Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer, especially noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores of more than 500 films and TV series, and only 30 of them are Western films. However it is for his Western fi

Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer, especially noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores of more than 500 films and TV series, and only 30 of them are Western films. However it is for his Western film scores that he is best known, and his sparse style of composition for the genre is particularly exemplified by the soundtrack for the classic film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966). Becoming as well-known in recent years is his haunting score for The Mission (Roland Joffé, 1986).

Morricone was born in Rome and was educated at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in the trumpet and composition under Goffredo Petrassi, and choral music and choral direction. In the beginning he regarded himself to be destined to compose modern classical music, but this changed when he was invited to write arrangements for popular Italian songs, at which he was completely unfamiliar at that time. A particular success was the song Se telefonando sung by Mina.