Morricone Rides Again!

Started by snyprrr, March 13, 2013, 05:47:37 PM

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snyprrr

I've been stuck in the Westerns lately, but Morricone's imagination runs the gamut. All the cheesie movies I want to see apparantly have yet another Morricone soundtrack. How prolific is this guy?

http://www.enniomorricone.it/

Mirror Image

Since when does a film composer classify as a classical composer?

snyprrr

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 13, 2013, 05:57:31 PM
Since when does a film composer classify as a classical composer?

:o ??? :o ???
??? :o ??? :o


mc ukrneal

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 13, 2013, 05:57:31 PM
Since when does a film composer classify as a classical composer?
Ah, but one could also ask, "Since when isn't a film composer classified as a classical composer?"
Be kind to your fellow posters!!

NJ Joe

Quote from: snyprrr on March 13, 2013, 05:47:37 PM
I've been stuck in the Westerns lately, but Morricone's imagination runs the gamut. All the cheesie movies I want to see apparantly have yet another Morricone soundtrack. How prolific is this guy?

http://www.enniomorricone.it/

"Music can inspire love, religious ecstasy, cathartic release, social bonding, and a glimpse of another dimension. A sense that there is another time, another space and another, better universe."
-David Byrne

Karl Henning

Nice score to the Zeffirelli Hamlet, too.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Mirror Image

Quote from: mc ukrneal on March 13, 2013, 06:19:19 PM
Ah, but one could also ask, "Since when isn't a film composer classified as a classical composer?"

I personally never put the two types of composers together. I always thought they belong in different fields. By the way, I love a lot of film music and I'm not saying anything negative about this genre, I just don't find that the two "professions" if you will go hand-in-hand.

Daverz

Quote from: snyprrr on March 13, 2013, 05:47:37 PM
I've been stuck in the Westerns lately, but Morricone's imagination runs the gamut. All the cheesie movies I want to see apparantly have yet another Morricone soundtrack. How prolific is this guy?

http://www.enniomorricone.it/

I love his scores for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (which has become iconic),
Once Upon a Time in the West, and The Mission.  But that's about all I know out of dozens and dozens of his scores.

Composers who wrote for films:

Prokofiev
Shostakovich
Honegger
Milhaud
Alwyn
Arnold
Walton
Bliss
Korngold
Copland
Leonard Bernstein
Virgil Thomson
Morton Gould
Rota
Rosza
Vaughan Williams
Bernard Herrmann





snyprrr

Quote from: NJ Joe on March 13, 2013, 06:35:16 PM


BINGO!

He also has a lot of very experimental stuff from the '70s. I keep thinking Holocaust 2000/The Chosen (an Omen knockoff) with Kirk Douglas and Simon Ward.

Still, I'm all about the Opening Theme to that certain Western! a-ee-a-ee-ahhhh!!!

Daverz

Wikipedia says he's scored more than 500 films.  Inevitably, I can point to one score that I loathed, The Legend of 1900, which has an annoying and repetitive theme.  The screenplay is horrible drivel as well.

The new erato

Quote from: Daverz on March 13, 2013, 11:22:14 PM
I love his scores for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (which has become iconic),
Once Upon a Time in the West, and The Mission.  But that's about all I know out of dozens and dozens of his scores.

Composers who wrote for films:

Prokofiev
Shostakovich
Honegger
Milhaud
Alwyn
Arnold
Walton
Bliss
Korngold
Copland
Leonard Bernstein
Virgil Thomson
Morton Gould
Rota
Rosza
Vaughan Williams
Bernard Herrmann
and I bet (eg) Beethoven and Mendelssohn would have written for films if movies had been invented!

Rinaldo

Morricone reminds me of all those baroque composers who kept dishing out wonderful stuff that accompanied (mostly) subpar theatre productions.

I'm not much of an expert on his catalogue but even in the most obscure depths, you can find gems as strong as his well-known masterpieces.

NJ Joe

Quote from: Daverz on March 13, 2013, 11:22:14 PM
I love his scores for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (which has become iconic),
Once Upon a Time in the West, and The Mission

My God, I never realized he did The Mission.  I love that score.
"Music can inspire love, religious ecstasy, cathartic release, social bonding, and a glimpse of another dimension. A sense that there is another time, another space and another, better universe."
-David Byrne

NJ Joe

Quote from: snyprrr on March 15, 2013, 06:39:15 AM
BINGO!

He also has a lot of very experimental stuff from the '70s. I keep thinking Holocaust 2000/The Chosen (an Omen knockoff) with Kirk Douglas and Simon Ward.

Still, I'm all about the Opening Theme to that certain Western! a-ee-a-ee-ahhhh!!!

The Thing score suits the movie so well.  It's creepy and understated, like you hardly know it's there, but very effective.
"Music can inspire love, religious ecstasy, cathartic release, social bonding, and a glimpse of another dimension. A sense that there is another time, another space and another, better universe."
-David Byrne

Daverz

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 15, 2013, 07:16:57 PM
::) You didn't "call me" on anything.

Didn't say I did.  That was mc ukrneal.  Your response was

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 13, 2013, 06:39:10 PM
I personally never put the two types of composers together. I always thought they belong in different fields. By the way, I love a lot of film music and I'm not saying anything negative about this genre, I just don't find that the two "professions" if you will go hand-in-hand.

In other words, you don't know anything about the subject, but your fascinating personal thoughts on the subject are what matter, not actually learning anything from anyone else.

Quote
I offered an opinion you simply disagreed with.

You offered an uninformed opinion about something that is pretty easily investigated.

The close relationship between classical music and film music is not a matter of opinion anyway, it's an easily verifiable with a modest amount of investigation.  Many concert music composers wrote film music, sometimes tons of it.  And many film composers wrote concert music, sometimes tons of it.  The connection is not just vocational.  Film music ends up in concerts and concert music ends up in films.  Concert music is inspired by films and films are inspired by concert music.

Quote
I don't put film music and classical music into the same categories because they're not the same thing. If you think film music is on the same plateau as Mahler's 9th, for example, then that's your opinion. I simply offered a different view on the subject. I was merely fighting fire with your fire, which, for future reference, I won't allow myself to be brought down to your level again. I should've known better.

Moving the goalpost.  The original post was not about quality.

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 13, 2013, 05:57:31 PM
Since when does a film composer classify as a classical composer?

And was answered well enough by mc ukrneal.

I reject this self-congratulatory view of art, anyway.

Mirror Image

Daverz, I reject that the two genres are categorized together by you. If you think Hans Zimmer's film score to The Last Samurai is apart of same echelon as Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps or Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique then that's simply your prerogative. You're absolutely right though, it's not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of fact. Let's see if Howard Shore's film score to The Hobbit is remembered in classical history books. I would wager Howard Shore isn't even in a classical music history book. I think you're simply defending something that doesn't need to be defended because nobody who is objective would put a film score above Beethoven's late SQs. If you think Hans Zimmer, or Morricone in this case since this thread is about him, is an equal to Brahms then by all means continue to think that and I'll continue to think that you're the one who is completely ignorant.

Daverz

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 15, 2013, 08:58:34 PM
Daverz, I reject that the two genres are categorized together by you. If you think Hans Zimmer's film score to The Last Samurai is apart of same echelon as Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps or Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique

Is the argument about categories or about quality.  Make up your mind.  If quality determines category, then crap like Wellington's Victory is not classical music.

Entertaining the idea for a moment: I don't know the Zimmer score (avoided this particular Tom Cruise vehicle).  I suppose an argument can be made that it is inferior in quality.  But what you've written is simply an appeal to snobbery.

Quotenobody who is objective would put a film score above Beethoven's late SQs. If you think Hans Zimmer, or Morricone in this case since this thread is about him, is an equal to Brahms then by all means continue to think that and I'll continue to think that you're the one who is completely ignorant.

If you have an aesthetic case to make, make it.  This is not an argument, it's simply genuflection.  "Ahhh, Bach."

QuoteHawkeye: Now, look. You might get into a discussion about music with her.
Radar: Music?
Hawkeye: Yeah, she's got some pretty highbrow tastes.
Trapper: Mozart? Bach? All the biggies?
Hawkeye: Bach is easy. If she brings him up, you just smile and you say: "Ahh, Bach."
Radar: Ahh, Bach.
Hawkeye: Smile a little bit.
Radar: (smiling and waving more energetically) Ahh, Bach!
Hawkeye: That's nice. Very good. That's not bad. Now, if she throws guys at you like Shostakovich or Tchai...
Radar: Who?
Hawkeye: Shostakovich or Tchaikovsky, just try to look bored.
(Radar makes a face)
Trapper: That's your bored look?
Radar: Yeah.
Trapper: Go back to lookin' sick.
Radar: What do I do if she asks me what I like in music?
Hawkeye: Well, say, uh... "Well, I'm partial to the fugue."
Radar: Well, I'm partial to the fugue. (he smiles, but then thinks of something) Can I say that to a girl I hardly know?

Mirror Image

#18
It's about categories. Where are soundtracks located in record stores? They're not located in the classical section are they? I went into Barnes & Noble the other day and classical was nowhere near soundtracks, so, somewhere down the line, somebody said "Wait a minute, these are different kinds of music." There are many fine film scores but my argument is classical music is a completely separate category altogether from a soundtrack. Sure a film score can be reduced to a concert suite, but this doesn't necessarily make a classical work all of sudden just because it's played by an orchestra does it? If a jazz vocalist is backed by a string orchestra, does this mean they're playing classical just because there's an orchestra present? Absolutely not. I have never heard of film music ever being a genre within classical music.

snyprrr

Hey, thanks guys for beefin' up the Thread!!