Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone has been married to Maria Travia since 13 October 1956. Their eldest son, Marco was born in 1957, followed by their daughter Alessandra (1961), middle son Andrea (1964) and the youngest Giovanni (1966). Despite working significantly in the US, he has never been inclined to move out of Italy.

His music has influenced several generations of artists, including Radiohead, Hans Zimmer, ‘Red Hot Chilli Peppers’, Danger Mouse, and Will.i.am.

Ennio Morricone was born on November 10, 1928, in Rome, Italy to parents Libera Ridolfi, an entrepreneur, and Mario Morricone, a trumpet player. Growing up in Trastevere, the 13th rione of Rome, alongside his four siblings, brothers Aldo and Franco, and sisters Adriana and Maria, his first exposure to music happened through his father. He wrote his first composition at six, thus proving himself to be a child prodigy.

He attended ‘John the Baptist Elementary School’ in Rome. He enrolled at the ‘Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia’ at 12 and completed a four-year course in six months. He learned trumpet under Umberto Semproni. He also studied composition under the famous composer Goffredo Petrassi. When he concluded his studies at the Conservatory in 1954, he had diplomas in trumpet, composition, and band instrumentation.

Ennio Morricone’s professional career took off with ‘Il Mattino’ (The Morning), composed in 1946. In the ensuing years, he would exhibit the diversity of his genius not only by producing music for theatre and classical music for voice and piano, but also by writing arrangements for some American-style medleys for a series of radio shows.

His move from radio shows to films was swift. In 1950, he began his career as an arranger. He briefly worked for the Italian broadcasting service RAI in the mid-1950s before taking up a position as top studio arranger at RCA Victor, where he had the chance to collaborate with the likes of Renato Rascel, Rita Pavone, and Mario Lanza.

Later he started to compose music as a ghost writer for several film projects. He was an uncredited co-composer of Mario Nascimbene's score to the drama ‘Morte Di Un Amico’ (Death of a Friend), released in 1959.

In 1961, he made his film debut by writing and composing music for the Luciano Salce Italian war drama, ‘Il Federale’ (The Fascist). Thus began a fruitful partnership for both of them that would last years. The other Salce films for which Morricone composed music include, ‘Crazy Desire’ (1962), ‘Slalom’ (1966), and ‘El Greco’ (1966).

He co-founded the ‘Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza’ (G.I.N.C.) in 1964. As part of G.I.N.C., he experimented with anti-musical systems and noise techniques to explore or create new definitions of music ensemble or “New Consonance”.

In a career spanning seven decades, Ennio Morricone has composed some of the most memorable scores in the history of cinema. The score from Leone’s ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ (1966) has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. He had also composed music for the other two films in the so-called ‘Dollar Trilogy’: ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ (1964) and ‘For a Few Dollars More’ (1965)

The score of another Leone collaboration, ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ (1972) has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. The last film in Leone’s career, ‘Once Upon a Time in America’, also featured Morricone’s compositions. The soundtrack was released in 1984 through ‘Mercury Records’.