Maestro Alessandro Alessandroni dies at 92

I was saddened to receive confirmation this morning that composer Alessandro Alessandroni has died in Rome at the age of 92. Not only an established composer in his own right, Alessandroni was also hugely respected and adored among the Eastwood community as working alongside Ennio Morricone and for famously providing that signature whistling that peppered those wonderful western scores.

As a tribute, I have decided to post the English translation from the Italian news network repubblica.it. I have also made a couple of minor adjustments to avoid confusion as a result of that translation.

"It's very simple. I [received] a phone call (from) Ennio Morricone [who] said: 'Sandra, come on down for a moment, in the room [studio], you need to make a fischiatina' (a whistle). Well, it was really a fischiatina, nothing more, but think about what it is happened next ... When we saw the film, I have to admit that no one thought that would make any money. “Instead, the 'fischiatina' really did change everything. Alessandro Alessandroni, the Master - it is right to call it - says the opening words of the most famous of his career and most iconic piece of Western movies, that for a fistful of dollars, made up of Morricone, which made the films of Sergio Leone - and practically all the best western movie - even bigger. The composer, conductor and arranger Alessandro Alessandroni died in Rome, the city that March 18th, 1925 gave birth, March 26. He had just turned 92 years. The announcement came on the official Facebook page of the composer: "It is with great sorrow that I inform you of the death yesterday maestro Alessandro Alessandroni born in Rome on March 18, 1925, composer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and choir conductor. It will be a memorial service at home in Namibia with music and musicians directed by his son Alex Jr. Alessandroni ".

Alessandroni approached music when he was still a boy. At the time he lives in the mother country, in the province of Viterbo. He was 11 years old and listened insistently, whenever he could to classical music. He began playing the guitar with assistance from a friend. The site is one of those details. He told in an interview to the blog Planet Hexacord : "I started in the barber shop, because in small countries is a reference point: there were the instruments, the guitar, the mandolin. They worked a little, but they played a lot. .. ". While he is attending the last year of high school he formed his first ensemble, with which he toured for local and dance halls. Fast to learn in a short time become proficient in several instruments, alternating during her performances: a teenager is already able to play the guitar, the piano, the accordion, sax, flute, mandolin and sitar, one of the first Italians to try their hand in this complex stringed instrument. Obtained diploma at the Conservatory in Rome, find a job in the film production company Fonolux There he meets the great Nino Rota, his senior by 14 years, who wants him in his orchestra. Then came the whistle. It was almost by accident. Alessandroni, at some point, when volunteers Rota needs a reason booed. Whistling become its new tool to play with and one of the characterizing moments spaghetti western soundtracks. Music in effect: "My whistle parts are on the staff," explained Alessandroni, "and woe to miss the pitch, to make mistakes." The thought also Federico Fellini, author of his soprannonme: Alessandroni for him was simply "The Whistle".

In 1962 he founded the octet I Cantori Moderni, a formation of his previous group, the Caravels Quartet. With them - the band is formed by soprano Edda Dell'Orso, Augusto Giardino, Franco Cosacchi, Nino Gods, Enzo Gioieni, Gianna Spagnuolo and, not least, the wife of Alessandroni Giulia De Mutiis.

The most important co-operation and long life of Alessandroni remains today the one with Ennio Morricone: besides the famous whistle for A Fistful of Dollars will also work in For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Alessandroni is called by all the most important Italian composers of the time, in the sixties, such as Piero Umiliani, for which sings with his wife Julia in fantastic reason Mah-mah-nà nà , extracted from the soundtrack of Sweden, hell and paradise of Luigi Scattini (1968) and with the master Armando Trovajoli. 

With the arrival of the seventies, the ARC of the RCA, the label dedicated to the 'young Italian song', between beats and 'world exotico', a disc-public collection of twelve songs in the race edition of 1969 Canzonissima. They are recorded, of course, in an instrumental version and work on the Hammond organ solo is credited to Ron Alexander, his pseudonym.

The name of Alessandroni had become of worship across the board, had crossed generations and musical styles, and especially among library music lovers. Among the last to want it in their record Baustelle, group of Montepulciano, who chose him for one of their best albums. "Alessandro Alessandroni is the oldest guest," explained Francesco Bianconi, the singer, "a wonderful eighty-four that we did play the sitar, accordion, acoustic guitar and we did blow the whistle". The song title, not surprisingly, was Spaghetti Western - The album, Amen.

RIP Maestro – our thoughts and condolences are with the Alessandroni family.