Soundtrack Review: The Mission by Ennio Morricone (1986)

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This is a review of the motion picture score for The Mission by Ennio Morricone.

Ennio Morricone, what can you say? What a legend he is. This Italian composer has been entertaining us with music since ca. 1959 and he is not finished yet. He is nearly at 500 movies now, that’s probably about 450 hours with music give or take a few hours. The Mission from 1986 is of course probably his biggest commercial success so far and it’s still selling really well, week in, week out. I am not of Morricone’s greatest fans, but sometimes he gets it right, and this is one of those times. This is the track list of The Mission:

1. On Earth As It Is In Heaven
2. Falls
3. Gabriel’s Oboe
4. Ave Maria Guarani
5. Brothers
6. Carlotta
7. Vita Nostra
8. Climb
9. Remorse
10. Penance
11. The Mission
12. River
13. Gabriel’s Oboe
14. Te Deum Guarani
15. Refusal
16. Asuncion
17. Alone
18. Guarani
19. The Sword

With its total play time of 48:31 and 19 tracks, some say it’s too short, and I agree. That is however a compliment to Mr. Morricone, because how on earth would anyone want this to end? I am listening to this score and ask myself: “Is this what they listen to in heaven?” It’s not a joke either. I’m not saying it because it has a certain “heavenly” sound over it, but because it’s that good. I’m sure I don’t have to prove it to most of you, as you’ve probably heard this score, at least the well known “Gabriel’s Oboe”. It is perhaps an overused piece of music that has been features on 397 different “moods” or “themes” albums. I think any “mood” album not featuring this cue is kidding themselves. I think this not only this piece, but the whole score defines beauty in the same way as Howard Shore’s “The Lord of the Rings” defines epic.

Ok, so people are familiar with “Gabriel’s Oboe”, but don’t forget that there are 18 other tracks on this score as well, and they are all beautiful. You might have heard “Falls” or at least the thematic ending of it, which you recognize immediately. I will put it in my preview and I can bet all of you are going “aaaah”, not only because you remember it, but because you are listening to beauty, to the very music that defines it. Of course if you love “Gabriel’s Oboe”, you know what to expect of this score. It is not like some scores who has a great main title theme or ending titles, but has 15+ mediocre ones. This is pure gold from start to finish. It is in my eyes one of the greatest scores of all times and need to be in any collection, even though you don’t like scores. Bottom line, if you like music, at all, then you’ll think this is the greatest thing since the greatest thing. Listen to The Mission by Ennio Morricone below:

Other articles of interest:

• Soundtrack Review: Transformers by Steve Jablonsky (2007)
• Soundtrack Review: The Other Boleyn Girl by Paul Cantelon (2008)
• Soundtrack Review: Atonement by Dario Marianelli (2007)
• Soundtrack Review: The Dark Knight (2008)
• Soundtrack Review: Stop-Loss by John Powell (2008)

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