Mastodon Franco de Gemini (September 1928 - July 2013) - The Wagnerian

Franco de Gemini (September 1928 - July 2013)

Written By The Wagnerian on Sunday 28 July 2013 | 1:41:00 am



The harmonica is the Wagnerian's "weapon of choice" and so, off topic or not:

Franco De Gemini, who probably became most famous for playing harmonica on, what seems, every Spaghetti western - and other Italian soundtracks -  died this month in Rome at the age of 84

De Gemini, was born in Ferrara in September 1928, spending his childhood in Turin, where he studied music and went onto play with various orchestras. He became interested in the harmonica in the second half of the 1940s.

While the founder of his own record label and writer and performer on more than 800 film and TV scores, he is probably most famous for just three notes, those written by Ennio Morricone for the soundtrack to Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West"