# Morricone and the Infinite Chord Progression.



## Nate Johnson (Sep 5, 2020)

I mean, the dude's a genius. So maybe thats the end of the conversation right there. 

But seriously. Something that has plagued me for years has been understanding how pieces of music like the one in the video below come together, composition-wise. To me, one of the cornerstones of Morricone's sound is the twisting and turning nature of chord progressions under these gorgeous melodies. He's not totally unique of course, but definitely a pioneer! 

Now, I'm not the most versed in theory, but I do understand that I'm hearing loads of key changes/modulation. And I understand the basic math of possibilities involved to get from point A to B regarding that. My questions are really about conceiving all of this. I tend to be an improvisational composer; meaning most of the time I'm just throwing shit against the wall and seeing what sticks and developing further once something does. But a lot of the time I get stuck. I'll have a great little riff and melody, but then have a hard time hearing beyond it to the next part. Usually some more spaghetti is involved to get there, which can be tedious at times. Eventually it all works out, but there's definitely a better way to train my brain to do this more efficiently. Obviously, this man is a traditionally educated pen+paper+piano guy we're talking about here, so I'm assuming careful composition of the _melody first_ is king here. So, for this style, melody comes first and those magical chord progressions are worked out underneath? Or am I wrong and it's actually the chord progressions first? I realize anything and everything is the answer. I know there's no rigid formula. My own endless experience of capturing/translating inspiration proves that. But more importantly, I've always wanted to know _how the fuck_ melodies like his are even conceived. I mean, is the dude humming this in his head and translating? Does he have just a couple of notes in his head and is simply doing the math on paper to get from A to B? I suppose its application within a film is part of the deal too, but my impression of that time period is that music was more constant background than super sync'd hit points, etc. Listening to these soundtracks feel more like fully developed albums than awkward-and-out-of-context film cues. 

Anyways, again, I get it, he's a genius, so the ability for others to think this way will be few and far between. But for how prolific Morricone was (what is it, like 500 or 600 frickin' scores?), there's got to be some basic strategy or formula he's following. Got to be. 

So yeah, as I happen to be approaching that wonderful (and terrifying) clean-slate-state-of-mind for conjuring up a new album - I'd like to do a little studying of whatever techniques might be occurring here.

Thoughts?


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## cqd (Sep 5, 2020)

Sounds kind of neo riemannian..

he's probably just banging out a melody after figuring out the chord changes too..


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## ptram (Sep 5, 2020)

Not an expert, but he lived (and shaped) an era when music was seriously art-music, and there were very subtle boundaries between academic, media and pop, between rigor and improvisation, legit and less legit devices. Freedom came from a deep knowledge of one own's craft. Italy was living a miraculous renaissance, and all the arts were open to experimentation.

Mix the way the more experimental singers of his era (Mina, Battisti, Endrigo, Modugno…) created flowing melodies, and his training as an experimental academic composer. This, blended with the techniques of his ultra-avanguardist (non-Darmstadian) teacher and mentor Goffredo Petrassi, and the experience of the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, influenced both by Cage and Stockhausen. Compare his music to that of his (no less courageous) colleagues Riz Ortolani, Carlo Rustichelli or Piero Piccioni.

This type of complex (free, but not anarchic) harmony is not uncommon in his music. The melody is something he might have heard from an open window, recreated, harmonized to follow it. Trivial and sublime, as Mahler (then just rediscovered by a bunch of conductors, among which Bruno Maderna, Carlo Maria Giulini and Claudio Abbado) had shown.

Morricone is more celebrated for his 'cleaner' works that I believe started with Mission and The Untouchables (the first one being, behind its pleasantness, a meditation on Baroque music). What he did in the previous decades is completely madness, and this piece is just an example.

Paolo


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## ptram (Sep 5, 2020)

An example: this is one of the most popular Italian songs of the Sixties. It starts as a trivial barcarole, and then everything happens.

Morricone/Mina - Se telefonando

Paolo


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## Rob (Sep 5, 2020)

In this piece, I believe harmony comes first...

These are the first 16 bars:

Gmaj7 | Fmaj7 | Gmaj7_Cmaj7 | Gmaj7_Cmaj7 |
Fmaj7_Bbmaj7 | Abm7 | Am7 | Gmaj7 ||
Gmaj7 | Fmaj7 |Gmaj7 | Fmaj7 |
Bm7 | Bbmaj7_Abmaj7 | Am7 | Gmaj7 ||


these would be my first thoughts:


1) there’s a vague sense of tonaity (Gmajor), but no clear cadence, chords are either major or minor (7) , no dominants.

2) chords are juxtaposed like colors, only guided by the composer’s taste. Preferred root movements: 2nds (major or minor) and ascending fourths.

3) use of alternation between two chords, a device usually called “oscillation”

4) use of melody as glue, or pivot between chords, sometimes with a not so great effect (to me), like at the very beginning, where there’s f#, 7th of Gmajor repeated on the following Fmajor, colliding with the f in the bass…

5) use of the “surprise” chord (Abm7) to avoid the progression become syrupy and create interest

6) groove is light swing, more like 12/8, à la Bacharach.



with just these indications, I’d experiment using the same kind of materials to build a few themes.


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## Nate Johnson (Sep 5, 2020)

Awesome insight folks - keep em coming. 

@Rob - thanks for mapping out that progression (I should have done that myself!) it'll be interesting to experiment just based on that. And like you said, my instinct is also harmony first on this type of stuff. Conjuring up a melody after and then tweaking both sides of the fence until it feels right.

Oh and thanks for mention Bacharach - definitely someone else I'd like to spend more time with given my renewed interest in this genre!

@ptram - love the bit of history there. I've always been attracted to the music happening in Italy back then. Its just so cool that everyone was really going nuts experimenting - AND it was clearly being embraced by the listening audience! And yeah, my least favorite Morricone is The Mission...even though evvveeerryone loves it. Oh and there was that super awkward electronic one he did - 'Le Humanoid' I think? Anyways, for a while all I really listened to were the spaghetti westerns, but my love of exotica and beyond has me now exploring the really 'weird' stuff!


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## Nate Johnson (Sep 6, 2020)

ptram said:


> An example: this is one of the most popular Italian songs of the Sixties. It starts as a trivial barcarole, and then everything happens.
> 
> Morricone/Mina - Se telefonando
> 
> Paolo



Ummm wtf? Lol, your description couldn't be more accurate. Such a weird little tune! And this was super popular at the time? CRAZY. 

'...and then everything happens.' - this might be my new mantra for writing music.


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## Romy Schmidt (Sep 8, 2020)

You might enjoy reading about Wagner and suspended/floating/fluctuating tonality.


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## Nate Johnson (Sep 26, 2020)

Alright, so I've been working on this mockup for a couple of weeks now. Kind of stumbled into doing it. Very special thanks to @Rob for jumpstarting the charts for this. In my quest for compositional understanding, I began by completing Rob's chart in Logic, which then the light bulb came on; 'oh, I might as well check out what all the instruments are doing!' and voila - a mockup is born. 

Instruments used:

Strings - LCO Strings (longs and shorts)
Pizz Strings - BHCT High Strings Pizz
Upright bass - PLCK
Drums - Logic Jazz Kit
Oboe - Logic Factory
Trombone - Logic Studio Horns
Vibraphone, Glock, Harpsicord, Piano - Logic Factory
Guitar - yours truly playing his nylon string - I had a blast fun figuring it out and playing!

This is the first time I've actually sat down and completed a mockup. It's not perfect. It's all done by ear. The main goal was obviously just figuring out the notes. Secondary was orchestration. Thirdly was rhythmic attributes. Its just a rough mix as well, but good enough for rock and roll. All in all it was actually really fun to figure it all out. I've always used the puzzle analogy for writing and producing music, just with out having the complete picture as a reference - this mockup game is even closer to actually doing a puzzle - you have the completed picture (actual track) to assemble everything to!

For sure, this was a rabbit hole, but a very enjoyable one. I will definitely consider doing another mockup of something else!


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## Rob (Sep 27, 2020)

yes, that's the idea. Better still, in my opinion, is not to copy the actual chords, but do your own progression, based on the analysis of his track, and write your own melody. Like, as an example:


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