Is Ennio Morricone Not A Good Film Music Composer?

What do Ennio Morricone, Guernica and Bakhtin’s dialogical concept have in common?

image created by the writer using canva

First of all, dear reader, I owe you an apology for that headline. To be honest, it was just a ploy to get your attention. However, this question has an honest history. Many years ago, in the film music class at Bogazici University, I really asked this question, but more politely: “Is Ennio Morricone a good film music composer?”

I had my doubts about it, frankly. But after some debates, I came to the reasonable conclusion: “Absolutely, he is!” Yet in this article, I shall revisit that same question. It is only by exploring the answer to this question that we can discover what makes Morricone so unique among his peers.

Now, like a Matryoshka doll, one question will emerge from another.

First:

• What is film music?

By definition, film music refers to the music played in a film. However, its role isn’t uniform. Sometimes, it’s diegetic: a character turns on a radio, and we, with them, faintly hear a pre-existing song in the background — though, for this article, such instances don’t qualify as “film music.” Other times, a pre-existing song may be part of a film’s non-diegetic soundtrack, as in…