Once Upon A Time in the West

Historical Markers of the Modern Soundtrack

Developed for RMIT Media Arts

Profile: ENNIO MORRICONE

Ennio Morricone is perhaps one of the most influential music scorers from the 60s (discounting the `modern song' composers like Henry Mancini & Marvin Hamlysch). Unlike other `pop' oriented songwriters, he composed his music thematically, ie. making sure that the way in which his music was constructed would reflect and become integral to the complex and multiple flows which make up the plot's action. By working this way, many of his scores functioned in meta or general ways (as opposed to specific dramatic/emotional synchronism) which allowed his cues to be applied in more lateral than linear ways in the film's soundtrack mix.

Morricone is most known for the weird orchestrations that made up his scores, typifying this style as polyglottic and richly textured. His major influences are Bernard Herrman & Igor Stravinsky - two composers who explored the sonic role that an instrument played in `colouring' a melody or chord. Some of Morricone's notable scores (out of the over 300 he has done to date!): FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET, CAT ' O NINE TAILS and THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMMAGE for Dario Argento; THEORAMA and SALO for Pasolini; and A FlSTFUL OF DOLLARS, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, ONCE UPON A TIME IN WEST, THE GOOD THE BAD & THE UGLY, DUCK YOU SUCKER, MY NAME IS NOBODY and ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA for Leone. Other well known films: THE THING, THE PROFESSIONAL, RED SONJA, 1900, THE MISSION, EMMANUELLE, BUTTERFLY, THE SCICILIAN CLAN, DANGER: DIABOLIK, TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARAH, ORDER OF DEATH, EXORCIST II - THE HERETIC and STATE OF GRACE.

Close analysis

1. Chook squawk as duster grabs man by the throat.

2. Very loud bang as ticket-man is put into cupboard - blackout - Sergio Leone's credit appears (sound symbolizes Leone closing the door on the old style Western form?)

3. Ambient noise of windmill spinning during opening sequence - volume changes according to perspective.

4. Telegraph types out credits during this scene. (In fact, note how all the credits relate to visual and/or aural incidents).

5. As the dusters wait for the train (which carries the man they have been sent to kill) they each prepare for the kill in their own way. In doing so, they each outline the `rhythm of their silence' as they bide their time. These scenes demonstrate different states of the passing time (from subjective viewpoints) :
(a) Jack Elam waits in silence, half-asleep with his hat covering his eyes;
(b) Woody Strode waits listening to the water drip into his hat;
(b) the 3rd guy (?) waits cracking his knuckles.
Sound, silence and rhythm are extremely important here in setting the moods. Note also the interruptions to their personal rhythms : the telegraph (which Jack Elam silences by destroying it) and the fly (which he captures in the gun barrel, then uses the sound of its containment as a reassuring sound); and the water dripping onto Woody Strode's forehead which he then transforms into a dull pulse by putting on his hat, using its dripping as a calming sound. (Also, the sound of the splashy drips tell him that his hat is full, and it is therefore time for a drink.)

6. Train arrives - piercing sound breaks silence - chugging introduces an objective rhythm to replace the dusters' subjective rhythms. When train stops, the slow hissing accents the tension as the dusters wait for Bronson to alight.

7. Harmonica sounds - the sound is both extra diegetic scoring and an on-screen sound effect. First it appears as if Elam is reacting to hearing, the soundtrack music complete with reverb - the train pulls off to show Harmonica (Charles Bronson) standing playing the harmonica. The ominous harmonica motif sonically refers to the distant wailing of the train's whistle. There are two distinct harmonica sounds:
(a) one which is diegetic, signifying the in-scene presence of Harmonica; and
(b) one which is a musical combination of the harmonica texture and the train-whistle texture, operating as a non-diegetic voice of the music score's symbolic flow. This latter version alludes to the complex inter-relationship between three of the film's characters - Frank, Harmonica and Morton. (This is explained further on.)

8. Harmonica guns the dusters down - listen to the gunshots, typical in texture of the spaghetti western. Their sound is in fact a cultural sound effect, in that it communicates an `Italian-ness' in marked contrast to the `natural' (ie. more familiar and conventional) sound effects of Hollywood gunshots. The texture of the Italian version - thick, explosive, compressed, condensed, dynamically-full - is an aural reflection of how the spaghetti western relates itself to the Hollywood western, especially in terms of violence and impact.

9. The McBain family preparing the banquet for their new mother - note what they hear in sequence:
(a) silence (the `Gothic' layering of howling wind, unsettled horse neighs)
(b) gun-click (almost identical in sound to the earlier bird `clucking')
(c) birds scattering
(d) gun-shots (complete with ricochet so that McBain is momentarily confused as to where they came from - he thinks his wife shot some birds, until he sees her fall down dead).

10. Youngest kid runs out of house to see his dead sister and dad - cut to heavy fuzz guitar. This motif symbolizes Frank (Henry Fonda) as the merciless killer. (It later becomes entwined with Harmonica's thematic elements, because Harmonica is as obsessive as Frank is ruthless.) Note the harmonica-train sound which hints that Harmonica and Frank are somehow interconnected.

11. Frank shoots kid - cut to wailing train whistle in close-up. The whistle is related to the train - its power and energy as engineered and controlled by the railroad boss, Morton (Gabrielle Ferzetti). The kid is shot by Frank because Morton has paid for it to be done - the progress of the train hinges on the eradication of the McBain family.

12. Jill (Claudia Cardinale) waits at station - looks up at clock - remembers her own watch-piece - `remembers' her musical motif which is a slow waltz featuring a disembodied feminine voice. This musical motif thus not only symbolizes her, but also a past. (To be uncovered later.) As the camera cranes up, the music moves into an `uplifting' segment. In fact the theme has 3 internal movements:
(a) memory trigger (the tinkling waltz);
(b) reflecting on the memory (the disembodied voice); and
(c) getting on with the present (the orchestral `uplifting' section.
This last section coincides with a wide overhead shot of the frontier town - which will eventually become Jill's future (see point 26).

13. Jill in saloon - shoot-out goes on outside - after brief silence one figure finally emerges in silhouette through swinging doors. We can't see the shoot-out, only hear it - this man must be the winner. An example of aural comprehension of plot action.

14. As this winner - Cheyenne (Jason Robards) - drinks at bar, the harmonica motif is sounded. Harmonica once again makes his entrance first on the soundtrack then in image. His harmonica playing is his call-sign. Cheyenne taunts him "Is that all you can do - play?"

15. Harmonica and Jill at well at Sweetwater (McBain's ranch) - "when you hear a strange sound, drop to the ground". The strange sound is the gun clicks prior to the shoot-out explosion. A true survivor, Harmonica knows how to `read' sounds in the harsh Western environment. (If McBain had listened more carefully for this same sound, he and his family might have survived.)

16. Harmonica shoots two guys at well - Cheyenne observes from a distance and comments "He can not only play, he can shoot too". A thematic relationship is thus established (and continued later) between playing harmonicas and shooting guns, between musical instruments and instruments of death.

17. As Harmonica climbs down off train roof and comes face to face with Frank's gun, the harmonica motif is sounded - this time without Harmonica visibly playing it. The sound ambiguously signifies two thing:
(a) Bronson's past as it might be connected to Frank, a past which provides suspense for us because we only have the sound but no image which to relate it to; and
(b) Frank's past in the form of his doubting memory, where Harmonica's face triggers something that Frank can't pin-point, and which therefore instils slight fear into Frank because he realizes that there might be something in his own past which could make him feel guilty - a feeling of which he thinks himself free.
(Obviously, each time either Harmonica-sound enters the soundtrack, we are given another piece of information which adds to our gradual awareness of exactly what those sounds signify.)

18. Fat man thrown is off train - sees Cheyenne under the train - Cheyenne tells him "Shhhh!" - fat man tries to warn Frank and is shot by Frank. Cheyenne reflects "I told you to remain quiet". Sounds often signal death by rupturing silence, giving away cover and marking presence.

19. Frank interrogates Harmonica on train - asks him his name - Harmonica replies with a list of other men that have been killed by F rank. Each time a name is sounded, the distant harmonica sound appears, symbolizing the slight triggering of Frank's conscience-free memory. (Note how Frank's lack of memory is contrasted with Jill's abundance of memory - he survives by forgetting, she by remembering. In the end, he dies by remembering his past, while she wins by forgetting her past. This also has its effect on how musical motifs are attached to their characterizations.)

20. Frank orders further interrogation of Harmonica in his absence - "Hit him plenty but not in the mouth - he's got a lot of talking to do". Words signify explanation - which is why hardly anyone ever says anything, otherwise the whole plot would finish. The unsaid mobilizes the action. (Note - when Harmonica kills Frank, the role of the mouth will take on a new significance.

21. The 'clip-clop theme' is a theme about relationships rather than individual characters and their forgotten, lost and repressed memories. Note the gap in the theme at the end of one of its repeated sections, where an awkward, pregnant pause symbolizes the unsteadiness of relationships in "The West". It's a gap of silence wherein sides could swap and your enemies become your friends or vice versa (sort of like musical chairs where the silence cues a change). Primarily, this theme symbolizes Cheyenne-with-Harmonica. On other occasions it symbolizes Frank-with-Morton. Note how each of these relationships are essentially transitory, fateful and aleatory .

22. Norton dies after train has been attacked by Cheyenne - he crawls along ground to edge of puddle - pushes his face in it - `hears' the sound of the Pacific Ocean. (This was he object of his desire in extending the train line across America - "to hear the sound of the Pacific Ocean".) As he dies, he hears it in his own mind, indicating how much the train line was a part of his own personal vision - or more accurately perhaps, his `inner aural energy'. Note how this sound of waves crashing then fades into the mass aural chaos of the workers building Sweetwater station. Two symbolic points : (a) Morton died at his own `sweet' water' ; and (b) the energy that drove people to extend the line also drives others to build the station. Their link is conveyed by the `sound' of progress.

23. Full version of Harmonica's flashback - we finally get the image that describes the sound of the wailing harmonica : that sound was the sound of Harmonica playing the harmonica while his brother balanced on his shoulders, about to hang. Note that the instrument is sounded by air being pushed through its flutes, and that as Frank shoved the instrument into Harmonica's mouth the sound of his crying was transformed into a musical effect, an effect that then became an aural symbol for Harmonica as a reminder of that horrific incident. The harmonica that appears on the soundtrack, then, is literally the sound of Harmonica's grief. It appears that Harmonica needs to fully relive that past while looking straight into the eyes of Frank: the man in front of him has to be transformed into the Frank of the past. Only through this self-inflicted process can Harmonica mobilize his energy to shoot and kill Frank.

24. Harmonica shoots Frank - Frank goes down. Harmonica had promised Frank that he would only know him "at the point of dying". (If Frank had his wits about him, he would have remembered that a harmonica was sounded at the point of Harmonica's brother dying.) Harmonica shoves the harmonica into frank's mouth (this is actually where the flashback detailed in point 23 occurs) which is what makes Frank remember the whole past, along with Harmonica's role in it. In fact, that final flashback is perhaps not even Harmonica's, but Frank's. This relates to the way in which they have shared elements of their musical themes with each other: they are bound together by the past. At the end of this flashback, Frank dies - the slow noisy rhythm of the harmonica sounding in his mouth is replaced by silence - he doesn't breathe, he doesn't sound, he's dead. Finally, silence is death. (This reverses and closes the aural thematic which played throughout the whole film, that sound was death and silence was life.)

25. Harmonica and Cheyenne exit Sweetwater - Cheyenne stops, and philosophical conversation follows. Cheyenne is dying. All through this, the 'clip-clop theme' plays. This time, the pregnant pause signifies the death of Cheyenne.

26. Jill's theme occupies the soundtrack as Harmonica rides off - her memory lives on. Cheyenne's has ceased, Frank's has been erased, and Harmonica's has been exorcised. Hers is the only memory left - her theme concludes the film. Credit : ONCE UPON THE TIME IN THE WEST.

Text © Philip Brophy.