1A few years ago we dedicated an essay to the Missa Papae Francisci,[1] which Ennio Morricone, overcoming some hesitation, had composed and dedicated to Pope Francis. At the time we thought we had penned a definitive tribute to the Roman composer. He appreciated it so much that he confided in us some important observations about the music for the film The Mission and other masterpieces of many genres.

However, his sudden death, and his choice of no public funeral so as “not to disturb anyone” calls for further recognition, along with what has been said and done for him around the world. Recently the City of Rome dedicated to him the entire area of the Parco della Musica, recognizing him as an all-round composer who, in a period as culturally complex as that of recent decades, achieved significant results in different musical genres. It is not often remembered that, in addition to the 500 soundtracks for films and television series, Morricone also composed occasional music, arrangements for songs, and about 100 scores of classical music.

Studies and training

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome on November 10, 1928, to parents originally from Arpino (Frosinone). At elementary school he was in class with Sergio Leone, and then at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia he met many other people with whom, in addition to friendship, he shared musical thoughts and professional commitment.

He graduated in trumpet, in instrumentation for band and also studied choral music and choir conducting. But it was the course and specialization in composition that influenced him most, opening up the great expressive spaces of music and leading him to venerate Maestro Goffredo Petrassi, a great cultural personality with memorable human qualities who went down in history as one of the few unforgettable composers of the second half of the 20th century.

The young Morricone immediately made use of the teaching and cultural openings he received and embraced all sorts of experiences, starting with short occasional pieces, which included songs to texts by Cesare Pavese (Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi), and then put his hand to music for variety shows and songs.

Finishing at the Conservatory in 1954, he began composing film music the following year, collaborating with the record company RCA Italiana on arrangements of songs by Italian composers such as Gino Paoli (Sapore di sale), Edoardo Vianello (Guarda come dondolo, Abbronzatissima), and singers such as Mina (Se telefonando).

As for cultured music, in 1964 he joined the Improvisation Group “Nuova Consonanza,” which mainly focused on avant-garde music and improvisation. With this group, founded by Franco Evangelisti, together with Domenico Guàccero and others, he played and recorded until 1980. Many of the distinctive effects heard in his film scores came from this experience.

Collaboration with Sergio Leone

It was Sergio Leone’s films, the so-called “spaghetti westerns”, that allowed Morricone to highlight his skills as a composer and musical experimenter, as we can observe in the soundtracks of the so-called “Dollar Trilogy,” made up of A Fist Full of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), followed by collaborations for the “Time Trilogy,” consisting of Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), A Fistful of Dynamite (1971) and Once Upon a Time in America (1984).

Let us pause to analyze some parts of the soundtrack of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which highlight, from the beginning, his skillful use of engaging orchestration, which manages to create a marriage between the rich plot – a treasure hunt in the midst of the War of Secession in the United States carried on by “The Good – the blond” (Clint Eastwood), “The Ugly – Tuco” (Eli Wallach) and “The Bad – Sentence” (Lee Van Cleef) – and a dry, harsh and unscrupulous environment, but not without irony, typical of the western. All three gunslingers share the same musical riff, precisely because they are linked by the same story, but each on a different instrument: the flute for The Good, the ocarina for The Bad, and vocals for The Ugly.

The introductory theme already has elements that will be present in the film: the “tam tam” of the drum evokes the typical milieu of the western: desert, dangerous, arid, while gunshots immediately create the context of the duel, another characteristic element of the western. The sound of the electric guitar, distorted and rough, enters immediately after the main theme, more and more pressing, together with the voices and percussion sounds, and gives the idea of the race, of the treasure hunt, which will bring the three principal characters to meet and clash until the last duel.

The introductory riff is then developed by the acute and clumsy voices that recall the coyote’s howl, while the sound of the wind instruments and the trumpet, Morricone’s own instrument, come in, recalling the rapid motif of the military “charge,” anticipating the environment in which the film will take place, the American Civil War.

The main theme is repeated at key moments in the film. Morricone, however, in the most painful moments uses a minimal soundtrack, as in the bitter dialogue between Tuco and his brother monk. We only hear the sound of a simple guitar and a suffused carpet of strings, underlining the resentment and regret of that abruptly interrupted dialogue; it seems to suggest that even gunslingers have a soul capable of suffering for the events of life.

In the same vein,  there is the little march of the hopeless – heard in the Northern prison camp – consisting of a simple vocalization, or the sad song “Story of a Soldier” – played by an orchestra of battered Southern prisoners – which serves to cover the cries of the prisoners while they are being tortured. An old soldier from the camp says to The Good: “I wouldn’t want to be in your friend’s shoes. The louder the choir sings, the louder he beats Wallace.” These are musical themes that are repeated even afterward, when the bridge , a place of bloody clashes between the North and South, is blown up

Sergio Leone’s film is not a simple western, as it is a harsh criticism of all types of war: the extermination camps of the Northerners bring to mind those of the Second World War; the scene of the many soldiers wounded or killed for the capture of a bridge evokes the countless battles to conquer strategic areas during wartime conflicts. Even the final duel between the three protagonists to take possession of the treasure has a macabre aspect:  It takes place in the center of a cemetery where the potential spectators are all dead. So says Sergio Leone: “I wanted a cemetery which could evoke an ancient circus […], the idea of the arena was crucial, with a morbid wink, because the witnesses of this show were all dead. I insisted that the music express the laughter of the corpses in  the tombs. The actors’ first three close-ups took us the whole day; I wanted the spectator to have the impression of watching a ballet. The music gave a certain lyricism to all these images, so the scene became a matter of choreography as much as of suspense.”[2] Morricone in this soundtrack manages to offer a wonderful and multifaceted commentary on the dynamics of the film, through the harsh sounds of the desert lands, the frantic rhythms of the galloping escapes of the gunmen on horseback, the slow and dramatic motifs of the desolation of the prison camps, the sound of the trumpets of the cavalry charges and the majesty of the final duel, “Il Triello.”

To understand the impact that the soundtrack of Sergio Leone’s film had, just take into account that the song “The Ecstasy of Gold” was used by the group Metallica, while the main theme was reinterpreted by Hugo Montenegro and His Orchestra, or the ironic The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, in a jazzy key by Herbie Hancock, Patti Austin and Stevie Woods, or performed only on guitars by the California Guitar Trio, just to mention the most famous groups.

‘The Mission’

Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986 and many other awards, the film was attacked by some critics for its clear homage to the missionary and social action of the Jesuits between 1600 and 1700 in Latin America.

The Mission is set in the period of the Jesuit Reducciones (missions) in Paraguay, and focuses in particular on events that occurred after the Treaty of Madrid of 1750, which obliged the kingdom of Spain to cede part of the territories of Paraguay – where Jesuit missions were located – to the crown of Portugal.

The film mixes historical cues with fictional characters and situations, and anticipates the ever-present confrontation between those who are willing to have their own rights and those of others recognized, even with the use of weapons (the character Rodrigo Mendoza, played by Robert De Niro), and those who instead invoke a higher justice, who trust in non-violent action and the supreme testimony of martyrdom (the father superior, Gabriel, played by Jeremy Irons).

The music for the film was to be composed by none other than Leonard Bernstein, who had to withdraw for health reasons. Ennio Morricone, called on when the film was completely edited, refused, stating that the film was already fine as it was. But then, sensing that the story suggested several very particular expressive possibilities, he accepted, although greatly constrained by the fact that the parts played on screen, like Father Gabriel’s oboe, already had precise timing and fingering, as well as the sung moments, like the “Ave Maria” of the Guarani child, which already had precise breathing and movement of the lips.

Morricone tried musically to tune into the forest environment, its unspoiled state near to the Iguazú Falls on the current border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Thus the initial string basis of the piece “Falls” becomes one with the roar of the waterfall and seems to support the effort of the ascent that Father Gabriel makes on the steep and slippery rocks to reach an access path to the area inhabited by the Guaranì tribe.

The main theme of this piece is built around three notes, which are like the three fundamental points of support for a climber not to lose balance. The famous theme, “Gabriel’s Oboe,” is accompanied by the twittering of the birds and becomes a moment of encounter between Father Gabriel and the natives, ending in a rudimentary pan flute.  Music is another language and allows communication between the Jesuit and Guaranì, although one of them angrily breaks the oboe played by Gabriel.

While declaring that he did not know him and that he “invented everything,” Morricone seems to have followed the experience of Domenico Zipoli, a Jesuit musician and composer who, after joining the Society of Jesus, arrived at Río de la Plata on July 13, 1717, and wrote sacred music for the Reducciones in the European style, but sometimes kept the text in Chiquitano, an indigenous language. Thus in The Mission we listen to the “Te Deum” and the “Ave Maria Guaranì,” composed by Morricone, as a commentary on the institutional visit of the papal emissary, Cristóbal Altamirano, to the Reducciones. If the main structure of the music is typically 18th century European, some of the musical cadences and vocality belong to the indigenous world. Music, a symbol of encounter and a language that is capable of going beyond differences, will accompany Father Gabriel and his mission to the extreme sacrifice, in a procession that is a martyrdom of blood, a testimony of love for Christ and for a society based on the earth, justice and respect for different cultures.

‘Cinema Paradiso’

Together with his son Andrea, Ennio Morricone devised another memorable theme in the soundtrack of Giuseppe Tornatore’s film, Cinema Paradiso (1988), with Philippe Noiret, set in Sicily. The music won the David di Donatello Award and the BAFTA Award as the best soundtrack; but above all, the romantic and intimate song “Love Theme” remains impressed on our memory. It was used to underline the kiss between Salvatore and Elena and would also be heard in the final scene of the film, which is another very profound emotional moment: Salvatore, now an adult, finds himself – in his own cinema after the death of Alfredo, with whom he lived all his adolescence, discovering the art of film projection – viewing a sequences of images, the union of all the scenes considered erotic that were cut at the behest of Don Adelfio and spliced together by Alfredo.

The film is an evocative collage of kisses: farewell kisses, meeting kisses, stolen kisses. They are part of the history of cinema, from Gold Fever to Gone with the Wind, from The Knockout to Roman Holiday and many others. With a symphony of strings, the main theme is played on a clarinet, with a low and harmonious sound, and then on a transverse flute, with a clear and acute sound, which seem to impersonate a man and a woman and their desire for love.

The more the images flow, the more the symphony orchestra becomes present in intensity and color, taking up the theme and giving it strength and passion. The music wanders between nostalgia and dream, romanticism and the gratitude that Salvatore feels in reviewing this series of images that belong to his life. The kiss given to Elena lives again in all those cinematic kisses, leaving the taste of a past time that will never come back and recalling to memory the last words of Alfredo before Salvatore leaves Sicily: “Whatever you do, love her, as you loved the cabin of Paradise when you were a kid.”

This theme has been masterfully reinterpreted by jazz guitarist Pat Metheny in the album Beyond the Missouri Sky (Short Stories), by Israeli violinist Itzhak Perlman, and by mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins, together with the very young tenor and multi-instrumentalist Alberto Urso, who recorded it in London at the famous Abbey Road Studios.

‘Missa Papae Francisci’ (2014)

After endless hesitation, in 2014 Maestro Morricone decided to compose a Mass. It is right that now, after his death, this score has been published on the internet – with the video of the first performance, which took place in June 10, 2015, conducted by Morricone in concert form in the Gesù church in Rome – as a tribute to the Maestro, who left on tiptoe, shy about celebrations and honors.

The Mass lacks the Credo, and when Morricone could not explain this omission we suggested that perhaps he feared that the length of the piece was becoming excessive. The Mass text is in Latin, with an Introduction, Kyrie, Gloria, Alleluia, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Farewell (Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, the motto of the Society of Jesus).

It is a composer’s experiment , which brings to mind Gregorian music, the great polyphony of the 16th century, other sung Masses, and his beloved Maestro Goffredo Petrassi, with homages to Psalm IX and the Chorus of the Dead, set to a text by Leopardi. The Farewell includes a great tribute to the Society of Jesus through the soundtrack of The Mission, with its most evocative themes  quoted openly.


DOI: La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 11 art. 1, 1020: 10.32009/22072446.1120.1

[1].    See G. Arledler, “Due Messe per Papa Francesco”, in Civ. Catt. 2015 III 318-322.

[2].    S. Leone, C’era una volta il cinema, Milan, Il Saggiatore, 2018