Another Hollywood legend has passed away.
For over 50 years, Italian composer Ennio Morricone has provided ingenious, captivating scores that defined the very films they were featured in. He wrote music for unnerving horror movies like The Exorcist Part II and The Thing, gangster dramas like Bugsy and The Untouchables, and most popularly spaghetti westerns like For A Few Dollars More and Once Upon A Time In America. His iconic theme for The Good, The Bad and the Ugly inspired the tension and the unease that several other western films would emulate for years afterwards.
But of all of the soundtracks he’s produced, the music behind Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight proved to be the most eerie, unsettling, and haunting. It brought together all of the dramatic and thematic elements of all of his previous musical scores and also successful underscored the buildup he featured in his other westerns. He won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and an Academy Award from his work on the film, and no one was going to argue against it.
On Monday morning, the award-winning composer died from complications from falling and sustaining an injury. At 91 years old, Ennio lived a full life filled with wonderful music and imagination, inspiring other artists such as Gnarls Barkley, Metallica, David Guetta, Radiohead, and even Hans Zimmer. His legacy will live on forever, but we will miss him and his music dearly.
Requiescat in pace, maestro Morricone. Che la tua musica ti guidi nei cieli.
– David Dunn
SOURCE: The New York Times, NPR
DAVID DUNN 