Sunday, July 8, 2018

Ennio Morricone - Theme from A Fistful of Dollars

Longtime reader (and buddy in real life) Libertyman sends this suggestion for Sunday morning classical music.  It's a very interesting orchestral interpretation of the theme from the great spaghetti western.  The Danish National Symphony Orchestra offers a superb performance.



And as an encore, here they are doing The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.



Ennio Morricone has written much more for the silver screen, being nominated for six Academy Awards.  He's sold 70 million records (!) world wide, but I think it's safe to say that these are his two most widely recognized works.  He was a child prodigy, entering the Conservatory at age 12 for a 4 year program.  He completed it in 6 months.  He was creative in his scoring, too.  The budget for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly was very tight, and Morricone didn't have the budget to hire an orchestra.  His solution was to score it for gunshots, cracking whips, whistling, and Fender guitar.

3 comments:

  1. If you haven't already seen it, try "Once Upon a Time in the West" by Sergio Leone, scored by Morricone. Each of the major characters has a thematic music element backed by orchestra.
    Claudia Cardinale = harpsichord
    Charles Bronson = harmonica
    Jason Robards = banjo
    Henry Fonda = electric guitar

    It really is quite amazing.

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  2. VERY cool, BP! Now I gotta get my ol’ six guns out...
    Hey Libertyman, give me a call if you see this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Music from "Once Upon A Time in the West" played on the theremin.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY7sXKGZl2w

    "You brought two too many."

    ReplyDelete

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