Morricone to record score of Tarantino’s Hateful Eight in Prague this weekend

The great Ennio Morricone is due in Prague this weekend to record the score for the new Quentin Tarantino movie The Hateful Eight. Though the veteran composer is closely associated with the genre, his recording with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra will in fact be his first work for a western in many years.

Ennio Morricone, photo: Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0

Ennio Morricone is closely associated with spaghetti westerns thanks to his unmistakable theme music for Sergio Leone films such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

However, he has not actually scored a movie in that genre since 1975’s A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe.

In 2013 Morricone expressed criticism of how Quentin Tarantino had used music from his extensive catalogue in his films, including the western Django Unchained.

However, the pair have evidently made up. On Sunday Tarantino announced that the composer was coming to Prague to record what will be the first ever traditional score for one of his movies (the director has previously employed source music to great effect).

Jan Hasenöhrl, photo: Petr Vidomus

Less than a week after that announcement, Morricone is due to begin recording the music for The Hateful Eight on Friday with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble’s director Jan Hasenöhrl is delighted about the booking – and says it will be a busy few days.

“I think the name says it all. For us this already means a lot, because Mr. Morricone didn’t hesitate to call us directly. We’re looking forward to him, to the director, and to the music… It’s a bit complicated because we have the closing concert of the Prague Proms on Sunday, where as part of a Hollywood night we’re playing Morricone’s music from Django and The Mission. But we will still manage to record everything between Friday and Monday; Tuesday at the latest.”

It is no coincidence that the 86-year-old Morricone is working with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Together they recorded the score of the 2013 picture The Best Offer, while the ensemble also toured Europe with the maestro earlier this year.

'The Hateful Eight', photo: CTK

“It was one of the greatest experiences we could have had in our lives, because we spent almost three months with Mr. Morricone, in many cities. He was a fantastic partner. He’s a great musician as well as a great composer. It came about because we got the opportunity to next year accompany him on a recording of his mass for Pope Francis in Prague. The cooperation is on a very high level.”

The fruits of this weekend’s collaboration will hit cinema screens at the beginning of next year, when Tarantino’s long-discussed The Hateful Eight is released internationally.