Ennio Morricone is present in both volumes of Kill Bill through compositions written for earlier westerns. Those pieces retain their authorship and take on a different relationship with the images: they now accompany Beatrix, her adversaries and situations that belong to a different story. Recognising them makes it possible to hear how music associated with another cast can intervene in a new presentation of danger.
The composer's presence spans different moments in the action. There is music to announce a challenge, to sustain the wait between two combatants and to accompany an escape from confinement. That variety explains why reducing his contribution to the duels in the second volume leaves out an important part of his function. It also makes it possible to distinguish between the energy of a composition and what happens when the edit places it beside a character.
The credits of the source films and the record releases help identify each piece. The scene provides the other half of the answer: who occupies the image, what is about to happen and what changes when the music enters.
Morricone's music in Kill Bill comes from several films and preserves very recognisable identities. Tarantino incorporates it into a soundtrack that brings together songs, other recovered scores and material created for the project. The authorship of each composition and the selection of the whole belong to different works.
From the earlier scores to the Kill Bill album
In Kevin Harley's interview for Total Film, published by GamesRadar, Tarantino explained that for Kill Bill he looked for his favourite cuts on soundtrack albums. His comment describes the choice of existing music. Morricone did not compose a complete original score for these films: the identified works have their own history predating the project.
In that same conversation, the director recalled that he and RZA shared a broad memory of martial arts films. The work of RZA on Kill Bill is part of a sonic construction in which remembering a sequence could lead to a musical suggestion. Recognising that collaboration makes it possible to distinguish the making of the whole from the origin of each cut.
The track listing for Vol. 2 on Warner Music Japan includes Il Tramonto, from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; L'Arena, from The Mercenary; and A Silhouette of Doom, from Navajo Joe. The latter appears as track eleven on the album. Its position on the album does not indicate when it is first heard in the film: it already appears in the opening titles.
Death Rides a Horse: announcing the challenge in Vol. 1
Death Rides a Horse belongs to the music of Da uomo a uomo, the western directed by Giulio Petroni in 1967. Claudio Fuiano's production notes for Beat Records credit the composition to Morricone. The BMI cue sheet for Kill Bill: Vol. 1, preserved in a public ACCC file, also records that title under his name.
Mattia Corselli places its entry, in his 2019 Cinefacts analysis, when Beatrix holds Sofie Fatale captive and draws O-Ren's attention in the House of Blue Leaves. The piece thus takes part in the presentation of the challenge. It still matters that the adversary recognises who has come looking for her and that Beatrix's presence disrupts the order of the place.
Beat Records describes the main theme through guitars, an aggressive rhythmic drive and the intervention of the Cantori Moderni. That sound gives force to the moment of showing oneself before the enemy. The threat already has a musical expression before it turns into an exchange of blows: the challenge is heard while the positions of those about to face each other gain importance.
The combination makes it possible to feel the cost of becoming visible. Beatrix gives up the advantage of remaining unnoticed and focuses attention on herself. The music heightens the force of that decision, even if the outcome remains open. Her sonic authority and the vulnerability of a person presenting herself before her adversaries coexist within the same moment.
A Silhouette of Doom and L'Arena: different functions in Vol. 2
A Silhouette of Doom comes from Navajo Joe, directed by Sergio Corbucci in 1966, according to the Film Score Monthly edition. Corselli identifies two uses in Kill Bill: Vol. 2: the opening titles and its return during the confrontation with Elle. In the trailer, the piece enters when both women, already armed with swords, stand face to face at either end of the corridor.
The musical shift signals a change in the fight. The earlier struggle gives way to a distance from which the two can look at each other and speak. The composition sustains that interval; for a few moments, the attack matters because it is pending. The narrowness of the corridor makes the separation small and yet the wait decisive in experiencing the threat.
L'Arena belongs to Il mercenario, Corbucci's 1968 western, as documented by Beat Records. Harley links its use in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 with Beatrix's escape from the coffin. Here the obstacle takes the place that another body would occupy in a duel. The protagonist needs to regain the ability to move; the music accompanies an act of survival before she can resume her search.
This use changes the relationship between victory and violence. Overcoming confinement is a step forward even if an encounter with another character does not end there. The scene can produce satisfaction through the return of an elemental ability: acting again. The musical passage gives importance to that recovery and gives the protagonist's continuity its own dramatic weight.
These inclusions belong to the stage of selecting recordings within the relationship between Ennio Morricone and Tarantino. The credits lead to films by Petroni, Corbucci and Leone, although all the compositions bear the same author's name. Identifying the source work makes it possible to recognise that diversity without attributing to the composer decisions made in the editing of Kill Bill.
A detail from Navajo Joe explains why the visible name on an old credit can be confusing: Morricone signed that music with the pseudonym Leo Nichols. The Film Score Monthly presentation, reproduced by Beat Records, identifies that signature and credits the composition and musical direction to Ennio Morricone. The alternative name belongs to the history of the original work.
The same edition brings together materials that had circulated in different ways: three stereo tracks, cuts from the programme released on a mono LP and previously unreleased music, also mono. Its notes explain that the CD was prepared from master tapes and organises the score with bonus tracks at the end.
To compare a home listen with a scene, it is worth paying attention to the specific edition. The film title may head discs with different contents, and an extra track expands what can be heard separately. That discographic information describes the album consulted; by itself it does not identify the mix or the exact length used by the film edit.