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Ennio Morricone. Photo by tu Foto con el Presidente.

Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles.

He was born in the year 1928, he was a very talented man who could play the trumpet exquisitely.

He had a lot of opportunities which he took and they led him to be one of the most revered musicians in the whole world.

He went on a world tour of the world and was an amazing ghostwriter with more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classic works.

Morricone is widely considered one of the most prolific and greatest film composers of all time.

Here are 10 Fascinating facts about Ennio Morricone:

1. He was a great film composer

Morricone is known as a great film composer following his filmography which includes more than 70 award-winning films.

All Sergio Leone鈥檚 films since A Fistful Dollars, all Giuseppe Tornate鈥檚 films since Cinema Paradiso, The Battle of Algiers, Dario Argento鈥檚 Animal Trilogy,1900, Exorcist II, Days of Heaven.

Several major French cinemas, in particular the comedy trilogy La Cage aux Folles I, II, III, and Le Professionnel as well as The Thing, Once Upon a Time in America, The Mission, The Untouchables, Mission to Mars, Bugsy, Disclosure, In the Line of  Fire and among many others. 

2. His first instrument to master was the trumpet

Ennio Morricone. Photo by Anonymous.

Morricone鈥檚 father first taught him to read music and to play several instruments.

His father鈥檚 knowledge of the art came from him being a professional trumpeter who performed in light-music orchestras.

He entered the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to take trumpet lessons under the guidance of Umberto Semproni.

He formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at age 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program that he completed within six months.

He studied the trumpet, composition, and choral under the direction of Goffredo Petrassi, to whom Morricone would later dedicate concert pieces.

3. Ennio started composing songs at a young age

Ennio Morricone. Photo by nicolas genin. .

Morricone wrote his first composition when he was six years old and he was encouraged to develop his natural talents.

In 1941, when he was 13 years old, Morricone was chosen among the students at Saint Cecilia Conservatory to be part of the Orchestra of the Opera, directed by Carlo Zecchi on the occasion of a tour of the Veneto region.

He received his diploma in trumpet in 1946. In the same year, he also composed “Il Mattino” for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, the first in a group of seven “youth” Lieder.

4. Morricone went to the same school with his future collaborator

During his early schooldays, Morricone was also a classmate of his later collaborator Sergio Leone. 

Sergio Leone was an Italian was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter credited as the creator of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cinema.

He worked in collaboration with Morricone and they produced a film together on A Fistful of Dollars.  

5. He was a ghostwriter for films

Ennio Morricone. Photo by Georges Biard. .

After graduation in 1954, Morricone started to write and arrange music as a ghostwriter for films credited to already well-known composers.

He also arranged for many light music orchestras for the RAI television network, as a ghostwriter his work was to write material for someone else who is named the author.

In 1961, he made his real film debut in Luciano Salce鈥檚 鈥淚l Federale鈥� The Fascist. Morricone鈥檚 first films were light comedies or costume movies that required simple musical scores that were easily created

6. He joined a group that produced numerous albums

From 1964 up to their eventual disbandment in 1980, Morricone was part of [G.I.N.C], a group of composers who performed and recorded avant-garde free improvisations.

The Rome-based avant-garde ensemble was dedicated to the development of improvisation and new music methods.

The ensemble functioned as a laboratory working with anti-musical systems and sound techniques in an attempt to redefine the new music ensemble and explore 鈥淣ew Consonance鈥� known as 鈥淭he Group鈥� or 鈥淚I Gruppo鈥�.

They then released seven albums across the Deutsche Grammophon.

7. One of his films was inducted into the Grammy hall of fame

Ennio Morricone. Photo by Ferdinando Castaldo. .

The Grammy Hall of Fame is a hall of fame to honor musical recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance.

Inductees are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of the recording arts.

It is compiled by the Recording academy in the United States and was established in 1973.

Morricone鈥檚 score to the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in 1966 is regarded as one of the most recognizable and influential soundtracks in history, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

8. He performed at the Sportpaleis

The Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium is a multipurpose hall where concerts, sporting events, festivals, and fairs are organized.

On 15th October 1987, Morricone gave a concert in front of 12,000 people in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium, with the Dutch Metropole Orchestra and the Italian Operatic Soprano, Alide Maria Salvetta.

A live album with a recording of this concert was released in the same year.

9. He received numerous awards

Morricone was a great composer of music, in recognition of his work he was awarded the received the Per Artem and Deum Medal.

He also received his first Academy award nomination in 1979 for the score to Days of Heaven.

He received his second Oscar nomination for The Mission and The Untouchables. In February 2016, Morricone won his first competitive Academy Award for his score for The Hateful Eight.

Alex North and Morricone are the only composers to receive the Academy Honorary Award since its introduction in 1928. He went on and received many more awards for his magnificent contributions to the art of film music.

10. His death

Morricone has achieved many triumphs in his life. On 13 October 1956, Morricone married Maria Travia, whom he had met in 1950.

Morricone loved chess having learned the game when he was 11. Before his musical career took off, he played in club tournaments in Rome in the mid-1950s.

On 6th July 2020, Morricone died at the Universit脿 Campus Bio-Medico in Rome at the age of 91, as a result of injuries sustained to his femur during a fall.