Ocarina in 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'

You might know Morricone's two-note ocarina hook instantly, but the details behind it are fascinating. Art Smith played that iconic opening, deliberately mimicking a coyote's cry. The ocarina's warm, breathy tone made it perfect for capturing vast desert landscapes. Morricone also assigned a bass ocarina specifically to Angel Eyes, reinforcing his cold, foreboding character. Montenegro's 1967 cover even hit #1 in the UK. There's plenty more to uncover if you keep exploring.

Key Takeaways

• Art Smith's ocarina opens the main theme with deliberate coyote mimicry, establishing the film's iconic Western atmosphere immediately after steady percussion.
• The bass ocarina was specifically assigned to villain Angel Eyes, its quieter, foreboding tone reinforcing his cold, sneaky assassin character.
• The main theme's melody naturally fits a D-key ocarina's diatonic scale, oscillating cleanly between D and C for intuitive phrasing.
• The ocarina's warm, breathy tone authentically captured the film's vast desert imagery while preserving the theme's tension-release dynamics throughout.
• Art Smith also provided the opening two-note ocarina segment in Hugo Montenegro's 1967 cover, which reached #1 in the UK.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly's Iconic Two-Note Ocarina Opening

When you hear those first two notes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, you're instantly transported to the dusty frontier.

Art Smith's ocarina opens the main title with deliberate coyote mimicry, imitating a howl after a steady percussion beat. That "Da-dee-da-dee-daa" phrasing isn't accidental — it's motif psychology at work, instantly signaling the film's three central characters through sound alone.

Ennio Morricone composed this theme for Sergio Leone's 1966 Western, treating it seriously despite Leone's satirical intentions.

The arrangement layers soprano recorder, drums, bass ocarina, chimes, electric guitar, and choir. Morgan's harmonica follows Smith's ocarina, building complexity. The result remains the most recognizable two-note motif in soundtrack history, shaping Western film music ever since. The main theme is also performed on flute and guitar, rounding out the signature twangy sound that defines the score.

Interestingly, the film's title echoes the philosophical tradition of goodness as a foundational concept, much as Plato described the Form of the Good as the ultimate source from which truth and knowledge derive their value and meaning. Much like Warhol's silk-screening technique, Morricone's score blurred the lines between popular commercial appeal and serious artistic composition, challenging assumptions about what deserved cultural prestige.

The Ocarina: a Vessel Flute With Ancient Roots

Though the ocarina feels like a relatively modern folk instrument, it's one of humanity's oldest wind instruments, with roots stretching back over 12,000 years. As an ancient vessel flute, it emerged independently across multiple civilizations, including Mesoamerica, ancient China, the Indus Valley, and Europe.

Early ceramic whistles evolved into increasingly sophisticated instruments, with some of humanity's most complex examples crafted by Maya and Aztec peoples. These weren't toys — careful construction and symbolic designs representing birds, deities, and life cycles confirmed their deep spiritual significance. Among the Maya, the instrument held particular importance, finding use in both religious ceremonies and the rhythms of everyday life. Similarly, ancient Chinese culinary traditions reflect a deep cultural ingenuity, such as the alkaline fermentation process used to create century eggs, which dates back to the Ming Dynasty around 1400.

What distinguishes the ocarina from similar globular instruments like China's Xun is its internal fipple, which directs airflow internally. Modern versions typically feature 7 to 10 finger-holes, a standard Giuseppe Donati established with his 1853 redesign. Donati's innovations made the ocarina suitable for ensemble playing, allowing it to enter the broader world of Western classical and popular music.

How Ennio Morricone Used the Ocarina for Angel Eyes

Ennio Morricone assigned the bass ocarina to Angel Eyes in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, letting the instrument's deep, foreboding tone mirror the character's cold, reptilian nature. You'll notice the bass ocarina's leitmotif timbre immediately separates Angel Eyes from Blondie, who gets a flute, and Tuco, who's represented by human voices. The quieter volume reinforces Angel Eyes' sneaky assassin quality.

While all three characters share the main theme's core motif, the ocarina's distinct sound makes it unmistakably his. Morricone developed these themes before filming, letting Leone play them on set to sync camera work and editing. The leitmotif appears during Angel Eyes' introduction, interrogation scenes, and the final standoff, consistently reinforcing his identity as "The Bad." Much like Michelangelo's embedding of anatomical knowledge into art during the Renaissance, Morricone layered deeper symbolic meaning into his score by pairing each character's theme with an instrument that reflected their inner nature. Morricone's harmonic language throughout the score also features a major-flat-seventh chord in place of the expected dominant-seventh, giving the music an unconventional tension that suits Angel Eyes' unpredictable menace. The score's vocal performances were delivered by Edda dell'Orso, whose wordless singing became one of the most distinctive sonic textures woven throughout the film's musical identity.

Electric Guitars, Trumpets, and Whistling: The Main Theme Unpacked

The electric guitar opens with twangy interplay, its overdriven riff mimicking coyote howls while a wah-wah pedal adds a nasal, wailing quality.

Alessandro Alessandroni and Edda Dell'Orso's dual whistling then enters hauntingly, harmonizing with the guitar for an eerie, unforgettable hook.

The muted trumpet follows with sharp, staccato fanfares, its high-register calls imitating bird cries across desert echoes.

Morricone structures the theme in A-B-A form, layering instruments progressively at a deliberate 80–90 BPM.

Multi-tracking and heavy reverb simulate vast, open landscapes, while no synthesizers are used—just raw, organic instruments creating authentic Western grit.

Which Character Gets Which Instrument in Morricone's Score?

Morricone's score assigns a distinct instrument to each of the three main characters, giving each one a recognizable musical identity. You'll notice that the character instrumentation follows a clear logic rooted in musical symbolism.

Blondie, the Man with No Name, gets the flute. Angel Eyes receives the ocarina, specifically the Arghilofono variant used in orchestral arrangements. Tuco, by contrast, is represented through human voices.

Each instrument captures something essential about its character, creating an immediate sonic association whenever the motif appears. The two-note melody mimics a coyote's howl, reinforcing the film's Western atmosphere.

These instrumental choices aren't arbitrary—they work together with gunfire, whistling, and yodeling to build a layered, unforgettable score that distinguishes each character without a single line of dialogue. The soundtrack album was a major commercial success, remaining on the charts for more than a year and reaching No. 4 on the Billboard pop album chart. The flute part for this composition is available as official sheet music on MuseScore, arranged specifically for solo flute performance.

How the Score Shaped the Film's Cultural Legacy

Few film scores have embedded themselves into cultural consciousness the way Ennio Morricone's work on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has. Its cultural resonance reaches far beyond the film itself, shaping how audiences worldwide recognize tension, irony, and dramatic confrontation in cinema. You'll hear its influence in countless parodies, commercials, sporting events, and modern film scores—proof of its lasting cinematic influence.

Morricone's bold decision to feature the ocarina alongside human voices and unconventional instruments helped redefine what a film score could accomplish. It proved that melody could carry character, emotion, and narrative simultaneously. That achievement didn't just elevate this particular film—it permanently expanded the creative possibilities available to composers working in cinema after 1966. Today, this iconic arrangement remains accessible to musicians of all levels, with the ocarina group version of the score available for download in multiple formats including PDF, MIDI, and MP3.

Musicians looking to learn the piece can access the ocarina solo sheet music at an intermediate skill level, making it an achievable yet rewarding challenge for those with foundational experience on the instrument.

Hugo Montenegro's Cover and the Ocarina's Pop Moment

When Hugo Montenegro released his cover of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme in 1967, it launched the ocarina into an unlikely pop moment. Art Smith's opening two-note ocarina segment drove this chart crossover, carrying the instrument from spaghetti western soundtracks straight onto mainstream radio.

Paired with Tommy Morgan's electronic harmonica "wah-wah-wah" response, the ocarina's windswept desert tone convinced listeners they were hearing the actual film score. Montenegro's version hit #1 in the UK for four weeks and peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

This ocarina resurgence proved the instrument could anchor a million-selling pop record. Montenegro reinforced the effect by adding strummed guitar, brass, grunting session singers, and whistling, but the ocarina's haunting lead remained the cover's most recognizable hook. The single ultimately earned three Grammy nominations in 1969, reflecting how widely the recording had captured public and industry attention alike.

The original theme Montenegro arranged was composed by Ennio Morricone for the third installment of Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy, a film whose desert imagery the ocarina's airy tone captured with striking authenticity.

Why the Main Theme Works So Well on D-Key Ocarina

The ocarina's chart success under Montenegro didn't happen by accident—the instrument's tonal character genuinely suits this music. When you play the main theme on a D-key ocarina, you'll notice the melody's core notes fall naturally within its diatonic scale. The repeated high D opening stabilizes your pitch and airflow immediately, letting breathy articulation shape the theme's haunting quality without forcing awkward fingering shifts.

The melody's gradual oscillation between D and C keeps diatonic phrasing clean and intuitive. You're not fighting the instrument—it meets the music halfway. The D-key's chromatic range, spanning low B to high F, also handles half-step changes cleanly, preserving the tension-release dynamics that make the theme so memorable. The ocarina's warmth does the rest.

Composer Koji Kondo later demonstrated how seriously he took the ocarina's musical potential when designing Ocarina of Time, deliberately choosing a completely different Hyrule Field theme over the classic Zelda overworld melody to avoid the repetition of a single tune across an expansive 3D world.