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5 Compositional Elements
That Define the Music of
Ennio Morricone
JANUARY 8, 2018 by DRE DIMURA
Ennio “Maestro” Morricone is a composer as revered in the hearts of generations of
Americans (whether they realize it or not) as he is in his native Italy. As an expert
craftsman capable of coaxing exquisite beauty and violent bombast out of an
orchestra with the same deftness, Maestro has weaved between opposite extremes to
create a magnificent body of work spanning over six decades and 500+ films (and
counting!).
As a young headbanger, I first became aware of Morricone’s work while
watching Metallica’s Live Shit: Binge and Purge concert DVD. The band famously
prefaces their Seattle 1989 set with one of Morricone’s most popular compositions,
“The Ecstasy of Gold,” taken from the film, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. I loved
the piece, and the way the band used it to set the stage for their concert, but it wasn’t
until I saw Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight that I became obsessed with his
compositional style — so much so that it inspired the overture to my own short
film/music video, “Auracle Bone Script.”

As a member of the Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza, Morricone

spent at least a decade prior to scoring his first Western flick working on anti-
musical systems and instant composition employing noise-making techniques, which
he continues to develop in the modern era.¹ His exploration of the unusual allowed him
to create strikingly ordinary lines that quake with unimaginable magnitude using a
narrow set of harmonic possibilities (much like the Beatles did with popular music in
the 1960s).

Gone were the grand schemes and sweeps of Gershwin and Irving Berlin, music was a
means of blunt communication. Morricone’s transition to scoring films also happened
to coincide with cinema’s transition away from the romantic and toward the new-wave
realism of hardship, violence, and longing, fittingly appropriate for
Maestro’s concrète and mechanical-sounding style.

He never left Rome for Hollywood or learned to speak English (he wears this as a
badge of pride).² I think this is brilliant considering he has scored some of the greatest
American Westerns in cinematic history.

Here, I would draw a parallel between Morricone and Igor Stravinsky as innovators.
While Morricone received a formal education, unlike Stravinsky, both were
“removed” from the arenas for which they were writing, casting aside influence in
favor of invention — the lack of any social stimulus perhaps forcing the composer to
stretch beyond the limits of his imagination.

Historically speaking, Morricone’s oeuvre of orchestral film scores sounds unlike

anything to come before or after it. With such an enormous body of work, however,
it’s sometimes hard to know where it all connects. So, I’ve decided to break down five
of Morricone’s most trusted compositional tools, which appear commonly
throughout his greatest works and exemplify how he employs them.

On the Research
I chose to approach writing this like a scientist would a research endeavor. Using my
existing knowledge of the composer, I created a hypothesis, a chart listing the five
compositional elements I felt were most integral to setting Morricone’s work apart,
then tabulated them as I heard them appear. Those are:

1. Pulse

A continuous rhythmic ostinato or riff that carries throughout a song.Rarely, if

ever, does this pulse drop out entirely during a Morricone composition. When one
instrument falls, another rises, so to speak, carrying the rhythmic torch like a train on a
circular track. This is a compositional tactic that I first became aware of listening to
the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and which plays a central role in numerous Morricone
staples such as “The Ecstasy of Gold” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (main
theme).

2. Voice

This refers to the human voice being used not as a conduit for prose or verse, but
as a melodic instrument in and of itself — including calls, whistles, and the whoops
and hollers found in the scores of some “Spaghetti” Westerns.

This refers primarily to the voice of singer Edda Dell’Orso. Dell’Orso sang on a large
selection of Morricone’s work, including the stunning original recordings of “The
Ecstasy of Gold,” “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” and “Once Upon a Time in the
West.” Edda’s first collaboration with Maestro came in I Malamondo, a 1964
documentary chronicling strange behaviors around the world. But it wasn’t until 1966,
when Morricone was contracted to compose the music for Sergio Leone’s The Good,
the Bad and the Ugly, that she became a sensation. They would work together at least
28 more times on many of Morricone’s most notable scores and several more times on
future Leone/Morricone efforts.
3. Triads

In this article, Morricone is asked about the relationship between his own music
and heavy-metal bands such as Metallica and Slayer. He responds unexpectedly,
drawing a comparison between their use of simple triads and his own.³ While one
could argue that all musicians are using triads all of the time (they are), I began to
notice Ennio Morricone had a unique approach to his exploration of elementary
intervals. Things other “learned” musicians may deject as vanilla and basic. This led
me to believe that Morricone’s manipulation of simple, three-note primary and
secondary triads and tetrachords was a hallmark of his style.

4. Sound Design (SFX)

The use of acoustic instruments as a cinematic device or instrumentalfoley. These

are instances in which the composer uses the instrument in unusual ways to put a
pastiche on the onscreen action or to create drama and bombast in the
composition tailored to the tone of the piece.

5. Guitar

Morricone was an early ambassador of the Fender electric guitar. “Fender” referring
here to the combination of a Fender guitar and Fender amp, complete with
jangly reverb and vibrato. This sound became incredibly popular in the early 1960s
in cinema with pieces featured in the James Bond theme music by Monty
Norman and the Mission: Impossible theme written by Morricone protege Lalo
Schifrin.

My chart… looked like this (complete with coffee stains).

The research is based on a list of 40 of Morricone’s greatest tracks, which are
highlighted in the Spotify playlist “The Best of Ennio Morricone.” Each of the five
above elements appear in various stages of symbiosis throughout the entire two-disc
set with the Pulse and Triads columns each receiving a check on all 40 songs. Eight
compositions feature all five elements with the others, Voice appearing 26
times, Guitar appearing 17 times, and SFX appearing 16 times. If I were a baseball
player, I’m batting about .600.

The Music
Let’s explore these ideas further with some analysis. The majority of pieces boasting
the full array of all five compositional elements come from the composer’s tenure with
director Sergio Leone. In an effort to dig deeper into his catalog, however, I’ve
featured some individual commentary in the section following this one, detailing
additional breathtaking examples of Maestro’s genius. Follow along with the YouTube
links below, or if Spotify is better suited, here’s a link to the playlist where all of
these tracks can be found.

“The Ecstasy of Gold” (The Good, the Bad, and the

Ugly, 1966)

Pulse 0:00 – This piece opens with an Am9 arpeggio on the piano, which will propel
the music forward. It’s quickly joined by an oboe to introduce the primary melody
leading us to…

Triads 0:28-0:40 – Morricone crafts this part of the melody using just four notes over
two chords. Over the Am9 (A C E B), we have the root, A, followed by the fifth, E. As
the arpeggiated piano part beneath shifts to a G9 (G B D A), the melody line follows,
with the third, B, and the root, G.

Interestingly, the notes used over G9, the root and the third, also belong to our parent
Am(7)9 chord, functioning as the 9th and dominant 7th respectively. So while the
harmony underneath is shifting, the melody acts like an extension of the previous
chord. This relationship and its harmonic efficiency create a powerful line that
evolves without mutating past the point of discomfort.
Pulse 0:39 – The piano pauses here, but the oboe keeps the piece moving, before the
drums enter at 0:47, establishing a strong gallop which begins to build in intensity.

Voice 0:48 – Edda Dell’Orso’s beautiful coloratura makes it’s stunning entrance,
taking the place of the introductory oboe as the primary melodic force.

Triads 1:10 – Here is that line again, this time split between the strings, still simple,
still direct and devastatingly effective.

Pulse 1:16-1:25 – As the snare drums temporarily exit, the strings and backing vocals
rise up to fill the dead space, continuing to drive the tune with quarter notes and
carefully placed dynamics, which flow seamlessly into the reintroduction of the
percussion at 1:25. The composer may have made a choice to silence the rhythm
section, but using the rest of the orchestra as a security blanket, he allocates for the
risk of lost flow with his signature flair.

Pulse 1:47 – What’s that sound? It’s just Ennio Morricone being a genius. At 1:47, we
get a sharp tacet on the entire ensemble, in less than half a second, the string section
already begins building a galloping ostinato to take the place of the fortissimo gallop
that immediately preceded it.

SFX 1:50 – During this call and response between (anybody? anybody?) seemingly an
effected wind instrument and Edda Dell’Orso, we have our first instance of an
instrument being used outside the bounds of its tradition, as a device that drives the
plot of the film. In this scene from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Tuco is frantically
searching a graveyard for a bag containing several hundred thousand dollars in gold
coins. This part enters as he scans the headstones for his prize, the camera swooping in
for a medium shot of the seeker, while the interplay between the effected instrument
and the vocals symbolize the gold calling out to Tuco, and Tuco’s lust in answer as the
camera pulls further and further away from a sweat drenched Tuco, chasing ghosts.

Pulse 2:05 – At 2:05, the baton is passed back to the rhythm section as it
triumphantly returns to reclaim the gallop seized by its counterpart in the string
section.

Guitar 2:59 – Lastly, at 2:59, the “Fender” electric guitar enters to put a decidedly
modern exclamation point on the piece, creating a spacey recapitulation of the melody
that has become so wonderfully familiar during the first three minutes of the
composition.

“A Fistful of Dollars – Main Theme” (A Fistful of

Dollars, 1964)

Pulse 0:00 – The piece begins with that familiar Morricone pulse. An acoustic guitar
pounding out a Dm11 chord, spelled here as a D A G triad in a driving 16th note
pattern.

Voice 0:04 – A whistle introduces the melody. Again, carrying the tune using the
human voice.

SFX, Pulse 0:29 – A flurry of notes on the piccolo heralds the start of a hybrid
pulse/SFX sequence. Bells and the sound of whips not only help to connect the listener
to the events on screen, but help drive the piece as it develops, adding a strong
statement with a double edge. This is really fascinating. Let’s take a closer look.

If we looked at this like a kit drum beat, we’d have a kick on 1 and a snare on 3. To
me, this is the “Levon Helm” half-time groove found in much of the Band’s music,
which gives it that wonderful swagger. The piccolo falls on 1, acting as the kick, and
the crack of the whip on beat 3, snare. This is augmented by a bell on beat 2 on repeats
three and four. When the harmony shifts to the relative major, F, the bell also signals a
change by repositioning on the “&” of beat 3, where it remains.

Voice 0:52 – Background vocals enter here, this time carrying a mantra but still acting
out of character, and functioning primarily as an instrument. The lyrical content is
secondary to the rhythmic utilization of the voice.

Guitar 0:56 – Enter the “Fender” guitar. An ultra clean lead enters here, adding
another layer to this multidimensional musical construction.

Pulse, Voice 1:37 – We lose the musique concrète beat at 1:37, but a majestic armada
of strings rises up to take its place immediately, sawing away on the same 16th note
gallop as the intro guitar. At the same time, a male chorus enters to carry the melody,
another example of the voice being used as a melodic instrument sans text.

Pulse 1:46 – With the strings now tacit, a barrage of tight snare drums and acoustic
guitars enter for a short time to protect the beat, keeping it safe until the entire
assemblage reappears in dynamic form at 1:51.

Triads 2:00 – The guitar employs a similar harmonic shift used in “The Ecstasy of
Gold” here. A melodic anticipation as the harmony shifts underneath. The guitarist
plays a simple F major triad over an F major chord (F A C), extending the second pass
to the 6th, D, to create an F6 (F A D), in anticipation of the Dm chord lying in wait,
before finishing on a simple Dm triad. It’s also notable that the 5th degree, C, is
omitted in the F6 arpeggio. This follows Morricone’s tendency to distill a three note
cluster from a chord featuring extensions.

“The Trio” (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966)
“Trio” contains all of the key elements I included in my hypothesis. Let’s take a look
at a few of them.

Triads 0:00 – The piece opens with a brooding flute part which centers around a three
note phrase (D E F). While not exactly a denotative triad, this phrase does represent a
hallmark of Ennio Morricone’s style. A small note cluster twisted and manipulated
through deliberate limitation.

Pulse, Triads 0:24 – At 0:24, a familiar guitar part enters, beating out the same 16th
note pulse found in myriad other Morricone compositions. Outlining a Dm9 chord, this
is tied to “The Ecstasy of Gold” albeit in a different key here, but nonetheless, taken
from the same score.

Pulse, SFX 0:32 – Here the galloping guitar drops out, leaving the strings and a bevy
of SFX to carry the weight of the rhythm section. This cycle repeats with various
harmonic variation until 1:40. Featuring a call and response between the melodic
ostinato introduced by the flute and the fluid, arpeggiated guitar parts.

Voice 1:40 – The voice is used instrumentally again. A choir of female voices lock in
with the string section to drive the crescendo, spearheaded by the violins.

Pulse 1:43 – A blaring trumpet takes control of the melodic line, while the female
vocals continue to provide rich harmonic information. Underneath a solid dirge directs
the procession of the piece. A syncopated pattern featuring this rhythm, found
throughout our other analysis;

1+2+3+4+

x xxx x

Triads (and No Pulse??) 2:24 – At 2:24, we register a rare respite from the motoric
chugging away of many of Morricone’s compositions, as the guitar and percussion
break down into a high-noon duel. The guitar, exploring the same three-note cluster
we mentioned at the top of this piece — has a conversation with the sustained strings
before the piano enters for a brief rehash of the tetrachord from the top of the piece at
2:42. This interplay is repeated with slight variation (as is the way of Morricone) until
3:50, when the entire ensemble recommences in forceful fashion, recapitulating each
element introduced earlier in the piece.

SFX 5:11 – Seemingly a Fender guitar plus amplifier (with the reverb driven to 11)
combo provides a rattling explosion of obligato bombast, mimicking the sound of 19th
century ordnance, and again giving us a barometer on the tone of the piece, and the
film itself.

Furthermore
If I did a full breakdown of every song I analyzed, this would be a short novel, so I’d
like to continue my list with some honorable mentions: songs that didn’t contain
enough of the compositional elements to warrant a full breakdown, but which
masterfully feature some of the key elements from my hypothesis.

“Once Upon a Time in the West” (Once Upon a Time in the West, 1968)

The main theme to Once Upon a Time in the West features the voice beautifully, with
a delicate melody credited to Morricone and delivered by Edda Dell’Orso.

“For a Few Dollars More” (For a Few Dollars More, 1965)

This piece begins with almost a minute-long music concrète tapestry of

various SFXranging from spurs and boots to matches and neighs. A
mysterious voice hums and whistles a simple tune, a great, groaning wind lashes
around in the background. A resounding gunshot at 0:55 carries us into a piece not
dissimilar to many of the other Leone compositions, but featuring a wide array of foley
that paints a stunning visual counterpart.

“Chi Mai” (Maddalena, 1971)

“Chi Mai” features a great example of pulse at 1:48. The song has swelled to a mid-
tempo 6/8 feel complete with delicate brushes and rolling guitars. As this falls away,
the piano steps in to carry the rhythm with somber 8th note chords during a half-time
breakdown that closes the circle between the song’s opening and its conclusion.
“Giu la testa” (A Fistful of Dynamite, 1971)

This piece features fantastic vocals and powerful use of triads. Beginning with a stark,
three-note phrase played on the “Fender” guitar during the intro, the piece slowly
builds into a playful, Vince Guaraldi-esque smooth jazz number with more delicate,
simple melodies driving the piece forward before an absolutely gorgeous fleet of
voices enters at 1:16. This time it isn’t just a single female vocal dancing around our
ears, it’s a positive kingdom of lush background harmony, punctuating the piece with
sharp counterpoint and endless headroom.

“Death Rides a Horse – Main Theme” (Death Rides a Horse, 1967)

This piece is incredible. The chaotic flutes during the intro evoke the bombast of
Wagner, with a haunting chant driven by a small, mixed choir. At 1:50, the voices
return with what may be my favorite employment of Morricone’s voice on this entire
compilation. What could easily be mistaken for a Frank Zappa & The Mothers of
Invention piece lays the groundwork for what, throughout, is a dark, dark film.

“Ninna Nanna” (Cuore di mamma, 1969)

The voice is used artfully throughout this piece to carry a whimsical melody layered
over beautiful suspensions and glassy mallets.

“Il figlio e la nostalgia” (Il principe del deserto, 1989)

This late-’80s Morricone composition features the voice as lead instrument and a
beautifully arranged piano and later harpsichord that carry the pulse of the piece after
the conclusion of the first movement.

As with all things, my writing here is highly subjective. You may think that I’m
looking at it all wrong or that I missed something crucial. If that’s the case, I want to
hear about it. Leave a comment below, and let’s start a discussion. Digesting six
decades of work in a matter of days is an impossible task, so for me, and for the
readers as well, I hope, our research on Maestro doesn’t end here.

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