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When The New Gun Resonates:
Music Connections between
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
and
The Hateful Eight
Candidate Thesis for the Degree of Master of Music in Scoring for Film,
Television and Video Games (2016/2017)
Berklee Valencia Campus
Supervisor: Sergio Jiménez Lacima
Contents
Introduction
1
Movies’ Overview
3
Plot Synopsis
5
Morricone’s film scoring approach in Western Movies
7
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
Use of minor modes
Simple key relationship
Use of Human Voice
Micro-cell techniques
Use of horse riding rhythm
Use of Contemporary Elements
Music Connections of Old and New
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
Use of minor modes
Simple key relationship
Use of Human Voice
Micro-cell techniques
Use of horse riding rhythm
Use of Contemporary Elements
7
8
10
11
12
13
14
14
16
17
18
19
20
Conclusion
22
Reference
23
1
Introduction
“I wanted to do something that was totally different from any Western music I
had composed in the past,”1 said Ennio Morricone, the maestro who composed the score
for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. 40 years after writing the score for the wellknown Western movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Morricone still wants to make
something special from it. As a composer, we always want to try something new in our
composition, as a challenge and self-exploration. But many times it turns out that our
musician friends can find the similarities between our newly written piece and previous
works. With my personal experience, I wonder, can anyone do something totally different
from what he did, even when writing music for movies with the same genre?
Also, I also wonder why the score of The Hateful Eight reminds me the score
Western movies Morricone wrote before, even they sounds really different, and he
regarded the movie as an adventure film rather than a Western one2 when Tarantino even
regarded the score as the one for horror movies.3
With no doubt the score of The Hateful Eight works very well in the movie. At the
same time, despite its effectiveness, it has a lot of similarities, which connect it to the
score of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In this thesis, I am going to show the music
connections between The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Hateful Eight. I will firstly
talk about Morricone’s film scoring approach in Western Movies, in terms of composition
techniques and instrumentation. Examples will be listed from previous western movies
Kory Grow, “Ennio Morricone Goes Inside 'Hateful Eight' Soundtrack,” Rolling Stone, January 11,
2016, accessed March 19, 2017.
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/ennio-morricone-goes-inside-hateful-eight-soundtrack20160111
1
Ibid.
Joe Utichi, “Tarantino & Morricone Settle The Score With ‘Hateful Eight’”, Deadline, December 11,
2015, accessed March 19, 2017.
http://deadline.com/2015/12/quentin-tarantino-ennio-morricone-composer-hateful-eight-scoreabbey-road-1201665539/
2
3
2
he has scored, i.e. A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More as these two are closely
related to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Then I will talk about how he used the same
approach in writing music for these two movies, in the same list of category as in the
discussion of Morricone’s film scoring approach in Western movies. All these will prove
the new gun – The Hateful Eight resonates with the old gun – The Good, the Bad, and the
Ugly.
3
Movies’ overview
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) is one of the wellknown Spaghetti Western movies directed by Sergio Leone, written by him and Luciano
Vincenzoni, Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli, with Mickey Knox also in English
version.4 It was released in Italy on 23 December 1966, and then released in the United
States on 29 December 1967 by United Artists.5 It is marketed as the final film in Dollars
Trilogy, following A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) in 1964 and For A Few
Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in più) in 1965. With the success of the previous two,
this final installment led to a huge success in the box office, with the gross revenue of
25.1 million dollars in the United States.6
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is cut shorter before its American release. In its
Italian release, the length is around 175 minutes, but United Artists decided to cut it to
161-minute version as "International Export" supervised by the director.7 The other 14
minutes include the first appearance of a cue titled “The Strong” in the soundtrack
album, of which the melody is also used in the cue titled “The Carriage of the Spirits”,
when Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) went to chase Bill Carson in the Confederate camp, who
had buried a cache of Confederate gold in a grave. (49:38 – 53:54) That explains why the
cues appear differently in order when comparing to the soundtrack album, as the album
Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) – Full Cast & Crew:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/fullcredits (Accessed on April 17th, 2017)
5 Charles Leinberger, Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A Film Score Guide. Lanham,
MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004, 39.
6 Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) – Box office/
business:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/business (Accessed on April 17th, 2017)
7 Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) – Alternate Versions
=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/alternateversions (Accessed on April 17th, 2017)
4
4
has taken the missing scenes into consideration.8 It also makes much more sense that
why Angel Eyes appeared in the Union camp as a disguised sergeant later.
The movie is a great success and is regarded as one of the well-known movies in
film history. One saying claims that it is because it triggered the American audience with
the ongoing Vietnam War at that time. Also, the violence, the blurriness of the line
dividing “good” and “bad”, and the anti-war feeling of Sergio Leone shown in the movie,
all contributed to the success of the movie.
The Hateful Eight
The Hateful Eight is the eighth movie directed and written by Quentin Tarantino9
It is on screened on 30 December 2015 in the US. This is also the first collaboration of
Morricone and the director with first original score in one of his films. This is also the
first original score of Morricone written for a Western movie 40 years after The Good,
the Bad and the Ugly (1967). 10 Despite the critics by film critics and the sufferings in
box-office because of the Police boycott, which was in response to the director’s address
to police brutality while talking about the violence inside the movie11, The Hateful Eight
remains controversial because of the violence, race and gender issue shown, as always
in Tarantino’s movies. The score by Ennio Morricone has won the award of the Best
Original Score in the 88th Acadamy Award and Golden Globes 2015.12
Leinberger, 57.
Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Hateful Eight (2015) – Title:
http://www.imdb.com/title/thehatefuleight (Accessed on April 20th 2017)
10 Variety, ‘The Hateful Eight’: How Ennio Morricone Wrote His First Western Score in 40 Years, by
Kristopher Tapley
http://variety.com/2015/film/in-contention/hateful-eight-quentin-tarantino-ennio-morriconewestern-score-1201659489/ (Accessed on April 20th 2017)
11 The Guardian, Police union claims victory as The Hateful Eight struggles at box office, by Ben Child
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/15/police-union-quentin-tarantino-the-hateful-eightstruggles-box-office (Accessed on April 27th 2017)
12 Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Hateful Eight (2015) – Awards
http://www.imdb.com/title/thehatefuleight/awards (Accessed on April 27th 2017)
8
9
5
Plot Synopsis
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The story is set in the background of the old American West during the American
Civil War although the movie is filmed in Spain.13 Blondie (the Good), Angel Eyes (the
Bad) and Tuco (the Ugly) are searching for a cache of stolen gold buried by a man named
Bill Carson. The partnership among them is established based on the benefit they can
get. By the time they three find the grave where Carson buried the gold based on
Blondie’s saying, Tuco leads the way to the cemetery and dig the grave named “Arch
Stanton”. Blondie reveals that only a decomposing corpse is contained inside the grave.
Blondie then leads the three of them into an empty patch of land in the middle of the
cemetery for a battle. Blondie shoot Angel Eyes fast, points his gun to Tuco and reveals
that the real location is a grave marked "Unknown" right next to “Arch Stanton”. After
placing Tuco into the noose, fastening it to a nearby tree and making Tuco stand on the
unstable wooden cross of one of the graves, Blondie takes half the coins and rides away
while Tuco cries for help. After some distance Blondie turns around to shoot the rope
above Tuco's head, freeing him one last time before riding off as Tuco screams in rage.
13
Leinberger, 40.
6
Plot Synopsis (con’d)
The Hateful Eight
While racing toward the town of Red Rock in post-Civil War Wyoming, bounty
hunter John ``The Hangman'' Ruth and his fugitive prisoner Daisy encounter another
bounty hunter Warren and Mannix who claims to be a sheriff. Hoping to find shelter
from a blizzard, they went to a mountain and stopped by at a stagecoach stopover there.
Later on they found that the strangers inside the house was a group of man who wanted
to rescue Daisy and they have killed the original owner of the stagecoach stopover.
She offered Mannix that if he sets her free and kills Warren, the group of her brother’s
men, who are waiting in Red Rock to kill Mannix and ransack the town, will spare him
and he can claim the bounties of the deceased. Mannix rejected her offer and wounds her
after. Afterwards, as the two men lie dying, Mannix reads aloud Warren's forged Lincoln
letter, complimenting it's detail. 14
Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Hateful Eight (2015) – Plot Summary:
http://www.imdb.com/title/thehatefuleight/plotsummary (Accessed on April 20th 2017)
14
7
Morricone’s film scoring approach in Western Movies
i. Use of minor modes
Minor mode is frequently used in the Western Movies scored by Ennio
Morricone in the main title and most of his other cues. It is very different from some
other Western Movies in the same period. For example, the score of The Cowboys
(1972), directed by Mark Rydell and scored by John Williams, gives a very positive
and adventurous feeling with his use of C major and modulation to major modes.
Also, the score of Magnificant Seven (1966), directed by John Sturges and scored by
Elmer Bernstein is also a heroic score, with full orchestral sound and lots of
syncopation, which provides the energetic and heroic feeling. With the profound
impact of Austro-German history, music in minor keys or modes is often understood
as sad or bad in our perception. It also explains why Morricone wrote most of the
cues in minor key/ modes, it is because the Italian Western movies involve violence
and immorality.
One example of the use of minor scales is the “Title Theme” of A Fistful of Dollars.
(Figure 1.1) Here we can see the scale is in D Aeolian, or D Dorian, as Morricone tried to
make an ambiguity on the nature of the minor scale with the absence of sixth scale
degree (B-flat or B natural).
Figure 1.1: “Title Theme” from A Fistful of Dollars by Ennio Morricone
8
Another example of the use of minor scales is the “Title Theme” of For A Few
Dollars More. (Figure 1.2) Here we can see the scale is in D harmonic minor, with the
presence of C sharp.
Figure 1.2: “Title Theme” from For A Few Dollars More by Ennio Morricone
ii. Simple key relationships
Morricone tends to use simple key relationships in his music. In his interview
with Premiere in 1989, he mentioned, “When I begin a theme in a certain key, say D
minor, I never depart from this original key. If it begins in D minor, it ends in D minor.
This harmonic simplicity is accessible to everyone.”15 That proves his tendency for
having digestible harmonic relationship in his music.
In the soundtrack album of A Fistful of Dollars,16 12 out of 17 tracks stays in D
minor, including “Title Theme” (Figure 1.1) as shown above; “Square Dance” appears to
be in A major; “Consuelo Baxter” and “Senza Pieta” end in A minor after the first half of
music with serialism (will be discussed later in this thesis); “Tortura” backs to A after 8
15
16
Donald Fagen, “Ennio Morricone? Ah, Bellissimo!” Premiere, August 1989, 106.
9
minutes of undefined tonal centre, and Morricone played around in the ambiguity of D
major and D minor mode in “Ramon”. From these we can see that the keys among the
tracks are mostly in tonic-dominant relationship, which is a very classical approach in
developing the linkage.
In the first complete soundtrack album of “For A Few Dollars More”, there is more
variety in the key of the tracks. 12 out of 38 tracks (bonus tracks included) are in D
minor, including “Title Theme” which is in D Dorian mode. (Figure 1.2) “The Bounty
Killers” appears to have the pedal note of A for the whole cue, while “Eye For an Eye”
and “Occhio Per Occhio”, in which the latter one appears to be the Italian version of the
former English one, are in D minor, then modulate to A minor later. Also, 9 tracks in the
album are in Eb minor. 3 piano solo cues including “Where Is He?” In C major, and “Brute
Justice” in G minor with an album edit version.
Now we can see more different keys are used, but the simple key relationship still
exists. Besides the tonic-dominant relationship shown among the tracks with D minor
and A minor, or with tonal centre in A, we can also see tracks in C minor or in G minor
have formed a third relationship with a big group of tracks in Eb minor.
Simple key relationship doesn’t appear among tracks only but also inside a track.
Most of the cues stick to conservative chord progression without much modulation.
Have a look on the “Main Theme” of For a Fistful of Dollars (Figure 1.3), the chord
progression is in a conservative way: tonic (I) to dominant (v), back to I, then C major
which is dominant of the relative major (F major), then I to subdominant (Gm7), then I
to dominant major.
10
Figure 1.3: “Main Theme” from A Fistful of Dollars by Ennio Morricone
iii. Use of Human Voice
One of the techniques that Morricone used while writing music for Western
Movies is using human voice. He has once told Jon Burlingame and Gary Crowdus that,
human voice is “an extraordinary instrument” with its direct sound from the body and
can be the most expressive and malleable instrument.17 In “Title Theme” of A Fistful of
Dollars and that of For A Few Dollars More, both of them have used human voice. The
former starts using human voice two bars before the entrance of the electric guitar, with
the words “We can fight!” clearly spelt out, and the latter one has the very similar
structure with the former, while the voice enters two bars before the guitar as well, but
this time they have wordless voice like “Whoa! We-We-Whoa!” and enrich the harmony
with men choir in the second part of the cue.
17
Leinberger, 22.
11
Although Morricone is not the first one using human voice in film music (Miklós
Rózsa had used it in The Thief of Bagdad in 1940)18, his use of human voice in film music
of Western movies is a profound marking and highlight the relationship between
Western cultures with human voice. In the book Cowboys, Mountain Men, and Grizzly
Bears: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of the Wild West by Matthew P. Mayo,
There is one chapter slightly mention why using voice is essential for the cowboys.
Because cowboys are responsible for herd moving for their owner in a spacious
environment, they communicated within shouting distance of any cowboy they could
reach, to save their lives, and also as much property of their owner as they could.19
iv. Micro-cell techniques
Morricone always shows his use of micro-cell techniques in the western movies
he has written film scores for. Micro-cell techniques can refer to using a small bunch of
notes to develop the phrase, or using a small bunch of notes to quickly re-call the linkage
between the music and what happened in the movie, not limited to tonal music but also
serial music, which Morricone is often interested in, specially serialize tonal music.20 He
can develop the theme from a very limited numbers of pitches to a flourished theme as
we heard in the movies. For example, in the trumpet solo of A Fistful of Dollars (Figure
1.4), the notes can be simplified to a phrase with combination of a group with D, A, G,
and F, also another group with D, A, G, and E. (Figure 1.5)
Figure 1.4: “Trumpet Solo” from A Fistful of Dollars by Ennio Morricone
Leinberger, 23.
Matthew P. Mayo, Cowboys, Mountain Men, and Grizzly Bears: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the
History of the Wild West. Globe Pequot Press, 2010, 162.
20 Ennio Morricone, Sergio Miceli, translated by Gillian B. Anderson, Composing for the Cinema: The
Theory and Praxis of Music in Film. Scarecrow Press, 2013, 250.
18
19
12
Figure 1.5: Fragmentation of “Trumpet Solo” from A Fistful of Dollars by Ennio Morricone
Another example can be shown in “They Meet” from For A Few Dollars More. The
motif on flute (Figure 1.6) formed by A, D and E only in five notes, it reminds the
audience about the competitions between two men who are going to challenge each
other with their skillfulness as gunmen.
Figure 1.6: Motif of “They Meet” from For A Few Dollars More by Ennio Morricone
Although Leinberger claimed that the use of his micro-cell technique in his
composition process remains a mystery, the result of it is he is able to create a short and
catchy tune that makes his music memorable by the audience.
v. Use of horse riding rhythm
Horse-riding rhythm is one of the music elements that Morricone uses all the
time in his film music of Western movies. The rhythm, which is formed by one eighth
note and two sixteenth notes, is very common and deep-rooted in our perception. It’s
almost understandable to everyone that when we need to resemble rapid horseback
riding we will just sing that out. As in the old West culture, horse is the main
transportation for cowboys, it is deeply associated with Western movies with Ennio
Morricone’s music.
The rapid horseback riding rhythm might have started being familiar with its use
of the finale of Gioachino Rossini’s William Tell Overture in the radio series “Lone
13
Ranger” in 1933, broadcasted by in radio station WXYZ in Detroit, later on television
show.21
In “Title Theme” of A Fistful of Dollars we can clearly hear this rhythm starting
from the middle section of the cues, slightly before the entrance of the men choir saying
“We can fight”. In “Title Theme” For A Few Dollars More, it starts together with the
entrance of wordless voice.
vi. Use of contemporary elements
Morricone always inserts contemporary elements into his music. For example,
one of his techniques is using textural approach in creating tension in the cues of
Western movies he scored. For example, in For A Few Dollars More, the cue titled
“Watchers Watched” starts with high strings playing sustained notes in harmonics in the
whole cue, around two minutes, enriching the texture gradually with “dissonant”
intervals, with bassoon later on comes in, then English horn playing the flourished
broken chords formed by G, D and C. This creates discomfort feeling and tension to the
audience.
Another example is shown “The Attack” from the same movie. Morricone used
percussion, piano, trumpet, organ and double bass to create triton and perfect by
switching instruments to create the intervals after a long-held sustain. Although the
instability is formed by a few notes and two intervals only, they work well to show the
tension when Indio slowly enter town and head to the bank for their prepared robbery.
21
William Emmett Studwell, The Americana Song Reader. Routledge, 1997, 90.
14
Music Connections of Old and New
With the examples shown above of Ennio Morricone ‘s film scoring approach in
Western movies from the previous movies he has written music for, the following will be
example from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Hateful Eight, organized by the
same categories mentioned above.
i. Use of minor modes
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Same as in A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More, in The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly, minor mode has been used in most of the cues. From below (Figure 2.1) we
can see that in “Title Theme” it states in D minor at the beginning, intended skipping the
sixth scale degree, not letting people knowing if it is in D Aeolian, or D Dorian.
Figure 2.1: “Title Theme” from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Ennio Morricone
It is not until B section of the cue that brings back B natural with the melody on
electric guitar, accompanied by men chorus. Then at the end of B section, he introduced
C sharp, which is the subtonic of D harmonic minor for the preparation of repeating A
section.
15
Figure 2.2: B Section, “Title Theme” from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Ennio Morricone
The Hateful Eight
For this film, with no doubt it is also set in minor mode because Tarantino’s
movies are well known for the bloody violent scenes, as we said earlier, music in minor
keys or modes is often understood as sad or bad in our perception. In “Title Theme” of
The Hateful Eight, the music is in C harmonic minor, with the presence of B natural,
which appears in the third bar of the melody played by contrabassoon.
Figure 2.3: “Title Theme” from The Hateful Eight by Ennio Morricone
16
ii. Simple key relationships
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
As the usual practice of Morricone in the Western Movie he has scored, the
harmonic simplicity is achieved by the simple key relationship among keys of different
cues in the movies. 9 tracks in the soundtrack album are in D minor. (and now see can
see that Morricone used D minor as the main key in Dollar Trilogy) “Ecstasy of Gold” is
in A minor, which is dominant in D minor. “Father Ramirez” changes from A minor and
to D minor in the middle without modulation, retaining the tonic-dominant relationship
as the two other movies in Dollars Trilogy.
Something slightly different from before is the increased proportion of cues with
major keys. Among twenty-one tracks in the album, five are in D major and two are in B
flat major. Even so the keys are still in either tonic-dominant relationship or a third
relationship formed by B flat and D major, while B flat is the submediant D harmonic
minor scale. The cues in major appear in the movie when the soldiers are glorifying the
dead colleagues in the American Civil War, or when the soldiers became prisoners of
war of the opposite side and being forced to sing the song in order to increase their
nostalgic feeling. But as Sergio Leone has also hidden his anti-war feeling and hope for
peace in the movie, cues in major might that’s why being used in the film.
Talking about the key relationship in the track, with the reference on the
harmonic progression of “Title Theme” of the movie (Figure 2.1), it is as simple, or we
can say conservative, as the cues in A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More. The
cues starts in D minor, then goes to G major, go back to D minor, then to C major, which
is the dominant of its relative major, then going to A minor chord, the fifth of D and ends
17
in D minor. Although the score of the movie has been regarded as “the least exciting of
Morricone’s Leone scores”22, the score is still very “Morriconian” in many ways.
The Hateful Eight
Besides having different director, this film is different in the process of
production that might explain why the music written for the movie are all in C harmonic
minor. In the soundtrack album, Morricone writes 17 cues among 28 tracks inside. He
wrote the music based on the script only but not by scoring any specific scenes because
Tarantino would like to have the music written within a month for the 3-hour-long
movie.23 So Morricone wrote the music without knowing where the director fit the
music in with the scenes. Short period of time for composing might explain why all the
music is in C harmonic minor, except “Jim Jones at Botany Bay” which is in E flat minor
and “Now You’re All Alone by David Hess” in E major because these two are existing
tracks not by Ennio Morricone.
But more than that, what can be observed is, from “Title theme” of The Hateful
Eight, the cue stays in C minor and B minor in the first eight bars, which is way more less
active in sense of the variety of harmony comparing to the examples we have seen above.
Simple key relationship inside the track is still retained; just the relationship has change
to tonic-subtonic relationship.
iii. Use of Human Voice
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Considering the use of human voice in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the
statement that saying this score is the less excited one in Leone’s movies becomes
invalid. At the beginning of the movie, three distinct sound plays the motif in “Title
22
23
Leinberger, 63.
Kory Grow, see 1.
18
Theme”: firstly soprano recorder, then a human scream which is described as imitation
of “coyote” and the bass ocarina. The scream is the representation of Tuco, “The Ugly” in
the movie.24 It hasn’t happened before to make use of human voice to represent a
character in a movie. It is an interesting point that worth to get more attention on.
Besides that, the wordless men chorus shouting, not only relays to the history of the Old
West, musically it also has a percussive effect with strong attack added into the cue. 25
The Hateful Eight
The use of human voice appears in “Title Theme” i.e. “L’ultima diligenza di Red
Rock” only. In the recapitulation session, while strings session doing counter melody to
the main theme, the human voice here serves similar function as the one used in The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which is the percussive effect to the music, in response to
high strings session which has more detached playing then his other music for Western
movies.
iv. Micro-cell techniques
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Micro-cell technique is one of the points that have been discussed a lot regarding
to “Title Theme” of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. There are two main motif cells in the
first two bars. The first one is the one played by the flute, and the harmonica plays
another. (Figure 2.4)
Figure 2.4: Motif in “Title Theme” from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Ennio Morricone
24
25
Leinberger, 71.
Leinberger, 23.
19
Notice that both of them consist of just a few notes to develop, the first motive
consists of A and D only, while the second one is formed by F, G and D. As mentioned
above, the advantage to use micro-cell in music is it makes the motif easy to remember
and the linkage between it and the video is stronger than a long phrase because of it is
condensed.
The Hateful Eight
Microc-cell technique is used in “Title Theme” of the movie, and also in the
cue ”Overture”. Referring back to “Title Theme” of The Hateful Eight (Figure 2.3), the
first cell is formed by the first three notes, which is C, E flat and B natural, and the phrase
and developed by repetition of these three notes in the first 8 bars of the melody.
Then in the track ”Overture”, the micro-cell is formed by 4 eight-notes in a group,
formed by D, C and E flat, the second group is B natural, C, D and E flat. With repetition of
two cells in a steady tempo, it becomes an ostinato in the string session (and also the
glockenspiel in the second half of the cue). At the same time, English Horn has a part of
“2:3” with strings, with a cell consists of two G flats and a D. (Figure 2.5)
Figure 2.5: Transcription Excerpt of “Overture” from The Hateful Eight by Ennio Morricone
v. Use of horse riding rhythm
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Now think about the opening title The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The opening
title starts with the flute, amplified harmonica, whistling and whip crack. What’s
20
underneath supporting? The drum groove. Referring back to “Title Theme” of the movie
(Figure 2.1), Noticed that the cell consists of one eighth note and two sixteenth notes
appears in the snare, which is the imitation of rapid
horseback riding, with accelerando implied, repeatedly appears throughout the opening
sequence.
This time This groove is a very important element in Western movies, as it is a rhythm
imitating the horse running. It is actually a very familiar rhythm from Rossini’s William
Tell Overture Finale after introduction:
The Hateful Eight
In “Title Theme” in The Hateful Eight, it seems lost the energy that presents in
that of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but actually the same rhythm appears, it has been
just switch from on the snare to on the hi-hat, creating a more sneaky feeling of what
happened in the house under blizzard. (Figure 2.3)
vi. Use of contemporary elements
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The use of contemporary elements is shown from the use of “unusual”
instruments, like Jew’s Harp, the bass ocarina and electronic guitar, which has been just
being popular during the early 1970s. Besides that, if we listen to the track “Desert”,
Ennio Morricone has used the textual approach to compose the cue. He has used longtime string tremolo and serialism on the piano entered later and also the bassoon part.
The Hateful Eight
21
When we listen to the track “L'Inferno Bianco (Ottoni)” from the movie, where
Daisy is about to be able to get the gun and kill the hangman. We can hear the texture is
form by bassoons and clarinet, while the strings are doing steady rhythmic materials.
That creates unpleasant tension that fit the scene in the movie.
22
Conclusion
To conclude, there are many similarities in the composition techniques that
Ennio Morricone has used in the film music of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The
Hateful Eight, and what he used has been proved that he has used before writing music
for these two movies. Although some said that Morricone’s composition approach
remains a mystery, and he himself also claims that he has written the music in a total
differenet way than 4- years ago, now we can see that the change of his sound still gets
the shadow of what his music in the past. The soundtracks of these two movies are like
the resonation of a new gun and the old gun.
In terms of tonality, Morricone chose the minor modes most of the time because
it is greatly associated with the violence and immorality involved. In terms of harmony,
he tend to use simple harmony as a relief to the audience with his interesting texture
created by his orchestration. His use in strings session is mostly “classical”, but the use
of human voice is interesting. He also pushes the horse-riding rhythm and use of human
voice more close to the Wild West culture. When a composer tries to do something
different, we can always find the shadows of his previous music.
23
Reference List
Audio CDs:
1.
“Per Un Pugno di Dollari” , 2006 BMG Ricordi Music
Publishing, distributed by Italia eel italia.
2.
“Ennio Morricone Solisti Orchestre del Cinema Itailiano”
Complete Orginal Scores, 2014 Recording Arts AG.
3.
“For a Few Dollars More”, iTunes music.
4.
“The Hateful Eight” soundtrack, 2015 CINE-MANI Production
Limited.
Music Connections between
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
and
The Hateful Eight
Candidate Thesis for the Degree of Master of Music in Scoring for Film,
Television and Video Games (2016/2017)
Berklee Valencia Campus
Supervisor: Sergio Jiménez Lacima
Contents
Introduction
1
Movies’ Overview
3
Plot Synopsis
5
Morricone’s film scoring approach in Western Movies
7
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
Use of minor modes
Simple key relationship
Use of Human Voice
Micro-cell techniques
Use of horse riding rhythm
Use of Contemporary Elements
Music Connections of Old and New
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
Use of minor modes
Simple key relationship
Use of Human Voice
Micro-cell techniques
Use of horse riding rhythm
Use of Contemporary Elements
7
8
10
11
12
13
14
14
16
17
18
19
20
Conclusion
22
Reference
23
1
Introduction
“I wanted to do something that was totally different from any Western music I
had composed in the past,”1 said Ennio Morricone, the maestro who composed the score
for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. 40 years after writing the score for the wellknown Western movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Morricone still wants to make
something special from it. As a composer, we always want to try something new in our
composition, as a challenge and self-exploration. But many times it turns out that our
musician friends can find the similarities between our newly written piece and previous
works. With my personal experience, I wonder, can anyone do something totally different
from what he did, even when writing music for movies with the same genre?
Also, I also wonder why the score of The Hateful Eight reminds me the score
Western movies Morricone wrote before, even they sounds really different, and he
regarded the movie as an adventure film rather than a Western one2 when Tarantino even
regarded the score as the one for horror movies.3
With no doubt the score of The Hateful Eight works very well in the movie. At the
same time, despite its effectiveness, it has a lot of similarities, which connect it to the
score of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In this thesis, I am going to show the music
connections between The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Hateful Eight. I will firstly
talk about Morricone’s film scoring approach in Western Movies, in terms of composition
techniques and instrumentation. Examples will be listed from previous western movies
Kory Grow, “Ennio Morricone Goes Inside 'Hateful Eight' Soundtrack,” Rolling Stone, January 11,
2016, accessed March 19, 2017.
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/ennio-morricone-goes-inside-hateful-eight-soundtrack20160111
1
Ibid.
Joe Utichi, “Tarantino & Morricone Settle The Score With ‘Hateful Eight’”, Deadline, December 11,
2015, accessed March 19, 2017.
http://deadline.com/2015/12/quentin-tarantino-ennio-morricone-composer-hateful-eight-scoreabbey-road-1201665539/
2
3
2
he has scored, i.e. A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More as these two are closely
related to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Then I will talk about how he used the same
approach in writing music for these two movies, in the same list of category as in the
discussion of Morricone’s film scoring approach in Western movies. All these will prove
the new gun – The Hateful Eight resonates with the old gun – The Good, the Bad, and the
Ugly.
3
Movies’ overview
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) is one of the wellknown Spaghetti Western movies directed by Sergio Leone, written by him and Luciano
Vincenzoni, Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli, with Mickey Knox also in English
version.4 It was released in Italy on 23 December 1966, and then released in the United
States on 29 December 1967 by United Artists.5 It is marketed as the final film in Dollars
Trilogy, following A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) in 1964 and For A Few
Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in più) in 1965. With the success of the previous two,
this final installment led to a huge success in the box office, with the gross revenue of
25.1 million dollars in the United States.6
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is cut shorter before its American release. In its
Italian release, the length is around 175 minutes, but United Artists decided to cut it to
161-minute version as "International Export" supervised by the director.7 The other 14
minutes include the first appearance of a cue titled “The Strong” in the soundtrack
album, of which the melody is also used in the cue titled “The Carriage of the Spirits”,
when Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) went to chase Bill Carson in the Confederate camp, who
had buried a cache of Confederate gold in a grave. (49:38 – 53:54) That explains why the
cues appear differently in order when comparing to the soundtrack album, as the album
Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) – Full Cast & Crew:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/fullcredits (Accessed on April 17th, 2017)
5 Charles Leinberger, Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A Film Score Guide. Lanham,
MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004, 39.
6 Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) – Box office/
business:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/business (Accessed on April 17th, 2017)
7 Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) – Alternate Versions
=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060196/alternateversions (Accessed on April 17th, 2017)
4
4
has taken the missing scenes into consideration.8 It also makes much more sense that
why Angel Eyes appeared in the Union camp as a disguised sergeant later.
The movie is a great success and is regarded as one of the well-known movies in
film history. One saying claims that it is because it triggered the American audience with
the ongoing Vietnam War at that time. Also, the violence, the blurriness of the line
dividing “good” and “bad”, and the anti-war feeling of Sergio Leone shown in the movie,
all contributed to the success of the movie.
The Hateful Eight
The Hateful Eight is the eighth movie directed and written by Quentin Tarantino9
It is on screened on 30 December 2015 in the US. This is also the first collaboration of
Morricone and the director with first original score in one of his films. This is also the
first original score of Morricone written for a Western movie 40 years after The Good,
the Bad and the Ugly (1967). 10 Despite the critics by film critics and the sufferings in
box-office because of the Police boycott, which was in response to the director’s address
to police brutality while talking about the violence inside the movie11, The Hateful Eight
remains controversial because of the violence, race and gender issue shown, as always
in Tarantino’s movies. The score by Ennio Morricone has won the award of the Best
Original Score in the 88th Acadamy Award and Golden Globes 2015.12
Leinberger, 57.
Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Hateful Eight (2015) – Title:
http://www.imdb.com/title/thehatefuleight (Accessed on April 20th 2017)
10 Variety, ‘The Hateful Eight’: How Ennio Morricone Wrote His First Western Score in 40 Years, by
Kristopher Tapley
http://variety.com/2015/film/in-contention/hateful-eight-quentin-tarantino-ennio-morriconewestern-score-1201659489/ (Accessed on April 20th 2017)
11 The Guardian, Police union claims victory as The Hateful Eight struggles at box office, by Ben Child
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/15/police-union-quentin-tarantino-the-hateful-eightstruggles-box-office (Accessed on April 27th 2017)
12 Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Hateful Eight (2015) – Awards
http://www.imdb.com/title/thehatefuleight/awards (Accessed on April 27th 2017)
8
9
5
Plot Synopsis
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The story is set in the background of the old American West during the American
Civil War although the movie is filmed in Spain.13 Blondie (the Good), Angel Eyes (the
Bad) and Tuco (the Ugly) are searching for a cache of stolen gold buried by a man named
Bill Carson. The partnership among them is established based on the benefit they can
get. By the time they three find the grave where Carson buried the gold based on
Blondie’s saying, Tuco leads the way to the cemetery and dig the grave named “Arch
Stanton”. Blondie reveals that only a decomposing corpse is contained inside the grave.
Blondie then leads the three of them into an empty patch of land in the middle of the
cemetery for a battle. Blondie shoot Angel Eyes fast, points his gun to Tuco and reveals
that the real location is a grave marked "Unknown" right next to “Arch Stanton”. After
placing Tuco into the noose, fastening it to a nearby tree and making Tuco stand on the
unstable wooden cross of one of the graves, Blondie takes half the coins and rides away
while Tuco cries for help. After some distance Blondie turns around to shoot the rope
above Tuco's head, freeing him one last time before riding off as Tuco screams in rage.
13
Leinberger, 40.
6
Plot Synopsis (con’d)
The Hateful Eight
While racing toward the town of Red Rock in post-Civil War Wyoming, bounty
hunter John ``The Hangman'' Ruth and his fugitive prisoner Daisy encounter another
bounty hunter Warren and Mannix who claims to be a sheriff. Hoping to find shelter
from a blizzard, they went to a mountain and stopped by at a stagecoach stopover there.
Later on they found that the strangers inside the house was a group of man who wanted
to rescue Daisy and they have killed the original owner of the stagecoach stopover.
She offered Mannix that if he sets her free and kills Warren, the group of her brother’s
men, who are waiting in Red Rock to kill Mannix and ransack the town, will spare him
and he can claim the bounties of the deceased. Mannix rejected her offer and wounds her
after. Afterwards, as the two men lie dying, Mannix reads aloud Warren's forged Lincoln
letter, complimenting it's detail. 14
Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com). The Hateful Eight (2015) – Plot Summary:
http://www.imdb.com/title/thehatefuleight/plotsummary (Accessed on April 20th 2017)
14
7
Morricone’s film scoring approach in Western Movies
i. Use of minor modes
Minor mode is frequently used in the Western Movies scored by Ennio
Morricone in the main title and most of his other cues. It is very different from some
other Western Movies in the same period. For example, the score of The Cowboys
(1972), directed by Mark Rydell and scored by John Williams, gives a very positive
and adventurous feeling with his use of C major and modulation to major modes.
Also, the score of Magnificant Seven (1966), directed by John Sturges and scored by
Elmer Bernstein is also a heroic score, with full orchestral sound and lots of
syncopation, which provides the energetic and heroic feeling. With the profound
impact of Austro-German history, music in minor keys or modes is often understood
as sad or bad in our perception. It also explains why Morricone wrote most of the
cues in minor key/ modes, it is because the Italian Western movies involve violence
and immorality.
One example of the use of minor scales is the “Title Theme” of A Fistful of Dollars.
(Figure 1.1) Here we can see the scale is in D Aeolian, or D Dorian, as Morricone tried to
make an ambiguity on the nature of the minor scale with the absence of sixth scale
degree (B-flat or B natural).
Figure 1.1: “Title Theme” from A Fistful of Dollars by Ennio Morricone
8
Another example of the use of minor scales is the “Title Theme” of For A Few
Dollars More. (Figure 1.2) Here we can see the scale is in D harmonic minor, with the
presence of C sharp.
Figure 1.2: “Title Theme” from For A Few Dollars More by Ennio Morricone
ii. Simple key relationships
Morricone tends to use simple key relationships in his music. In his interview
with Premiere in 1989, he mentioned, “When I begin a theme in a certain key, say D
minor, I never depart from this original key. If it begins in D minor, it ends in D minor.
This harmonic simplicity is accessible to everyone.”15 That proves his tendency for
having digestible harmonic relationship in his music.
In the soundtrack album of A Fistful of Dollars,16 12 out of 17 tracks stays in D
minor, including “Title Theme” (Figure 1.1) as shown above; “Square Dance” appears to
be in A major; “Consuelo Baxter” and “Senza Pieta” end in A minor after the first half of
music with serialism (will be discussed later in this thesis); “Tortura” backs to A after 8
15
16
Donald Fagen, “Ennio Morricone? Ah, Bellissimo!” Premiere, August 1989, 106.
9
minutes of undefined tonal centre, and Morricone played around in the ambiguity of D
major and D minor mode in “Ramon”. From these we can see that the keys among the
tracks are mostly in tonic-dominant relationship, which is a very classical approach in
developing the linkage.
In the first complete soundtrack album of “For A Few Dollars More”, there is more
variety in the key of the tracks. 12 out of 38 tracks (bonus tracks included) are in D
minor, including “Title Theme” which is in D Dorian mode. (Figure 1.2) “The Bounty
Killers” appears to have the pedal note of A for the whole cue, while “Eye For an Eye”
and “Occhio Per Occhio”, in which the latter one appears to be the Italian version of the
former English one, are in D minor, then modulate to A minor later. Also, 9 tracks in the
album are in Eb minor. 3 piano solo cues including “Where Is He?” In C major, and “Brute
Justice” in G minor with an album edit version.
Now we can see more different keys are used, but the simple key relationship still
exists. Besides the tonic-dominant relationship shown among the tracks with D minor
and A minor, or with tonal centre in A, we can also see tracks in C minor or in G minor
have formed a third relationship with a big group of tracks in Eb minor.
Simple key relationship doesn’t appear among tracks only but also inside a track.
Most of the cues stick to conservative chord progression without much modulation.
Have a look on the “Main Theme” of For a Fistful of Dollars (Figure 1.3), the chord
progression is in a conservative way: tonic (I) to dominant (v), back to I, then C major
which is dominant of the relative major (F major), then I to subdominant (Gm7), then I
to dominant major.
10
Figure 1.3: “Main Theme” from A Fistful of Dollars by Ennio Morricone
iii. Use of Human Voice
One of the techniques that Morricone used while writing music for Western
Movies is using human voice. He has once told Jon Burlingame and Gary Crowdus that,
human voice is “an extraordinary instrument” with its direct sound from the body and
can be the most expressive and malleable instrument.17 In “Title Theme” of A Fistful of
Dollars and that of For A Few Dollars More, both of them have used human voice. The
former starts using human voice two bars before the entrance of the electric guitar, with
the words “We can fight!” clearly spelt out, and the latter one has the very similar
structure with the former, while the voice enters two bars before the guitar as well, but
this time they have wordless voice like “Whoa! We-We-Whoa!” and enrich the harmony
with men choir in the second part of the cue.
17
Leinberger, 22.
11
Although Morricone is not the first one using human voice in film music (Miklós
Rózsa had used it in The Thief of Bagdad in 1940)18, his use of human voice in film music
of Western movies is a profound marking and highlight the relationship between
Western cultures with human voice. In the book Cowboys, Mountain Men, and Grizzly
Bears: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of the Wild West by Matthew P. Mayo,
There is one chapter slightly mention why using voice is essential for the cowboys.
Because cowboys are responsible for herd moving for their owner in a spacious
environment, they communicated within shouting distance of any cowboy they could
reach, to save their lives, and also as much property of their owner as they could.19
iv. Micro-cell techniques
Morricone always shows his use of micro-cell techniques in the western movies
he has written film scores for. Micro-cell techniques can refer to using a small bunch of
notes to develop the phrase, or using a small bunch of notes to quickly re-call the linkage
between the music and what happened in the movie, not limited to tonal music but also
serial music, which Morricone is often interested in, specially serialize tonal music.20 He
can develop the theme from a very limited numbers of pitches to a flourished theme as
we heard in the movies. For example, in the trumpet solo of A Fistful of Dollars (Figure
1.4), the notes can be simplified to a phrase with combination of a group with D, A, G,
and F, also another group with D, A, G, and E. (Figure 1.5)
Figure 1.4: “Trumpet Solo” from A Fistful of Dollars by Ennio Morricone
Leinberger, 23.
Matthew P. Mayo, Cowboys, Mountain Men, and Grizzly Bears: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the
History of the Wild West. Globe Pequot Press, 2010, 162.
20 Ennio Morricone, Sergio Miceli, translated by Gillian B. Anderson, Composing for the Cinema: The
Theory and Praxis of Music in Film. Scarecrow Press, 2013, 250.
18
19
12
Figure 1.5: Fragmentation of “Trumpet Solo” from A Fistful of Dollars by Ennio Morricone
Another example can be shown in “They Meet” from For A Few Dollars More. The
motif on flute (Figure 1.6) formed by A, D and E only in five notes, it reminds the
audience about the competitions between two men who are going to challenge each
other with their skillfulness as gunmen.
Figure 1.6: Motif of “They Meet” from For A Few Dollars More by Ennio Morricone
Although Leinberger claimed that the use of his micro-cell technique in his
composition process remains a mystery, the result of it is he is able to create a short and
catchy tune that makes his music memorable by the audience.
v. Use of horse riding rhythm
Horse-riding rhythm is one of the music elements that Morricone uses all the
time in his film music of Western movies. The rhythm, which is formed by one eighth
note and two sixteenth notes, is very common and deep-rooted in our perception. It’s
almost understandable to everyone that when we need to resemble rapid horseback
riding we will just sing that out. As in the old West culture, horse is the main
transportation for cowboys, it is deeply associated with Western movies with Ennio
Morricone’s music.
The rapid horseback riding rhythm might have started being familiar with its use
of the finale of Gioachino Rossini’s William Tell Overture in the radio series “Lone
13
Ranger” in 1933, broadcasted by in radio station WXYZ in Detroit, later on television
show.21
In “Title Theme” of A Fistful of Dollars we can clearly hear this rhythm starting
from the middle section of the cues, slightly before the entrance of the men choir saying
“We can fight”. In “Title Theme” For A Few Dollars More, it starts together with the
entrance of wordless voice.
vi. Use of contemporary elements
Morricone always inserts contemporary elements into his music. For example,
one of his techniques is using textural approach in creating tension in the cues of
Western movies he scored. For example, in For A Few Dollars More, the cue titled
“Watchers Watched” starts with high strings playing sustained notes in harmonics in the
whole cue, around two minutes, enriching the texture gradually with “dissonant”
intervals, with bassoon later on comes in, then English horn playing the flourished
broken chords formed by G, D and C. This creates discomfort feeling and tension to the
audience.
Another example is shown “The Attack” from the same movie. Morricone used
percussion, piano, trumpet, organ and double bass to create triton and perfect by
switching instruments to create the intervals after a long-held sustain. Although the
instability is formed by a few notes and two intervals only, they work well to show the
tension when Indio slowly enter town and head to the bank for their prepared robbery.
21
William Emmett Studwell, The Americana Song Reader. Routledge, 1997, 90.
14
Music Connections of Old and New
With the examples shown above of Ennio Morricone ‘s film scoring approach in
Western movies from the previous movies he has written music for, the following will be
example from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Hateful Eight, organized by the
same categories mentioned above.
i. Use of minor modes
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Same as in A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More, in The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly, minor mode has been used in most of the cues. From below (Figure 2.1) we
can see that in “Title Theme” it states in D minor at the beginning, intended skipping the
sixth scale degree, not letting people knowing if it is in D Aeolian, or D Dorian.
Figure 2.1: “Title Theme” from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Ennio Morricone
It is not until B section of the cue that brings back B natural with the melody on
electric guitar, accompanied by men chorus. Then at the end of B section, he introduced
C sharp, which is the subtonic of D harmonic minor for the preparation of repeating A
section.
15
Figure 2.2: B Section, “Title Theme” from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Ennio Morricone
The Hateful Eight
For this film, with no doubt it is also set in minor mode because Tarantino’s
movies are well known for the bloody violent scenes, as we said earlier, music in minor
keys or modes is often understood as sad or bad in our perception. In “Title Theme” of
The Hateful Eight, the music is in C harmonic minor, with the presence of B natural,
which appears in the third bar of the melody played by contrabassoon.
Figure 2.3: “Title Theme” from The Hateful Eight by Ennio Morricone
16
ii. Simple key relationships
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
As the usual practice of Morricone in the Western Movie he has scored, the
harmonic simplicity is achieved by the simple key relationship among keys of different
cues in the movies. 9 tracks in the soundtrack album are in D minor. (and now see can
see that Morricone used D minor as the main key in Dollar Trilogy) “Ecstasy of Gold” is
in A minor, which is dominant in D minor. “Father Ramirez” changes from A minor and
to D minor in the middle without modulation, retaining the tonic-dominant relationship
as the two other movies in Dollars Trilogy.
Something slightly different from before is the increased proportion of cues with
major keys. Among twenty-one tracks in the album, five are in D major and two are in B
flat major. Even so the keys are still in either tonic-dominant relationship or a third
relationship formed by B flat and D major, while B flat is the submediant D harmonic
minor scale. The cues in major appear in the movie when the soldiers are glorifying the
dead colleagues in the American Civil War, or when the soldiers became prisoners of
war of the opposite side and being forced to sing the song in order to increase their
nostalgic feeling. But as Sergio Leone has also hidden his anti-war feeling and hope for
peace in the movie, cues in major might that’s why being used in the film.
Talking about the key relationship in the track, with the reference on the
harmonic progression of “Title Theme” of the movie (Figure 2.1), it is as simple, or we
can say conservative, as the cues in A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More. The
cues starts in D minor, then goes to G major, go back to D minor, then to C major, which
is the dominant of its relative major, then going to A minor chord, the fifth of D and ends
17
in D minor. Although the score of the movie has been regarded as “the least exciting of
Morricone’s Leone scores”22, the score is still very “Morriconian” in many ways.
The Hateful Eight
Besides having different director, this film is different in the process of
production that might explain why the music written for the movie are all in C harmonic
minor. In the soundtrack album, Morricone writes 17 cues among 28 tracks inside. He
wrote the music based on the script only but not by scoring any specific scenes because
Tarantino would like to have the music written within a month for the 3-hour-long
movie.23 So Morricone wrote the music without knowing where the director fit the
music in with the scenes. Short period of time for composing might explain why all the
music is in C harmonic minor, except “Jim Jones at Botany Bay” which is in E flat minor
and “Now You’re All Alone by David Hess” in E major because these two are existing
tracks not by Ennio Morricone.
But more than that, what can be observed is, from “Title theme” of The Hateful
Eight, the cue stays in C minor and B minor in the first eight bars, which is way more less
active in sense of the variety of harmony comparing to the examples we have seen above.
Simple key relationship inside the track is still retained; just the relationship has change
to tonic-subtonic relationship.
iii. Use of Human Voice
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Considering the use of human voice in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the
statement that saying this score is the less excited one in Leone’s movies becomes
invalid. At the beginning of the movie, three distinct sound plays the motif in “Title
22
23
Leinberger, 63.
Kory Grow, see 1.
18
Theme”: firstly soprano recorder, then a human scream which is described as imitation
of “coyote” and the bass ocarina. The scream is the representation of Tuco, “The Ugly” in
the movie.24 It hasn’t happened before to make use of human voice to represent a
character in a movie. It is an interesting point that worth to get more attention on.
Besides that, the wordless men chorus shouting, not only relays to the history of the Old
West, musically it also has a percussive effect with strong attack added into the cue. 25
The Hateful Eight
The use of human voice appears in “Title Theme” i.e. “L’ultima diligenza di Red
Rock” only. In the recapitulation session, while strings session doing counter melody to
the main theme, the human voice here serves similar function as the one used in The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which is the percussive effect to the music, in response to
high strings session which has more detached playing then his other music for Western
movies.
iv. Micro-cell techniques
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Micro-cell technique is one of the points that have been discussed a lot regarding
to “Title Theme” of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. There are two main motif cells in the
first two bars. The first one is the one played by the flute, and the harmonica plays
another. (Figure 2.4)
Figure 2.4: Motif in “Title Theme” from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Ennio Morricone
24
25
Leinberger, 71.
Leinberger, 23.
19
Notice that both of them consist of just a few notes to develop, the first motive
consists of A and D only, while the second one is formed by F, G and D. As mentioned
above, the advantage to use micro-cell in music is it makes the motif easy to remember
and the linkage between it and the video is stronger than a long phrase because of it is
condensed.
The Hateful Eight
Microc-cell technique is used in “Title Theme” of the movie, and also in the
cue ”Overture”. Referring back to “Title Theme” of The Hateful Eight (Figure 2.3), the
first cell is formed by the first three notes, which is C, E flat and B natural, and the phrase
and developed by repetition of these three notes in the first 8 bars of the melody.
Then in the track ”Overture”, the micro-cell is formed by 4 eight-notes in a group,
formed by D, C and E flat, the second group is B natural, C, D and E flat. With repetition of
two cells in a steady tempo, it becomes an ostinato in the string session (and also the
glockenspiel in the second half of the cue). At the same time, English Horn has a part of
“2:3” with strings, with a cell consists of two G flats and a D. (Figure 2.5)
Figure 2.5: Transcription Excerpt of “Overture” from The Hateful Eight by Ennio Morricone
v. Use of horse riding rhythm
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Now think about the opening title The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The opening
title starts with the flute, amplified harmonica, whistling and whip crack. What’s
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underneath supporting? The drum groove. Referring back to “Title Theme” of the movie
(Figure 2.1), Noticed that the cell consists of one eighth note and two sixteenth notes
appears in the snare, which is the imitation of rapid
horseback riding, with accelerando implied, repeatedly appears throughout the opening
sequence.
This time This groove is a very important element in Western movies, as it is a rhythm
imitating the horse running. It is actually a very familiar rhythm from Rossini’s William
Tell Overture Finale after introduction:
The Hateful Eight
In “Title Theme” in The Hateful Eight, it seems lost the energy that presents in
that of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but actually the same rhythm appears, it has been
just switch from on the snare to on the hi-hat, creating a more sneaky feeling of what
happened in the house under blizzard. (Figure 2.3)
vi. Use of contemporary elements
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The use of contemporary elements is shown from the use of “unusual”
instruments, like Jew’s Harp, the bass ocarina and electronic guitar, which has been just
being popular during the early 1970s. Besides that, if we listen to the track “Desert”,
Ennio Morricone has used the textual approach to compose the cue. He has used longtime string tremolo and serialism on the piano entered later and also the bassoon part.
The Hateful Eight
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When we listen to the track “L'Inferno Bianco (Ottoni)” from the movie, where
Daisy is about to be able to get the gun and kill the hangman. We can hear the texture is
form by bassoons and clarinet, while the strings are doing steady rhythmic materials.
That creates unpleasant tension that fit the scene in the movie.
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Conclusion
To conclude, there are many similarities in the composition techniques that
Ennio Morricone has used in the film music of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The
Hateful Eight, and what he used has been proved that he has used before writing music
for these two movies. Although some said that Morricone’s composition approach
remains a mystery, and he himself also claims that he has written the music in a total
differenet way than 4- years ago, now we can see that the change of his sound still gets
the shadow of what his music in the past. The soundtracks of these two movies are like
the resonation of a new gun and the old gun.
In terms of tonality, Morricone chose the minor modes most of the time because
it is greatly associated with the violence and immorality involved. In terms of harmony,
he tend to use simple harmony as a relief to the audience with his interesting texture
created by his orchestration. His use in strings session is mostly “classical”, but the use
of human voice is interesting. He also pushes the horse-riding rhythm and use of human
voice more close to the Wild West culture. When a composer tries to do something
different, we can always find the shadows of his previous music.
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Reference List
Audio CDs:
1.
“Per Un Pugno di Dollari” , 2006 BMG Ricordi Music
Publishing, distributed by Italia eel italia.
2.
“Ennio Morricone Solisti Orchestre del Cinema Itailiano”
Complete Orginal Scores, 2014 Recording Arts AG.
3.
“For a Few Dollars More”, iTunes music.
4.
“The Hateful Eight” soundtrack, 2015 CINE-MANI Production
Limited.
