Former friend once told me that melancholy songs always meant the most to her, even though she liked many different bands and a lot of different music. I have to agree. While my favorite albums of all time might be Fleetwood MacÕs Rumours, Depeche ModeÕs Black Celebration or whatever, my favorite songs are mostly ultra-moody classical pieces like ChopinÕs "Funeral March" or BeethovenÕs "Moonlight Sonata." And IÕm not trying to be some sensitive art’ste or something, IÕm still very aware that I am a callused asshole. And IÕm not trying to pretend like I know a lot about the classical music or scores I've come to love so much lately. You see, unlike those music editors over at the Daily, I am a real dictator. Just like the other dictators of the world don't make for the good living of the people, music editor dictators like me don't make for the good reading of the people. The time has come for me to rant about something else I know very little about: a few of my favorite modern day composers. For some reason I have been writing about all of these rock bands while my true musical favorites go unmentioned. If they would have found out, they might have been pretty peeved.
Back when I was a wee lad, I purchased the soundtrack to The Mission, composed by Ennio Morricone. I don't know exactly what persuaded me to buy it, maybe I just liked the movie. The Mission, starring Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons, is still one of my favorite movies of all time. Regardless, Ennio Morricone's score was probably the first album I ever purchased that deserves to be called beautiful. It's hard for me to listen to this album and write about the effect it has on me. I can't really describe The Mission with any other word besides beautiful. However, I can tell you how jazzed I am that the opening track, "On Earth As It Is In Heaven," is now used on some coffee commercial.
It is only in the last few years that I've come to realize how significant Ennio Morricone is. Born in Rome in 1928, his first significant work didn't happen until his pieces for Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More, in 1964. He further developed his prominence in the sixties with compositions for Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly , discarding the sweeping songs of classical Hollywood to dabble in minimal, haunting motifs with unique percussive effects and wordless vocal melodies. You metal-heads might recognize "The Ecstasy of Gold" from The Good..., Metallica played it on the house system before they performed on their last tour.
Ennio Morricone has gone on to be one of the most important living composers in every decade since. Composing scores for more than 300 movies, he by no means restricts himself to one group of directors or one style of music. In 1987, Morricone even co-wrote the ballad "It Couldn't Happen Here" for The Pet Shop Boys eponymous, multi-platinum record. In this same year, contemporary composer/ noise freak John Zorn drastically reworked a series of Morricone's themes on his critically acclaimed tribute album, The Big Gundown.
Perhaps that is why I am so much more in awe of Ennio Morricone than any rock and roll musicians like Kurt Cobain or Prince. Morricone has mastered the ability to create moods, no matter what those moods may be. From the whistles or harmonica of his early westerns to the barroom style of piano of The Untouchables' "Al Capone" to the Indian instrumentation of much of The Mission, Ennio Morricone is one of the few people who truly understands almost every instrument. Listen to the 59 seconds of violins and a child's voice on "Miserere," the last track of The Mission, and see how Morricone takes this ability and makes one of the most perfect and beautiful songs that has been written in the last decade.
It's no surprise that he has conducted music for such a variety of movies. This decade it has been Love Affair, Bugsy, Wolf and Disclosure to name a few. It's also no surprise that every other movie preview I see has Ennio Morricone's music in it, while the actual score is composed by some other schmuck. The most recent of these deceitful previews is for Restoration, every song in the preview is from The Mission. I don't plan to see the movie, so let me know if the score has all the sincerity of the most recent fling who tells you "we'll always be friends."
Back when I was in high school I bought the soundtrack to Glory, Edward Zwick's film on the Civil War. Once again, starring Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington, the movies greatness was matched with the music composed by James Horner. Blending the voices of the Boys Choir of Harlem with military drums, trumpets and other orchestral standards, James Horner captured the essence of military power with the triumphant "A Call to Arms" and the essence of some of the other aspects of war with the single flute of "Lonely Christmas."
Born in 1953 in Los Angeles, California, James Horner new exactly what he wanted to do with music. He completed his doctorate degree in Music Composition and Theory at UCLA, and began scoring student films for the American Film Institute in the late 70's. After scoring a number of small scale films, Horner received his first large, high profile project in 1982 with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Soon enough, he received many film offers and opportunities to work with world-class performers such as the London Symphony Orchestra.
With more than 75 scores to date (and only one classical concert piece, "Spectral Shimmers," premiered by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in the 1980's) Horner's forte seems to be the mood of tension and suspense. He has composed gripping scores for Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and Aliens but also more moving scores for Legends of the Fall, Field of Dreams and Cocoon. Perhaps his most commonly known piece is "Somewhere Out There" from An American Tail. Performed by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram, this song received two Grammys as Song of the Year and Best Song for a Motion Picture.
Although Horner may not rival the genius of Ennio Morricone, you have to credit him for his ability to sometimes perform all of the instruments in his pieces (Field of Dreams for example), and his desire to write scores for films of questionable nature (Commando, Another 48 HRS.). He even wrote some music for a few Tales from the Crypt Episodes, specifically, one called "Cutting Cards." A bit of a change from "Somewhere Out There," eh?
The composer that I have been getting into recently is John Barry. Born in 1933, Barry was the son of a prominent owner of theaters and movie houses in the North of England. In 1962, he came into prominence with James Bond's "Dr. No," only his third score for a movie. He went on to compose scores for 13 of the 16 Bond films, and further strengthened his career when he received Academy Awards for Best Song and Best Original Score with Born Free in 1966. Through the 70's and 80's Barry composed sores for a wide array of films, peaking in 1986 with the powerful score to Out of Africa, which received a Grammy and an Oscar for Best Original Score. As he begins to approach his 100th film score, John Barry seems to compose fewer and fewer scores, most likely by choice.
However, this makes him all the more consistent. Every John Barry score I have heard has been extremely commanding, mostly on a large, orchestral scale. In the most recent scores to Dances With Wolves, Chaplin, and The Scarlet Letter, Barry masters the art of dynamic. However, The Scarlet Letter, his most recent work, seems to indicate some new experimentations. He conducts a few Peter Buffett compositions (don't let the last name scare you) and bases his primarily choral "Agnus Dei" on Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings." It seems that Barry wants to give quality over quantity and I'm all for it.
Well there you have it, some of my favorites. Oh yeah, before I forget. There is some record out there called "Once Upon a Time in the Cinema" and it is a bunch of Ennio Morricone's greatest songs butchered by one of music's greatest criminals. I'd tell you this conductor's name but I took the CD to Encore so quick that I forgot to check. The basic formula for the album: Ennio Morricone + Kenny G= Feces Extrodinarius. Hey, I'm just looking out for you. I don't want to get you duped out of the real thing. I care.