there

that must be developed

and it has to go forward.

In search... of what?

We don't know.