Welcome back to Scoring for Films with Vito Lo Re and Fabrizio Campanelli. "What Lies Beneath" returns with the greatest themes. Adventure themes, I suppose. Horror... It's February, and in February there's Valentine’s Day. So we thought we'd start with the greatest love themes, and in this case, we begin with the main theme from one of my top three favorite movies, which, incidentally, are all films that initially flopped at the box office upon release...

but later became immortal masterpieces. Well, that should make you reflect on your foresight. Exactly, exactly. See, ever since I was a kid, I knew that Once Upon a Time in America would become one of my cult films. So, it's 1984, and this film is released, a movie we all adore. A film with a long production process, costing a fortune, two years of filming.

Massimo Quaglia, who was an assistant editor at the time, told me that they had entire rooms filled with reels, all recorded on film, not digitally... At first, however, the film didn’t do so well at the box office. But then, over time, it gained recognition. This film features a beautiful and very famous theme: Deborah’s Theme, written specifically for this film, right? No, wait! Here’s the surprise: Sergio Leone wanted Morricone to start composing the music first, sometimes even playing it on set.

But this particular composition— Deborah’s Theme— was not originally composed for Once Upon a Time in America, but for another film by Franco Zeffirelli from three years earlier: Endless Love. Yes, this was one of several situations where Morricone clashed with a director. Morricone did not like having music in a film that wasn’t his own, even songs. Today, it’s a standard practice, but he disliked it. In this case, the problem arose with a song by Lionel Richie. Zeffirelli wanted a song by Lionel Richie, and Morricone said, "It’s either me or him." They argued, and the theme was shelved for three years.

Sergio Leone listened to it and said, "This was made for *Once Upon a Time in America!" Morricone didn't know it, but he had written one of the greatest themes in history for one of the greatest films in history, which also established a certain way of presenting a theme, turning it into an actual language, an iconic language, a way of developing a theme that contains certain characteristics that we will also explore. This theme is somewhat a manual on how to write a theme and how Morricone composed, because it has characteristics that we will later hear on the piano and explain afterwards. Do you realize that I might cry soon?... Me too! Here is the thematic cell that repeats itself... Here’s the opening on the fourth degree The appoggiatura...

What a wonderful ninth... The altered fourth degree... How do you write a theme? Well, it's essential in a theme to have a cell that repeats itself either on different scale degrees or in different keys. What makes a theme a theme? The set of cells that give it organicity.

Otherwise, we would just have fragments... which is not a theme per se, it's just a cell. A theme is the structured use of this rhythmic or harmonic fragment, sometimes melodic, repeated on different degrees or through modulations. So, in the Scoring for Films guide to writing a great theme, we need to include two fundamental elements. The thematic cell and then something fundamental: its progression. This is very important.

Now, let's be clear when we talk about progression because progression has three meanings. In classical harmony, progression is a sequence of chords with a precise relationship that repeats and follows specific rules. In pop music terminology, progression simply means a set of chords, a sequence of chords not necessarily related by specific harmonic rules. Here, however, by progression we mean development. And development, to be organic and intelligible, must have a recognizable pattern. Repetition is at the core of thematic construction.

Otherwise, we wouldn't leave the cinema with that theme stuck in our heads if it weren’t for that repetition... Question: Can this repetition be presented in an obsessive way? Of course, it can, but obviously, it's a matter of balance, taste, and agreement with the director... But certainly, for a repetition to become memorable, it must be presented but also slightly altered so that it has its own evolution within it. Yes, otherwise, it’s just sterile repetition... as if I keep repeating the same word, word, word, word...

So it has to be repeated on other scale degrees, not necessarily modulating, even within the same key, but on other degrees to create a sense of variety, while keeping the rhythmic pattern identical for uniformity, so we understand that they all belong to the same family. Now, we've seen the music notation over the beautiful images of the two young protagonists, and we immediately notice something peculiar. We see right away an E major chord with a B in the bass. Yes, this is very typical of Morricone: he starts something that is strongly tonal in a slightly unusual way. But I'll stop you here because I think it's much more interesting if we go take a look at it over there. I agree, let's go.

Here we are at the piano to hear the first distinctive element that we could immediately catch from the first notes of Deborah’s Theme. Yes, you're right: he also uses it in Tornatore's films, he uses it very often. We are in E major, and he starts with this dominant pedal of E major. So the B is held for a very long time, and above that B the thematic development unfolds. Yes, now, the advantage of composing a theme over a pedal note is that it keeps us suspended until the pedal finally changes. On the other hand, it also risks becoming monotonous and repetitive.

That’s not the case here, though... Let’s listen to the theme by itself, without the bass. So the theme alone is this. The theme is built on appoggiaturas and the repetition of three eighth notes, a quarter note, and three more quarter notes. In the bass, we have this sort of glue that holds everything together. And yet it creates contrast.

Absolutely. That’s the function of the dominant in the bass. So now let’s hear the same theme with the dominant in the bass. This is very “Morricone-esque”: the fourth degree with the ninth. And then the classic Morricone-style opening on the sixth degree. Yes, this is another thing Morricone does very often.

This opening on the sixth degree—usually highlighted in a close-up, or a narrative suspension— is one of his signature techniques. How do you resolve from this sixth degree? By lowering it. So he follows a vaguely chromatic process: A lowered sixth degree, followed by a classic transition. We’re on a dominant chord… We would expect a tonic resolution. Here it is.

But it almost never happens. Instead, he always uses it as a suspension. It almost never resolves, and sometimes he even uses it as a means—through an avoided cadence— to transition from one scene to another. Many times, it is difficult to musically connect two scenes... Because I'm always afraid of a harsh cut, which is unpleasant. This way, however, he smooths everything out and makes it all feel softer and more natural.

What is shown on screen is mirrored in the musical score. It's interesting to note that creating a great theme doesn't always require particularly complex harmonies. In this theme actually Morricone didn't overcomplicate things... In the end, we have this E major in second inversion. Then it opens up. We arrive at the subdominant.

Fourth degree. Fourth, fifth. Basically, we are going back to the basics of harmony. Here, instead of going directly from fourth to fifth, he does fourth, fifth, fourth, with this ninth that we already saw earlier at the piano and is very characteristic. And then you see how here it returns to the realm of E major. Fourth degree.

Altered fourth degree. And back to the dominant. That is, we remain within the key of E major. Appoggiaturas are fundamental because semantically, they create an induction of meaning that makes us perceive a sort of satisfaction which, throughout the internal cycles of these groups of three notes leaning on each other, continuously renews the sense of desire. Yes, the appoggiatura has a moment outside of the harmony before immediately bringing you back home... So it's a small journey into a land that is not far but is not home either, before bringing you immediately back home.

This is the typical function of an appoggiatura. So the theme is presented a second time, and on the gaze of the two protagonists, there is a beautiful suspension that leads to an emotional explosion, a build-up, a major variation of the theme—so here we have our first big variation. Yes, because we started in the first phase where the two protagonists looked at each other, but there was just the budding of a feeling. The psychological development of the theme, the emotional evolution, the build-up of intensity surrounding them, expands the discourse and enriches it with notes, evolving what started as a simple structure and suspending it on their gaze, before unfolding continuously into new notes; It's as if the previously restrained flow is now being released, so let’s take a look at the pattern we're talking about. Here we have the recurring structure in the construction of the thematic pattern, which is this repetition of note groups with a rhythmic pattern that changes slightly but is repeated cyclically. Yes, different but still twin-like in a way, meaning the three eighth notes plus either the appoggiatura or the arrival on a note that is not an appoggiatura, in this case: So the group of three—plus a rest— forms the foundation on which the entire evolution and journey rest.

Of course, and when—speaking of journeys—he creates a sort of progression like this... This is fundamentally a progression or at least an embryonic phase of progression, but still based on this rhythmic pattern. So just imagine how wonderful it is to create such a beautiful and effective piece fundamentally by repeating the same cell. Because actually the devil is in the details, and this repetition of the cell is one of the key tricks of thematic construction. This group expands in this second section where we gravitate around the fourth degree, around A major. And this is where it visually becomes denser, right?

It's continuous, so that suspension, that movement through the appoggiatura toward the realization of desire, which was previously held back by a long note, is now no longer restrained. Relationships are a bit simpler today, but when we were young, kissing a girl wasn’t so easy... You’d lean in, and she would pull away... That’s exactly what happens in the first section! In this part, where they finally kiss, that hesitation is no longer there... On the contrary, we have a flow of emotions, of music...

We still see the tonic chord, E, inverted, so the bass is never E, but in this case, it’s G#. With an evolution that, this time, doesn’t just stay between the fourth, fifth, and first degrees, but rather opens up harmonically to C# minor. This is where the tension is released, and the emotional flow is unleashed, the continuity of notes becomes part of our perception... all of it resolves into a C# minor chord. We chose this scene because it's one of the most beautiful examples of how this theme is used, but of course, this theme appears multiple times in the film. In fact, as an exercise— or just for fun— we encourage you to watch the film and see where and how this theme is used.

We move out of C# minor with a beautiful chromaticism. Lowered sixth degree, which then moves to the dominant. And the dominant seventh, where will it resolve? Normally, it should resolve to the tonic, but Morricone either leaves it suspended or takes it somewhere else. There's one thing I’d like to emphasize. Sometimes we think that to create a great theme, a great soundtrack, we need a massive orchestra.

Here, we have only strings. Four voices, sometimes five... When you have a great idea, you don’t need a massive orchestra. In fact, for the writing to be well-executed, it must work primarily within four voices. Another thing you often talk about: the ability to choose the right instrumentation. Here, we don’t need trombones...

It's an intimate theme, a theme about the love between two young people... a simple theme, just like young people are simple. Nothing is more beautiful than a string orchestra... I’d like to focus—also just visually—on how the theme was introduced and developed, and how the initial motif evolved. Because, as usual, there's a double perspective. Between what we feel psychologically as we observe the gaze of the young lovers...

this relationship between the two main characters creates a psychological tension that we instinctively try to resolve as we watch. And the music tells us how to resolve it, guiding the resolution through the arrangement of elements that gradually create a psychological dynamic parallel to the emotional arc of the scene. We’ve seen it: the groundwork is set; in this case, it's the beautiful opening with the dominant bass. The setup tells us there's a situation where things are uncertain, there's doubt, there's the unknown. There are two very strong forces, there’s a powerful attraction between them, but they are also strongly independent, creating a counter-tension, an imbalance; it’s what our mind seeks to resolve. That process of resolving is what we can define as engagement, right?

That is, the game and dialogue that the composer establishes with the listener through the use of these small tricks, which—scattered throughout the piece— keep the tension alive and ensure that at every point of development, the listener’s mind is always anticipating what comes next. This creation of expectations is the foundation of the construction of a truly strong theme. So playing with expectations is fundamental in any melodic or thematic construction. Write two things in the comments: which other scenes from this film use this theme And also let us know if there are themes you’d like us to analyze, and as much as possible, we’ll try to analyze them And we’re not done with love yet... No, we’re just getting started. So stay tuned, because there’s much more to come.

Bye.