A true titan in the world of film composing, the legendary Ennio Morricone has passed away, we’ve unfortunately learned this morning. The Italian Oscar-winner was 91 years old.

Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte tweeted, “We will always remember, with infinite gratitude, the artistic genius of the Maestro #EnnioMorricone. It made us dream, feel excited, reflect, writing memorable notes that will remain indelible in the history of music and cinema.”

Born in Rome, Ennio Morricone amassed over 500 composing credits throughout his career, nominated for six Academy Awards along the way. Morricone finally won an Oscar for “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” back in 2016 for his work on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He had previously been nominated in the same category for the films Days of Heaven, The Mission, The Untouchables, Bugsy and Malena.

What’s interesting about the score for The Hateful Eight is that Tarantino utilized bits of unused music from Morricone’s score for John Carpenter’s The Thing, composed decades prior. In the horror world, Morricone also scored Nightmare Castle, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, The Cat ‘o Nine Tails, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, Black Belly of the Tarantula, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, What Have You Done to Solange?, Exorcist II: The Heretic and Wolf.

Morricone was particularly known for his Western scores, including A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Once Upon a Time in the West.

Ricorderemo sempre, con infinita riconoscenza, il genio artistico del Maestro #EnnioMorricone. Ci ha fatto sognare, emozionare, riflettere, scrivendo note memorabili che rimarranno indelebili nella storia della musica e del cinema pic.twitter.com/SNGmJjfJ2H

— Giuseppe Conte (@GiuseppeConteIT) July 6, 2020