The Good, the Bad and the Maestro
Ask me who my favorite composer is and I’ll name three. Mozart is a fave ever since I saw Amadeus. Steve Reich is to me the most consistently exciting of all the minimalist composers. But, if I had to choose just one composer it would be Ennio Morricone, the most prolific film composer in history.
The Italian Maestro has scored well over 500 film and television shows in his over forty year career, the great majority are Italian, but he still manages to compose, orchestrate and conduct for big budget Hollywood films on a regular basis. He is most famous for his Spaghetti Western collaborations with director Sergio Leone including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, Once Upon a Time in the West and A Fistful of Dollars. Morricone is much more than a composer of Westerns, however, having been nominated for five Oscars (never winning) and winning a Grammy for The Untouchables.
And why do I mention this? I just picked up Ennio’s soundtrack to Fateless. Based on a Nobel Prize winning book by Imre Kertesz, the movie is about concentration camp survivors. Though I haven’t seen it, I am in love with the score. It is both classical and majestic and features the pan flute, used to such great effect in Morricone’s score to Once Upon a Time in America. I heartily recommend Fateless to any music lover.
And now on the rock and roll music front, Bob Dylan has a new studio album called Modern Times (first in five years) due in stores on Tuesday. I’ve scoped out the best price of $12.99 for the limited edition version with a bonus DVD at Best Buy and will be knocking on their door with credit card in hand on Tuesday morning. I’ve heard two songs from Modern Times and seen one video and it appears Dylan has another winner. ‘Rolling Stone’ gave the CD five stars (highest) and has a cover story with the man himself in their latest issue.
I guess the beauty of music is that artists such as Bob Dylan and Ennio Morricone, so widely divergent in their style but equally brilliant in their art, can excite a listener such as me. There will always be new music to discover.