The Journal of Film Music

Volume 2, Numbers 2-4, Winter 2009 Pages 283-4

ISSN 1087-7142Copyright 2010
The International Film Music Society, Inc.

doi: 10.1558/jfm.v2i2-4.283

Charles Leinberger. Ennio Morricones The Good, the

Bad and the Ugly: A Film Score Guide
Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow, 2004. [xviii, 137 p. ISBN: 0810851326. $27.95 (trade paper)]
Scarecrow Film Score Guides, no. 3. Music examples, filmography, bibliography, index.
LORI STEVENS

ince the films release in 1966, Morricones

score for The Good Bad and the Ugly (also known
as Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) has been panned
by some critics as lifeless. The third installment
of this outstanding fivepart series delves into
the many musical and extramusical factors that
eventually made this score a hit and today one of the
most widely recognized motion picture scores ever
written.1 Charles Leinbergers extensive film music
background and passion for Morricones music create
a natural fit for producing this thorough exploration of
one of cinemas essential scores. His sources include
nothing less than interviews and correspondence with
Maestro Morricone himself, providing the reader a
rare opportunity to learn firsthand without scholarly
conjecture, the composers ideas, intentions, and
acknowledged influences. Leinbergers approach is to
provide a background about Morricone, an analysis of
his compositional techniques as it relates to scoring
films, a historical, social and critical context for the
film and the music, and a discussion about every cue in
its cinematic setting.
Leinberger begins chapter one with a brief
appraisal of Morricones formal and informal
education, musical training, and early influences. This
background sets an important stage for understanding
the melding of both classical and nonclassical
traditions such as jazz, pop, and avantgarde into a
unique musical landscape, a sound and style that is
distinctly Morricone and its perfect marriage to the
realissimo cinematic style of director Sergio Leone.
In chapter two, the author explores Morricones
unique philosophical approach to film scoring, in
which the music (or lack thereof) is considered to
be an integral part of the narrative or storytelling
1 Christopher Frayling, Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl
May to Sergio Leone (New York: I. B. Tauris, 1998), 147.

process not subservient to action or dialogue, but

on equal footing. His early work experience as a
studio arranger for the Italian pop radio industry
manifested itself in the early Leone film scores
as Morricone experimented with new media and
combinations of sounds to subsequently abandon
the traditional sentimental score with dense
instrumental texture. According to Leinberger,
he reflects musically the unsettled uncertainty of
rapidly changing societal paradigm shifts in Cold
War Europe and America. Leinberger points out that
Morricones film music used melodic or songbased
elements found in the Italian operatic tradition as
opposed to the more commonly used leitmotiv that
hails from the Wagnerian tradition. This fascinating
fusion of song and pop in the film score created a
new musical medium which was more accessible
to public tastes as stand alone music, enjoying
exposure over the airways as well as the screen.
The next two chapters introduce the reader to the
film itself, its social and historical context, the key
players, themes, and symbols found in The Good, the
Bad, and the Ugly. Leinberger adeptly draws parallels
between the Civil War setting of the film, and the
disillusionment found in the U.S. during the Vietnam
era. He offers valid explanations for why a film that
was slammed by the critics touched such a valid
chord with the American public, creating a box office
hit, and a film worthy of study more than thirtyfive
years after its initial release. Next, readers learn of
the critical response to Morricones scores for the
Leone films and the score for The Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly is compared to his other works for western
film, tracing evolutions in voicing, orchestration, and
experimentation with mechanical and natural sounds.
The final chapter, which is the most extensive
(comprising nearly a third of the book)
presents an indepth analysis of the score replete
with musical examples. Leinberger provides a
sensitive examination of the tonality, orchestration,

284 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC

and the cinematic and narrative context for the

nineteen cues, which (after Morricones technique)
is thoroughly broken down and studied. Readers
will gain a renewed appreciation for the composers
detailed subtle approach to providing a score which is
masterfully interwoven with Leones visual, narrative,
aural, timing and other cinematic elements that
contributed to the cinematic masterpiece. Leinberger
concludes his study by summarizing Morricones
amazing and prolific contribution to the art of
film music as one who follows his musical projects
closely from inception to fruition, by composing,
orchestrating, and conducting his own scores. His
musical creativity permeates boundaries. This
well written and thoroughly researched study is
accessible to lay musicians and scholars alike. It is
an essential purchase for all film music collections.
Lori Stevens is a Librarian and Division Manager
of Patron Services at the Orem Public Library in
Utah. Previously, she was the Media Librarian at
Utah Valley State College, where she was the library
contact to music, theatre and speech, communications,
legal studies, and criminal justice. Her bachelors
in music is from Brigham Young University and her
masters in library and information science is from
Emporia State University. In 2002, Stevens presented
A Fistful of Pasta: The Good, Bad, and the Ugly and
the Glorious Film Music of Ennio Morricone, part
1, at the Annual Meeting of the MountainPlains
Chapter of the Music Library Association (MLA)
at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. The
presentation was forwarded to MLAs Best of Chapters
Committee. In 2003, she gave the presentation for the
Film Music Roundtable at the Annual Meeting of the
MLA in Austin, in which she also presented Shooting
Stars: Ethel Merman and Others Take Aim at Annie
Get Your Gun with Janet Bradford (Brigham Young
University) for MLAs Musical Theatre Roundtable.