We recall the life and main works of the Italian film composer It seemed that Ennio Morricone would always be. The Italian musician, an outstanding composer, a great master of music for cinema, only in 2016 to the deafening applause took the stage of the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles for his “Oscar”. Then the 87-year-old, but still quite cheerful patriarch on the sixth attempt received a statuette from the hands of Quincy Jones and Farrell Williams. The award went to his music for Quentin Tarantino’s film The Disgusting Eight. Then no one could have thought that this statuette would become the crown of the composer’s career – after the Tarantino western, he would decorate the Italian melodrama “Two in the Universe” with Olga Kurylenko with his work and retire. And now the maestro is gone.
Fate connected Morricone to music literally from birth. His father Mario was a professional jazz trumpeter. The firstborn of the family (the Morricone couple had five children in total) grew up surrounded by melodies and composed his first of his own as a six-year-old boy. At the age of 12, Ennio entered the prestigious Conservatory of Holy Cecilia in Rome, where he was trained by one of the most iconic Italian composers of the 20th century, Gottfredo Petrasi.
And at the age of 18 the young talent began to compose academic music in its various forms. Even the passion for football and attempts to play for the club “Roma” could not knock the young man out of his way. Morricone gained his first professional musical experience as a performer, performing with a jazz ensemble in clubs and hotels. Following his father, he chose the trumpet as his instrument. Pretty soon the young musician found himself in the theater, where a year after employment he began to create a sound design for performances. Later there was radio and television and working on melody arrangements was an invaluable experience. And only at the age of 33 did Ennio Morricone find himself in a film-making team for the first time.