Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI (10 November 1928 - 6 July 2020) was an… Read Full Bio ↴Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI (10 November 1928 - 6 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and former trumpet player. He composed a wide range of music styles, making him one of the most versatile, experimental and influential composers of all time, working in any medium.

Since 1946 Morricone composed over 500 scores for cinema and television, as well as over 100 classical works. His filmography includes over 70 award-winning films, including all Sergio Leone films since A Fistful of Dollars (including For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America), all Giuseppe Tornatore films (since Cinema Paradiso), The Battle of Algiers, the Animal Trilogy, 1900, Exorcist II, Days of Heaven, several major films in French cinema, in particular the comedy trilogy La Cage aux Folles I, II, III and Le Professionnel, The Thing, The Mission, The Untouchables, Mission to Mars, Bugsy, Disclosure, In the Line of Fire, Bulworth, Ripley's Game and The Hateful Eight.

After playing the trumpet in jazz bands in the 1940s, he became a studio arranger for RCA Victor and in 1955 started ghost writing for film and theatre. Throughout his career, he composed music for artists such as Paul Anka, Mina, Milva, Zucchero and Andrea Bocelli. From 1960 to 1975, Morricone gained international fame for composing music for westerns. His score to 1966's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is considered one of the most influential soundtracks in history and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. With an estimated 10 million copies sold, Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the best-selling scores worldwide. He also scored seven westerns for Sergio Corbucci, Duccio Tessari's Ringo duology and Sergio Sollima's The Big Gundown and Face to Face. Morricone worked extensively for other film genres with directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Mauro Bolognini, Giuliano Montaldo, Roland Joffé, Roman Polanski and Henri Verneuil. His acclaimed soundtrack for The Mission (1986) was certified gold in the United States. The album Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone stayed 105 weeks on the Billboard Top Classical Albums.

Morricone's best-known compositions include "The Ecstasy of Gold", "Se Telefonando", "Man with a Harmonica", "Here's to You", the UK No. 2 single "Chi Mai", "Gabriel's Oboe" and "E Più Ti Penso". He functioned during the period 1966–1980 as a main member of Il Gruppo, one of the first experimental composers collectives. In 1969, he co-founded Forum Music Village, a prestigious recording studio. From the 1970s, Morricone excelled in Hollywood, composing for prolific American directors such as Don Siegel, Mike Nichols, Brian De Palma, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Warren Beatty and Quentin Tarantino. In 1977, he composed the official theme for the 1978 FIFA World Cup. He continued to compose music for European productions, such as Marco Polo, La Piovra, Nostromo, Fateless, Karol and En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait. Morricone's music has been reused in television series, including The Simpsons and The Sopranos, and in many films, including Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained.

As of 2013, Ennio Morricone has sold over 70 million records worldwide. In 1971, he received a "Targa d'Oro" for the worldwide sales of 22 million.[8] In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." He has been nominated for a further six Oscars. In 2016, Morricone received his first Academy Award for his score to Quentin Tarantino's film The Hateful Eight (2015), becoming the oldest person ever to win an Oscar. His other achievements include three Grammy Awards, three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, ten David di Donatello, eleven Nastro d'Argento, two European Film Awards, the Golden Lion Honorary Award and the Polar Music Prize in 2010. He died in his home city of Rome, Italy in 2020 at the age of 91, leaving a grand legacy behind him.

Amália Por Amor
Ennio Morricone Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Tens no olhar
Na alma e na voz
O verdadeiro fado

Que há em nós
E preso ás cordas da guitarra
Viveu o teu coração
Sem saber a razão

Cantas o mar
A terra e o céu
Com o coração na voz
Que deus te deu
Sete colinas e varinas
E mil pregões pelo ar
O povo a rezar
Uma voz a cantar
Saudade, teu nome quiseste dar
À mulher que foi
Amália por amar

E a cantar
Tu dás tanto amor
Que morres para matar
A nossa dor
E há sardinheiras nas janelas
E procissões a passar
O povo a rezar

Tens no olhar
Na alma e na voz
O lusitano fado que há em nós
E há sardinheiras nas janelas
E procissões a passar
Uma voz a cantar

Uma voz a cantar
Saudade, teu nome quiseste dar

À mulher que foi
Amália por amar

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Ennio Morricone's Amor describe the essence of traditional Portuguese music, known as fado. The singer is praising the person they are addressing for embodying the true spirit of fado in their gaze, soul, and voice. The fado is described as a feeling of nostalgia, longing, and melancholy, that is conveyed through the music of the guitar strings. The heart of this fado lives within the singer's subject, even though they may not understand its reason. This sense of inexplicable sorrow is expressed in songs that feature imagery of the sea, the land, the sky, and city life such as the seven hills and the street vendors.

The singer describes how the person they are addressing sings with passion and love for their country, giving everything they have to relieve the pain of those who listen. Fado gives love and life but also has the power to bring death, as those listening can be so consumed by the music that they forget to breathe. The lyrics also refer to the sardinheiras, women who sell sardines in Lisbon, and to religious processions, both common scenes in Portuguese life. The song ends with the repeated idea that the person being addressed has the fado in their soul, voice and gaze, and that their singing evokes the feeling of saudade - a sense of longing for something that has been lost.

Line by Line Meaning

Tens no olhar
Your eyes reveal

Na alma e na voz
In your soul and voice

O verdadeiro fado
The true fado

Que há em nós
That exists within us

E preso ás cordas da guitarra
And trapped in the strings of the guitar

Viveu o teu coração
Your heart has lived

Sem saber a razão
Without knowing the reason

Cantas o mar
You sing about the sea

A terra e o céu
The land and the sky

Com o coração na voz
With your heart in your voice

Que deus te deu
That God has given you