Deborah
Deborah in "Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum"
Born	c. 1200 BCE
Died	c. 1124 (aged 75) or 1067 BCE
Residence	Shelter in Mount Ephraim, which is between Ramah in Benjamin and Bethel
Nationality	Hebrew
Other names	Debora, DĂ©bora, Dvora
Occupation	Prophetess of God, Fourth Judge of Israel
Predecessor	Shamgar
Successor	Gideon
Spouse	Lapidoth

Deborah (Hebrew: דְבוֹרָה, Modern Dvora Tiberian DəḇôrÄ� ; "Bee", Arabic: دبŮ�رة Daborah‎) was a prophetess of the God of the Israelites, the fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israel, counselor, warrior, and the wife of Lapidoth according to the Book of Judges chapters 4 and 5.

The only female judge mentioned in the Bible, Deborah led a successful counterattack against the forces of Jabin king of Canaan and his military commander Sisera, the narrative is recounted in chapter 4.

Judges chapter 5 gives the same story in poetic form. This passage, often called The Song of Deborah, may date to as early as the 12th century BC^[1] and is perhaps the earliest sample of Hebrew poetry. It is also significant because it is one of the oldest passages that portrays fighting women, the account being that of Jael, the wife of Heber, a Kenite tent maker. Jael killed Sisera by driving a tent peg through his temple as he slept. Both Deborah and Jael are portrayed as strong independent women. The poem may have been included in the Book of the Wars of the Lord mentioned in Numbers 21:14.

In Hebrew, her name, דְּבוֹרָה, translates as bee. The Deborah number, a dimensionless number used in rheology, is named after her.^[2]

Deborah's personal life[link]

Grave near Kedesh attributed to Barak or Deborah

Not much is known about Deborah's personal life. Her name in Hebrew is pronounced Dvora. Some sources, such as Chabad.org, state that she judged Israel from 1107 B.C. until her death in 1067 B.C.^[3] The Dictionary of World Biography: The Ancient World, claims that she might have lived from 1200 B.C. to 1124 B.C., which would have made her about 36 years old at the time of the battle against Sisera, and 75 at the time her death.^[4] The book also says that she was most probably born in central Israel to the tribe of Ephraim, and was also the author of The Song of Deborah.^[4]

In the Book of Judges, it is stated that she was the wife of Lapidoth (Hebrew: לפידות‎ whose name means "torches"). She rendered her judgments beneath a palm tree between Ramah in Benjamin and Bethel in the land of Ephraim. (Judges 4:5) Some people today refer to Deborah as the mother of Israel because of the "Song of Deborah and Barak" found in Judges 5.

After being oppressed by Jabin, the king of Canaan, in Hazor, for twenty years, (Judges 4:9) Deborah prevailed upon Barak who was the head captain of the army at that time, to face the Assyrian General Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, in battle. The victory to which the Bible refers is the victory of an Israelite force of ten thousand over Sisera's force of nine hundred iron chariots. (Judges 4:10)

When Deborah saw the army, she said, according to Judges 4:14:

As Deborah prophesied, the Lord gave the victory to the Israelites. Sisera fled the battle site seeking refuge in the tent of the woman Jael. In the Biblical account, Jael killed the enemy leader, Sisera. The Biblical account of Deborah ends in Judges 5.

After the battle, there was peace in the land for 40 years. (Judges 5:31)

The Song of Deborah[link]

Gustave Dore's interpretation of the prophetess Deborah.

The Song of Deborah is found in Judges 5:2-31 and is a victory hymn, sung by Deborah and Barak, about the defeat of Canaanite adversaries by some of the tribes of Israel. It is recognized as one of the oldest parts of the Bible, dating somewhere in the 12th century BC based on its grammar and context.^[5] The song itself contains a number of challenging differences from the events described in Judges 4. The song mentions six participating tribes (Ephraim, Benjamin, Machir, Zebulun, Issachar, and Naphtali) as opposed to the two tribes in Judges 4:6 (Naphtali and Zebulun) and does not mention the role of Jabin.^[6] It describes Sisera's death in a different manner. Judges 4:17-21 describes Jael killing Sisera by luring him into her tent, letting him lay down to rest, and then while he was asleep hammering a tent peg into his head killing him.

Though it is not uncommon to read a victory hymn in the Hebrew Bible, the Song of Deborah stands out as unique in that it is a hymn that celebrates a military victory helped by two women: Deborah and Jael. Michael Coogan writes that Jael being a woman "is a further sign that Yahweh ultimately is responsible for the victory: The mighty Canaanite general Sisera will be 'sold' by the Lord 'into the hand of a woman' (Judges 4:9) - the ultimate degradation."^[5]

Historical and biblical context[link]

After the death of Joshua, the tribe of Judah led the tribe of Simeon in a campaign against the Canaanites and Perizzites, defeating Adoni-Bezek at Bezek. Then they marched against Kiriath-Arba (Hebron) and defeated three more kings. The descendants of Hobab the Kenite, father-in-law of Moses, accompanied Judah into the wilderness of Negeb but later left to live with the Amalakites. Judah did not take Ashkelon, or Ekron. The Canaanites continued to hold Beth Shean, Dor, and Ibleam. Zebulun was unable to drive them out of Kitron or Nahalol; nor could Asher drive out the inhabitants of Acco, Sidon, Achzib, or Rehob. The Amorites drove back the Danites into the highlands.^[7]

Jabin a king of Canaan reigned at Hazor and the commander of his army was Sisera who lived in Haroseth-ha-goiim. The accounts of Judges 4 and 5 tell the story of a battle at Taanach near the River Kishon. Few allies among the southern tribes could come to the assistance of Deborah and Barak. Israel, which the song of Deborah and Barak numbers at 40,000 spears, was unavailable except for forces from the tribes of Ephraim, Machir, Zebulon, Issachar, and Naphtali. While Sisera is said to have had 900 iron chariots, "the Song of Deborah" implies that heavy rain rendered them ineffectual.^[8]

See also[link]

• Battle of Mount Tabor (biblical)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bird, Phyllis (1974). "Images of Women in the Old Testament". In Rosemary Radford Ruether. Religion and Sexism: Images of Women in the Jewish and Christian Traditions. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-21692-9. 
• Brown, Cheryl Anne (1992). No Longer be Silent: First Century Jewish Portraits of Biblical Women: Studies in Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities and Josephus's Jewish Antiquities. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster J. Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-25294-X. 
• Deen, Edith (1955). All the Women of the Bible. New York: Harper & Row. 
• Lacks, Roslyn (1979). Women and Judaism: Myth, History, and Struggle. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-02313-8. 
• Otwell, John H. (1977). And Sarah Laughed: the Status of Woman in the Old Testament. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. ISBN 0-664-24126-3. 
• Phipps, William E. (1992). Assertive Biblical Women. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-28498-9.. 
• Williams, James G. (1982). Women Recounted: Narrative Thinking and the God of Israel. Sheffield: Almond Press. ISBN 0-907459-18-8. 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Deborah

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Bible, King James, Judges#Chapter 4

• Book of Judges article, Jewish Encyclopedia
• Debbora, Catholic Encyclopedia
• Biblical Hebrew Poetry - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience
• Song of Deborah (Judges 5) Reconstructed

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The Crickets are now recognized in Lubbock, Texas, with a downtown avenue named in their honor.

The Crickets are a rock & roll band from Lubbock, Texas, formed by singer/songwriter Buddy Holly in the 1950s. Their first hit record was "That'll Be the Day", released in 1957. They helped set the template for subsequent rock bands such as the Beatles, with their guitar-bass-drums arrangements and tendency to write their own material. After Holly's death in 1959 the band continued to tour and record with different vocalists, releasing new material into the 21st century.

Formation[link]

Holly had been making demo recordings with local musician friends since 1954. Sonny Curtis, Jerry Allison, and Larry Welborn participated in these sessions. In 1956 Holly's band (then known informally as Buddy and the Two Tones (meaning Buddy Holly with Sonny Curtis and Don Guess),^[1] posthumous releases refer to The Three Tunes) recorded an album's worth of rockabilly numbers in Nashville, Tennessee for Decca; the records were no more than mildly successful, and the band didn't hit pay dirt until 1957, when producer and recording engineer Norman Petty hosted Holly's sessions in Clovis, New Mexico.

Holly had already recorded for another label under his own name, so to avoid legal problems he needed a new name for his group. As the Crickets recalled in John Goldrosen's book The Buddy Holly Story, they were inspired by other groups named after birds. They were then considering insects-centered names, apparently unaware of the Bronx R&B vocal group The Crickets, who recorded for Jay-Dee.^[2] It is worth noting that they almost chose the name "Beetles".^[3] Years later, The Beatles chose their band name partly in homage to The Crickets.^[4]

The Crickets were lead guitarist and vocalist Buddy Holly, drummer Jerry Allison, bassist Joe B. Mauldin, and rhythm guitarist Niki Sullivan. Sullivan dropped out after a little more than one year to resume his education. The Crickets, now a trio, continued to make stage and TV appearances, and recorded more songs, many composed by the band members themselves.

Early success[link]

During 1957 Norman Petty arranged for The Crickets' recordings to be marketed under two separate names. The solo vocals went out as "Buddy Holly" and the songs with dubbed backing vocals were issued as "The Crickets." Petty reasoned, correctly, that disc jockeys might be reluctant to program a single artist too heavily, but would have no problem playing records by two seemingly different groups. Some disc jockeys referred to the band as "Buddy Holly and The Crickets," but the record labels never used this wording until after Holly's death.

In 1958, Holly broke with producer Petty and moved to New York to be more involved with the publishing and recording businesses. Allison and Mauldin chose not to move and returned to Lubbock. Holly now recorded under his own name with studio musicians Tommy Allsup and Carl Bunch. Waylon Jennings toured with him shortly after The Crickets folded.

Allison and Mauldin looked forward to rejoining Holly after he returned from a winter tour through the northern Midwest. In the meantime, Joe B. Mauldin, J.I. Allison, and Sonny Curtis (a friend and collaborator with Buddy) began recording new songs as The Crickets, with Earl Sinks on vocals. While recording, it was announced that Holly was killed in a plane crash while on tour.

After Holly's death[link]

The Crickets went on performing after Holly's death.^[5] David Box, a native of Lubbock, Texas and a near identical Buddy Holly soundalike, would join the group as lead vocalist for their 1960 single of "Dont Cha Know" (Side A), and "Peggy Sue Got Married"
(Side B) released as Coral 62238 after the departure of Earl Sinks. David Box ironically would later die in a charter plane crash on October 23, 1964 while touring as a solo singer.^[6][7]

In 1962, The Crickets' version of the Gerry Goffin–Carole King song "Don't Ever Change" (Liberty Records) reached the top 5 in the British single charts.^[8] The Crickets would also release in 1962 their album entitled "Bobby Vee Meets the Crickets" with Bobby Vee singing on lead vocals. In 1964, The Crickets recorded their version of the rock and surf song "California Sun" for their album of the same title.^[9]

In 1978, the award-winning film, The Buddy Holly Story, starring Gary Busey as Buddy Holly, presented an engaging but somewhat inaccurate depiction of the band's early years. Allison and Mauldin's names were altered as Jesse Charles and Ray Bob Simmons wherein Charles is portrayed with racial attitudes, and Sullivan was written out of the film altogether which made them vote their portrayal as negative.

21st Century[link]

The Crickets released "The Crickets and Their Buddies" in 2004 which features several classics from all parts of their career featuring guest appearances by several prominent artists including Eric Clapton, Rodney Crowell, Waylon Jennings, Nanci Griffith, John Prine, Graham Nash, Bobby Vee, Tonio K. and more. The album was produced and mixed by Greg Ladanyi and included editing and additional mixes by Dave Carlock, Rob Hill, and Rogers Masson.^[10]

On October 28, 2008, The Crickets were inducted into the Musicians' Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. They performed "Peggy Sue", "Not Fade Away" and "That'll Be the Day" at the ceremony, accompanied by guest guitarist Keith Richards.^[11][12]

Allison and Mauldin are still touring^[when?] with Sonny Curtis, a highly successful songwriter and childhood friend/bandmate of Buddy Holly's, on vocals and guitar.^[13]

On April 14, 2012, The Crickets were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by a special committee, aimed at correcting the mistake of not including the band with Buddy Holly when he was first inducted in 1986. The inducted members include Jerry Allison, Sonny Curtis, Joe B. Mauldin, and Niki Sullivan. The group was unable to attend the ceremony due to illness of Joe B Mauldin.

Discography[link]

• The "Chirping" Crickets (1957, with Buddy Holly)
• In Style with the Crickets (1960)
• Bobby Vee Meets the Crickets (1962)
• Something Old, Something New (1963)
• California Sun (1964)
• Rock Reflections (1971)
• Remnants (1973)
• Bubblegum, Pop, Ballads & Boogie (1973)
• Long Way from Lubbock (1975) (With Albert Lee).
• Back in Style (1975)
• 3 Piece (1988)
• T Shirt (1988)
• Cover to Cover (1995)
• The Original (1996)
• Rockin (2000)
• Too Much Monday Morning
• Crickets and Their Buddies (2004)
• About Time Too (With Mike Berry)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Buddy Holly & The Crickets Online
• Official website

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (August 2010)

Deborah Ann Woll
Deborah Ann Woll at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles on January 23, 2010
Born	(1985-02-07) February 7, 1985 (age 27) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2007–present

Deborah Ann Woll (born February 7, 1985)^{[citation needed]} is an American actress best known for her role as Jessica Hamby on HBO's True Blood.

Early life[link]

Deborah Ann Woll, who is of Irish and German descent,^{[citation needed]} grew up in Brooklyn, New York and went to high school at the Packer Collegiate Institute. She was shy and often bullied as a child.^[1] She graduated from the BFA program in the USC School of Theatre at the University of Southern California and has since moved to Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Woll has made guest appearances on several television programs, including Life, Aces 'n Eights, ER, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (17th episode of 8th season, "For Gedda"), My Name Is Earl, The Mentalist and Law and Order SVU.

Woll received her breakout role as Bill Compton's vampire progeny, Jessica, on the HBO television series True Blood.^[2] To help prepare for the role, she watched a lot of animal attack footage.^[3]

Her roles include Mother's Day, which is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman;^[4] Little Murder, which co-stars Josh Lucas;^[5] and the independent film Highland Park.^[6]

Advocacy[link]

Woll's boyfriend, Edward "E.J." Scott, and his family are afflicted with choroideremia, which is a condition that slowly blinds its victim. She uses her celebrity status to help advocate for them and others with the disease.^[7][8] She has been quoted as saying that her boyfriend's bravery in fighting his disability has inspired her own battle with coeliac disease, which makes her body intolerant to foods containing gluten.^[9]

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

Series[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Deborah Ann Woll at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with the New York Post
• Interview with Hollywood Crush, MTV

Ennio Morricone
Morricone at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival
Background information
Also known as	Maestro
Born	(1928-11-10) November 10, 1928 (age 83)
Origin	Rome, Italy
Genres	Film music, classical music, pop music, jazz, lounge music, easy listening
Occupations	Composer, orchestrator, music director, conductor, trumpeter
Years active	1946–present
Associated acts	Bruno Nicolai, Alessandro Alessandroni, Mina, Yo-Yo Ma, Mireille Mathieu, Joan Baez, Andrea Bocelli, Roger Waters, Sarah Brightman, Amii Stewart, Paul Anka, Milva, Gianni Morandi, Dalida, Catherine Spaak, Pet Shop Boys, Hayley Westenra, and others
Website	http://www.enniomorricone.it

Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, Italian pronunciation: [Ë�É›nnjo morriË�koË�ne], (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer and conductor, who has written music for more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years.^[1] His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces. Morricone is most famous for his work in the Spaghetti Westerns directed by his friend Sergio Leone, including A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) but his career includes a wide range of composition genres making him one of the film world's most versatile artists. He is considered as one of the most influential film music composers of the 20th century.

Born in Rome, Italy, Morricone took up the trumpet as a child and attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. He formally entered a conservatory at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony programme. He received his trumpet diploma in 1946 and started working professionally, composing the music to "Il Mattino" ("The Morning"). Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.^[2]

In the 1950s he received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) where he won a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to ghost write and arrange music for other, already established film composers. Morricone soon came to the attention of his former school friend Sergio Leone, who hired Morricone to compose the music to some of his best known films. Together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars.

In the 80s and 90s, Morricone continued to write the music for Leone's later films, including Once Upon a Time in America (1984). He also composed the music to Joffé's The Mission (1986), De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) and Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988). His more recent compositions include the scores for Malèna (2000), Fateless (2005), and Baaria - La porta del vento (2009).

Morricone has received two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, five BAFTAs during 1979–1992, seven David di Donatello, eight Nastro d'Argento, and the Polar Music Prize in 2010. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music" and has been nominated for a further five Oscars in the category of Best Original Score during 1979–2001, but has never won competitively.

Biography[link]

Early career[link]

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera and Mario Morricone, a jazz trumpeter.^[3] Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and was encouraged to develop his natural talents.^[4] Compelled to take up the trumpet, he attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. Morricone formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program. According to various reports, he completed it in either two years or six months (date approximate).^[5] He studied the trumpet, composition, choral music, and choral direction under Goffredo Petrassi, who deeply influenced him and to whom Morricone has dedicated concert pieces.

These were the difficult years of World War II in the heavily bombed "open city"; the composer remarked that what he mostly remembered of those years was the hunger. His wartime experiences influenced many of his scores for films set in that period.

After he graduated, he continued to work in classical composition and arrangement. In 1946, Morricone received his trumpet diploma and in the same year he composed "Il Mattino" ("The Morning") for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, first in a group of 7 "youth" Lieder. Other serious compositions are "Imitazione" (1947) for voice and piano on a text by Giacomo Leopardi and "IntimitĂ " for voice and piano on a text by Olinto Dini.

In the early 1950s, Morricone began writing his first background music for radio dramas. Nonetheless he continued composing classical pieces as "Distacco I e Distacco II" for voice and piano on a text by Ranieri Gnoli, "VerrĂ  la Morte" for contralto and piano on a text by Cesare Pavese, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone and five instruments on a text by Salvatore Quasimodo.^[6]

Although the composer had received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) in 1952, his studies concluded in 1954, obtaining a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to write or arrange music for films credited to other already well-known composers (ghost writing). He occasionally adopted Anglicized pseudonyms, such as Dan Savio and Leo Nichols.

Morricone wrote more works in the climate of the Italian avant-garde. A few of these compositions have been made available on CD, such as "Ut", his trumpet concerto dedicated to the soloist Mauro Maur, one of his favorite musicians; some have yet to be premiered. From the mid-sixties and onwards, he was part of Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza, a group of composers who performed and recorded avant garde free improvisations, even scoring a few films during the 1970s.

Leone film scores[link]

Well-versed in a variety of musical idioms from his RCA experience, Morricone began composing film scores in the early 1960s.^[5] Though his first films were undistinguished, Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone. Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars (1964).^[5] As budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices, guimbarde (jaw harp), trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards à la John Ford. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance.^[5] Though sonically bizarre for a movie score, Morricone's music was viscerally true to Leone's vision.

	The Good, The Bad and The Ugly main theme noicon From The Good, the Bad and the Ugly film score
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

As memorable as Leone's close-ups, harsh violence, and black comedy, Morricone's work helped to expand the musical possibilities of film scoring.^[5] Morricone was initially billed on the film as Dan Savio.^[5]

Morricone composed music for over 40 Westerns (the last was North Star (1996)), most of them Spaghetti Westerns. He scored Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, from A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and including For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), as well as later films such as A Fistful of Dynamite (1971), My Name Is Nobody (1973), and A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (1975). The collaboration with Leone is considered one of the exemplary collaborations between a director and a composer.

With the score of A Fistful of Dollars, Morricone began his 10-year collaboration with his childhood friend Alessandro Alessandroni and his Cantori Moderni. Alessandroni provided the whistling and the twanging guitar on the film scores, while his Cantori Moderni were a flexible troupe of modern singers. Morricone specifically exploited the solo soprano of the group, Edda Dell'Orso, at the height of her powers—"an extraordinary voice at my disposal".

In addition, Morricone composed music for many other, not so popular Spaghetti Westerns, including Duello nel Texas (1963), Le pistole non discutono (1964), A Pistol for Ringo (1965), The Return of Ringo (1965), Navajo Joe (1966), The Big Gundown, (1966), Face to Face (1967), Death Rides a Horse (1967), The Hellbenders (1967), A Bullet for the General (1967), The Mercenary (1968), Tepepa (1968), The Great Silence (1968), Guns for San Sebastian (1968), …And for a Roof a Sky Full of Stars (1968), The Five Man Army (1969), Queimada! (1969), Vamos a matar, compañeros (1970), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), Sonny and Jed (1972), and Buddy Goes West (1981).

Notable film scores[link]

	The Mission main theme - Gabriel's Oboe noicon From The Mission film score
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Most of Morricone's film scores of the 1960s were composed outside the Spaghetti Western genre, while still using Alessandroni's team. Their music included the themes for Il Malamondo (1964), Slalom (1965), The Battle of Algiers (1965), and Listen, Let's Make Love (1967). In 1968, Morricone reduced his work outside the movie business and wrote scores for 20 films in the same year. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment for Mario Bava's superhero romp Danger: Diabolik (1968). The next year marked the start of a series of evocative scores for Dario Argento's stylized thrillers, including The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969), The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971), and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1974).^[5] In 1970, Morricone wrote the score for Violent City. That same year, he received his first Nastro d'Argento for the music in Metti una sera a cena (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1969) and his second only a year later for Sacco e Vanzetti (Giuliano Montaldo, 1971), in which he had made a memorable collaboration with the legendary American folk singer and activist Joan Baez. In 1973, he scored a theme for the crime film Revolver (1973). Morricone composed the score for John Carpenter's science-fiction/horror movie The Thing (1982)^[7] as well as Brian De Palma's war drama Casualties of War (1989).^[8]

Morricone has worked for television, from a single title piece to variety shows and documentaries to TV series, including the US TV Western The Men From Shiloh (1970), Moses (1974) and Marco Polo (1982). One notable composition, "Chi Mai" was used in the films, Maddalena (1971) and Le Professionnel (1981) as well as the TV series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981). It was a surprise hit in the UK, almost topping the charts. He wrote the score for the Mafia television series La piovra seasons 2 to 10 from 1985 to 2001, including the themes "Droga e sangue" ("Drugs and Blood"), "La morale", and "L'immorale".^[9] Morricone worked as the conductor of seasons 3 to 5 of the series. He also worked as the music supervisor for the television project La bibbia ("The Bible"). In the late 1990s, he collaborated with his son, Andrea, on the Ultimo crime dramas. Their collaboration yielded the BAFTA-winning Nuovo cinema Paradiso. In 2003, Ennio Morricone scored another epic, for Japanese television, called Musashi and was the Taiga drama about Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's legendary warrior. A part of his "applied music" is now applied to Italian television films.

Concerts and live orchestrations[link]

Since 2001, Morricone has been on a world tour, the latter part sponsored by Giorgio Armani, with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, touring London (Barbican 2001; 75th birthday Concerto, Royal Albert Hall 2003), Paris, Verona, and Tokyo. Morricone performed his classic film scores at the Munich Philharmonie in 2005 and Hammersmith Apollo Theatre in London, UK, on 2006-12-01 and 2006-12-02.

Ennio Morricone at the United Nations Headquarters

He made his North American concert debut on January 29, 2007 Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City and four days later at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The previous evening, Morricone had already presented at the United Nations a concert comprising some of his film themes, as well as the cantata Voci dal silenzio to welcome the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. A Los Angeles Times review bemoaned the poor acoustics and opined of Morricone: "His stick technique is adequate, but his charisma as a conductor is zero." Morricone, though, has said: "Conducting has never been important to me. If the audience comes for my gestures, they had better stay outside."

On December 12, 2007, Morricone conducted the Roma Sinfonietta at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, presenting a selection of his own works. Together with the Roma Sinfonietta and the Belfast Philharmonic Choir, Morricone performed at the Opening Concerts of the Belfast Festival at Queen's, in the Waterfront Hall on October 17 and 18, 2008. Morricone and Roma Sinfonietta also held a concert at the Belgrade Arena (Belgrade, Serbia) on February 14, 2009.

On April 10, 2010, Morricone conducted a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Roma Sinfonietta and (as in all of his previous London concerts) the Crouch End Festival Chorus. On August 27, 2010, he conducted a concert in Hungary. Two other concerts took place in Verona and Sofia (Bulgaria) on 11 and 17 September 2010.^[10]

Recent works[link]

Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album Ringleader of the Tormentors in 2006.^[11]

Quentin Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to compose the soundtrack for his most recent film, Inglourious Basterds. However, Morricone refused because of the sped-up production schedule of the film.^[12][13][14] Tarantino did use several Morricone tracks from previous films in the soundtrack.

Morricone instead wrote the music for Baaria - La porta del vento, the most recent movie by Giuseppe Tornatore. The composer is also writing music for Tornatore's upcoming movie Leningrad.

In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her album Paradiso.^[15] The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best known film compositions of the last 50 years.^[16][17] Hayley recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010.^[18][19][20]

Public reputation[link]

	"Se telefonando" noicon Sample from "Se telefonando".
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In 1956, Morricone started to support his family by playing in a jazz band and arranging pop songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI.^[5] He was hired by RAI in 1958, but quit his job on his first day at work when he was told that broadcasting of music composed by employees was forbidden by a company rule. Subsequently, Morricone became a top studio arranger at RCA, working with Renato Rascel, Rita Pavone, and Mario Lanza.^[5] A particular success was one of his own songs, "Se telefonando".^[21][22]

Performed by Mina, it was a standout track of Studio Uno 66, the fifth-biggest-selling album of the year 1966 in Italy.^[23] Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines, Hal Blaine–style drumming, a string set, a '60s Europop female choir, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade #7 song had eight transitions of tonality building tension throughout the chorus.^[21][22]

During the following decades, the song was covered by several performers in Italy and abroad—most notably by Françoise Hardy and Iva Zanicchi (1966), Delta V (2005), Vanessa and the O's (2007), and Neil Hannon (2008).^[24] In the reader's poll conducted by the la Repubblica newspaper to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina.^[25] Throughout the '60s Morricone composed songs for other artists including Milva, Gianni Morandi, Paul Anka, Amii Stewart, and Mireille Mathieu.

Personal life[link]

On 13 October 1956, he married Maria Travia and had his first son, Marco, in 1957. Travia has written lyrics to complement her husband's pieces. Her works include the Latin texts for The Mission. They have three sons and a daughter, in order of birth: Marco, Alessandra, the conductor and film composer Andrea (Andrew), and Giovanni (a filmmaker^[26] who lives in New York City).

Influence and modern references[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2011)

Morricone at the 2009 Venice film festival.

Morricone's influence also extends into the realm of pop music. Hugo Montenegro had a hit with a version of the main theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in both the United Kingdom and the United States. This was followed by his album of Morricone's music in 1968.

Aside from his music having been sampled by everyone from rappers (Jay-Z) to electronic outfits (the Orb), Morricone wrote "Se Telefonando", which became Italy's fifth biggest-selling record of 1966 and has since been re-recorded by Françoise Hardy, among many others, and scored the strings for "Dear God, Please Help Me" on Morrissey's 2006 "Ringleader of the Tormentors" album.

Morricone's film music was also recorded by many artists. John Zorn recorded an album of Morricone's music, The Big Gundown, with Keith Rosenberg in the mid-1980s. Lyricists and poets have helped convert some of his melodies into a songbook.

Morricone collaborated with world music artists, like Portuguese fado singer Dulce Pontes (in 2003 with Focus, an album praised by Paulo Coelho and where his songbook can be sampled) and virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma (in 2004), who both recorded albums of Morricone classics with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and Morricone himself conducting.

In 1990 the American singer Amii Stewart, best known for the 1979 disco hit "Knock On Wood", recorded a tribute album entitled Pearls - Amii Stewart Sings Ennio Morricone for the RCA label, including a selection of the composer's best known songs. Since the mid 1980s Stewart resides in Italy, the Pearls album features Rome's Philharmonic Orchestra and was co-produced by Morricone himself.

The 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 makes extensive use of several Morricone pieces from several 1960s film scores. The 2009 film Inglourious Basterds also uses many Morricone pieces, as well as sharing "Il Mercenario (Ripresa)" with Kill Bill.

Metallica uses Morricone's The Ecstasy of Gold as an intro at their concerts (shock jocks Opie and Anthony also use the song at the start of their XM Satellite Radio and CBS Radio shows.) The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra also played it on Metallica's Symphonic rock album S&M. Ramones used the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as a concert intro. The theme from A Fistful Of Dollars is also used as a concert intro by The Mars Volta.

His influence extends from Michael Nyman to Anna Calvi to Muse.^[27] He even has his own tribute band, a large group which started in Australia, touring as The Spaghetti Western Orchestra.

Morricone is mentioned by Myles, a musician/scorer (played by Jack Black in The Holiday), as creator of magical sounds that formed a character as much as lines of music in his films. This played out in a scene at a video rental store between Black and actress Kate Winslett.

In 2007, the tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone was released. It features performances by various artists, including Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen and Metallica.

On their 2008 album "Red of Tooth and Claw" the independent rock band, Murder by Death, composed and included a song as a theme/tribute to Morricone entitled "Theme (for Ennio Morricone)."

British band Muse cites Morricone as an influence for the songs "City of Delusion", "Hoodoo", and "Knights of Cydonia" on their album Black Holes and Revelations.^{[citation needed]}. The band has recently started playing the song "Man With A Harmonica" live played by Chris Wolstenholme, as an intro to "Knights of Cydonia".^[28]

In January 2010, tenor Donald Braswell II released his album "We Fall and We Rise Again" on which he presented his tribute to Ennio Morricone with his original composition entitled "Ennio".

The score for The Thing 2011 prequel film composed by Marco Beltrami was inspired and uses several elements from Morricone's original soundtrack from the 1982 film of the same name.

Discography[link]

Ennio Morricone has sold over 50 million records worldwide,^[29][30] including 6.5 million copies in France^[31] and more than two million albums in Korea.^[32]

Top worldwide film grosses[link]

Ennio Morricone has been involved with eight movies grossing over $25 million at the box office:^[33]

Other successful movies with Morricone's work are Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (2003, 2004) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), though the tracks used are sampled from older pictures.

Awards[link]

He received his first Academy Award nomination in 1979, for the score to Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978).^[34] He was later nominated for a further two awards; in 1986 for The Mission^[34] and in 1987 for The Untouchables.^[34] He later nominated for the score to Bugsy (Barry Levinson) (1991). His last nomination was for Malèna (2000).

Morricone and Alex North are the only composers to receive the Honorary Oscar since the award's introduction in 1928.^[35] North was nominated for fifteen Oscars, but like Morricone, he never won competitively.

Morricone received an honorary Academy Award on February 25, 2007, presented by Clint Eastwood, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." With the statuette came a standing ovation. Not only nominated five times, but also he received a lifetime achievement Oscar, five Baftas and two Golden Globes.^[36] In conjunction with the honor, Morricone released a tribute album, We All Love Ennio Morricone, that featured as its centerpiece Celine Dion's rendition of "I Knew I Loved You" (based on "Deborah's Theme" from Once Upon a Time in America), which she performed at the ceremony. Behind-the-scenes studio production and recording footage of "I Knew I Loved You" can be viewed in the debut episode of the QuincyJones.com Podcast.^[37] The lyric, as with Morricone's Love Affair, had been penned by Oscar-winning husband-and-wife duo Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Morricone's acceptance speech was in his native Italian tongue and was interpreted by Clint Eastwood, who stood to his left. Eastwood and Morricone had in fact met two days earlier—for the first time in 40 years—at a reception.

List of prizes and awards[link]

• 1965 â€“ Nastro d'Argento for A Fistful of Dollars
• 1967 â€“ Diapason d'Or
• 1969 â€“ Premio Spoleto Cinema
• 1970 â€“ Nastro d'argento for Metti una sera a cena
• 1971 â€“ Nastro d'argento for Sacco e Vanzetti
• 1972 â€“ Cork Film International for La califfa
• 1979 â€“ Academy Awards nomination for Days of Heaven
• 1979 â€“ Premio Vittorio de Sica
• 1981 â€“ Premio della critica discografica for Il prato
• 1984 â€“ Premio Zurlini
• 1985 â€“ Nastro d'argento and BAFTA for Once Upon A Time In America
• 1986 â€“ Academy Awards Nomination, BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards for The Mission
• 1986 â€“ Premio Vittorio de Sica
• 1988 â€“ Academy Awards nomination, Nastro d'argento, BAFTA and Grammy Awards for The Untouchables
• 1988 â€“ David di Donatello for Gli occhiali d'oro
• 1989 â€“ David di Donatello for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
• 1989 â€“ Ninth Annual Ace Winner for Il Giorno prima
• 1989 â€“ Pardo d'Oro alla carriera Locarno Film Festival
• 1990 â€“ BAFTA, Prix Fondation Sacem del XLIII Cannes Film Festival and David di Donatello for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
• 1991 â€“ David di Donatello for Stanno tutti bene
• 1992 â€“ Academy Award nomination for Bugsy
• 1992 â€“ Pentagramma d'oro
• 1992 â€“ Premio Michelangelo
• 1992 â€“ Grolla d'oro alla carriera (Saint Vincent)
• 1993 â€“ David di Donatello and Efebo d'Argento for Jonas che visse nella balena
• 1993 â€“ Globo d'oro Stampa estera in Italia
• 1993 â€“ Gran Premio SACEM audiovisivi
• 1994 â€“ ASCAP Golden Soundtrack Award (Los Angeles)
• 1995 â€“ Premio Rota
• 1995 â€“ Golden Lion Honorary Award by the Venice Film Festival
• 1996 â€“ Premio citta' di Roma
• 1996 â€“ Premio Cappelli
• 1996 â€“ Premio Accademia di Santa Cecilia
• 1997 â€“ Premio Flaiano
• 1998 â€“ Columbus Prize
• 1999 â€“ Erich Wolfgang Korngold Internationaler Preis fĂĽr Film
• 1999 â€“ Exsquibbidles Film Academy lifetime achievement award
• 2000 â€“ Golden Globe for The Legend of 1900 (1998)
• 2000 â€“ David di Donatello and Nastro d'argento for Canone Inverso
• 2000 â€“ Academy Awards nomination for Malèna
• 2000 â€“ Nastro d'argento for Malèna
• 2001 â€“ Mikeldi de Honor at "Zinebi â€“ International Festival of Documentary and Short Films" of Bilbao
• 2002 â€“ Honorary Degree by the "Seconda UniversitĂ " of Rome
• 2003 â€“ Golden Eagle Award by the Russian National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of Russia for 72 Meters (film)
• 2003 â€“ Honorary Senator of the Filmscoring Class of the Hochschule fĂĽr Musik und Theater MĂĽnchen
• 2006 â€“ Grand Officer OMRI, nominated by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
• 2007 â€“ Honorary Academy Award for career achievement
• 2007 â€“ The Film & TV Music Award for Lifetime Achievement
• 2007 â€“ David di Donatello and Nastro d'argento for La sconosciuta
• 2008 â€“ Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental, performed by Bruce Springsteen
• 2008 â€“ Knight of the Legion of Honour
• 2009 â€“ Medal of Merits for Macedonia^[38]
• 2009 â€“ America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation
• 2010 â€“ Polar Music Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of the Arts

Sources[link]

• Horace, B. Music from the Movies, film music journal double issue 45/46, 2005: ISSN 0967-8131
• Miceli, Sergio. Morricone, la musica, il cinema. Milan: Mucchi/Ricordi, 1994: ISBN 88-7592-398-1
• Miceli, Sergio. "Morricone, Ennio". The Nesw Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 3. Dal 1960 al 1969. Gremese, 1993: ISBN 88-7605-593-2
• Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979* A/L. Gremese, 1996: ISBN 88-7605-935-0
• Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979** M/Z. Gremese, 1996: ISBN 88-7605-969-5
• Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989* A/L. Gremese, 2000: ISBN 88-7742-423-0
• Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989** M/Z. Gremese, 2000: ISBN 88-7742-429-X

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Lhassa, Anne, and Jean Lhassa: Ennio Morricone: biographie. Les Planches. Lausanne: Favre; [Paris]: [diff. Inter-forum], 1989. ISBN 2-8289-0418-0,
• Wagner, Thorsten. "Improvisation als 'weiteste Ausdehnung des Begriffs der aleatorischen Musik': Franco Evangelisti und die Improvisationsgruppe Nuova Consonanza". In ...hin zu einer neuen Welt: Notate zu Franco Evangelisti, edited by Harald Muenz.48-60, 2002. SaarbrĂĽcken: Pfau-Verlag. ISBN 3-89727-177-X.
• Webb, Michael D. Italian 20th Century Music: The Quest for Modernity. London: Kahn & Averill. ISBN 978-1-871082-89-0

External links[link]

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