Germany’s Europäische FilmPhilharmonie Given Sole Distribution of Ennio Morricone’s Works

The Ennio Morricone legacy company and estate have entrusted the orchestra with the curation and worldwide distribution Morricone’s catalog

The Ennio Morricone Estate and Official Legacy Company Musica e Oltre have entrusted the Europäische FilmPhilharmonie (EFPI) to make the musical legacy of Italian composer Ennio Morricone publicly accessible for the first time. 

The EFPI will release the first authentic edition of Morricone’s compositions for orchestras and ensembles, plus will be responsible for the international distribution of exclusive concert programs and musical suites from the composer’s extensive catalog of music and film scores.

It will also produce new editions of works owned by Morricone’s heirs, including materials licensed to Sony, Sugar Music, Musica e Oltre Srl, and BMG. The distribution rights for individual works worldwide (except in Italy) will remain with Wise Music.

“There is a fascinating network of communicating vessels between Ennio Morricone’s absolute music and his film music, and we aim to reflect that in our concert programmes,” said EFPI’s creative director Fernando Carmena in the press release.

“[The publication of the compositions] does not claim to be a critical edition nor that of an Urtext facsimile, but rather it aims to be an authentic edition for performances, drawn from the original manuscripts as well as from that of the maestro ‘draws on the performance practice developed over the years in concerts and recordings.’”

Morricone was born in 1928 and died in 2020 at the age of 91. The Academy Award winner wrote over 100 works of absolute music and over 500 compositions for film and TV. 

“Our family is pleased with the agreement with the European Film Philharmonic and the dedication with which it strives to preserve my husband’s legacy to orchestras all over the world [and] I am very happy to make it accessible,” said Morricone’s partner of 70 years, Maria Travia Morricone.

“The close attention to details, the research and edition that FilmPhilharmonie devoted to the original scores, the understanding that this agreement is about exposing the world not only to his most famous works, but also to the vast body of chamber and symphonic music as well as unknown compositions for films that have not been so lucky during their times, have been a major factor in this decision ‘to open up his studio’ to the world.”