Awesome Music / Ennio Morricone

• For a Few Dollars More
  • Il Vizio di Uccidere. Clearly a precursor to Ecstasy of Gold!
  • La Resa Dei Conti in the epic final duel. Awesome tension-building music and the payoff to a major plot thread in musical form? Doesn't get much better than that.

• The main theme from Navajo Joe, as well as the utterly menacing Silhouette of Doom, the latter of which would later see use in Kill Bill Volume 2.
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Concert) BBC Proms Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
  • Several scores used to portray the brutality of The American Civil War in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Story of a Soldier, a heartwrenching ballad as sung by POWs, The Carriage of Spirits, and The Strong.
  • "The Trio" is also known as "Il Triello": the soundtrack version is fine, but when you see what the film version plays over...
  • Ecstasy of Gold, easily one of the single most famous pieces of film music, and for good reason. It was covered by Metallica (with the original often opening their concerts) and has this fantastic remix.
  • This version conducted by Morricone himself is spine-chilling enough, but this one has James Hetfield.
• The Once Upon a Time in the West theme is certainly good enough for Hans Zimmer, who pilfered it for "Parley" in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
  • Which he then pilfered from himself for Rango in the track "Rango Returns".
  • And Muse, who pilfered it as a live opening to one of their songs - just guess which one. Not as a backing track, either, it's played on an actual harmonica by their bass player.
• The main theme of A Fistful of Dynamite. The score has received more recognition than the actual movie.
• He composed most of the music of the sci-fi/horror film The Thing (1982), including the iconic and incredibly foreboding main theme, which he created in collaboration with the film's director, John Carpenter. It may be shocking to learn that it actually got nominated for a Razzie, though like the rest of the film, it was originally hated by critics (who accused Morricone of being lazy and just copying John Carpenter's score for Halloween (1978)), and has been Vindicated by History.
• Sergio Leone himself considered Once Upon a Time in America to have the best score of any of his films. A sample. Particularly awesome: Morricone's instrumentals of The Beatles' "Yesterday", which ultimately increases the poignancy of Noodles's reunion with Max. Also of note is "Poverty", which helps give the film its old-timey American wistfulness whenever it makes an appearance.

• From The Mission: Ave María Guarani and Gabriel's Oboe. The music was listed at #23 on AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores.

• The film The Legend of 1900 is an entire movie about a pianist who lives on a cruise liner. And yet, for all the film's music, the piece that stands out is, although haunting and powerful, the most simple.
• "Chi Mai", used as a leitmotif in Le Professionnel, is probably Morricone's most powerful Tear Jerker.
• Cinema Paradiso is Ennio Morricone's most heartwarming score. The famous "Love Theme" however is misattributed to him when in fact it was composed by his son, Andrea.

• The Golden Globe and Oscar-winning soundtrack of The Hateful Eight notably features the first Western score by Ennio Morricone in decades—especially unique as Quentin Tarantino is usually not one to "trust" composers to score original music for his films.

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