L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 4 BARBARA MINAFRA NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS S ome artists write h i s t o r y , d e f i n e styles. True King M i d a s , t h e y t r a n s f o r m i n t o gold everything they touch. They do leave a mark in life. E n n i o M o r r i c o n e o n l y needed seven notes. Notes t h a t , o n t h e p e n t a g r a m , would become poetry, vibra- tion of the soul because able to give a face to a dream, because they would touch humanity in all its multifa- c e t e d v a r i e t y . C o m p o s e r , conductor and arranger: knowledge and wisdom were t h e r e , i n h i s w o r k , i n knowing how to put together delicate violins and intense drums, celestial oboes and whistling flutes. E v e r y t h i n g t u r n s i n t o music, when you know how to handle harmony, if, when l i s t e n i n g t o t h e s o u n d s around —police sirens, the wind, a music box— you c a n t r a n s f o r m t h e m i n t o that tune you have in mind. Catchy tormentoni everyone knows. That's where great- ness lies, in making everyo- n e s i n g a l o n g w i t h y o u r melodies. Morricone himself thou- ght so: "My greatest achie- vement? Having written the s o u n d t r a c k o f p e o p l e ' s lives." Indeed, his songs tell u s a b o u t w h o l e d e c a d e s , they are pieces of Italian m u s i c h i s t o r y ( S e Telefonando, interpreted by Mina, C'era un Ragazzo che come me Amava i Beatles ei Rolling Stones by Gianni Morandi, Sapore di Sale by G i n o P a o l i a n d A b b r o n z a t i s s i m a b y E d o a r d o V i a n e l l o ) . H i s s o n g s e m b o d y t h e s e n t i - ment of an era; his music sketches Italian summers in all their lightheartedness, his soundtracks are part of us more than the movies they were written for, they p a i n t t h e i n t e n s i t y o f a gaze, the emotions within silence. And then, if we close our eyes and listen, we also find the dusty duels and solitary h o r s e r i d e s o f A m e r i c a n western movies and, with them, a sense of nostalgia for the past and a sense of hope in the New World, in the American myth; we find the complexity of humanity, l o s t l o v e s a n d e v e n p u l p movies' gun fights. Morricone moved us and s u r p r i s e d u s , m a d e u s dream and made us laugh, he built an important part of our musical memory. He experimented, he dared, he changed; he tried new ave- nues and ended up beco- m i n g a n a t i o n a l i c o n , a n excellence of his country. " T h e d e a t h o f E n n i o M o r r i c o n e l e a v e s u s w i t h o u t a d i s t i n g u i s h e d , g e n i a l a r t i s t . A m u s i c i a n who was refined and popu- l a r a t o n c e , a n d l e f t a profound mark on the musi- cal history of the late twen- tieth century. Through his soundtracks, he contributed g r e a t l y t o s p r e a d i n g a n d strengthening Italy's presti- ge in the world," President Sergio Mattarella said. The president applauded and affectionately greeted Morricone (who was also C a v a l i e r e d i G r a n C r o c e dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) during the artist's concert to cele- brate his own 90th birthday last year. in 2019, he had a l s o t r a v e l e d a r o u n d t h e globe with his 60 Years of Music world tour — the offi- cial farewell of the compo- ser to his public, which sold out virtually everywhere. After having spent the m o r n i n g l i s t e n i n g t o h i s m a s t e r p i e c e s , S o p h i a Loren expressed her thou- ghts on a golden season of the seventh art, which is i n e x o r a b l y a b o u t t o e n d : "Unfortunately — she decla- red to the Corriere della S e r a — w e ' r e m o r e a n d more alone. The greatest ones are leaving us, little by little, one by one." Giuseppe Tornatore, with whom Morricone deve- loped a great artistic part- nership (after the one he had with Sergio Leone), i n a u g u r a t e d b y C i n e m a Paradiso in 1988 and that lasted for 13 movies, was t h e o n l y c e l e b r i t y a t h i s funerals, celebrated priva- tely "because — il maestro wrote in his last wishes — I don't want to bother anyo- n e . " A f t e r E n n i o - T h e Maestro, the book-inter- v i e w p u b l i s h e d b y H a r p e r C o l l i n s i n 2 0 1 8 , Tornatore is working on a d o c u m e n t a r y a b o u t Morricone's life and carrier. It should be ready by the end of the year, and feature a mix of personal material and the contributions of g r e a t n a m e s l i k e C l i n t E a s t w o o d , B r u c e Springsteen and Quentin Tarantino. The latter said about il maestro — an artist able to move easily from commedia all'Italiana to thrillers: "Morricone is my favorite composer and I'm not talking about sound- t r a c k s o n l y , I ' m t a l k i n g about Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert." Robert De Niro, who played in four movies sco- red by Morricone, declared t o L a R e p u b b l i c a t h a t " e v e r y w o r k o f h i s w a s a s u r p r i s e . " R o b e r t o Benigni underlined a most peculiar artistic trait of his: "He made Italy resound in the world with his music, Maestro Morricone considered "having written the soundtrack of people's lives" his greatest achievement (Photo: Dreamstime) Continued to page 6 Ennio Morricone, Italy's soundtrack

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