365 Days of Song Recommendations: April 20
The Ecstasy of Gold — Ennio Morricone
I sat down with my Sunday New York Times crossword yesterday — as you do — and I came across the following clue: “The titular bad guy in ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.” The answer is, of course, Angel Eyes, played by the great Lee Van Cleef.
[Sidebar] I would like to point out that the title The Good, The Bad and the Ugly — does not feature the Oxford comma. Why? Because an unnecessary Oxford is lead weight on a sentence (or a title!) that does not require further clarity. [/Sidebar]
(editor’s note: the original Italian title does utilize the Oxford comma: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo)
(author’s note about the editor’s note: the serial comma is grammatically incorrect in Italian, French, German, Arabic and Chinese — and English, most importantly, remains optional for clarity. And if your series lacks clarity, merely re-order your series or your sentence. Thank you for coming to my Oxford comma TED Talk.)
This crossword answer filled in a crucial column in my crossword, but it also reminded me that I’ve yet to pick a piece of movie music for #365Songs. (I don’t even know who I am anymore.) Furthermore, Ennio Morricone’s score to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly happens to be the most iconic piece of scoring this side of John Williams. You need to hear no more than five seconds of the main title. Even if you don’t know the movie, you know the movie. You know the whistling (by Alessandro Alessandroni), the flute, and the warble mimicking a coyote howl.
Morricone understood the mechanics of drama, sometimes better than the directors with which he worked. He made bad movies better and good movies great. When he worked with the great Sergio Leone, the two shared an unspoken language, an ability to communicate through the creative process itself.
This main title for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly reached #4 on the Billboard charts. The Hugo Montenegro re-recording reached #2. But I’m not picking this main title —bait and switch — because it’s not even Morricone’s most interesting work on this very same soundtrack. I’m writing about “Ecstasy of Gold,” which plays later in the movie as Eli Wallach (Tuco, “the ugly”) searches a graveyard for $200,000 in gold.
It begins with a soft piano. A clarinet joins as the piano recedes, followed by a volley from the snare. An orchestral swell introduces the angelic Edda Dell’Orso, an Italian singer who also worked with Bruno Nicolai, Piero Piccioni, and Pieru Umiliani, titans of Italian film composers. As opposed to the main title, “Ecstasy of Gold” is measured and moving, featuring a thrilling rollercoaster crescendo.
To speak to its lasting appeal as a piece of music look no further than its integration into popular culture. Jay-Z sampled “Ecstasy of Gold” in “Blueprint 2” on the album of the same name. At concerts, Metallica plays a classical version of the song as the band members slowly come on stage — and they recorded it with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra for their S&M album. The Ramones covered it — and so did Yo Yo Ma. The Los Angeles Football Club blasts it through their stadium just before player introductions.
The greatest of cinematic scoring doesn’t require knowledge of the movie for this music to stir you. It is simply great music. “Ecstasy of Gold” is a moment of respite, a call to arms, but it is also filled with remorse.
Ennio Morricone’s greatest gift was the ability to tailor a piece of music for a moment, purposefully cut and manicured. The greatest moments in Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy were nothing more than steely-eyed stares, the compounded stillness amplified, given meaning and depth through music.
“The Ecstasy of Gold” is the 100th song on the exclusive #365Songs playlist:
