title: Bath, Somerset

text: In the 1970s and 1980s, it was recognised that conservation of historic buildings was inadequate, leading to more care and reuse of buildings and open spaces. In 1987, the city was selected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, recognising its international cultural significance.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Between 1991 and 2000, Bath was the scene of a series of rapes committed by an unidentified man dubbed the "Batman rapist". The attacker remains at large and is the subject of Britain's longest-running serial rape investigation. He is said to have a tights fetish, have a scar below his bottom lip and resides in the Bath area or knows it very well. He has also been linked to the unsolved murder of Melanie Hall, which occurred in the city in 1996. Although the offender's DNA is known and several thousand men in Bath were DNA tested, the attacker continues to evade police.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Since 2000, major developments have included the Thermae Bath Spa, the SouthGate shopping centre, the residential Western Riverside project on the Stothert & Pitt factory site, and the riverside Bath Quays office and business development. In 2021, Bath become part of a second UNESCO World Heritage Site, a group of spa towns across Europe known as the "Great Spas of Europe".


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Since 1996, the city has had a single tier of local government — Bath and North East Somerset Council.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath had long been an ancient borough, having that status since 878 when it became a royal borough (burh) of Alfred the Great, and was reformed into a municipal borough in 1835. It has formed part of the county of Somerset since 878, when ceded to Wessex, having previously been in Mercia (the River Avon had acted as the border between the two kingdoms since 628). However, Bath was made a county borough in 1889, independent of the newly created administrative county and Somerset County Council. Bath became part of Avon when the non-metropolitan county was created in 1974, resulting in its abolition as a county borough, and instead became a non-metropolitan district with borough status.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: With the abolition of Avon in 1996, the non-metropolitan district and borough were abolished too, and Bath has since been part of the unitary authority district of Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES). The unitary district included also the Wansdyke district and therefore includes a wider area than the city (the 'North East Somerset' element) including Keynsham which is home to many of the council's offices, though the council meets at the Guildhall in Bath.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath was returned to the ceremonial county of Somerset in 1996, though as B&NES is a unitary authority, it is not part of the area covered by Somerset County Council.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Because Bath is unparished, there is no longer a city council (or parish council) – Bath City Council having ended in 1996 with the abolition of the district of Bath. The City of Bath's ceremonial functions, including its formal status as a city, its twinning arrangements, the mayoralty of Bath– which can be traced back to 1230– and control of the city's coat of arms, are maintained by the charter trustees of the City of Bath.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The councillors elected by the electoral wards that cover Bath (see below) are the trustees, and they elect one of their number as their chair and mayor. The mayor holds office for one municipal year and in modern times the mayor begins their term in office on the first Saturday in June, at a ceremony at Bath Abbey with a civic procession from and to the Guildhall. The 794th mayor, who began her office on 6 May 2021, is June Player. A deputy mayor is also elected.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The coat of arms includes a depiction of the city wall, and two silver strips representing the River Avon and the hot springs. The sword of St. Paul is a link to Bath Abbey. The supporters, a lion and a bear, stand on a bed of acorns, a link to Bladud, the subject of the Legend of Bath. The knight's helmet indicates a municipality and the crown is that of King Edgar (referencing his coronation at the Abbey). A mural crown, indicating a city, is alternatively used instead of the helmet and Edgar's crown.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The Arms bear the motto "Aqvae Svlis", the Roman name for Bath in Latin script; although not on the Arms, the motto "Floreat Bathon" is sometimes used ("may Bath flourish" in Latin).


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath and North East Somerset Council has established the Bath City Forum, comprising B&NES councillors representing wards in Bath and up to 13 co-opted members drawn from the communities of the city. The first meeting of the Forum was held on 13 October 2015, at the Guildhall, where the first chair and vice-chair were elected. In 2021, this was re-launched as the Bath Area Forum.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath is one of the oldest extant parliamentary constituencies in the United Kingdom, being in continuous existence since the Model Parliament of 1295. Before the Reform Act 1832, Bath elected two members to the unreformed House of Commons, as an ancient parliamentary borough. From 1832 until 1918 it elected two MPs and then was reduced to one.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Historically the constituency covered only the city of Bath, however it was enlarged into some outlying areas between 1997 and 2010. The constituency since 2010 once again covers exactly the city of Bath (it is co-extensive with the unparished area), and is currently represented by Liberal Democrat Wera Hobhouse who beat Conservative Ben Howlett at the 2017 general election and retained her seat at the 2019 general election. Howlett had replaced the retiring Liberal Democrat Don Foster at the 2015 general election. Foster's election was a notable result of the 1992 general election, as Chris Patten, the previous Member (and Cabinet Minister) played a major part, as Chairman of the Conservative Party, in re-electing the government of John Major, but failed to defend his marginal seat.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The fifteen electoral wards of Bath are: Bathwick, Combe Down, Kingsmead, Lambridge, Lansdown, Moorlands, Newbridge, Odd Down, Oldfield Park, Southdown, Twerton, Walcot, Westmoreland, Weston and Widcombe & Lyncombe. These wards are co-extensive with the city, except that Newbridge includes also two parishes beyond the city boundary.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: These wards return a total of 28 councillors to Bath and North East Somerset Council; all except two wards return two councillors (Moorlands and Oldfield Park return one each). The most recent elections were held on 2 May 2019 and all wards returned Liberal Democrats except for Westmoreland which returned independents.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Boundary changes enacted from 2 May 2019 included the abolition of Abbey ward, the merger of Lyncombe and Widcombe wards, the creation of Moorlands ward, and the replacement of Oldfield with Oldfield Park, as well as considerable changes to boundaries affecting all wards.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath is in the Avon Valley and is surrounded by limestone hills as it is near the southern edge of the Cotswolds, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the limestone Mendip Hills rise around south of the city. The hills that surround and make up the city have a maximum altitude of on the Lansdown plateau. Bath has an area of .


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The floodplain of the Avon has an altitude of about above sea level, although the city centre is at an elevation of around above sea level. The river, once an unnavigable series of braided streams broken up by swamps and ponds, has been managed by weirs into a single channel. Periodic flooding, which shortened the life of many buildings in the lowest part of the city, was normal until major flood control works were completed in the 1970s. Kensington Meadows is an area of mixed woodland and open meadow next to the river which has been designated as a local nature reserve.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Water bubbling up from the ground as geothermal springs originates as rain on the Mendip Hills. The rain percolates through limestone aquifers to a depth of between where geothermal energy raises the water's temperature to between 64 and 96 °C (approximately 147–205 °F). Under pressure, the heated water rises to the surface along fissures and faults in the limestone. Hot water at a temperature of rises here at the rate of daily, from the Pennyquick geological fault.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: In 1983, a new spa-water bore-hole was sunk, providing a clean and safe supply for drinking in the Pump Room. There is no universal definition to distinguish a hot spring from a geothermal spring, although, by several definitions, the Bath springs can be considered the only hot springs in the UK. Three of the springs feed the thermal baths.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Along with the rest of South West England, Bath has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of the country. The annual mean temperature is approximately . Seasonal temperature variation is less extreme than most of the United Kingdom because of the adjacent sea temperatures. The summer months of July and August are the warmest, with mean daily maxima of approximately . In winter, mean minimum temperatures of are common. In the summer, the Azores high pressure affects the south-west of England bringing fair weather; however, convective cloud sometimes forms inland, reducing the number of hours of sunshine. Annual sunshine rates are slightly less than the regional average of 1,600 hours.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: In December 1998 there were 20 days without sun recorded at Yeovilton. Most of the rainfall in the south-west is caused by Atlantic depressions or by convection. Most of the rainfall in autumn and winter is caused by the Atlantic depressions, which is when they are most active. In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground, leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms. Average rainfall is around . About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, and June to August have the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the southwest.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath is fully enclosed by green belt as a part of a wider environmental and planning policy first designated in the late 1950s, and this extends into much of the surrounding district and beyond, helping to maintain local green space, prevent further urban sprawl and unplanned expansion towards Bristol and Bradford-on-Avon, as well as protecting smaller villages in between. Suburbs of the city bordering the green belt include Batheaston, Bathford, Bathampton, the University of Bath campus, Ensleigh, Twerton, Upper Weston, Odd Down, and Combe Down.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Parts of the Cotswolds AONB southern extent overlap the green belt north of the city, with other nearby landscape features and facilities within the green belt including the River Avon, Kennet and Avon Canal, Bath Racecourse, Bath Golf Club, Bathampton Down, Bathampton Meadow Nature Reserve, Bristol and Bath Railway Path, the Cotswold Way, Limestone Link route, Pennyquick Park, Little Solsbury Hill, and Primrose Hill.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: According to the 2011 census, Bath, together with North East Somerset, which includes areas around Bath as far as the Chew Valley, had a population of 176,015. Demography shows according to the same statistics, the district is overwhelmingly populated by people of a white background at 94.6% – significantly higher than the national average of 87.17%. Other ethnic groups in the district, in order of population size, are multiracial at 1.6%, Asian at 2.6% and black at 0.8% (the national averages are 1.98%, 6.92% and 3.01%, respectively).


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The district is largely Christian at 56.5%, with no other religion reaching more than 0.7%. These figures generally compare with the national averages, though the non-religious, at 32.7%, are significantly more prevalent than the national 25.67%. 83.9% of residents rated their health as good or very good, higher than the national level (81.40%). Nationally, 18% of people describe themselves as having a long-term illness; in Bath it is 16.10%.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The 2011 census recorded a population of 94,782 for the Bath built-up area and 88,859 for the unparished area (the city), with the latter exactly corresponding to the boundaries of the parliament constituency. The Bath built-up area extends slightly beyond the boundaries of the city itself, taking in areas to the northeast such as Bathampton and Bathford. The 2001 census figure for the city was 83,992. By 2019, the population was estimated at 90,000.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The table below compares the city (the unparished area) of Bath with the unitary authority district as a whole (including the city) and South West England.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath once had an important manufacturing sector, particularly in crane manufacture, furniture manufacture, printing, brass foundries, quarries, dye works and Plasticine manufacture, as well as many mills. Significant Bath companies included Stothert & Pitt, Bath Cabinet Makers and Bath & Portland Stone.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Nowadays, manufacturing is in decline, but the city boasts strong software, publishing and service-oriented industries. The city's attraction to tourists has also led to a significant number of jobs in tourism-related industries. Important economic sectors in Bath include education and health (30,000 jobs), retail, tourism and leisure (14,000 jobs) and business and professional services (10,000 jobs).


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Major employers are the National Health Service, the city's two universities, and the Bath and North East Somerset Council, as well as the Ministry of Defence although a number of MOD offices formerly in Bath have recently moved to Bristol. Growing employment sectors include information and communication technologies and creative and cultural industries where Bath is one of the recognised national centres for publishing, with the magazine and digital publisher Future plc employing around 650 people. Others include Buro Happold (400) and IPL Information Processing Limited (250). The city boasts over 400 retail shops, half of which are run by independent specialist retailers, and around 100 restaurants and cafes primarily supported by tourism.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: One of Bath's principal industries is tourism, with annually more than one million staying visitors and 3.8 million day visitors. The visits mainly fall into the categories of heritage tourism and cultural tourism, aided by the city's selection in 1987 as a World Heritage Site in recognition of its international cultural importance. All significant stages of the history of England are represented within the city, from the Roman Baths (including their significant Celtic presence), to Bath Abbey and the Royal Crescent, to the more recent Thermae Bath Spa.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The size of the tourist industry is reflected in the almost 300 places of accommodation – including more than 80 hotels, two of which have 'five-star' ratings, over 180 bed and breakfasts – many of which are located in Georgian buildings, and two campsites located on the western edge of the city. The city also has about 100 restaurants and a similar number of pubs and bars.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Several companies offer open top bus tours around the city, as well as tours on foot and on the river. Since the opening of Thermae Bath Spa in 2006, the city has attempted to recapture its historical position as the only town or city in the United Kingdom offering visitors the opportunity to bathe in naturally heated spring waters.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: In the 2010 Google Street View Best Streets Awards, the Royal Crescent took second place in the "Britain's Most Picturesque Street" award, first place being given to The Shambles in York. Milsom Street was also awarded "Britain's Best Fashion Street" in the 11,000-strong vote.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: There are many Roman archaeological sites throughout the central area of the city. The baths themselves are about below the present city street level. Around the hot springs, Roman foundations, pillar bases, and baths can still be seen, however all the stonework above the level of the baths is from more recent periods.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath Abbey was a Norman church built on earlier foundations. The present building dates from the early 16th century and shows a late Perpendicular style with flying buttresses and crocketed pinnacles decorating a crenellated and pierced parapet. The choir and transepts have a fan vault by Robert and William Vertue. A matching vault was added to the nave in the 19th century. The building is lit by 52 windows.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Most buildings in Bath are made from the local, golden-coloured Bath stone, and many date from the 18th and 19th century. The dominant style of architecture in Central Bath is Georgian; this style evolved from the Palladian revival style that became popular in the early 18th century. Many of the prominent architects of the day were employed in the development of the city. The original purpose of much of Bath's architecture is concealed by the honey-coloured classical façades; in an era before the advent of the luxury hotel, these apparently elegant residences were frequently purpose-built lodging houses, where visitors could hire a room, a floor, or (according to their means) an entire house for the duration of their visit, and be waited on by the house's communal servants. The masons Reeves of Bath were prominent in the city from the 1770s to 1860s.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The Circus consists of three long, curved terraces designed by the elder John Wood to form a circular space or theatre intended for civic functions and games. The games give a clue to the design, the inspiration behind which was the Colosseum in Rome. Like the Colosseum, the three façades have a different order of architecture on each floor: Doric on the ground level, then Ionic on the piano nobile, and finishing with Corinthian on the upper floor, the style of the building thus becoming progressively more ornate as it rises. Wood never lived to see his unique example of town planning completed as he died five days after personally laying the foundation stone on 18 May 1754.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The most spectacular of Bath's terraces is the Royal Crescent, built between 1767 and 1774 and designed by the younger John Wood. Wood designed the great curved façade of what appears to be about 30 houses with Ionic columns on a rusticated ground floor, but that was the extent of his input: each purchaser bought a certain length of the façade, and then employed their own architect to build a house to their own specifications behind it; hence what appears to be two houses is in some cases just one. This system of town planning is betrayed at the rear of the crescent: while the front is completely uniform and symmetrical, the rear is a mixture of differing roof heights, juxtapositions and fenestration. The "Queen Anne fronts and Mary-Anne backs" architecture occurs repeatedly in Bath and was designed to keep hired women at the back of the house. Other fine terraces elsewhere in the city include Lansdown Crescent and Somerset Place on the northern hill.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Around 1770 the neoclassical architect Robert Adam designed Pulteney Bridge, using as the prototype for the three-arched bridge spanning the Avon an original, but unused, design by Andrea Palladio for the Rialto Bridge in Venice. Thus, Pulteney Bridge became not just a means of crossing the river, but also a shopping arcade. Along with the Rialto Bridge and the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, which it resembles, it is one of the very few surviving bridges in Europe to serve this dual purpose. It has been substantially altered since it was built. The bridge was named after Frances and William Pulteney, the owners of the Bathwick estate for which the bridge provided a link to the rest of Bath.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The Georgian streets in the vicinity of the river tended to be built high above the original ground level to avoid flooding, with the carriageways supported on vaults extending in front of the houses. This can be seen in the multi-storey cellars around Laura Place south of Pulteney Bridge, in the colonnades below Grand Parade, and in the grated coal holes in the pavement of North Parade. In some parts of the city, such as George Street, and London Road near Cleveland Bridge, the developers of the opposite side of the road did not match this pattern, leaving raised pavements with the ends of the vaults exposed to a lower street below.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The heart of the Georgian city was the Pump Room, which, together with its associated Lower Assembly Rooms, was designed by Thomas Baldwin, a local builder responsible for many other buildings in the city, including the terraces in Argyle Street and the Guildhall. Baldwin rose rapidly, becoming a leader in Bath's architectural history.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: In 1776, he was made the chief City Surveyor, and Bath City Architect. Great Pulteney Street, where he eventually lived, is another of his works: this wide boulevard, constructed around 1789 and over long and wide, is lined on both sides by Georgian terraces.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: In the 1960s and early 1970s some parts of Bath were unsympathetically redeveloped, resulting in the loss of some 18th- and 19th-century buildings. This process was largely halted by a popular campaign which drew strength from the publication of Adam Fergusson's "The Sack of Bath". Controversy has revived periodically, most recently with the demolition of the 1930s Churchill House, a neo-Georgian municipal building originally housing the Electricity Board, to make way for a new bus station. This is part of the Southgate redevelopment in which an ill-favoured 1960s shopping precinct, bus station and multi-storey car park were demolished and replaced by a new area of neo-Georgian shopping streets.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: As a result of this and other changes, notably plans for abandoned industrial land along the Avon, the city's status as a World Heritage Site was reviewed by UNESCO in 2009. The decision was made to let Bath keep its status, but UNESCO asked to be consulted on future phases of the Riverside development, saying that the density and volume of buildings in the second and third phases of the development need to be reconsidered. It also demanded Bath do more to attract world-class architecture in new developments.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: In 2021, Bath received its second UNESCO World Heritage inscription, becoming part of a group of 11 spa towns across seven countries that were listed by UNESCO as the "Great Spas of Europe".


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath became the centre of fashionable life in England during the 18th century when its Old Orchard Street Theatre and architectural developments such as Lansdown Crescent, the Royal Crescent, The Circus, and Pulteney Bridge were built.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath's five theatres – Theatre Royal, Ustinov Studio, the Egg, the Rondo Theatre, and the Mission Theatre – attract internationally renowned companies and directors and an annual season by Sir Peter Hall. The city has a long-standing musical tradition; Bath Abbey, home to the Klais Organ and the largest concert venue in the city, stages about 20 concerts and 26 organ recitals each year. Another concert venue, the 1,600-seat art deco The Forum, originated as a cinema. The city holds the annual Bath International Music Festival and Mozartfest, the annual Bath Literature Festival (and its counterpart for children), the Bath Film Festival, the Bath Digital Festival. the Bath Fringe Festival, the Bath Beer Festival and the Bath Chilli Festival. The Bach Festivals occur at two and a half-year intervals. An annual Bard of Bath competition aims to find the best poet, singer or storyteller.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The city is home to the Victoria Art Gallery, the Museum of East Asian Art, and Holburne Museum, numerous commercial art galleries and antique shops, as well as a number of other museums, among them Bath Postal Museum, the Fashion Museum, the Jane Austen Centre, the Herschel Museum of Astronomy and the Roman Baths. The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI) in Queen Square was founded in 1824 from the Society for the encouragement of Agriculture, Planting, Manufactures, Commerce and the Fine Arts founded in 1777. In September 1864, BRLSI hosted the 34th annual meeting of the British Science Association, which was attended by explorers David Livingstone, Sir Richard Francis Burton, and John Hanning Speke. The history of the city is displayed at the Museum of Bath Architecture, which is housed in a building built in 1765 as the Trinity Presbyterian Church. It was also known as the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel, as she lived in the attached house from 1707 to 1791.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: During the 18th century Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Thomas Lawrence lived and worked in Bath. John Maggs, a painter best known for coaching scenes, was born and lived in Bath with his artistic family.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Jane Austen lived there from 1801 with her father, mother and sister Cassandra, and the family resided at four different addresses until 1806. Jane Austen never liked the city, and wrote to Cassandra, "It will be two years tomorrow since we left Bath for Clifton, with what happy feelings of escape." Bath has honoured her name with the Jane Austen Centre and a city walk. Austen's "Northanger Abbey" and "Persuasion" are set in the city and describe taking the waters, social life, and music recitals.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: William Friese-Greene experimented with celluloid and motion pictures in his studio in the 1870s, developing some of the earliest movie camera technology. He is credited as being one of the inventors of cinematography.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Taking the waters is described in Charles Dickens' novel "The Pickwick Papers" in which Pickwick's servant, Sam Weller, comments that the water has "a very strong flavour o' warm flat irons". The Royal Crescent is the venue for a chase between two characters, Dowler and Winkle. Moyra Caldecott's novel "The Waters of Sul" is set in Roman Bath in AD 72, and "The Regency Detective", by David Lassman and Terence James, revolves around the exploits of Jack Swann investigating deaths in the city during the early 19th century. Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play "The Rivals" takes place in the city, as does Roald Dahl's chilling short story, "The Landlady".


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Many films and television programmes have been filmed using its architecture as the backdrop, including the 2004 film of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair", "The Duchess" (2008), "The Elusive Pimpernel" (1950) and "The Titfield Thunderbolt" (1953). In 2012, Pulteney Weir was used as a replacement location during post production of the film adaptation of "Les Misérables". Stunt shots were filmed in October 2012 after footage acquired during the main filming period was found to have errors. The ITV police drama McDonald and Dodds is set and mostly filmed in Bath using many of the city's famous sites.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: In August 2003 The Three Tenors sang at a concert to mark the opening of the Thermae Bath Spa, a new hot water spa in the city centre, but delays to the project meant the spa actually opened three years later on 7 August 2006. In 2008, 104 decorated pigs were displayed around the city in a public art event called "King Bladud's Pigs in Bath". It celebrated the city, its origins and artists. Decorated pig sculptures were displayed throughout the summer and were auctioned to raise funds for Two Tunnels Greenway.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Royal Victoria Park, a short walk from the city centre, was opened in 1830 by the 11-year-old Princess Victoria, and was the first park to carry her name. The public park is overlooked by the Royal Crescent and covers . It has a skatepark, tennis courts, a bowling green, a putting green and a 12- and 18-hole golf course, a pond, open-air concerts, an annual travelling funfair at Easter, and a children's play area. Much of its area is lawn; a notable feature is a ha-ha that segregates it from the Royal Crescent while giving the impression from the Crescent of uninterrupted grassland across the park to Royal Avenue. It has a "Green Flag Award", the national standard for parks and green spaces in England and Wales, and is registered by English Heritage as of National Historic Importance. The botanical gardens were formed in 1887 and contain one of the finest collections of plants on limestone in the West Country.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: A replica Roman Temple was built at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924, and, following the exhibition, was dismantled and rebuilt in Victoria Park in Bath. In 1987, the gardens were extended to include the Great Dell, a disused quarry with a collection of conifers.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Other parks include Alexandra Park on a hill overlooking the city; Parade Gardens, along the river near the abbey in the city centre; Sydney Gardens, an 18th-century pleasure garden; Henrietta Park; Hedgemead Park; and Alice Park. Jane Austen wrote "It would be pleasant to be near the Sydney Gardens. We could go into the Labyrinth every day." Alexandra, Alice and Henrietta parks were built into the growing city among the housing developments. Linear Park is built on the old Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway line, and connects with the Two Tunnels Greenway which contains the longest cycling and walking tunnel in the UK. Cleveland Pools were built around 1815 close to the River Avon, now the oldest surviving public outdoor lido in England, and plans have been submitted for its restoration.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Victoria Art Gallery and Royal Victoria Park are named after Queen Victoria, who wrote in her journal "The people are really too kind to me." This feeling seemed to have been reciprocated by the people of Bath: "Lord James O'Brien brought a drawing of the intended pillar which the people of Bath are so kind as to erect in commemoration of my 18th birthday."


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Several foods have an association with the city. "Sally Lunn buns" (a type of teacake) have long been baked in Bath. They were first mentioned by name in verses printed in the Bath Chronicle, in 1772. At that time they were eaten hot at public breakfasts in Spring Gardens. They can be eaten with sweet or savoury toppings and are sometimes confused with "Bath buns", which are smaller, round, very sweet and very rich. They were associated with the city following The Great Exhibition. Bath buns were originally topped with crushed comfits created by dipping caraway seeds repeatedly in boiling sugar; but today seeds are added to a 'London Bath Bun' (a reference to the bun's promotion and sale at the Great Exhibition). The seeds may be replaced by crushed sugar granules or 'nibs'.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath has lent its name to one other distinctive recipe – "Bath Olivers" – a dry baked biscuit invented by Dr William Oliver, physician to the Mineral Water Hospital in 1740. Oliver was an anti-obesity campaigner and author of a ""Practical Essay on the Use and Abuse of warm Bathing in Gluty Cases"". In more recent years, Oliver's efforts have been traduced by the introduction of a version of the biscuit with a plain chocolate coating. "Bath Chaps", the salted and smoked cheek and jawbones of the pig, takes its name from the city and is available from a stall in the daily covered market. Bath Ales brewery is located in Warmley and Abbey Ales are brewed in the city.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath is twinned with four other cities in Europe. Twinning is the responsibility of the Charter Trustees and each twinning arrangement is managed by a Twinning Association.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: There is also a historic connection with Manly, New South Wales, Australia, which is referred to as a sister city, and there is a partnership arrangement with Beppu, Ōita Prefecture, Japan.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath has two universities, the University of Bath and Bath Spa University. Established in 1966, the University of Bath was named University of the Year by "The Sunday Times" in 2011. It offers programs in politics, languages, the physical sciences, engineering, mathematics, architecture, management and technology.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath Spa University was first granted degree-awarding powers in 1992 as a university college before being granted university status in August 2005. It offers courses leading to a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. It has schools in the following subject areas: Art and Design, Education, English and Creative Studies, Historical and Cultural Studies, Music and the Performing Arts, Science and the Environment and Social Sciences.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath College offers further education, and Norland College provides education and training in childcare.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath Rugby is a rugby union team in the Premiership league. It plays in blue, white and black kit at the Recreation Ground in the city, where it has been since the late 19th century, following its establishment in 1865. The team's first major honour was winning the John Player Cup, now sponsored as the LV Cup and also known as the Anglo-Welsh Cup, four years consecutively from 1984 until 1987. The team then led the Courage league in six seasons in eight years between 1988 and 1989 and 1995–96, during which time it also won the renamed Pilkington Cup in 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995 and 1996. It finally won the Heineken Cup in the 1997–98 season, and topped the Zürich Premiership (now Gallagher Premiership) in 2003–04. The team's squad includes several members who also play, or have played in the English national team, including Lee Mears, Rob Webber, Dave Attwood, Nick Abendanon and Matt Banahan. Colston's School, Bristol, has had a large input in the team over the past decade, providing several current 1st XV squad members. The former England Rugby Team Manager and former Scotland national coach Andy Robinson used to play for Bath Rugby team and was captain and later coach. Both of Robinson's predecessors, Clive Woodward and Jack Rowell, as well as his successor Brian Ashton, were also former Bath coaches and managers.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath City F.C. is the semi-professional football team. Founded in 1889, the club has played their home matches at Twerton Park since 1932. Bath City's history is entirely in non-league football, predominantly in the 5th tier. Bath narrowly missed out on election to the Football League by a few votes in 1978 and again in 1985. The club have a good history in the FA Cup, reaching the third round six times. The record attendance, 18,020, at the ground was in 1960 against Brighton. The club’s colours are black and white and their official nickname is “The Romans", stemming from Bath’s Ancient Roman history. The club is sometimes called “The Stripes", referring to their striped kit.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Until 2009 Team Bath F.C. operated as an affiliate to the University Athletics programme. In 2002, Team Bath became the first university team to enter the FA Cup in 120 years, and advanced through four qualifying rounds to the first round proper. The university's team was established in 1999 while the city team has existed since before 1908 (when it entered the Western League). However, in 2009, the Football Conference ruled that Team Bath would not be eligible to gain promotion to a National division, nor were they allowed to participate in Football Association cup competitions. This ruling led to the decision by the club to fold at the end of the 2008–09 Conference South competition. In their final season, Team Bath F.C. finished 11th in the league.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath also has Non-League football clubs Odd Down F.C. who play at the Lew Hill Memorial Ground and Larkhall Athletic F.C. who play at Plain Ham.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Many cricket clubs are based in the city, including Bath Cricket Club, who are based at the North Parade Ground and play in the West of England Premier League. Cricket is also played on the Recreation Ground, just across from the rugby club. The Recreation Ground is also home to Bath Croquet Club, which was re-formed in 1976 and is affiliated with the South West Federation of Croquet Clubs.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: TeamBath is the umbrella name for all of the University of Bath sports teams, including the aforementioned football club. Other sports for which TeamBath is noted are athletics, badminton, basketball, bob skeleton, bobsleigh, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, netball, rugby union, swimming, tennis, triathlon and volleyball. The City of Bath Triathlon takes place annually at the university.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath Roller Derby Girls (BRDG) is Bath's only flat track roller derby club. Founded in 2012, they compete in the British Roller Derby Championships Tier 3. As of 2015, they are full members of the United Kingdom Roller Derby Association (UKRDA.)


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath is home to a table tennis League, made up of 3 divisions and a number of clubs based in Bath and the surrounding area.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath is approximately south-east of the larger city and port of Bristol, to which it is linked by the A4 road, which runs through Bath, and is a similar distance south of the M4 motorway at junction 18. The potential new junction 18a linking the M4 motorway with the A4174 Avon Ring Road will provide an additional direct route from Bath to the motorway. The city introduced a Class C Clean Air Zone on 15 March 2021, which charges the most polluting vehicles £9 per day (and up to £100 per day for coaches and HGVs) to drive in the city centre. It is the first pollution road charging zone outside London in the UK.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: In an attempt to reduce the level of car use, park and ride schemes have been introduced, with sites at Odd Down, Lansdown and Newbridge. A very large increase in city centre parking was also provided under the new SouthGate shopping centre development, which necessarily introduces more car traffic. In addition, a bus gate scheme in Northgate aims to reduce private car use in the city centre. National Express operates coach services from Bath bus station to a number of cities. Bath also has a network of bus routes run by First West of England, with services to surrounding towns and cities, such as Bristol, Corsham, Chippenham, Devizes, Salisbury, Frome and Wells. Faresaver Bus company also operate numerous services to surrounding towns. The Bath Bus Company runs open top double-decker bus tours around the city, as well as frequent services to Bristol Airport. Stagecoach West also provides services to Tetbury and the South Cotswolds.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: A transportation study (the Bristol/Bath to South Coast Study) was published in 2004 after being initiated by the Government Office for the South West and Bath and North East Somerset Council and undertaken by WSP Global as a result of the de-trunking in 1999 of the A36/A46 trunk road network from Bath to Southampton.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The city is connected to Bristol and the sea by the River Avon, navigable via locks by small boats. The river was connected to the River Thames and London by the Kennet and Avon Canal in 1810 via Bath Locks; this waterway – closed for many years but restored in the last years of the 20th century – is now popular with narrowboat users.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath is on National Cycle Route 4, with one of Britain's first cycleways, the Bristol and Bath Railway Path, to the west, and an eastern route toward London on the canal towpath. Bath is about from Bristol Airport. Bath also benefits from several bridleways and byways.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath is served by the Bath Spa railway station (designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel), which has regular connections to London Paddington, Bristol Temple Meads, Cardiff Central, Cheltenham, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance (see Great Western Main Line), and also Westbury, Warminster, Weymouth, Salisbury, Southampton, Portsmouth and Brighton (see Wessex Main Line). Services are provided by Great Western Railway. There is a suburban station on the main line, Oldfield Park, which has a limited commuter service to Bristol as well as other destinations.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Green Park Station was once the terminus of the Midland Railway, and junction for the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, whose line, always steam hauled, went through the Devonshire tunnel (under the Wellsway, St Luke's Church and the Devonshire Arms), through the Combe Down Tunnel and climbed over the Mendips to serve many towns and villages on its run to Bournemouth. This example of an English rural line was closed by Beeching in March 1966. Its Bath station building, now restored, houses shops, small businesses, the Saturday Bath Farmers Market and parking for a supermarket, while the route of the Somerset and Dorset within Bath has been reused for the Two Tunnels Greenway, a shared use path that extends National Cycle Route 24 into the city.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: The Bath Tramways Company was introduced in the late 19th century, opening on 24 December 1880. The gauge cars were horse-drawn along a route from London Road to the Bath Spa railway station, but the system closed in 1902. It was replaced by electric tram cars on a greatly expanded gauge system that opened in 1904. This eventually extended to with routes to Combe Down, Oldfield Park, Twerton, Newton St Loe, Weston and Bathford. There was a fleet of 40 cars, all but 6 being double deck. The first line to close was replaced by a bus service in 1938, and the last went on 6 May 1939.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: In 2005, a detailed plan was created and presented to the council to re-introduce trams to Bath, but the plan did not proceed, reportedly due to the focus by the council on the government-supported busway planned to run from the Newbridge park and ride into the city centre. Part of the justification for the proposed tram reintroduction plan was the pollution from vehicles within the city, which was twice the legal levels, and the heavy traffic congestion due to high car usage. In 2015 another group, Bath Trams building on the earlier tram group proposals has created interest in the idea of re-introducing trams with several public meetings and meetings with the council. In 2017, Bath and North East Somerset Council announced a feasibility study, due to be published by March 2018, into implementing a light rail or tram system in the city.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: In November 2016, the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership began a consultation process on their Transport Vision Summary Document, outlining potential light rail/tram routes in the region, one of which being a route from Bristol city centre along the A4 road to Bath to relieve pressure on bus and rail services between the two cities.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Bath's local newspaper is the "Bath Chronicle", owned by Local World. Published since 1760, the "Chronicle" was a daily newspaper until mid-September 2007, when it became a weekly. Since 2018 its website has been operated by Trinity Mirror's "Somerset Live" platform.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: For television, Bath is served by the BBC West studios based in Bristol, and by ITV West Country, formerly HTV, also from studios in Bristol.


title: Bath, Somerset

text: Radio stations broadcasting to the city include BBC Radio Bristol which has a studio in Kingsmead Square in the city centre, BBC Radio Somerset in Taunton, Greatest Hits Radio Bristol & The South West on 107.9FM and Heart West, formerly GWR FM, as well as The University of Bath's University Radio Bath, a student-focused radio station available on campus and also online.


title: Angela Rayner

text: Angela Rayner (' Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work since 2021. She has been Shadow First Secretary of State, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. Rayner has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. She ideologically identifies as a socialist and as being part of Labour's soft left.


title: Angela Rayner

text: Rayner was born and raised in Stockport, where she attended the state secondary Avondale School. She left school aged 16 whilst pregnant and without any qualifications. She later trained in social care at Stockport College and worked for the local council as a care worker. She eventually became a trade union representative within Unison, during which time she joined the Labour Party. Selected to contest AshtonunderLyne in 2014 and elected for the seat at the 2015 general election, she was appointed as Shadow Minister for Pensions by Jeremy Corbyn in January 2016.


title: Angela Rayner

text: Rayner was promoted in July 2016 to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities. As Shadow Education Secretary, she proposed the creation of a National Education Service modelled on the National Health Service (NHS). She endorsed Rebecca Long-Bailey in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, who came second to Keir Starmer, then successfully stood for the deputy leadership, after which she was appointed as party chair and national campaign coordinator. She was removed from these roles in a reshuffle following Labour's poor performance at the 2021 local elections, subsequently being appointed as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work.


title: Angela Rayner

text: Rayner was born on 28 March 1980 in Stockport, Greater Manchester. She attended Avondale School in Stockport, leaving the school aged 16 after becoming pregnant, and did not obtain any qualifications. She later studied part-time at Stockport College, learning British Sign Language, and gaining an NVQ Level 2 in social care.


title: Angela Rayner

text: After leaving college, Rayner worked for Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council as a care worker for a number of years. During this time, she was also elected as a trade union representative for Unison. She was later elected as convenor of Unison North West, becoming the union's most senior official in the region. "The Guardian" featured a lengthy profile of Rayner in 2012, as part of an article on a trade union officer's working life.


title: Angela Rayner

text: In September 2014, Rayner was selected as the Labour Party's candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne, on the retirement of David Heyes. She won the seat at the 2015 general election, increasing the Labour majority and its share of the vote. She delivered her maiden speech on 3 June 2015.


title: Angela Rayner

text: Rayner nominated Andy Burnham in the 2015 Labour leadership election, but was one of just 18 MPs to back the incumbent Jeremy Corbyn against Owen Smith in the 2016 leadership election.


title: Angela Rayner

text: On 1 July 2016, after a series of resignations from the shadow cabinet, Corbyn appointed Rayner as Shadow Secretary of State for Education. She supported the notion of a 'National Education Service' to be modelled along similar lines to the National Health Service (NHS), also promoting an increase in funding for early years education. She was considered by some as a possible future Labour leader.


title: Angela Rayner

text: In the 2019 general election, Rayner was returned as MP for the third time in five years. She did not stand for the Labour leadership in the 2020 leadership election, supporting her flatmate Rebecca Long-Bailey, who came second to Keir Starmer. She stood successfully for Deputy Leader, elected on 4 April 2020, replacing Tom Watson. She was appointed Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow First Secretary of State and Chair of the Labour Party in the following days. In October 2020 Rayner called Conservative MP Chris Clarkson "scum" as he was giving a speech in Parliament. She later apologised. Clarkson had been critical of Andy Burnham, who had been seeking financial support for Greater Manchester following local restrictions on businesses being introduced. Clarkson's constituency falls within the boundaries of Greater Manchester, as does Rayner's.


title: Angela Rayner

text: Rayner was removed from her roles as the Labour Party's chair and national campaign coordinator in a reshuffle by Starmer on 8 May 2021, following the 2021 local elections. Rayner was subsequently appointed as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work.


title: Angela Rayner

text: In September 2021, Rayner strongly criticised senior members of the Conservative Party, stating: "We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute pile... of banana republic... Etonian... piece of scum". Some Labour MPs, while saying it was not the language that they would have used, defended her comments, including Steve Reed, John McDonnell and Lisa Nandy. Starmer distanced himself from her remarks, but said it was up to Rayner if she wanted to apologise or not, while other Labour MPs, including shadow cabinet ministers, condemned her in stronger terms.


title: Angela Rayner

text: The former Labour cabinet minister Lord Adonis said that if Rayner did not apologise for her comments, Starmer should say that he no longer has confidence in her as the deputy leader of the party. Adonis told Times Radio that her remarks were a way to start an election campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party. Several Conservative MPs, including Grant Shapps, Amanda Milling and Oliver Dowden, condemned her comments. Rayner later apologised for her comments in light of the murder of David Amess, a Conservative MP, the following month.


title: Angela Rayner

text: In October 2021, Rayner reported receiving a number of death threats and abusive messages. The police arrested a 52-year-old man in Halifax. She cancelled a number of meetings with her constituents due to fears for her own safety. Later, a 36-year-old man from Cambridgeshire was sentenced after sending her a threatening email. The man pleaded guilty in court to sending the email and was sentenced to 15 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months. Earlier in March 2019, Rayner said that she had fitted panic buttons at her home after rape and death threats were sent to her.


title: Angela Rayner

text: On 24 April 2022 Rayner was the subject of a report in "The Mail on Sunday", by Glen Owen, in which it was alleged that she had tried to distract Boris Johnson in the Commons by crossing and uncrossing her legs in a similar manner to Sharon Stone in a scene from the 1992 film "Basic Instinct". The report was subsequently condemned by a range of voices across the political spectrum including the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the House. The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) reported that it had received 5,500 complaints about the article and was exploring possible breaches of its code of practice. Lia Nici, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, later repeated the claims in a BBC interview.


title: Angela Rayner

text: In May 2022, Rayner said she would resign if she received a fixed penalty notice for breaching COVID-19 regulations while campaigning during the run-up to the Hartlepool by-election and local elections the previous year. The controversy surrounding the event was dubbed "Beergate". They were both cleared by Durham Police in July 2022 who said there was "no case to answer".


title: Angela Rayner

text: Rayner identifies as a socialist. In a 2017 interview to "The Guardian" discussing her political beliefs, Rayner highlighted her pragmatism, describing herself as being part of the "soft left" of the Labour Party. She has strongly criticised former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, as he "did not command the respect of the party", and critiqued his lack of "discipline" when it came to dealing with allegations of antisemitism.


title: Angela Rayner

text: Rayner has described herself as "quite hardline" on law and order issues, having suffered from antisocial behaviour when she was young. In an interview, she said police should "shoot your terrorists and ask questions second" and that she had told her local police force to "beat down the door of the criminals and sort them out and antagonise them."


title: Angela Rayner

text: Rayner has made a political point of her working-class roots. She has asked Hansard transcribers not to correct her speeches, preferring purportedly "incorrect" grammar "because it's who I am".


title: Angela Rayner

text: A member of the Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, Rayner has condemned the killings of Palestinians during the Great March of Return and has repeatedly cited Israeli violations of human rights against Palestinians on social media.


title: Angela Rayner

text: In 2010, Rayner married Mark Rayner, a Unison official. She has three sons, the first born when she was aged 16. Her second son Charlie was born prematurely at 23 weeks and Rayner says that the care that her son received demonstrated the importance of the NHS to her. Rayner lives in her constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne with her family. She became a grandmother in November 2017. Rayner and her husband separated in 2020. As of July 2022, it has been reported she is in a relationship with Labour MP Sam Tarry, though this has not been confirmed.


title: Angela Rayner

text: In an interview in 2018, Rayner said that her mother had been unable to read or write; she had previously mentioned this in a tribute she made to her mother in 2016. In a 2022 interview, Rayner said that she grew up in poverty on a council estate and could have been taken into care. In the same interview, she recounted that after a year-long training programme to lose over six stone in weight, she took out a bank loan of £5,600 for cosmetic surgery on her 30th birthday.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classical works, Morricone is widely considered one of the most prolific and greatest film composers of all time. His filmography includes more than 70 award-winning films, all Sergio Leone's films since "A Fistful of Dollars", all Giuseppe Tornatore's films since "Cinema Paradiso", "The Battle of Algiers", Dario Argento's "Animal Trilogy", "1900", "", "Days of Heaven", several major films in French cinema, in particular the comedy trilogy "La Cage aux Folles I", "II", "" and "Le Professionnel", as well as "The Thing", "Once Upon a Time in America", "The Mission", "The Untouchables", "Mission to Mars", "Bugsy", "Disclosure", "In the Line of Fire", "Bulworth", "Ripley's Game", and "The Hateful Eight". His score to "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966) is regarded as one of the most recognizable and influential soundtracks in history. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: After playing the trumpet in jazz bands in the 1940s, he became a studio arranger for RCA Victor and in 1955 started ghost writing for film and theatre. Throughout his career, he composed music for artists such as Paul Anka, Mina, Milva, Zucchero, and Andrea Bocelli. From 1960 to 1975, Morricone gained international fame for composing music for Westerns and—with an estimated 10 million copies sold—"Once Upon a Time in the West" is one of the best-selling scores worldwide. From 1966 to 1980, he was a main member of Il Gruppo, one of the first experimental composers collectives, and in 1969 he co-founded Forum Music Village, a prestigious recording studio. From the 1970s, Morricone excelled in Hollywood, composing for prolific American directors such as Don Siegel, Mike Nichols, Brian De Palma, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Warren Beatty, John Carpenter, and Quentin Tarantino. In 1977, he composed the official theme for the 1978 FIFA World Cup. He continued to compose music for European productions, such as "Marco Polo", "La piovra", "Nostromo", "Fateless", "", and "En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait". Morricone's music has been reused in television series, including "The Simpsons" and "The Sopranos", and in many films, including "Inglourious Basterds" and "Django Unchained". He also scored seven Westerns for Sergio Corbucci, Duccio Tessari's "Ringo" duology and Sergio Sollima's "The Big Gundown" and "Face to Face". Morricone worked extensively for other film genres with directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Mauro Bolognini, Giuliano Montaldo, Roland Joffé, Roman Polanski, Henri Verneuil, Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. His acclaimed soundtrack for "The Mission" (1986), was certified gold in the United States. The album "Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone" stayed for 105 weeks on the "Billboard" Top Classical Albums.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone's best-known compositions include "The Ecstasy of Gold", "Se telefonando", "Man with a Harmonica", "Here's to You", the UK No. 2 single "Chi Mai", "Gabriel's Oboe", and "E Più Ti Penso". In 1971, he received a "Targa d'Oro" for worldwide sales of 22 million, and by 2016 Morricone had sold more than 70 million records worldwide. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music". He was nominated for a further six Oscars, and in 2016, received his only competitive Academy Award for his score to Quentin Tarantino's film "The Hateful Eight", at the time becoming the oldest person ever to win a competitive Oscar. His other achievements include 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 in 2010. Morricone influenced many artists from film scoring to other styles and genres, including Hans Zimmer, Danger Mouse, Dire Straits, Muse, Metallica, Fields of the Nephilim, and Radiohead.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera Ridolfi and Mario Morricone, a musician. At the time of his birth Italy was under fascist rule. His family came from Arpino, near Frosinone. Morricone had four siblings — Adriana, Aldo, Maria, and Franca — and lived in Trastevere in the centre of Rome. His father was a professional trumpeter who performed in light-music orchestras while his mother set up a small textile business. During his early schooldays, Morricone was also a classmate of his later collaborator Sergio Leone.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone's father first taught him to read music and to play several instruments. He entered the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to take trumpet lessons under the guidance of Umberto Semproni. He formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at age 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program that he completed within six months. He studied the trumpet, composition, and choral music under the direction of Goffredo Petrassi, to whom Morricone would later dedicate concert pieces.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1941 Morricone was chosen among the students of the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to be a part of the Orchestra of the Opera, directed by Carlo Zecchi on the occasion of a tour of the Veneto region. He received his diploma in trumpet in 1946, continuing to work in classical composition and arrangement. Morricone received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band Arrangement" with a mark of 9/10 in 1952. His studies concluded at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in 1954 when he obtained a final 9.5/10 in his "Diploma in Composition" under Petrassi.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and he was encouraged to develop his natural talents. In 1946, he composed "Il Mattino" ("The Morning") for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, first in a group of seven "youth" Lieder.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In the following years, he continued to write music for the theatre as well as classical music for voice and piano, such as "Imitazione", based on a text by Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi, "Intimità", based on a text by Olinto Dini, "Distacco I" and "Distacco II" with words by R. Gnoli, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone and five instruments with words by poet Salvatore Quasimodo, and "Verrà la Morte", for alto and piano, based on a text by novelist Cesare Pavese.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1953, Morricone was asked by Gorni Kramer and Lelio Luttazzi to write an arrangement for some medleys in an American style for a series of evening radio shows. The composer continued with the composition of other 'serious' classical pieces, thus demonstrating the flexibility and eclecticism that always has been an integral part of his character. Many orchestral and chamber compositions date, in fact, from the period between 1954 and 1959: "Musica per archi e pianoforte" (1954), "Invenzione, Canone e Ricercare per piano"; "Sestetto per flauto, oboe, fagotto, violino, viola, e violoncello" (1955), "Dodici Variazione per oboe, violoncello, e piano"; "Trio per clarinetto, corno, e violoncello"; "Variazione su un tema di Frescobaldi" (1956); "Quattro pezzi per chitarra" (1957); "Distanze per violino, violoncello, e piano"; "Musica per undici violini, Tre Studi per flauto, clarinetto, e fagotto" (1958); and the "Concerto per orchestra" (1957), dedicated to his teacher Goffredo Petrassi.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone's career as an arranger began in 1950, by arranging the piece "Mamma Bianca" (Narciso Parigi). On occasion of the "Anno Santo" (Holy Year), he arranged a long group of popular songs of devotion for radio broadcasting.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1956, Morricone started to support his family by playing in a jazz band and arranging pop songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI. He was hired by RAI in 1958 but quit his job on his first day at work when he was told that broadcasting of music composed by employees was forbidden by a company rule. Subsequently, Morricone became a top studio arranger at RCA Victor, working with Renato Rascel, Rita Pavone, Domenico Modugno, and Mario Lanza.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Throughout his career, Morricone composed songs for several national and international jazz and pop artists, including Gianni Morandi ("Go Kart Twist", 1962), Alberto Lionello ("La donna che vale", 1959), Edoardo Vianello ("Ornella", 1960; "Cicciona cha-cha", 1960; "Faccio finta di dormire", 1961; "T'ho conosciuta", 1963; and also "Pinne, fucine ed occhiali", "I Watussi" and "Guarda come dondolo"), Nora Orlandi ("Arianna", 1960), Jimmy Fontana ("Twist no. 9"; "Nicole", 1962), Rita Pavone ("Come te non c'e' nessuno" and "Pel di carota" from 1962, arranged by Luis Bacalov), Catherine Spaak ("Penso a te"; "Questi vent'anni miei", 1964), Luigi Tenco ("Quello che conta"; "Tra tanta gente"; 1962), Gino Paoli ("Nel corso" from 1963, written by Morricone with Paoli), Renato Rascel ("Scirocco", 1964), Paul Anka ("Ogni Volta"), Amii Stewart, Rosy Armen ("L'Amore Gira"), Milva ("Ridevi", "Metti Una Sera A Cena"), Françoise Hardy ("Je changerais d'avis", 1966), Mireille Mathieu ("Mon ami de toujours"; "Pas vu, pas pris", 1971; "J'oublie la pluie et le soleil", 1974), and Demis Roussos ("I Like The World", 1970).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1963, the composer co-wrote (with Roby Ferrante) the music for the composition "Ogni volta" ("Every Time"), a song that was performed by Paul Anka for the first time during the Festival di Sanremo in 1964. This song was arranged and conducted by Morricone and sold more than three million copies worldwide, including one million copies in Italy alone.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Another success was his composition "Se telefonando". Performed by Mina, it was a track on "Studio Uno 66", the 4th studio album by Mina. Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines, Hal Blaine–style drumming, a string set, a 1960s Europop female choir, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade No. 7 song had eight transitions of tonality building tension throughout the chorus. During the following decades, the song was recorded by several performers in Italy and abroad including covers by Françoise Hardy and Iva Zanicchi (1966), Delta V (2005), Vanessa and the O's (2007), and Neil Hannon (2008). "Françoise Hardy – Mon amie la rose" site in the reader's poll conducted by the newspaper" la Repubblica" to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1987, Morricone co-wrote "It Couldn't Happen Here" with the Pet Shop Boys. Other compositions for international artists include: "La metà di me" and "Immagina" (1988) by Ruggero Raimondi, "Libera l'amore" (1989) performed by Zucchero, "Love Affair" (1994) by k.d. lang, "Ha fatto un sogno" (1997) by Antonello Venditti, "Di Più" (1997) by Tiziana Tosca Donati, "Come un fiume tu" (1998), "Un Canto" (1998) and "Conradian" (2006) by Andrea Bocelli, "Ricordare" (1998) and "Salmo" (2000) by Angelo Branduardi, and "My heart and I" (2001) by Sting.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: After graduation in 1954, Morricone started to write and arrange music as a ghost writer for films credited to already well-known composers, while also arranging for many light music orchestras of the RAI television network, working especially with Armando Trovajoli, Alessandro Cicognini, and Carlo Savina. He occasionally adopted Anglicized pseudonyms, such as Dan Savio and Leo Nichols.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1959, Morricone was the conductor (and uncredited co-composer) for Mario Nascimbene's score to "Morte di un amico" ("Death of a Friend"), an Italian drama directed by Franco Rossi. In the same year, he composed music for the theatre show "Il lieto fine" by Luciano Salce.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: 1961 marked his real film debut with Luciano Salce's "Il Federale (The Fascist)". In an interview with American composer Fred Karlin, Morricone discussed his beginnings, stating, "My first films were light comedies or costume movies that required simple musical scores that were easily created, a genre that I never completely abandoned even when I went on to much more important films with major directors".


title: Ennio Morricone

text: With "Il Federale" Morricone began a long-run collaboration with Luciano Salce. In 1962, Morricone composed the jazz-influenced score for Salce's comedy "La voglia matta (Crazy Desire)". That year Morricone also arranged Italian singer Edoardo Vianello's summer hit "Pinne, fucile, e occhiali", a cha-cha song, peppered with added water effects, unusual instrumental sounds and unexpected stops and starts.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone wrote works for the concert hall in a more avant-garde style. Some of these have been recorded, such as "Ut", a trumpet concerto dedicated to Mauro Maur.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: From 1964 up to their eventual disbandment in 1980, Morricone was part of "Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza" (G.I.N.C.), a group of composers who performed and recorded avant-garde free improvisations. The Rome-based avant-garde ensemble was dedicated to the development of improvisation and new music methods. The ensemble functioned as a laboratory of sorts, working with anti-musical systems and sound techniques in an attempt to redefine the new music ensemble and explore "New Consonance".


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Known as "The Group" or "Il Gruppo", they released seven albums across the Deutsche Grammophon, RCA, and Cramps labels: "Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza" (1966), "The Private Sea of Dreams" (1967), "Improvisationen" (1968), "The Feedback" (1970), "Improvvisazioni a Formazioni Variate" (1973), "Nuova Consonanza" (1975), and "Musica su Schemi" (1976). Perhaps the most famous of these is their album entitled "The Feed-back", which combines free jazz and avant-garde classical music with funk; the album frequently is sampled by hip hop DJs and is considered to be one of the most collectable records in existence, often fetching more than $1,000 at auction.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone played a key role in The Group and was among the core members in its revolving line-up; in addition to serving as their trumpet player, he directed them on many occasions and they can be heard on a large number of his scores. Held in high regard in avant-garde music circles, they are considered to be the first experimental composers collective, their only peers being the British improvisation collective AMM. Their influence can be heard in free improvising ensembles from the European movements including the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, the Swiss electronic free improvisation group Voice Crack, John Zorn, and in the techniques of modern classical music and avant-garde jazz groups. The ensemble's groundbreaking work informed their work in composition. The ensemble also performed in varying capacities with Morricone, contributing to some of his 1960s and 1970s Italian soundtracks, including "A Quiet Place in the Country" (1969) and "Cold Eyes of Fear" (1971).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone's earliest scores were Italian light comedy and costume pictures, where he learned to write simple, memorable themes. During the 1960s and 1970s he composed the scores for comedies such as "Eighteen in the Sun" ("Diciottenni al sole", 1962), "Il Successo" (1963), Lina Wertmüller's "I basilischi" ("The Basilisks"/"The Lizards", 1963), "Slalom" (1965), "Menage all'italiana" ("Menage Italian Style", 1965), "How I Learned to Love Women" ("Come imparai ad amare le donne", 1966), "Her Harem" ("L'harem", 1967), "A Fine Pair" ("Ruba al prossimo tuo", 1968), "L'Alibi" (1969), "This Kind of Love" ("Questa specie d'amore", 1972), "Winged Devils" ("Forza "G"", 1972), and "Fiorina la vacca" (1972).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: His best-known scores for comedies includes "La Cage aux Folles" (1978) and "La Cage aux Folles II" (1980), both directed by Édouard Molinaro, "Il ladrone" ("The Good Thief", 1980), Georges Lautner's "" (1985), Pedro Almodóvar's "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" (1990) and Warren Beatty's "Bulworth" (1998). Morricone never ceased to arrange and write music for comedies. In 2007, he composed a lighthearted score for the Italian romantic comedy "Tutte le Donne della mia Vita" by Simona Izzo, the director who co-wrote the Morricone-scored religious mini-series "Il Papa Buono".


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Although his first films were undistinguished, Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone. Before being associated with Leone, Morricone already had composed some music for less-known western movies such as "Duello nel Texas" (aka "Gunfight at Red Sands") (1963). In 1962, Morricone met American folksinger Peter Tevis, with the two collaborating on a version of Woody Guthrie's "Pastures of Plenty". Tevis is credited with singing the lyrics of Morricone's songs such as "A Gringo Like Me" (from "Gunfight at Red Sands") and "Lonesome Billy" (from "Bullets Don't Argue"). Tevis later recorded a vocal version of "A Fistful of Dollars" that was not used in the film.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: The turning point in Morricone's career took place in 1964, the year in which his third child, Andrea Morricone, who would also become a film composer, was born. Film director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Because budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices, jew's harp, trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards à la John Ford. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: As memorable as Leone's close-ups, harsh violence, and black comedy, Morricone's work helped to expand the musical possibilities of film scoring. Initially, Morricone was billed on the film as Dan Savio, a name they had used on Duello nel Texas to help its appeal on the international market. "A Fistful of Dollars" came out in Italy in 1964 and was released in America three years later, greatly popularising the so-called Spaghetti Western genre. For the American release, Sergio Leone followed Morricone and Massimo Dallamano's lead and decided to adopt an American-sounding name, Bob Robertson. Over the film's theatrical release, it grossed more than any other Italian film up to that point. The film debuted in the United States in January 1967, where it grossed for the year. It eventually grossed $14.5 million in its American release, against its budget of 200,000.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: With the score of "A Fistful of Dollars", Morricone began his 20-year collaboration with his childhood friend Alessandro Alessandroni and his Cantori Moderni. Alessandroni provided the whistling and the twanging guitar on the film scores, while his Cantori Moderni were a flexible troupe of modern singers. Morricone in particular drew on the solo soprano of the group, Edda Dell'Orso, at the height of her powers "an extraordinary voice at my disposal".


title: Ennio Morricone

text: The composer subsequently scored Leone's other two "Dollars Trilogy" (or "Man with No Name Trilogy") spaghetti westerns: "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (1966). All three films starred the American actor Clint Eastwood as "The Man With No Name" and depicted Leone's own intense vision of the mythical West. Morricone commented in 2007: "Some of the music was written before the film, which was unusual. Leone's films were made like that because he wanted the music to be an important part of it; he kept the scenes longer because he did not want the music to end." According to Morricone this explains "why the films are so slow".


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Despite the small film budgets, the "Dollars Trilogy" was a box-office success. The available budget for "The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly" was about 1.2 million, but it became the most successful film of the "Dollars Trilogy", grossing 25.1 million in the United States and more than Lire 2.3 billion (1.2 million EUR) in Italy alone. Morricone's score became a major success and sold more than three million copies worldwide. On 14 August 1968 the original score was certified by the RIAA with a golden record for the sale of 500,000 copies in the United States alone.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: The main theme to "The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly", also titled "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", was a hit in 1968 for Hugo Montenegro, whose rendition was a No.2 Billboard pop single in the U.S. and a U.K. No.1 single (for four weeks from mid-November that year).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: "The Ecstasy of Gold" became one of Morricone's best-known compositions. The opening scene of Jeff Tremaine's "Jackass Number Two" (2006), in which the cast is chased through a suburban neighbourhood by bulls, is accompanied by this piece. While punk rock band The Ramones used "The Ecstasy of Gold" as a closing theme during their live performances, Metallica uses "The Ecstasy of Gold" as the introductory music for its concerts since 1983. This composition is also included on Metallica's live symphonic album "S&M" as well as the live album "". An instrumental metal cover by Metallica (with minimal vocals by lead singer James Hetfield) appeared on the 2007 Morricone tribute album "We All Love Ennio Morricone". This metal version was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance. In 2009, the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Coolio extensively sampled the theme for his song "Change".


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Subsequent to the success of the "Dollars trilogy", Morricone also composed the scores for "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) and Leone's last credited western film "A Fistful of Dynamite" (1971), as well as the score for "My Name Is Nobody" (1973).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone's score for "Once Upon a Time in the West" is one of the best-selling original instrumental scores in the world today, with as many as 10 million copies sold, including one million copies in France, and more than 800,000 copies in the Netherlands.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: The collaboration with Leone is considered one of the exemplary collaborations between a director and a composer. Morricone's last score for Leone was for his last film, the gangster drama "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984). Leone died on 30 April 1989 of a heart attack at the age of 60. Before his death in 1989, Leone was part-way through planning a film on the Siege of Leningrad, set during World War II. By 1989, Leone had been able to acquire 100 million in financing from independent backers for the war epic. He had convinced Morricone to compose the film score. The project was cancelled when Leone died two days before he was to officially sign on for the film.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In early 2003, Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore announced he would direct a film called "Leningrad". The film has yet to go into production and Morricone was cagey as to details on account of Tornatore's superstitious nature.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Two years after the start of his collaboration with Sergio Leone, Morricone also started to score music for another Spaghetti Western director, Sergio Corbucci. The composer wrote music for Corbucci's "Navajo Joe" (1966), "The Hellbenders" (1967), "The Mercenary/The Professional Gun" (1968), "The Great Silence" (1968), "Compañeros" (1970), "Sonny and Jed" (1972), and "What Am I Doing in the Middle of the Revolution?" (1972).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In addition, Morricone composed music for the western films by Sergio Sollima, "The Big Gundown" (with Lee Van Cleef, 1966), "Face to Face" (1967), and "Run, Man, Run" (1968), as well as the 1970 crime thriller "Violent City" (with Charles Bronson) and the poliziottesco film "Revolver" (1973).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Other relevant scores for less popular Spaghetti Westerns include "Duello nel Texas" (1963), "Bullets Don't Argue" (1964), "A Pistol for Ringo" (1965), "The Return of Ringo" (1965), "Seven Guns for the MacGregors" (1966), "The Hills Run Red" (1966), Giulio Petroni's "Death Rides a Horse" (1967) and "Tepepa" (1968), "A Bullet for the General" (1967), "Guns for San Sebastian" (with Charles Bronson and Anthony Quinn, 1968), "A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof" (1968), "The Five Man Army" (1969), Don Siegel's "Two Mules for Sister Sara" (1970), "Life Is Tough, Eh Providence?" (1972), and "Buddy Goes West" (1981).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: With Leone's films, Ennio Morricone's name had been put firmly on the map. Most of Morricone's film scores of the 1960s were composed outside the Spaghetti Western genre, while still using Alessandroni's team. Their music included the themes for "Il Malamondo" (1964), "Slalom" (1965), and "Listen, Let's Make Love" (1967). In 1968, Morricone reduced his work outside the movie business and wrote scores for 20 films in the same year. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment for Mario Bava's superhero romp "" (1968).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone collaborated with Marco Bellocchio ("Fists in the Pocket", 1965), Gillo Pontecorvo ("The Battle of Algiers" (1966), and "Queimada!" (1969) with Marlon Brando), Roberto Faenza (H2S, 1968), Giuliano Montaldo ("Sacco e Vanzetti", 1971), Giuseppe Patroni Griffi ("'Tis Pity She's a Whore", 1971), Mauro Bolognini ("Drama of the Rich", 1974), Umberto Lenzi ("Almost Human", 1974), Pier Paolo Pasolini ("Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom", 1975), Bernardo Bertolucci ("Novecento", 1976), and Tinto Brass ("The Key", 1983).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1970, Morricone wrote the score for "Violent City". That same year, he received his first Nastro d'Argento for the music in "Metti una sera a cena" (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1969) and his second only a year later for "Sacco e Vanzetti" (Giuliano Montaldo, 1971), in which he collaborated with the legendary American folk singer and activist Joan Baez. His soundtrack for "Sacco e Vanzetti" contains another well-known composition by Morricone, the folk song "Here's to You", sung by Baez. For the writing of the lyrics, Baez was inspired by a letter from Bartolomeo Vanzetti: ""Father, yes, I am a prisoner / Fear not to relay my crime"". The song was later included in movies such as "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou".


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone's eclecticism found its way to films in the horror genre, such as the giallo thrillers of Dario Argento, from "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" (1970), "The Cat o' Nine Tails" (1971), and "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" (1971) to "The Stendhal Syndrome" (1996) and "The Phantom of the Opera" (1998). His other horror scores include "Nightmare Castle" (1965), "A Quiet Place in the Country" (1968), "The Antichrist" (1974), and "Night Train Murders" (1975).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In addition, Morricone composed music for many popular and cult Italian giallo films, such as "Unknown Woman" (1969), "Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion" (1970), "A Lizard in a Woman's Skin" (1971), "Cold Eyes of Fear" (1971), "The Fifth Cord" (1971), "Short Night of Glass Dolls" (1971), "The Black Belly of the Tarantula" (1971) "My Dear Killer" (1972), "What Have You Done to Solange?" (1972), "Who Saw Her Die?" (1972), "Spasmo" (1974), and "Autopsy" (1975).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1977 Morricone scored John Boorman's "" and Alberto De Martino's apocalyptic horror film "Holocaust 2000", starring Kirk Douglas. In 1982 he composed the score for John Carpenter's science fiction horror movie "The Thing". Morricone's main theme for the film was reflected in Marco Beltrami's film's score of prequel of the 1982 film, which was released in 2011.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: The "Dollars Trilogy" was not released in the United States until 1967 when United Artists, who had already enjoyed success distributing the British-produced James Bond films in the United States, decided to release Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns. The American release gave Morricone an exposure in America and his film music became quite popular in the United States.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: One of Morricone's first contributions to an American director concerned his music for the religious epic film "" by John Huston. According to Sergio Miceli's book "Morricone, la musica, il cinema", Morricone wrote about 15 or 16 minutes of music, which were recorded for a screen test and conducted by Franco Ferrara. At first Morricone's teacher Goffredo Petrassi had been engaged to write the score for the great big-budget epic, but Huston preferred another composer. RCA Records then proposed Morricone who was under contract with them, but a conflict between the film's producer Dino De Laurentiis and RCA occurred. The producer wanted to have exclusive rights for the soundtrack, while RCA still had the monopoly on Morricone at that time and did not want to release the composer. Subsequently, Morricone's work was rejected because he did not get permission from RCA to work for Dino De Laurentiis alone. The composer reused the parts of his unused score for "The Bible: In the Beginning" in such films as "The Return of Ringo" (1965) by Duccio Tessari and Alberto Negrin's "The Secret of the Sahara" (1987).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone never left Rome to compose his music and never learned to speak English. But given that the composer always worked in a wide field of composition genres, from "absolute music", which he always produced, to "applied music", working as orchestrator as well as conductor in the recording field, and then as a composer for theatre, radio, and cinema, the impression arises that he never really cared that much about his standing in the eyes of Hollywood.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1970, Morricone composed the music for Don Siegel's "Two Mules for Sister Sara", an American-Mexican western film starring Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood. The same year the composer also delivered the title theme "The Men from Shiloh" for the American Western television series The Virginian.<ref name="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xna6GjwSJ0"></ref>


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1974–1975 Morricone wrote music for "Spazio 1999", an Italian-produced compilation movie made to launch the Italian-British television series "", while the original episodes featured music by Barry Gray. A soundtrack album was only released on CD in 2016 and on LP in 2017. In 1975 he scored the George Kennedy revenge thriller "The "Human" Factor", which was the final film of director Edward Dmytryk. Two years later he composed the score for the sequel to William Friedkin's 1973 film "The Exorcist", directed by John Boorman: "". The horror film was a major disappointment at the box office. The film grossed 30,749,142 in the United States.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1978, the composer worked with Terrence Malick for "Days of Heaven" starring Richard Gere, for which he earned his first nomination at the Oscars for Best Original Score.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Despite the fact that Morricone had produced some of the most popular and widely imitated film music ever written throughout the 1960s and 1970s, "Days of Heaven" earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Score, with his score up against Jerry Goldsmith's "The Boys from Brazil", Dave Grusin's "Heaven Can Wait", Giorgio Moroder's "Midnight Express" (the eventual winner), and John Williams's "Superman: The Movie" at the Oscar ceremonies in 1979.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: "The Mission", directed by Joffé, was about a piece of history considerably more distant, as Spanish Jesuit missionaries see their work undone as a tribe of Paraguayan natives fall within a territorial dispute between the Spanish and Portuguese. At one point the score was one of the world's best-selling film scores, selling over 3 million copies worldwide.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone finally received a second Oscar nomination for "The Mission". Morricone's original score lost out to Herbie Hancock's coolly arranged jazz on Bertrand Tavernier's "Round Midnight". It was considered a surprising win and a controversial one, given that much of the music in the film was pre-existing. Morricone stated the following during a 2001 interview with "The Guardian": "I definitely felt that I should have won for "The Mission". Especially when you consider that the Oscar winner that year was "Round Midnight", which was not an original score. It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces. So there could be no comparison with "The Mission". There was a theft!" His score for "The Mission" was ranked at number 1 in a poll of the all-time greatest film scores. The top 10 list was compiled by 40 film composers such as Michael Giacchino and Carter Burwell. The score is ranked 23rd on the AFI's list of 25 greatest film scores of all time.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: On three occasions, Brian De Palma worked with Morricone: "The Untouchables" (1987), the 1989 war drama "Casualties of War" and the science fiction film "Mission to Mars" (2000). Morricone's score for "The Untouchables" resulted in his third nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Score.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In a 2001 interview with "The Guardian", Morricone stated that he had good experiences with De Palma: "De Palma is delicious! He respects music, he respects composers. For "The Untouchables", everything I proposed to him was fine, but then he wanted a piece that I didn't like at all, and of course, we didn't have an agreement on that. It was something I didn't want to write – a triumphal piece for the police. I think I wrote nine different pieces for this in total and I said, 'Please don't choose the sixth!' because it was the worst. And guess what he chose? The sixth one. But it really suits the movie."


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Another American director, Barry Levinson, commissioned the composer on two occasions. First, for the crime-drama "Bugsy", starring Warren Beatty, which received ten Oscar nominations, winning two for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Dennis Gassner, Nancy Haigh) and Best Costume Design.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: "He doesn't have a piano in his studio, I always thought that with composers, you sit at the piano, and you try to find the melody. There's no such thing with Morricone. He hears a melody, and he writes it down. He hears the orchestration completely done", said Levinson in an interview.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: During his career in Hollywood, Morricone was approached for numerous other projects, including the Gregory Nava drama "A Time of Destiny" (1988), "Frantic" by Polish-French director Roman Polanski (1988, starring Harrison Ford), Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 drama film "Hamlet" (starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close), the neo-noir crime film "State of Grace" by Phil Joanou (1990, starring Sean Penn and Ed Harris), "Rampage" (1992) by William Friedkin, and the romantic drama "Love Affair" (1994) by Warren Beatty.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 2009, Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to compose the film score for "Inglourious Basterds". Morricone was unable to, because the film's sped-up production schedule conflicted with his scoring of Giuseppe Tornatore's "Baarìa". However, Tarantino did use eight tracks composed by Morricone in the film, with four of them included on the soundtrack. The tracks came originally from Morricone's scores for "The Big Gundown" (1966), "Revolver" (1973) and "Allonsanfàn" (1974).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 2012, Morricone composed the song "Ancora Qui" with lyrics by Italian singer Elisa for Tarantino's "Django Unchained", a track that appeared together with three existing music tracks composed by Morricone on the soundtrack. "Ancora Qui" was one of the contenders for an Academy Award nomination in the Best Original Song category, but eventually the song was not nominated. On 4 January 2013 Morricone presented Tarantino with a Life Achievement Award at a special ceremony being cast as a continuation of the International Rome Film Festival. In 2014, Morricone was misquoted as claiming that he would "never work" with Tarantino again, and later agreed to write an original film score for Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight", which won him an Academy Award in 2016 in the Best Original Score category. His nomination for this film marked him at that time as the second oldest nominee in Academy history, behind Gloria Stuart. Morricone's win marked his first competitive Oscar, and at the age of 87, he became the oldest person at the time to win a competitive Oscar.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 1988, Morricone started an ongoing and very successful collaboration with Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore. His first score for Tornatore was for the drama film "Cinema Paradiso". The international version of the film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and the 1989 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Morricone received a BAFTA award with his son Andrea, and a David di Donatello for his score. In 2002, the director's cut 173-minute version was released (known in the US as "Cinema Paradiso: The New Version").


title: Ennio Morricone

text: After the success of "Cinema Paradiso", the composer wrote the music for all subsequent films by Tornatore: the drama film "Everybody's Fine" (Stanno Tutti Bene, 1990), "A Pure Formality" (1994) starring Gérard Depardieu and Roman Polanski, "The Star Maker" (1995), "The Legend of 1900" (1998) starring Tim Roth, the 2000 romantic drama "Malèna" (which featured Monica Bellucci) and the psychological thriller mystery film "La sconosciuta" (2006). Morricone also composed the scores for "Baarìa" (2009), "The Best Offer" (2013) starring Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess and Donald Sutherland and the romantic drama "The Correspondence" (2015)


title: Ennio Morricone

text: The composer won several music awards for his scores in Tornatore's movies. Morricone received a fifth Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for "Malèna". For "Legend of 1900", he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. In September 2021 Tornatore presented out of competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival a documentary film about Morricone, "Ennio".


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone wrote the score for the Mafia television series "La piovra" seasons 2 to 10 from 1985 to 2001, including the themes "Droga e sangue" ("Drugs and Blood"), "La Morale", and "L'Immorale". Morricone worked as the conductor of seasons 3 to 5 of the series. He also worked as the music supervisor for the television project "La bibbia" ("The Bible").


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In the late 1990s, he collaborated with his son Andrea on the "Ultimo" crime dramas, resulting in "Ultimo" (1998), "Ultimo 2 – La sfida" (1999), "Ultimo 3 – L'infiltrato" (2004) and "Ultimo 4 – L'occhio del falco" (2013). For "Canone inverso" (2000) based on the music-themed novel of the same name by the Paolo Maurensig, directed by Ricky Tognazzi and starring Hans Matheson, Morricone won Best Score awards in the David di Donatello Awards and Silver Ribbons.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In the 2000s, Morricone continued to compose music for successful television series such as "Il Cuore nel Pozzo" (2005), "" (2005), "La provinciale" (2006), "Giovanni Falcone" (2007), "Pane e libertà" (2009) and "Come Un Delfino 1–2" (2011–2013).


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album "Ringleader of the Tormentors" in 2006.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 2008, the composer recorded music for a Lancia commercial, featuring Richard Gere and directed by Harald Zwart (known for directing "The Pink Panther 2").


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her album "Paradiso". The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best-known film compositions of the last 50 years. Westenra recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Since 1995, he composed the music for several advertising campaigns of Dolce & Gabbana. The commercials were directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In 2013, Morricone collaborated with Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini on a new version of her hit single "La solitudine" for her 20 years anniversary greatest hits album "20 – The Greatest Hits".


title: Ennio Morricone

text: He wrote the score for Christian Carion's "En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait" (2015) and the most recent movie by Tornatore: "The Correspondence" (2016), featuring Jeremy Irons and Olga Kurylenko. In July 2015, Quentin Tarantino announced after the screening of footage of his movie "The Hateful Eight" at the San Diego Comic-Con International that Morricone would score the film, the first Western that Morricone scored since 1981. The score was critically acclaimed and won several awards including the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the Academy Award for Best Original Score.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: In June 2015, Morricone premiered his "Missa Papae Francisci (Mass for Pope Francis)" at Rome's Chiesa del Gesù with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta and choruses from the Accademia Santa Cecilia and the Rome Opera Theater.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: Before receiving his diplomas in trumpet, composition and instrumentation from the conservatory, Morricone was already active as a trumpet player, often performing in an orchestra that specialised in music written for films. After completing his education at Saint Cecilia, the composer honed his orchestration skills as an arranger for Italian radio and television. In order to support himself, he moved to RCA in the early sixties and entered the front ranks of the Italian recording industry. Since 1964, Morricone was also a founding member of the Rome-based avant-garde ensemble Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. During the existence of the group (until 1978), Morricone performed several times with the group as trumpet player.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: To ready his music for live performance, he joined smaller pieces of music together into longer suites. Rather than single pieces, which would require the audience to applaud every few minutes, Morricone thought the best idea was to create a series of suites lasting from 15 to 20 minutes, which form a sort of symphony in various movements – alternating successful pieces with personal favourites. In concert, Morricone normally had 180 to 200 musicians and vocalists under his baton, performing multiple genre-crossing collections of music. Rock, symphonic and ethnic instruments share the stage.


title: Ennio Morricone

text: On 20 September 1984 Morricone conducted the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire at "Cinésymphonie '84" ("Première nuit de la musique de film/First night of film music") in the French concert hall Salle Pleyel in Paris. He performed some of his best-known compositions such as "Metti una sera a cena", "Novecento" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". Michel Legrand and Georges Delerue performed on the same evening.