Author: Rama Venkatasawmy
Cite as:
Venkatasawmy, R. (2025). A systems perspective of Ennio Morricone’s creativity in film music. Journal of Creative Industries and Cultural Studies – JOCIS, 13, 23-51.
https://doi.org/10.56140/JOCIS-v13-2
Abstract
Ennio Morricone’s creativity in film music has been the outcome of a systemic process shaped by the interaction between Morricone as the principal creative agent with the evolving domain and field of film music. He transformed the domain of film music by operating within the simultaneously constraining and enabling factors of the structure inherent to music composition and production. Through the application of a systems perspective that focuses on a confluence approach and highlights a multi-factorial process at work, this paper explicates the evolution of Ennio Morricone’s creativity in film music composition and how he permanently transformed the central significance of scoring in filmmaking, storytelling and characterization through his adherence to as well as departures from existing traditions of music composition and production.
Keywords
Ennio Morricone; film music; Italian cinema; creativity; film score; spaghetti western; Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi