CDOTD 3/15/2023

 Ennio Morricone: Crime and Dissonance (Ipecac)

Purchased from The Attic

During my recent weekend trip to Baltimore, I made a point of stopping by the city's best book and record store, Normal's. I hadn't been there in many years. I was encouraged to see the store was not only thriving, but had substantially expanded since my last visit.

While there I found a coffee table book about Ennio Morricone in the music books section. It was a big volume, most of which was devoted to reproductions of album releases of many of his soundtracks. The price, $40, was reasonable, but I didn't bite. I have so many books, quite a few of which are unread. In general I just have a lot of STUFF and I'm trying to be more judicious in my purchases. I give myself the most license with CDs and especially LPs, but even then I sometimes pause and defer.

Turns out, I discovered that the same book is in the Carnegie Library collection. The Monday after returning home, I went over at the first opportunity and checked it out. It's a very nice edition, with short essays about Il Maestro*, and even a few images of pages from his various scores.

What a great resource, having a decent public library in our city. I've probably written that before. My interest in Morricone's music was sparked in large part by listening to this double-CD collection, which I checked out of the library more than a decade ago. (Don't look for it now, it has long since disappeared.) I'm certain everybody has heard the main title theme for The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly at some point. I remember being on one of those radio carts at WRCT and getting played frequently when the DJ needed to grab something to play on the air for a few minutes. Not knowing much about Morricone besides that, I didn't understand John Zorn's deep interest in Morricone's music which led to his reexamining Il Maestro's music on The Big Gundown.

When I heard this though, I definitely got it. It's two full discs of cues taken entirely from 1960s and 70s Morricone scores, from largely crime, Giallo, and horror films. Imagine taking largely the weirdest tracks from those soundtracks and collecting them all in one place. Or more accurately, weirdest but also with the widest variety possible. There's a lot of atmosphere here, and Morricone's love of unusual instrumentation is on full display. Some of it is highly funky, or jazzy, and there's a significant amount of improvising happening. There's a segment of intense classical violin, and some horror-movie-appropriate pipe organ. And of course, vocalist Edda Dell'Orso's voice turns up now and then, sounding ambiguously like she's panicking or on the edge of climax.

Morricone died in July 2020. (Hmmm....what else was happening at the same time, let me think...) After his passing, I made blog posts here, commenting on Morricone vinyl I had collected to that point. Two of those albums have selections on this collection: Woman in a Lizard's Skin, Veruschka, both great. I sought out a copy of Giornata Nera Per L'Ariete (English title, The Fifth Cord) based on listening to this, another particularly strong work. I've only seen some of the films: Bird With the Crystal Plumage, The Antichrist, parts of Woman in a Lizard's Skin and Veruschka. I've been noting titles that I'd like to see, from here and the aforementioned book.

I'll write something here that I haven't been writing on these posts. You owe it to yourself to find this collection. I can't promise you'll love every track, but it does demonstrate some of Morricone's range. It doesn't include what he would later be known for, lush, romantic scores for films such as The Mission. He's great at that too, but those pieces don't particularly interest me. This is the good stuff here.

* I don't use this term often. In Morricone's case, it's entirely appropriate. I have a friend who greets me each time as Maestro. I'm flattered by the compliment, but also think, me? Maestro?