Thanks for the music! Charlie Daniels and Ennio Morricone

10 Comments

1. Joy1985 says:

   6 July 2020 at 2:48 PM

   Eternal rest grant unto them OH Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them.
2. iamlucky13 says:

   6 July 2020 at 3:15 PM

   I’m younger than all of the spaghetti westerns, and although I grew up watching old John Wayne movies with my dad, I had a casual disdain for the idea of European movies about the old west.

   But I’ve started slowly exploring them more recently, and have to confess that Morricone’s scores really help draw a viewer in and further the tension that Leone always used to engage audiences. He has been a great contributor to cinematic scores.
3. mo7 says:

   6 July 2020 at 4:58 PM

   Mr. Morricone’s wikipedia page says he was as ‘devout Catholic’.
   What better way to be remembered?
4. APX says:

   6 July 2020 at 5:27 PM

   The first piece of oboe repertoire I ever learned was Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe long before it became the cliché oboe piece that everyone on every instrument started playing and posting on YouTube. My oboe teacher made me learn it entirely by ear when I was twelve. To this day I do not have a score to play it from. It’s one of my favourite pieces of contemporary music.
5. Mario Bird says:

   6 July 2020 at 8:40 PM

   @ mo7:

   Not sure if you’re tongue-in-cheek. If so, don’t forget that Morricone memorably scored some very good Catholic TV movies, e.g., Scarlet and the Black and Karol: A Man Who Became Pope. There are other forgettable scores that he did, religious and otherwise.

   But most remember The Mission score, and the way Jeremy Irons’ oboe melody – broken apart by the natives at first – eventually transcends that violent act and becomes the dominant theme. Though I have other criticisms of the movie, I think Signor Morricone’s scoring was first-rate.

   Requiescat in pace, Domine.
6. trespinos says:

   6 July 2020 at 9:32 PM

   May perpetual light shine upon you, Ennio.

   My “Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone” album is a prized possession, ‘The Mission’ and the ‘Giuseppe Tornatore Suite’ being especial favorites.
7. APX says:

   6 July 2020 at 11:31 PM

   Jeremy Irons’ oboe melody – broken apart by the natives at first

   Jeremy Irons’ oboe melody, more like sacrilegious fake oboe playing. I don’t know what was more painful to watch as an oboist, that, or an oboe being broken in half.
8. Ellen says:

   7 July 2020 at 5:31 AM

   I’m a huge fan of both these men’s music. I live in the south and I remember Charlie Daniels as he was just making his mark. I used to teach children’s literature and one of the things I taught was the trickster character in traditional literature. The character is younger, smaller, weaker, and of lower status, but always comes out against the bad guys because of his wits. Jack in the beanstalk, Brer Rabbit, the Signifying Monkey, Anansi the Spider are all tricksters. So is Bugs Bunny and so was Johnny from The Devil Went Down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels. My brother sat next to him on a flight years ago and said he was a very, very nice man. May they both rest in peace.
9. Mario Bird says:

   7 July 2020 at 1:49 PM

   @APX

   Good points. I think The Mission plays to sentimentality (at the expense of history and high art) in broad brush strokes. But that’s Hollywood for you.

   “It is as healthy to enjoy sentiment as to enjoy jam. In the evil of sentimentalism there must always be some suggestion of stealing jam.” — Chesterton
10. mo7 says:

    7 July 2020 at 10:30 PM

    Mario Bird
    No cheek. A straightforward observation and sentiment.

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