Legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone has passed away at the age of 91.
His death has sparked a flurry of tributes all honoring the late musician's prolific output and prodigious talent.
For six decades, Morricone's music has shaped cinema. Often honored as the creator of spaghetti Western drama soundscapes, Morricone composed scores for Quentin Tarantino, Pier Pasolini, Terrence Malik, and many other luminaries.
The Academy Award-winning scorer composed for Édouard Molinaro's La Cage Aux Folles, Wolfgang Peterson's In the Line of Fire, Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, and hundreds more.
But he is perhaps best known for his work crafting soundscapes for Sergio Leone's Western films. Defined by his use of uncanny, collage-like sounds—often created by non-traditional objects—Leone's work not only created symphonic wonders: It created worlds.
"All kinds of sounds can be useful to convey emotion … it's music made up of the sound of reality," the late composer once said of his work.
Morricone was born in 1928 in Rome, Italy, where he lived his entire life. He began playing trumpet as a child, and during elementary school he met his future collaborator Sergio Leone. He attended Rome's Conservatory of Santa Cecilia starting at age 12, and he set about learning the ins and outs of classical music. Eventually he began working as a session musician and composer.
The first film he scored was Luciano Sales II's Federale in 1971, and from there he launched himself into creating soundscapes for Western films. "I attempted to reinvent American folk," he once said. "The caricatured nature of [Sergio Leone's] characters inspired me to introduce strange sounds into the score, so they would have the charisma he wanted."
Among his many achievements, Morricone was responsible for creating the "coyote-howl" sound effect, the ticking-clock-before-the-shootout trope, and more. He soon expanded beyond Westerns, lending his talents to all manners of films, from the avant-garde to the obscene to the Hollywood blockbuster. His music has been sampled and praised by everyone from Yo Yo Ma to Jay-Z to Metallica.
While it's impossible to even come close to summarizing all of the composer's magnificent achievements, here are some highlights of Morricone's career:
1. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
This soundtrack may be one of Morricone's most recognizable. The movie The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which starred Clint Eastwood, is defined by its main theme. The film also gave us the legendary, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, psychedelic and whimsical opus "The Ecstasy of Gold." Ever a master of final scenes, Morricone also gave us a fantastically chilling soundtrack for the film's final showdown.
2. Days of Heaven (1978)
Terrence Malik's second major film was graced by Morricone's haunting, atmospheric, visionary talents. The score won him an Academy Award and his first Oscar nomination, and the soundtrack is simply to die for—it sounds almost too perfect to be real.
3. Once Upon a Time in the West
Yet another famous Sergio Leone Western, Once Upon a Time in the West was graced by Morricone's magical soundscaping abilities. Impressionistic and deeply creative and incredibly theatrical, the entire score is a wonder.
4. Here's to You - Sacco e Vanzetti
5. The Mission Theme - Gabriel's Oboe
Roland Joffé's film The Mission was soundtracked by Morricone's wonderfully opulent score, which includes "Gabriel's Oboe," its expressive and romantic theme. Simple and haunting, it sounds like a cross between a funeral and a rebirth.