Ennio Morricone
Composers Datebook · Nov 10, 2026 · 2:00
Composers Datebook · Nov 10, 2026 · 2:00
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Today’s date in 1928 marks the birthdate in 1928 of Italian composer Ennio Morricone, famous for more than 400 scores he wrote for films and TV.
If you’re a fan, you already know that he wrote the music for a series of spaghetti western movies like the 1964 classic A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood as a taciturn, sun-burnt, cigar-chomping gunman.
If you’re an oboist, you’ve probably played his haunting Gabriel’s Oboe at weddings or funerals. It’s a melody originally heard in his soundtrack to the 1986 film The Mission.
But in a 2006 interview for Dazed magazine, he revealed some things even his fans might not have known: He collected bars of hotel soap as a hobby. And if he hadn’t become a composer, he would have liked to have been a professional chess player.
He also offered a bit of wise advice when asked about scores that were not successes: “A long time ago, I really loved a film that I was working on and I became too involved. That was kind of unbalanced. It made me realize that you can’t love things too much if you want them to work.”
Ennio Morricone (1928-2020): Gabriel’s Oboe from The Mission; Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Ennio Morricone, conductor; Sony 57872
