Ennio Morricone Gabriel’s Oboe
Ennio Morricone Gabriel’s Oboe Program Notes
Born in 1928, the Italian composer Ennio Morricone has composed hundreds of film scores since transitioning from a jazz trumpet career in the 1940s. Some notable scores include Cinema Paradiso, Bertolucci’s 1900, Franco Zeferilli’s Hamlet (with Mel Gibson), Warren Beatty’s Bulworth, and In the Line of Fire with Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich. The Mission was a 1986 film starring Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro, scored by Morricone. With a background of the conflict between European conquest in 1700s South America, the young priest Father Gabriel (Irons) is sent to replace the recently martyred missionary, the denouement of which was being thrown, tied to a crucifix, over a massive waterfall. In the jungle, perilously surrounded by hidden warriors, Father Gabriel begins to play the oboe he has brought with him. Haltingly at first, a musical theme emerges, and now known to concert audiences as ͞Gabriel’s Oboe.͟ Despite Father Gabriel’s gentle ͞hearts and minds͟ approach to the tribe, the film is ultimately a tragedy. Commercially speaking, The Mission was not exceptionally successful, but it has continued to resonate, and its score was widely recognized – it was nominated for an Oscar and awarded a BAFTA award for Best Film Music in 1987. Morricone’s output also includes music for the concert hall, including chamber music – it is possible to see the two sides of the output informing each other. (Groves Encyclopedia writes of The Mission as a ͞most impressive application of [Morricone’s] modular technique… single modules, more extended and clearly defined than before, interact dialectically, assuming very clear stylistic functions.͟) Born: November 10, 1928, Rome, Italy Died: July 6, 2020, Università Campus Bio-Medico, Selcetta, ItalyGabriel's Oboe is the main theme from Ennio Morricone's Academy Award-nominated score for the 1986 film The Mission, directed by Roland Joffé. It is one of the most beautiful and widely recognized melodies in film music history.
Morricone composed the score for The Mission in 1986, and Gabriel's Oboe has since been arranged for countless solo instruments and orchestral settings, becoming a concert staple in its own right.
The original film version lasts approximately 2 to 3 minutes, though concert arrangements often expand it to 4 to 5 minutes.
Listen for the pure, singing quality of the oboe melody, which conveys both spiritual yearning and human tenderness simultaneously. In orchestral arrangements the melody is often passed between instruments, each adding a different emotional color to Morricone's timeless tune.
Morricone composed over 400 film scores during his career but considered The Mission score among his finest achievements. Gabriel's Oboe was famously performed at his funeral in Rome in 2020, providing a deeply moving farewell to one of the twentieth century's greatest melodists.
