THE MISSION

ENNIO MORRICONE

Rating:

Original Review: The Mission, with the possible exceptions of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and A Fistful of Dollars, is probably Ennio Morricone's best-known work with the general public at large - it's one of those peculiar scores where, when you play it to a non-soundtrack fan they will say "Oh, yes, I've heard this before!" but won't have the faintest idea what film it's from. The whole score has a definite Latin American feeling, and is built around two main themes: the first a slow, lyrical, gentle melody played firstly on a flute; and a second, slightly more resonant but still beautiful oboe theme which always makes me think of the Grand National - the BBC use it a lot during their TV coverage of the world's greatest horse race. And basically that's it - the themes appear, disappear and reappear throughout the score, played by different instruments and with different rhythms to accentuate different emotions, entwining together in some cues, or played as complete pieces (as in the opener 'On Earth As It Is In Heaven', 'The Mission' - the most famous cue, or 'Gabriel's Oboe' - a brilliant track). Occasionally Morricone will introduce a Latin choir into the proceedings (like in 'Ave Maria Guarani' - although I do feel that this element seems slightly haphazard and not particularly nice to listen to) and he also makes good use of the ethnic group Incantation in cues like 'Revenge' and 'Asuncion', where pan pipes and tomtoms are very much in evidence. Altogether, The Mission is a highly enjoyable hour's listening experience. Nothing too flashy or gaudy, just plain, simple, beautiful music from one of Europe's masters.

Track Listing: Running Time: 48 minutes 49 seconds

Virgin Records (1986)

Music composed and conducted by Ennio Morricone. Performed by The London Philharmonic Orchestra. Ethnic instrumentations performed by Incantation. Orchestrations by Ennio Morricone. Recorded and mixed by Dick Lewzey. Album produdced by Ennio Morricone.


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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1997. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.