In 2019 I flew from London to Cork and sat next to Lord David Putnam the brilliant film producer. Alas the flight was short and I departed from him at baggage collection with unfinished business. There was insufficient time to talk with him as I fixated on his movie Chariots of Fire filmed partly on my favourite beach at St Andrews. Lord Putnam bid me farewell and told me to ‘ keep running ‘ . I kick myself for not talking about my favourite composer Ennio Morricone who for me sadly died today aged 91 years of age.
Ennio composed the music to over 500 films and was described as the greatest film composer that has ever lived. He scored the music to my favourite film Cinema Paradiso, a nostalgic Italian movie which wrenches your heart in content and the music floods your eyes in tears. It is by any assessment a masterpiece. However it was the theme music to Putnam’s film Mission of the Jesuit Priest in South America 1750 and ‘ Gabriel‘s Theme that was undoubtedly his best. At the 1985 Oscar ceremony a near riot broke out when Ennio was not awarded the Oscar for the song and it was later described as a ‘ grotesque injustice ‘
Ennio died today 6th July in Rome the City of his birth in 1928 and he lived there in the Eternal City. Putnam recounted visiting him there with a fistful of dollars to write the theme to the Mission and not only did it help make the movie but it became the signature tune of Morricone. Clint Eastwood too has much to thank him for as his compositions in the Spaghetti Westerns made them both legends in life’s good bad and ugly.
My only regret today is that I never made it to see him live and often for a variety of reasons failed to get there. Though Ennio has gone on ahead his music, his genius stays and I can still linger with him there. The Maestro started writing music at 6 years old and he never stopped writing. Ennio said that the music to ‘ Once Upon a Time in America ‘ was his best and he sold over 70 million records. He was awarded eventually two Oscars though his great achievement was his marriage to Maria who was the love of his life.
Thank you Ennio for leaving us with your music and perhaps we will meet one day so I can hear your latest renditions. Meantime I hope to meet Lord Putnam on a flight to Cork yet to speak of Morricone it would need to be trans Atlantic flight to New York.
qbitblogger 