Ennio Morricone - music legend on Sweden visit during farewell tour

As a reporter, before an interview with maestro Morricone , you receive an e-mail with a couple of advice from his agent to best avoid creating a bad mood.

One of these is not to start the interview with questions about the collaboration with director Sergio Leone, which among other things resulted in the so-called "dollar trilogy" - and above all not to call the films "the spaghetti western".

It is also good to avoid questions related to the Second World War - and then comes a dry call: " Maestro does not like banal questions about favorite directors, pets etc - this when he dislikes superficial interviews".

However, that Ennio Morricone at this point tired of answering crippled questions from journalists should come as no surprise to anyone.

As a six-year-old he composed his first musical work. Since then, he has written music for over 500 films and television series and won two Oscars. Maestro, as he is titled, has provided countless interviews over the years and remains ever-current.

In November 2017, the composer celebrated his 90th birthday, but despite the impressive figure, there was no special grand celebration, he tells Culture News by phone from Rome.

- I never celebrate my birthday. I had dinner with my children and my wife, but I did not celebrate in any other way, he says.

As soon as he studied the trumpet at the conservatory in Rome, Ennio Morricone began to stealthily work as an organizer and composer for Italian radio and television and for the record company RCA, which was not seen with the eyes of the classically trained teachers at the conservatory. That he eventually began to compose film music was more or less a coincidence, he tells Culture News.

- I was simply asked to do it - and then I did. I have never had to look for a job, but because you are your own composer you get your job by either making yourself a name - or having a reputation for doing a good job. So was the radio and television jobs.

After Ennio Morricone composed the music for the film Il federale in 1961 by Luciano Salce, the assignments began to roll in. In 1963 he was asked to write the music for For a Handful of Dollars - the first of the films in Sergio Leone's Western trilogy - and thus began one of the most iconic collaborations in film history.

When the director and composer met for the first time to discuss the project, they both also got a surprise: they had a common history, ”Ennio Morricone says.

- It turned out that we had gone to third grade in elementary school together, and then we met there again after all the years. And I recognized him from school.

For a handful of dollars became a huge success and was followed in 1965 by For a few dollars more to end in 1966 with the evil, the good, the bad.

The films were shot for budget reasons in southern Spain and Italy - countries that could offer environments that were reminiscent of significantly more expensive recording locations in the US and Mexico.

Leone and Morricone also had a very close collaboration, where the composer wrote the music before the movies started to be recorded and the director then let it play during the recording to put the actors in the right mood.

And according to Ennio Morricone, Sergio Leone placed great emphasis on the role of music in his filmmaking.

- The music can last for a long time in Leone's films - precisely the duration is an important component of his work - and its task was to create the mood that the director was looking for.

- And the symbolism of sound - there doesn't have to be any advanced forms of sound - makes a movie itself more easily understandable and real to the audience, he says.

The work process varies from film to film, but if the maestro chooses himself, he writes the music even before the film is recorded.

- Unfortunately, the music often comes last in the process itself, which means that the director sometimes does not have the time required to understand it. Therefore, I first want to write and record the music so that the director can hear it before the filming starts.

- When you make your first movie together you don't understand each other so well. The important thing is to work together a lot - that's when you get to know each other. Otherwise, the director may not dare to point out things he feels unsure about the composer, he says.

The list of directors Ennio Morricone collaborated with is close to a kilometer long and includes, in addition to Sergio Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuseppe Tornatore, John Boorman and Quentin Tarantino.

But when asked which of these directors he collaborated best with, there will be a stop from the maestro.

- I never answer that. Simply because I have only worked with the directors I have agreed with. The ones I have not agreed with have I not worked with either.

- If I have known that there has been a risk of misunderstanding regarding terms and opinions, there has been no cooperation before we rectify these, says Ennio Morricone to the Culture News.

Ennio Morricone gives two concerts in Sweden: 26/1 at the Gothenburg Concert Hall and 27/1 at the Globe in Stockholm during the Last Ever tour.