This Concert has been watched an absurd amount of times, and for a good reason, as it is Brilliant! The Conductor is a picky American, with her own Orchestra, and the Wha, Wha, lady is one of the finest mezzo Sopranoes in the world, a Norwegian! She still gets Fanmail from this Concert!
The composer Ennio Morricone was an expert at using the sounds of instruments that most people never heard of - and of using the human voice as an instrument as well. He composed over 400 music scores for movies - and I assure you that you have seen some of those movies as he was very much in demand, and considered a genius at movie music. Ennio won two Academy Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, ten David di Donatello, eleven Nastro d'Argento, two European Film Awards, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and the Polar Music Prize. I highly recommend that you watch the movie "The Good, the Bad, and the ugly" to gain a better appreciation of this music. This was actually the 3rd movie in a series of movies - so you might wish to watch them all (Ennio wrote the music for all 3 movies).
The first instrument was a Recorder. The second was an ocarina, sometimes known as a sweet potato. The hanging man is part of the story line of the film "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" with Clint Eastwood.
So cool! Yes, this song is from the movie The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Not sure if you like classic movies, but it's a great one. It's one of several movies known as "Spaghetti Westerns", cuz the director, Sergio Leone & the composer, Ennio Morricone (who made this song & the soundtrack of the movie) are Italian. It stars Clint Eastwood. The "man" hanging has to do with the movie. Also, the part with the piano & the lady singing is sampled by Metallica in their concert in Russia right before they begin playing "Enter Sandman"
The "Dollars Trilogy" of films: "A Fistful of dollars" , "For a few dollars more" , "The good, the bad, and the ugly". All starring Clint Eastwood, highly recomend watching these classic so called spaghetti westerns.
Brilliant. Beautifully arranged and presented. A tough composition to coordinate but done superbly. So many elements and dynamics. The hanging man just symbolic of what takes place in the movie, the struggle for gold, the good (Blondie), the bad, the ugly. The movie is a classic and with the musical score, a tour de force.
You understandably have some huge 20th century cultural blind spots. And that includes the "spaghetti western" phenomenon of which Sergio Leone's films starring Clint Eastwood (that's him up on the wall in the hat) were the most successful. Most of them had someone hanged. One was titled, "Hang 'Em High." In The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of which this is the soundtrack, hangings feature heavily in the plot. People who have seen the films know instantly what the hanging man refers to.
