Ennio Morricone’s music for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight

Written by:
Mohammad Hadi Majidi

After watching Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, The Hateful Eight, everyone was excited by its novel music besides the beautiful scenes of blood and guts.

The Hateful Eight is the first collaboration between the world-famous film music composer, Ennio Morricone, and Quentin Tarantino as a famous director.

The presence of Tarantino who is known by films like The Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill which are characterized by his “nonlinear storylines, satirical subject matter, and his personal aestheticization of violence“. Morricone, as a multi-style composer whose styles have made him one of the most versatile, experimental and influential composers of all time, made this collaboration so attractive.

Tarantino starts working on civil war events of America from his movie “Django Unchained” and The Hateful Eight is his second film on the wild west era and maybe Tarantino chose Morricone as the film composer, because of his wide experience on Spaghetti-western movies.

A composer like Morricone, could rest on his “laurels, and compose scores with those everyday sounds he was first known for“. However, he decided to write a different music in a different style and with different voices. “I’m continuously thinking about music, continuously researching and attentive. I cannot just remain still,” he says. “I don’t want to remain conservative; I want to go ahead and look at the future.”
So that the orchestration of the overture part of the film is so innovative. Morricone combines the real voices of an orchestra with some new electronic techniques as he says, “Quentin Tarantino and his film really deserve a music of their own.”
To create that original score for Tarantino, Morricone largely turns to tools unavailable in 1964, like synthesizers, which drive the tense, gloomy eight-minute overture. (Morricone’s compositions for The Thing, used in The Hateful Eight, were some of his first work with synths in the early 1980s).
The experimenting composer isn’t above technological advances, but he’s quick to warn young composers of the dangers of seductive technology. “Electronic instruments have to be used to justify something that doesn’t exist, not to replace for instance an orchestra,” he says. “If you use the synth just to recreate the sound of an existing musical instrument, it is wrong. But if you use the synth to create a sound that doesn’t exist, that’s a very wise way to use it.”

In this movie, there are lots of scenes in which Morricone has created the feeling of humor among the horrible violent scenes of the movie. One of the best examples or maybe the most memorable part of the movie is the Lincoln’s letter scene in which we observe lots of murders and a flood of blood everywhere, also we know the characters depth of crime, and while the character reading the Lincoln’s letter that is about beauty and glory of patriotism and duty, Morricone wisely match this scene whit a glorious fanfare music in the background that just make us feel funny about the meaning of patriotism and glory.
The director, Tarantino had reused Morricone’s music in several of his other films: Django Unchained, IngloriousBastards, and Kill Bill. But for The Hateful Eight, he knew he wanted an original soundtrack for the first time.
“This material deserved an original score,” explained Tarantino in an interview with Christopher Nolan. “I’ve never thought that way before. I didn’t ever want to trust a composer with the soul of my movie.” But he decided he could trust the man whom he describes as his favorite composer in history.
Morricone urges his listeners to hear The Hateful Eight score apart from his previous work—especially from the enduring legacy of his spaghetti Westerns. “Forget the work that I’ve done in the past for the Italian Western or for the Sergio Leone movies,” he says.

The other attractive point of the film’s music is the songs that Morricone and Tarantino had chosen for the movie. Especially the song “Jim Jones at Botany” Bay that Jennifer Jason Leigh sings with a guitar, is the traditional Australian folk ballad , which dates from the early 19th-century.

The soundtrack of the movie won a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Score on 28 February 2016.
The opening track, “L’ultima diligenza di Red Rock” (Versione Integrale), was released as a single online on December 15, 2015. In December 2016, it gained a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for Mr. Morricone.

 

 

Post a Comment

Required fields are marked *
*
*
Your email is never shared.

Transition to Enlightenment: Six Lectures on Mozart’s String Quartets (4)

Mozart’s compositions bear the imprint of Enlightenment ideals in various ways. His music exhibits a balance between reason and emotion, mirroring the Enlightenment’s call for a harmonious integration of these elements in human life. The clarity of Mozart’s formal structures in his symphonies and operas reflects Enlightenment principles of order and rational organization.

Fereydoun Shahbazian, An Iranian Musical Icon Passed Away

Fereydoun Shahbazian, the renowned Iranian composer, passed away at the age of 82 due to respiratory illness in Tehran. His last significant activity was leading the National Orchestra before the appointment of Homayoun Rahimian

From Past Days…

Polyphony in Iranian Music (VI)

Torqeh or jal is the same bird (Bimaculated lark) and is the name of a muqam which is well-known in Torbate Jam and those areas. Jal muqam is called Torqeh in Esfarayen and Bojnourd. This muqam which was used to be played by Bakhshis/Bagşies (dutar-players) in the past is seldom performed today.

A Look at Ali Tajvidi’s Manifold Musical Activities (I)

Ali Tajvidi (1920 – 2004), one of the most prominent Iranian musicians, passed away sixteen years ago. He was one of the most distinguished Iranian artists. To specify one of the fields in which he was unique, one can refer to Tasnif composition. A brief review of his manifold musical activities is presented below.

A Note on the Occasion of Houshang Zarif’s Demise

No introduction is needed when talking about the position of the late Houshang Zarif (1938-2020) in the Iranian music. His character and personality are so well-known among musicians that his name per se is a symbol and role model for the Iranian youth. “Becoming Houshang Zarif” is the dream of many young people who enter the world of music in Iran and many of whom retire regretting the realisation of this dream.

The Structure of Kurdistan Daf (II)

With its simple physical structure and captivating sound, the Daf never belonged to a particular culture or location, and every nation had different usages for this instrument considering their dominant customs and traditions.

Davoud Pirnia (1900 - 1971)

About Davoud Pirnia, the founder of “Golha” radio program

Davoud Pirnia, writer and musicologist was the founder of “Golha” (Flowers of Persian Song and Music) programs on Tehran Radio (1956-1966). He received his early education from his father, Hassan Pirnia (Moshir al-Douleh), and several tutors of the time (Taraghi, interview, July 1989) and continued his studies at Saint Louis School in Tehran and then in Switzerland and graduated in law. While studying law, Pirnia got acquainted with European classical music. Upon returning to Iran, he was employed by the Ministry of Justice and founded the Lawyers’ Guild. Then he was transferred to the Ministry of Finance and established the Department of Statistics in this ministry. Later, he became the head of the state inspection office at the Prime Ministry; he was, then, promoted to the position of the Deputy Prime Minister (Navab Safa, interview, August 1999)

Lilly Afshar, Iranian Guitar Legend, passed away

The text you are reading is about Hamed Fathi, a guitarist and one of Lilly Afshar’s students, which was previously published on the Persian website HarmonyTalk.com:

Transition to Enlightenment: Six Lectures on Mozart’s String Quartets (2)

The Enlightenment era championed innovation, creativity, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge, values that resonate prominently in Mozart’s string quartets. Mozart, a luminary of the Enlightenment, used the quartet form as a playground for his inventive spirit, pushing the boundaries of traditional structures and harmonic progressions.

Interview with the Makers of the New Qeychak (II)

Regarding the classification of a new instrument in an instrument family, one can point to a number of fundamental issues, one of the most obvious of which is the instrument’s visual features. If we look at how the new instrument has changed compared to its historical versions, the set of visual elements that link the instrument to the Qeychak family becomes apparent. But other characteristics such as the geometric dimensions of the instrument, characteristics of the instrument’s various parts and how they relate to each other, its systematic performance, its sound range (compared to modern versions), the material and color of the sound, the way it is played and the like, can be considered in order to classify the instrument in the Qeychak family.

Prominent Iranian Musicologist Passes Away in Vienna

Khosrow Djafarzadeh, musicologist and architect, who was also one of the main authors of HarmonyTalk journal passed away on 15 July 2019.

The Structure of Kurdistan Daf (VII)

Conclusion

“Daf” is one of type of percussion instruments that has a long history and is commonly known as circular instruments (with a rim). In some tribes, Daf was used as the main instrument in festivity and joy ceremonies; in another tribe it was used as the main instrument for war and campaign ceremonies and some others used it for ritual and religious ceremonies.