LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT mucho high
RATING
It's back again. It can be found here.
Showing posts with label Ennio Morricone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ennio Morricone. Show all posts
Friday, August 25, 2006
Ennio Morricone - Farewell To Cheyenne
ORIGINATION Once Upon A Time In The West
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT mucho high
RATING
It's back again. It can be found here.
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT mucho high
RATING
It's back again. It can be found here.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Ennio Morricone - Farewell To Cheyenne
ORIGINATION Once Upon A Time In The West
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT high
RATING
Thanks and respect must be paid to the Ennio Morricone Experience, who are performing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe as the Spaghetti Western Orchestra. Their great performance has filled my head with Morricone for over a week now. If you get a chance you really ought to go see them.
Farewell To Cheyenne (a part of their show that can be see here) is quite a slow tune, whose rhythm is the simple clip-clop of a tired old horse combined with the homely sound of a strummed ukelele.
The main theme is played by a variety of instruments and runs through the whole piece. A piano and some kind of string instrument (the Ennios used a box, stick and string affair) come first, separated into either channel. There's a real jangly, old western saloon sound to the piano, whilst the string sounds twangy and oddly flat. It makes for a light-hearted tune that may not be what you'd expect if you're only familiar with the Dollars 'trilogy' music. However, a change of key and a whistler taking over from the string soon reminds you that it's still Morricone.
Of all his western music, this is probably the closest he ever came to sounding like western music. Or, at least, the music associated with western films before he redefined the whole genre. It's simplicity and air serve to show the range and skill of this prolific composer.
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT high
RATING
Thanks and respect must be paid to the Ennio Morricone Experience, who are performing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe as the Spaghetti Western Orchestra. Their great performance has filled my head with Morricone for over a week now. If you get a chance you really ought to go see them.
Farewell To Cheyenne (a part of their show that can be see here) is quite a slow tune, whose rhythm is the simple clip-clop of a tired old horse combined with the homely sound of a strummed ukelele.
The main theme is played by a variety of instruments and runs through the whole piece. A piano and some kind of string instrument (the Ennios used a box, stick and string affair) come first, separated into either channel. There's a real jangly, old western saloon sound to the piano, whilst the string sounds twangy and oddly flat. It makes for a light-hearted tune that may not be what you'd expect if you're only familiar with the Dollars 'trilogy' music. However, a change of key and a whistler taking over from the string soon reminds you that it's still Morricone.
Of all his western music, this is probably the closest he ever came to sounding like western music. Or, at least, the music associated with western films before he redefined the whole genre. It's simplicity and air serve to show the range and skill of this prolific composer.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Ennio Morricone - Titoli
ORIGINATION A Fistful Of Dollars
LAST LISTENED TO not very sure
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT too low, too low
RATING
Ennio Morricone is simply a genius. He is one of the most distinctive composers in film, so much so that his cultural impact is beyond reckoning. This is particularly true for the music he composed for just a fistful of Western films. The success of that music has caused it to be forever linked in the western consciousness to the Western film genre, in fact to be the very defining music of that genre.
This tune was the main title music to the first Western he scored. As such it would have been the first piece of such music that reached a mass audience. With hindsight, it clearly points the way for the music that was to follow. From the opening Spanish guitar picking, to the whistling, brass, semi-incoherent male grunting and all the other usual and not at all usual film instrumentation, it carries in it both space and high drama, the perfect combination for a Western.
Although this tune has become less well known than Morricone's Main Title for The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, it will always be for me the superior piece.
LAST LISTENED TO not very sure
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT too low, too low
RATING
Ennio Morricone is simply a genius. He is one of the most distinctive composers in film, so much so that his cultural impact is beyond reckoning. This is particularly true for the music he composed for just a fistful of Western films. The success of that music has caused it to be forever linked in the western consciousness to the Western film genre, in fact to be the very defining music of that genre.
This tune was the main title music to the first Western he scored. As such it would have been the first piece of such music that reached a mass audience. With hindsight, it clearly points the way for the music that was to follow. From the opening Spanish guitar picking, to the whistling, brass, semi-incoherent male grunting and all the other usual and not at all usual film instrumentation, it carries in it both space and high drama, the perfect combination for a Western.
Although this tune has become less well known than Morricone's Main Title for The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, it will always be for me the superior piece.
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