The Mission

Ennio Morricone’s immensely popular score for Roland Joffé’s 1986 film, The Mission, is generally considered to be one of the prolific Italian composer’s greatest works, if not his masterpiece. Morricone’s achingly beautiful music blends motifs and instrumentation of both 18th-century Europe and the so-called “New World”, often giving the naturalistic pipes and drums of South America’s Guarani people a disruptively prominent voice among the Spanish Jesuits’ rich liturgical tradition—most notably in “On Earth As It Is in Heaven”, the magnificent music to the opening credits. “Gabriel’s Oboe”, the film’s lovely, lyrical, and oft-performed (by The Three Tenors, among others) main theme, is heard as the film’s missionary protagonist ascends Argentina’s breathtaking Iguazu Falls, oboe strapped to his back like a musket. Darkness and dissonance later characterise the Guaranis’ tragic interactions with Portuguese colonialists. And while Morricone conjures glorious Guarani interpretations of European choral music (“Ave Maria Guarani”), he saves his most beautiful themes for “Falls”, “River” and other natural reflections.