Keeping score: how Ennio Morricone captured ‘The Ecstasy of Gold’

Far Out

By Jacob Simmons

May 3, 2025

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is one of the best-known and best-loved western movies of all time. Sergio Leone’s tension-packed deconstruction of convention is still held as the benchmark for cowboy flicks over five decades after its initial release. But what makes it so appealing? The gripping story? The gorgeous locations? Clint Eastwood’s handsome face? All of those things, yes, but perhaps more than anything else, it’s the music of Ennio Morricone that keeps people coming back.

The movie’s score is one of the best-known works by the great Italian composer, who had previously worked with Leone on the other two entries in his legendary Dollars trilogy. Among the iconic selections from this incredible soundtrack are the movie’s main theme, notable for its famous ‘wah-wah-wah’ motif, and ‘The Trio’, the heart-racing accompaniment to the film’s climactic three-way gun battle.

While the central theme might be better represented in popular culture, one piece of music from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly has found its special place in cinematic and musical history. It plays over the scene involving Tuco Ramírez (played by Eli Wallach) frantically searching a graveyard for the tombstone of Arch Stanton. He believes that, buried in this grave, lies a fortune of $200,000 in gold coins. As his desperation and obsession grow, the music swells, matching his frantic search for the prize he believes will set him up for life. In Italian, this piece is called ‘L’estasi dell’oro’, but we all know it as ‘The Ecstasy of Gold’.

According to Classic Alex Burns, the haunting wind instrument that begins the track is a cor anglais or an English horn, a member of the oboe family. Its haunting crooning floats softly over a bed of piano—the calm before the storm. As Tuco’s hunt grows ever more determined, Morricone floods the composition with more and more layers. Violins, brass, and even callbacks to other pieces from across the film. This all culminates in the moment we’ve all been waiting for—the grave of Arch Stanton.

One of the most revolutionary things Morricone does with this track is incorporate the human voice as an instrument. Edda Dell’Orso, the singer on the piece, mimics the cor anglais’ melody with her piercing voice, adding a ghostly quality to this scene set entirely in a cemetery. As the music reaches its finale, she is joined by deeper, male voices, as her shrieks of excitement become louder, higher, and less restrained. Dell’Orso had previously worked on For a Few Dollars More and would collaborate with Morricone again over a dozen further projects.

Additionally, ‘The Ecstacy of Gold’ has had a longer-than-expected lifespan in no small part thanks to Metallica. The legendary metal band play the track at the start of every single one of their concerts, and even contributed a cover version for a Morricone tribute album. When the composer died in 2020, James Hetfield called him “part of the Metallica family”.

Great movie music should fit the scene it is assigned to and stand up as a track in its own right. Whether you’re watching Tuco scramble around a graveyard or listening to it with your eyes closed in your living room, ‘The Ecstacy of Gold’ never fails to stimulate the mind and invigorate the soul.