René Giessen

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René Giessen (born December 24, 1944, Prague) is a German musician, composer and conductor.

[edit] The harmonica player

René Giessen is widely known for playing the harmonica on the title melody of famous German Winnetou-movies from the 1960s starring Pierre Brice and Lex Barker, which was composed by German composer Martin Boettcher. The music from the Karl-May-Movies held top positions in the German charts and can be considered a landmark in German film music history. The success of these movies originated a whole new genre later known as the "Spaghetti Westerns" where once again the harmonica plays a dominant role (there is even a character by the name of harmonica in Sergio Leone's movie "Once Upon a Time in the West") in the music of Ennio Morricone, again played on the harmonica by René Giessen.