Ennio Morricone

Quartet Records, in collaboration with GDM and Universal Music Publishing, presents a remastered reissue of one of Ennio Morricone’s most celebrated collaborations with Luciano Salce, with whom Morricone maintained a loyal collaboration at the beginning of his career, from Il Federale, his very first film score, through La Cuccagna, Slalom and Come Imparai ad Amare le Donne. El Greco (1966) is a romantic drama set in 16th-century Spain, where the famed Greek painter El Greco journeys to Toledo to paint an altarpiece. Trouble ensues when he falls in love with a beautiful local girl. The film stars Mel Ferrer, Rosanna Schiafino, Adolfo Celi and Fernando Rey.

Ennio Morricone’s score is characterized by a suggestion of Renaissance and Baroque music, although reformulated from a deeply contemporary sensibility, generating an atmosphere of spiritual tension and unfinished quest, in full harmony with the visionary spirit of the painter. In terms of orchestration, Morricone employs resources that evoke liturgical music. The organ and choir—associated in the film with the clergy, the Inquisition and places of worship—become key sound elements in establishing a solemn ambience. The inclusion of voices, treated more as instruments than as carriers of text, adds an ethereal, almost mystical component.

The score for El Greco was not released until 1986, when it appeared on LP on the Intermezzo label, on a vinyl record produced and supervised by Morricone himself, as it was a score of which he always had fond memories. The same 16-track program was reissued on CD by RCA paired with his sister-score for Giordano Bruno. In 2007, GDM released an expanded edition that included virtually all the music recorded for the film. This is a reissue of the same program, mastered by Chris Malone. The booklet includes liner notes by Miguel Ángel Ordóñez discussing the movie, the music and the composer.