My favorite film composer is gone, but his music will last forever

I woke up today to learn that my favorite film composer, the legendary Ennio Morricone, has died at 91. This man's music has meant so much to music -- and to me -- it's an incalculable loss.

I mean almost anyone on the planet can summon up the hook of his The Good, The Bad & The Ugly theme, usually without even ever seen the movie. Why? Because that twangy jangle has just become synonymous with westerns.

John Williams has more recognizable themes to be sure, but I feel like no film composer was quite as prolific as the Italian maestro. His legacy will surely be forever linked to the spaghetti western, and his unforgettable scores for director Sergio Leone, but quite a few of his other genre compositions are classics too.

It was probably his incredible music for The Untouchables that helped me discover him. The movie opens with his expressive and exciting style from the kinetic credits and never lets go. His work is the perfect compliment to Brian DePalma's popcorn flick.

Just recently I bought a fancy edition of his underrated, ominous score for The Thing on vinyl, music that was largely repurposed for Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, the film that finally delivered Morricone as absurdly overdue Oscar back in 2016.

I'm by no means an expert on music (haha or let's face it, movies for that matter) but it seems to me his signature style was this sort of hybrid between a soaring, romantic, almost old-fashioned melodramatic sound with a rock-influenced rhythm (often supplied by the guitar).

Once Upon a Time in the West

Now, the sound has become instantly recognizable for most cinephiles, but it was downright radical and revolutionary when most international audiences first heard it in Leone's A Fistful of Dollars. Leone, who could be a bit of a taciturn character, later dismissed his flashy score for that first 'dollars' film one of his worst, but clearly he was onto to something, because Morricone went on to compose for endless more entries in the genre, including one of my favorites - the howling revenge-themed tracks of Navajo Joe.

My personal favorite of his is the music he composed for one of my favorite films (and favorite western) Once Upon a Time in the West. Morricone, working close in collaboration with Leone, composed a specific score for each of his four major characters and seamlessly weaved them all together as the sprawling narrative unfolds. Leone reportedly paced several of his scenes in accordance with Leone's predetermined music, instead of the other way around, which is the tradition with this sort of thing.

His work elevates an already visually fantastic movie to feel epic in scope and scale. That's what Morricone scores do. They aren't moody or minimalist, they announce themselves and make movies more dynamically cinematic. I think of his music for Days of Heaven, a gorgeous period movie by Terrence Malick, prototypically low on dialogue. His opening music to that film is some of the most haunting film music I've ever heard, and it instantly puts you on the movie's emotional wavelength.

It's funny -- I am a huge movie soundtrack nerd. It's often the first section I go to when I go into a record store*. Morricone is such a brand -- such a unique talent -- that he is often the only composer to have his own section among the soundtracks (which are usually grouped together regardless of quality or composition). He demands that kind of respect.

And he'll be enjoying it for yeats and years long after he's gone, because his film work will last forever.

*When you could go into record stores, sigh.