English
Title : Once Upon a Time in the WestC'ERA UNA VOLTA IL WEST (1968)
English
Title : Once Upon a Time in the West
Director: Sergio Leone
Music: Ennio Morricone
The day in which he prepares a welcome celebration for the woman he has married, a man is murdered along his three children by Frank and his partisans, on salary of a railroad company that wants to take off his lands. But now they belong to the widow, Jill, decided to defend her inheritance. She will be helped by Cheyenne, an outcast, and Armonica, an enigmatic man who has a pending issue with Frank.
By Conrado Xalabarder
Leone and I made the decision that music would serve to redeem and to emphasize the hope for a much better future
Ennio Morricone
1.- The Composer and the Director
Ennio
Morricone
(Rome, November 10th, 1928) studied trumpet and soon extended his formation,
until at the beginning of the fifties he began working at the radio and in music
arrangements for other composers. From the sixties he got assignements for his
own films: he made his debut in Il federale (1961), which was followed
by near fifteen films before his encounter with his old schoolmate Sergio Leone
(1929-1989), with whom he would collaborate in six titles directed by him and
in some other which Leone would produce. With
him he began in Per
un pugno di dollari (1964),
which success was extraordinary. The problem he would have in his collaborations
with Leone was the ruthless reaction of the critics, that accused him of making
vulgar music. Nobody at that moment understood the dimension of what he did,
and much less the great commotion he imposed in the western genre in particular
and in the cinema in general. Morricone,
with the
complicity of Leone, made a revolutionary contribution to the music of westerns,
until the point that is quite appropiate to consider him the most important
author. As
opposed to the epic dimension of the americans Moross
y Bernstein,
he chose not to repeat that formula, also of success, and to work over more
mystical or even religious criteria, that intoned better with the films Leone
made. If in the United States the territoriality in music was prioritized (that
is to say, the own one of the place where films occured), in his will was to
give a temporary sense, in such a way that music served to locate the films
at the most rustic times of the Humanity and, thus, to give the Biblical sense
that the director looked in characters arosed from nothing, in towns without
past and social surroundings with appearance of just having being constituted.
It came to be an emulation of the phrases of the Genesis that said At the
beginning, God created Heaven and Earth; the Earth was chaos and confusion.
And then He created man. Under this rule, he devised a formula that would
apply identically in the credit titles of several of those films and that consisted
on a resemblance of the Creation: It was initiated with rude and
primitive sonorities
(the wild Earth music), then he continued by incorporating percussions and other
more conventional instruments (the origin of Life) and he ended using the human
voice and orquestration (the appearance of man). It was then when stories began.
For that reason, the logic imposed that the instruments were the less possible
conventional and,
simultaneously, with the most primarial sonorities: whips, blows of anvil, guitars
performed in its more heavy registries, bells, howls, shouts, harmonica... everything
that evoked the idea of the Begining of Man and, mainly, that gave a
violent tone. It was contrasted by the intervention of the most beautiful soprano
voice
of his inseparable
Edda Dell'Orso and the result, then, was perfect. In addition, Leone wanted
the music even before
shooting, because
that way he could prepare the movement of the camera and the actors in the sequences
and because he wanted from the music an exact definition of the characters,
in such a way only the essential dialogues were written, and what Morricone
gave him was that: characters explained with music. As a consequence, the director
made the actors listen the music at the rehersals.
He
made five westerns with Sergio Leone, although Leone took part directly or indirectly
in others in which the composer also participated. After Per
un pugno di dollari followed Per qualche
dollaro in piú (1965), in which predominated also a violent music,
dry, forceful, which was lightened in Il
buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966), spectacular in all its senses, in which
he used symphony orchestra, voices, whistles, shoots and the soprano voice of
Edda Dell'Orso. Its forceful initial teme, the choral voices, the peculiar instrumentation
and, specially, the theme titled The Gold Ecstasy, turned it in one of
the film music greatest classics. He followed with the beautiful C'era
una volta il west (1968), of which analysis we'll take care now, and later
Gił la testa (1971), with an initial
theme between lyrical and humoristic, in which he used voices to give certain
comicity, but that stood out by his singular elegance, guaranteed by Dell'Orso.
Morricone worked in more westerns, in
this and in the following decade. In some of them he followed in his so little
conservative way and executed experimentations, although the commercial factor
was also into his considerations.
2.- Musical structure
The music from C'era una volta il west is structured on the basis of the following thematic hierarchy:
A
sweet melody in which participates the soprano voice of Dell'Orso and which
is applied to Jill (Claudia Cardinale). It reflects her kindness, but also her
solitude, as an emulation of her almost-religious character. The arrival of
Jill to the station marks the appearance of her theme, that will be the principal
one in the soundtrack because she is whom the plot turns around, because its
the most used, because she will symbolize the hope for a better future in an
sorrounding of violence and death and because it is the only theme that does
not die in the film. But very specially by its expansive effect, whereas the
rest of themes are limited to its owns characters. Her music isolates her from
the violent surroundings, but also it expands through where she passes. It accompanies
the beauty of the desert, the work of the railroad workers and conquers the
other characters, whose musics disappear before its presence. And in the last
sequence, with the arrival of the train to Jill's house, that symbolizes the
end of the past and the beginning of a new era, the PRINCIPAL THEME bursts
into its maximum splendor and demonstrates, once again, that she represents
that future of harmony, and also that her theme extends towards the new society,
with elegance and beauty.
It
is a theme shared by two characters, Frank (Henry Fonda) and Armonica (Charles
Bronson) and which is listened completed or fragmented, depending on the circumstances
(the music that Armonica plays with his instrument is a fragment of the CENTRAL
THEME of both personages). It appears for the first time with Armonica,
but fragmented, and complete when Frank bursts in after having assassinated
the McBain family, with an aggressive but also epic tone thanks to the insertion
of choirs. It is the first moment in which music is lent to the intention of
sacralize or ritualize the death, which will be a characteristic in the rest
of the film. The meaning of that theme and why it is shared by two antagonistic
personages will be explained throughout the film and will be clarified at the
end.
Cheyenne
(Jason Robards) has his own theme, with the banjo as the main instrument, applied
accurately and that transformates as the confidence of the character is generated,
in an unique repercution: while his intentions are unknown, it sounds shady;
but when he is already an ally of Jill, it becomes humorous, emulating the gallop
of a horse. It is also used for humoristic intentions and Morricone
uses it with shining ability to indicate his death, with some notes of the theme
that indicates the exact moment of his passing away.
Morton (Gabriel Ferzetti), the corrupt railroad company proprietor, has also his theme, but it is secondary because, although it is also a distinctive theme, the power of the other CENTRAL THEMES inevitably relegate it to an outstanding secondary position. His is a sunset music, funeral, in which Morricone integrated the sound of sea waves, emulating the dream of the character of driving his train to the Pacific. As it happens to the other themes, it dies with the personaje.
A simple cantine music, not diegetical, which is listened as soon as Jill gets out of the train and which emulates her arrival to a worldly and vulgar place. This theme would be innocuous if it were not used to introduce the PRINCIPAL THEME, because between both of them there are only few seconds of silence. The interlude is accompassed with the disappearance of the ambiental sound, to reinforce still more Jill's theme, in an useful emulation that Morricone does of her almost-religious and lyrical character: in a certain way, she arrives to a current and worldly place (and what it is listened is a current and worldly music), but soon her own music asolates her from that surroundings, individualizing her. It is no longer the music of the place, but of what she is going to represent. That, added to choreographic movement of the camera on respect to the music (with that precious ascending travelling that is fixed with the ascent of the melody), turns her to be an exceptional character for the spectator, even before she begins to speak or it is known that she is a whore. For that reason it was so important the previous insertion of that SECONDARY THEME.
The long scene in which Frank, with the help of Armonica, fights against his own men is accompanied by a non melodic theme, non empathical, which is leaned in percussions that recreate a cold and distant surrounding, no emotional.
3.- Evolution and power relationship between themes in important scenes.
The first sequence of the film lengths a total of fourteen minutes, being the first eleven in musical silence, almost without dialogues. The first planes of the brigands, the delay and the sound ambient are the elements on which the director built the scene. Doors' sounds, footsteps or a windmill were used as the only sonorous elements, but falsifying them when extending them artificially. When one of the men, seated in an hammock and annoyed by the insistent noise of a telegraph, takes off its cables, all the atmospheric sound stops abruptly, in a sonorous game that emphasizes the sequence. Soon the sounds return and new ones are gotten up, also artificially amplified, like a fly that disturbs the seated man, some drops of water which fall in the hat of another one or the noise of the knuckles of the third. The arrival of the train ends this first part of the sequence.
Initially Morricone had written music for this scene, but it was rejected when it didn't fixed well with the natural sounds and the composer recommended to use in that sequence only those natural sounds, artificially manipulated: I told Sergio (Leone) something very important. Some time ago I attended a concert in Florence where a man began, in complete silence, to take a ladder and to make it hiss (...), and he followed with it several minutes, and the public did not have any idea of what it meant. But, in silence, the hiss of the ladder became something different. And the philosophical argument behind the experiment was that a sound, any sound of the daily life, when isolated from its context and from silence, becomes something different that it is not comprised from its authentic nature (...). I told this experience to Sergio (...). He made those extraordinary first ten minutes of Once Upon a Time in the West from that idea. In my opinion, it was one of the best things that Sergio made in this film. (Frayling. C., Sergio Leone: Algo que ver con la muerte. T&B Editores, 2002. P. 282). It was a proper decision, since therefore it was given a greater importance to the appearance of the first musical moment: the harmonica performed by Armonica.
What
sounds is a fragment of what will be the CENTRAL THEME 1 (Frank and Armonica
theme) and that will accompany him in the film on a diegetical or incidental
way. It is one slow, languid and sorrow melody, which more ahead will have an
argumental explanation. When Armonica stops and asks for Frank, the continuation
of that theme bursts incidentally as a crepuscular and afflicted melody, displayed
without harmonica, with a threatening and sinister tone, and ends before the
shoots.
The CENTRAL THEME 1 (Frank and Armonica theme) reappears after the killing of the McBain family by Frank and his partisans. It is listened fused - that is to say, no harmonica and then orchestra like in the previous scene but together harmonica and orchestra -, with a much more aggressive tone, threatening and also epical, thanks to the insertion of choirs. As we commented, it is the first moment in which music is lent to the intention of sacralize or ritualize the death, which will be a characteristic in the rest of the movie.
The arrival of the train to the station means the arrival of Jill and her theme, PRINCIPAL THEME, as we have explained already. When the driver takes Jill through the desert, her music expands in an open way, accompanying the intense beauty of the desert, the work of the workers and demonstrating the importance that she is going to have in the community to which she arrives.
Inside
the cantine, Cheyenne bursts in and brings the CENTRAL THEME 2 (Cheyenne's
theme). It is applied with precision: he appears on his back and it is not until
his eyes are seen when the first notes of his melody are heard, a retentive
theme with banjo that here has a shady look. Few seconds later the harmonica
begins to sound, what exposes the presence of Armonica. It is the first scene
with Cheyenne and Armonica together and this encounter of both - whom will end
being friends- also takes place musically. The complete absence of the PRINCIPAL
THEME in this scene evidences that this is a space in which Jill does not
have any power.
This scenes are entirely dedicated to emphasize the impression of surprise and unexpected solitude of Jill, and three variations of the PRINCIPAL THEME (Jill's theme) are applied, losing its expansive tone to return to the instrospective tone of the character.
Cheyenne's irruption in Jill's house gets reinforced with his theme, with an
ambiguous tone that does not reveal his intentions and that leave Jill in a
very weak position: her house, her intimate space, has been invaded by
a stranger and by the music of this stranger. But a little after a singular
effect takes place: what is going to be heard will be the PRINCIPAL THEME
(Jill's Theme) which, besides demonstrating that between them there is now confidence
-Jill has recovered the dominion of her space with her music-, makes clear that
Cheyenne has surrendered to her enchantments, which is concreted in the fact
that it is Jill's music which dominates the scene, without any insertion of
the Cheyenne's theme, who leaves with the PRINCIPAL THEME, not his music.
The threaten of two men in horses who approach and are eliminated by Armonica (what turns him, in the eyes of Jill, into a confidence character) is observed by Cheyenne from a hill. When they are dead, the theme of Cheyenne appears for the first time repercuted in a positive slope, and it no longer will change.
The flashback inserted after the first encounter between both characters includes the harmonica fragment of the CENTRAL THEME 1 (Armonica and Frank's theme), in incidental form. It is the first occasion that is listened outside the character who has played it and it is the beginning of the resolution of the origin of its existence, because it is applied to an event of the past, not yet clarified but that in any case evidences that keeps relation between both. In the interrogation, it sounds the second part of the theme, the one that does not have harmonica, and the relation of the music with the personajes is consolidated.
Jill's
theme accompanies the sequence between she and Frank, with a dull look: Jill
is trying to save herself while Frank humiliates her and takes advantage of
his power. It is the moment in which the spectator discovers the past of the
woman, but at that point it does not matter, because her personage has already
been elevated to a category much over the others. This is the only moment of
crisis of the PRINCIPAL THEME, the most dismal moment, because
it is the most dangerous for her.
The entrance of Frank at the saloon takes place with a somehow sinister version of the part of his theme without harmonica. In the flashback the piece of the theme with harmonica returns. In that sequence, then, the two pieces of that common theme are divided, giving a greater entailment with the figure of Frank, whom is seen clearly.
When
Frank and Armonica take positions for the final duel, the CENTRAL THEME 1
(Frank and Armonica's theme) grows and reaches its maximum intensity. Its look
is rigorously ritual, ceremonious, with presence of choirs. The spectator knows
that there is something more than one life or another, since at this moment
the real intentions of Armonica are going to be solved -and explained-, displayed
bruptly in previous sequences, but not still explained. For that reason, because
not being a simple scene of duel, and hearing the music of both personages,
the theme acquires more greatness. With the flashback the fragment of the harmonica
is solved in its understanding: that was an instrument of Frank, whose with
extreme cruelty placed in the mouth of the adolescent -Armonica- to humiliate
him. Capably, Morricone eluded victimizing
the personage and the music begins with the 
so-listened
fragment of the instrument but soon becomes, mediating the forcefulness of a
guitar, ceremonious and epic, which will be what the spectator also has heard
throrough the preparation of the duel. Therefore, there is a deliberate connection
of the present with the past and the past with the present: the kind of music
that was applied in the traumatic experience of Armonica being adolescent is
the same one that sounds when he faces, finally, to the twig of his brother.
This explains that Armonica had always have that instrument and played it: he
was playing Frank's instrument. And when Frank, dying, asks him who is he, Armonica
just gives him back and place it in his mouth so it is Frank who plays it before
dying. And what sounds is distorted, dying. When Frank dies, the music -the
theme that had united them in all the film- also dies. It will not return again.
Jill and Cheyenne's uncertainity on whom has survived in the duel is solved with the smile of Jill, but not with the music of Armonica, since it died with Frank, as it has been commented. On the contrary, the entrance in scene of Armonica is accompanied with PRINCIPAL THEME (Jill's theme), decorated by the soprano voice of Dell'Orso. Here, this music emulates, once again, the peace and the calmness that she has given everyone and her captivating power. It extends until both men leave. Later the CENTRAL THEME 2 (Cheyenne's theme) reappears, accompaining him until his death and it marks with precission the exact moment of his passing away.
The train arrival is also the arrival of a new future, the end of the past and the beginning of a new era. When the PRINCIPAL THEME (Jill's theme) bursts in, in its maximum splendor, not only evidences that she represents that future of harmony, but also that her own theme is extended towards the new society, with enormous elegance and beauty. A logical thing would be that this music should close the film. For some incomprehensible, and of course clumsy reason, it is linked with a repetition of the CENTRAL THEME 2 (Cheyenne's theme), something that does not have any logical when the personage has already died and that theme was concretized to his single figure, whereas the Jill's theme was the only one that had been able to be extended beyond the personage. There is nothing that justifies to extend this theme beyond its personage, not even as reference. Perhaps, although it is just a mere conjecture, the reason was that, since the music was written and recorded before filmed the movie, it is possible that they remained short and that more music was needed, reason why they were forced to include a minute of the Cheyenne's theme. In any case, it is the unique unperfection in what has been an almost perfect work.
4.- Conclussion
C'era
una volta il west is one of greatest classics in westerns and in film music
in general. In the precise definition that the score made of some of its personages
or concepts, as well as its almost perfect insertion in the film had much to
do the decision that the music was written before filmed the movie. Some of
the sequences were choreographied based on the melody, which granted a great
beauty. But it also served the actors to knew better their personages through
the music that was going to represent them: the troller Cheyenne, with his humorous
theme, that emulates the gallop of a horse and that is varied according on the
impression that he causes around. Or Jill's theme, so decisive because it was
extended beyond the character and it would end being a symbol of the hope for
the future of a society in blossoming, but that in any case gives the character
an angelical look, thanks in a great extent by the using of the soprano voice
of Dell'Orso, so beautiful. Again, the genesical sense that characterizes so
much the cinema of Leone and the music of Morricone
for Leone. The theme that
pretends to be of Armonica -and that in fact does not belongs to him, simply
he uses it to maintain his memory for a past event that he wants to solve- is
the theme of an idea, of a very precise concept that interlaces two characters
(Armonica and Frank) that are bound to meet each other, because one looks for
the other, and the other wants to know why is looked for. For that reason, the
ambivalence of the theme, that firstly it is weird, is understood much better
if one watch again the movie knowing the reason of that music, and the reason
for which sometimes sounds as fragment played with harmonica, in others instrumental,
with different melody, and in others both parts united. The presence of that
theme incorporates a new dramatic level to the film, as
also ends happening to the one of Jill. All the themes grow and evolve (being
varied or repercuted) according to the characters or concepts that represent,
and they are extended or concluded on a coherent way, except at the end of the
final credits, as it has been indicated. If in the film glances and silences
have great importance, the music is also essential to make much more expressive
those glances and silences: everything is almost explained with the score. In
fact, in this film, as also happened in Per
qualche dollaro in piú (1965) the music is an element that motivates
the personages to behave on one or another way. If in Per
qualche dollaro in piú the music of a clock incarnated the power
of the villain, in C'era una volta il west
the music of the harmonica comes to be something that a character must give
back to other to settle last accounts. The own harmonica is an instrument that
the personage of Charles Bronson keeps all his life to give it to his true proprietor,
once he kills him. Music, then, is argumentally fundamental.
There is no complexity in any of the musical themes: all they are specifically simple, because the concepts that represent are also simple and because in addition the own personages are beings with a past hardly known (of Jill we only know that once she was a whore determined to change her life; of Cheyenne, a brigand and a little more; of Armonica, a man in search of revenge for something which is discovered in the end; of Frank, who is bloodthirsty, because others say it of him, etc.). Not very often the music of westerns has been so significant and has given so much of himself, without resorting for it to excesses nor complexities.
© Conrado Xalabarder, 2005
Tracklist
1.
C'era Una Volta Il West (03:35) 2. Come Una Sentenza (03:05) 3. Cheyenne (01:15)
4. L'Attentato (04:37) 5. Armonica (02:25) 6. La Posada N. 1 (01:32) 7. La Posada
N. 2 (01:30) 8. La Posada N. 3 (01:15) 9. Jill (01:45) 10. L'Uomo Dell'Armonica
(03:25) 11. In Una Stanza Con Poca Luce (05:04) 12. Frank (01:48) 13. L'Orchestraccia
(02:20) 14. Morton (01:34) 15. L'America Di Jill (02:45) 16. L'Uomo (01:00)
17. Epilogo (01:12) 18. L'Ultimo Rantolo (01:40) 19. Addio A Cheyenne (02:32)
20. Finale (04:10)