Composer Ennio Morricone will forever be associated with Clint Eastwood and the “Spaghetti Westerns” of Sergio Leone. His score for A Fistful of Dollars way back in 1964 transformed movie music - incorporating “natural” sounds like the cry of a coyote, the crack of a whip and a cowboy’s whistling into the orchestration, he opened up new vistas for film composers. His score for Leone’s western The Good the Bad and the Ugly is one of the most recognizable in the history of film and was recently inaugurated into the Grammy Hall of Fame. He also wrote the much loved score for The Mission, which earned him one of the 5 Academy Award nominations he has received over his long career. In 2007 he was finally awarded an honorary Academy Award for his contribution to film music. Now at the age of 80 he is touring the world conducting his best loved scores and on Saturday night, May 23, will bring the show to Beijing.

the Beijinger: Tell us about how you came to collaborate with Sergio Leone and together go on to make film history as the co-creators of the so-called “Spaghetti Western”?

Ennio Morricone: Sergio and I were together for year in primary school and then for many years we did not see each other… and then one day he came to my house as he’d heard some other works I’d done. He asked me to score the music for his film A Fistful Of Dollars. At first he did not recognize me, but I saw a face that reminded me of an old schoolmate of mine, and so I recognized him, and he then also remembered that we had been schoolmates in Rome

The cooperation with Sergio Leone generated better and better results as time went by. His films from A Fistful of Dollars to Once Upon A Time in the West became better and better, to finally get to what I define as a real masterpiece of cinema, Once Upon A Time in America. In the same way my music has followed this evolution of Leone’s by becoming better and better and I have continued to improve throughout all the years of my career working with other directors.
 

tbj: What was the allure of the Western for you as a creative artist?

EM: In truth I don’t think that Western as a genre really appealed to me, not more than others at least. It is possible that the era of the Western allowed Leone to tell epic stories and represent landscapes that influenced my musical creativity. It is also true that, as I often say, if this "Western" music I composed for Leone were to be applied to another film, it would work just fine.

tbj: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly score of course uses “natural” sounds like whistling, gunfire and the howl of the coyote. You pioneered the use of natural sounds in orchestration with your first score for the Fistful of Dollars – what was your inspiration for that?

EM: The use of natural sounds has been already used in the past by the “Futuristi” (the Italian avant-garde in the early 20th century) though not in music. All I've done is bring these principles to the world of cinema, adopting it sometimes to animals such as the coyote in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (which had never been done before)

tbj: Could you tell us a little bit about how your worked on another of your most beloved scores, that for The Mission?
 

Certainly the experience of The Mission was very important for me. I remember that when I first saw the film in order to decide whether to accept the job or not, I was so struck by the beauty of the images and by the actors’ performances as well as by the moving story that I said I was not going to write music for the film, as I thought the movie was already perfect and didn’t need music. But one of the film producers insisted and so I decided to do it. This job was a very important technical and ethical task for me, and I committed to it totally.

tbj: What was it like to receive the Academy Award finally in 2007?
EM:  I was really glad to receive the Oscar! I was pleased to receive it from Clint Eastwood and listening to the great performance of my piece (Once Upon a Time In America performed by Celine Dion) really moved me.

tbj: Early in your career you were interested in John Cage and other composers of the avant-garde. How, if at all, do you see their influence in your work over the years?

EM: It influenced me a lot … Then, after some time, I realized that it is one thing to experiment with all possible new musical possibilities and paths and another to see whether the results of these experiments are fit to be proposed to his audience for judgment. In that sense the experience of working on film music was very helpful to me. But it is true that the avant-garde's revolt against musical tradition’s  stereotyped solutions and rules helped me to deal with composition with a more free minded approach.
 

tbj: A couple of recent notable moments were your North American debut at the Radio City Music Hall in 2007 and playing for the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Can you reflect on these experience for us?

EM: When I was invited to do a concert at the UN to welcome the new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, that really was a great surprise and honor. That concert remains an unforgettable experience for me, because the venue is not for concerts, it’s a place where all the representatives of the countries meet to find solutions to the great problems of mankind, also letting smaller countries and weaker people speak their minds. These considerations led me to perform my composition Voices from the Silence at the UN. This is a piece I had at first composed in memory of the casualties of 9/11. But then I decided to extend the dedication to all the people who have been slaughtered in the history of mankind, especially those people whose voice is often unheard.

The day after we had a concert at the Radio City Music Hall in NY, one of the greatest temples of music in America, where I only performed film music. I remember the great enthusiasm of the media and the audience.

tbj: Finally, could you tell us what audiences in China can expect from your eagerly awaited concerts here?
EM: Here are  some  of the  numbers I’m going to perform in China:
The  Untouchables, Once  Upon  a Time in America, The  Legend of  ‘1900, The  Sicilian Clan, The Good, the  Bad and the Ugly,  Once Upon a Time in the West, Investigation on a Citizen above Suspicion and The Mission.      

Ennio Morricone Conducts comes to the Great Hall of the People concert hall (6309 6156) this Saturday, 23 May at 8pm. Tickets from RMB 200-1600. For tickets, contact Ticketmaster at 400 707 9999 or visit www.ticketmaster.cn.