Analytical Methodology

“assimilate and appreciate the instrumental solutions” he devised in his scores.15 It is

impossible to tackle all of Morricone’s vast and diverse output, but I have chosen a cross-

section of his important scores from different genres. I will analyze shorter excerpts from

Roland Joffe’s 1986 period film The Mission and two of Sergio Leone’s Westerns: For a Few

Dollars More (1965) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

Analytical Methodology

This chapter will build on the timbral, textural, and gestural analyses of the previous

sections. I will again employ Denis Smalley’s space-form to detail how Morricone uses

texture. As a supplement to space-form I will draw on the “segmented structure” model

Sergio Miceli developed to analyze Morricone’s Western scores. I will also examine a

procedure that Morricone hinted at in his writings: that of a progression of sonorities, or

what I will call a timbral progression. 16 This procedure is simple — Morricone stated that he

conceived of his scores as a “progression of sonorities” that logically helped the narrative of

a film. I will also apply Lerdahl’s idea of timbral prototypes. Finally, I will investigate timbral

properties of Morricone’s Western scores using Zachary Wallmark’s claim that “timbre perception is a motor mimetic process.”17

Regarding orchestration, I will once again attribute all orchestrational choices in

these scores to Morricone himself. This is easy to do; throughout his long career, Morricone

never enlisted the help of an orchestrator, and he was critical of those composers that did.18

15 Morricone, Anderson, and Miceli, Composing for the Cinema : The Theory and Praxis of Music in Film, 172. 16 Ibid., 171.

17 Wallmark, Zachary, “Appraising Timbre: Embodiment and Affect at the Threshold of Music and Noise”, ii.

18 Leinberger, Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly : A Film Score Guide, 111.