In an ironic twist, the evening news here covered Morricone's death with a whopping two minute feature where in an interview segment they selected he complained that people would always associate "Western" music with his name when it was only 8% of his work. And what do they play in the background? The Good, the Bad, the Ugly. Once Upon a Time in the West.
Next tune, the wife says "Ooo! Beautiful! This isn't Western music!"

Nope, "Jill's Theme".



I don't know if the Journos missed the irony of their piece, or if it was deliberate.

I certainly do not mind a bit of metal now and then. It's been a while since I saw them live, but I seem to remember they used the Morricone piece itself, not this (IMHO: anemic) version

This is perfect!





and the ending is always so moving because of Morricone's sweeping music

The same thing happens to virtually any composer who has scored Hollywood films. Those big budget Hollywood films that are often known world-over are the scores that are instantly recognized and associated with a composer while the stuff they did for lesser known films is forgotten except by dedicated film buffs and hardcore fans.


I'll give you a prime example with John Williams. Everyone knows his music for the original Star Wars trilogy, the Indiana Jones trilogy and ET right? How many would you say recognize the score he wrote for movies like Amistad, JFK or the Color Purple?

Eastwood had offered Morricone to write the musical score for Pale Rider. Morricone kindly rejected the offer at the time out of loyalty for Sergio Leone.
Years later, Morricone indicated this was one of his biggest regrets.

Sergio Leone would often wait for Morricone’s score to be completed in order to shoot the actual scenes.
And, to top it off, Ennio Morricone and Sergio Leone were primary school school mates.

Fascinating how two great minds, vibrating to the same... vibes, met so early and worked together so well.

Cheers,
Slug

There have been a few excellent examples of this in the field of film-making.


Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune
Steven Spielberg and John Williams
Martin Scorcese and Robert DeNiro

It's not that Morricone made great music for great films. I think his music made films greater, and above all it's more than ornamental window dressing for the action. All of his music stands on its own. You can listen to it without watching a film.Not every soundtrack accomplishes that.


...John Williams' "Alien" score is an example that comes to mind, being almost as scary to listen to in a pitch black room as watching the film. I gave up after the A side of the LP. Didn't have a video recorder at the time, so the musical score turned out to be a more than adequate substitute.

I think you meant Jerry Goldsmith.

I think most people in western society can immediately identify an Ennio Morricone song when they hear it, and the fact that he never got a recognition from the Academy Awards for his work, really says enough about the relevance of the Oscar

The Oscar is even less relevant now since it has become a highly politicized award.

He did mean Jerry Goldsmith

I had the good fortune to see Morricone conduct a live orchestra a few years ago in Prague. Was a great evening. The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra was the orchestra playing, and they did the actual film soundtrack for the Hateful Eight. They played that main theme of course, the actual orchestra who recorded the actual soundtrack, conducted by the actual composer. Shivers.

He also conducted a great many other favourites that night, but unfortunately nothing from Once Upon A Time In America, which was a shame because I really rate that soundtrack.

Yes it's always the og piece they use. They did their metal version mid 2000's although they did do a longer Symphony version for the SnM concert in the '90's. I can listen to all three versions quite easily, i love metal renditions of symphony or classical pieces