Our Biographic this week (page 14) is once again James Bond-related. It’s about the famous theme songs featured in each movie in the series. One of the things that Bond fans get excited about when each new 007 adventure comes out is hearing the latest theme song and seeing the opening title sequence that accompanies it — always a highlight of the films.
I've always been fascinated with film music. While most people probably think of films as a mostly visual medium, the sound design and music in a movie can be just as important as the visuals. Many of my favourite films might not be masterpieces in terms of acting, script or direction, but for me they're elevated into the realms of greatness because of their stunning music soundtracks (and the way the music matches the images on screen).
Many major movies these days have soundtracks mostly comprised of unrelated songs by famous pop stars, but in decades past every film had a unique soundtrack composed especially for the film. For me, the golden age for original film music was the 1960s and '70s. My favourite soundtrack composer to emerge during that time is the Italian maestro Ennio Morricone, who, despite turning 87 this week, is still working.
Since starting out in the film world during the mid-1950s, Morricone has written scores for more than 500 movies. Judging from the 100 or so that I've heard, most of these soundtracks are brilliant and startlingly original.
Morricone is probably most famous for the distinctive soundtracks he created for Italian westerns in the 1960s, especially the ones starring Clint Eastwood. These western soundtracks blended twangy surf-rock guitar, unusual percussion and spooky orchestral arrangements with strange chanting voices and weird sound effects. These film themes were international hits and helped to make the films famous to this day.
After scoring for numerous westerns, Morricone wrote equally original music for dramas, thrillers, horror movies, gangster movies and pretty much every other kind of movie. Always highly experimental, yet at the same time beautifully melodic and memorable, Morricone's film music is like a world of its own that music fans can spend a lifetime exploring and discovering.
Ben Edwards
Editor
[email protected]
