The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti by Ennio Morricone and Joan Baez

An inside look at the creative process of the arrangement for voice and harp
by Giuseppina Ciarla

July 6, 2021 is the one year anniversary of the departure of the beloved Italian composer Ennio Morricone, one of the world's greatest composers of music scores for film. 

✨Last year, at the height of the pandemic, shortly after completing the recording of my debut album A Ticket Home,  I was commissioned by Violipiano Music to arrange, perform, and video a song of my choosing by Ennio Morricone, which would be included as a tribute to his life, in a compilation of videos by several Italian musicians. 

✨I was enthused to be a part of this project and discovered while researching that Morricone was always reluctant to have his instrumental pieces adapted for the voice. Even so, I searched for a song in his repertoire hoping to find one which could combine a wonderful melody alongside an important political message inspired by equality and justice, something for which I am very passionate.  I did not  have to search very long before coming  across the right song.  Part of a trilogy written in collaboration with the legendary singer/activist Joan Baez, The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti was composed for the 1971 movie by Giuliano Montalto  "Sacco e Vanzetti". 

✨Nicola Sacco and  Bartolomeo Vanzetti were  two Italian immigrants wrongfully convicted of murder and executed in 1927 in Massachusetts for their radical political beliefs. The song lyrics are powerful and sadly relevant in the light of the recent Black Life Matters protests and the hard to eradicate racial injustice which, unfortunately, we all witness in the USA  and all over the world. 

✨When I came across Vanzetti’s words, magnificently adapted by Joan Baez to Morricone’s  powerful music, I knew that this was my song.  If you believe in justice, in social and racial rights, in love and brotherhood, if you are on the side of the oppressed and the exploited this is your song too. 

✨After listening to the original version I could already imagine how I wanted my arrangement to sound.  The words resonated with such power in my heart as I sat down at the harp and played around with the inspiring melody. The piece is deceivingly simple. In fact, it contains a section in five which causes the ear to feel temporarily unsettled in juxtaposition with the more common and predictable descending bass chord progression. When I arrange I rarely work from a sheet music or score but rather revert to my childhood practice of listening and transcribing by ear. By using only my ears, I foster a more intimate relationship with the piece.  As I begin to transcribe, the process of transformation and adaptation is unveiled. 

✨This piece gave me the opportunity to experiment with recording by myself, in my living room, which also happens to be my kitchen and my harp studio. (Multitasking living! 😅)  I purchased a couple of microphones and an interface, jumped in headfirst and began to learn Logic- a computer program which allows anyone to record from home. It was intimidating at first but mostly it was fun. Such joy! I was a kid again, experimenting and creating!
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✨The original piece begins with a harpsichord intro.  In my version I adopted an extended technique on the harp that is obtained by stopping the strings close to the sound board with one hand while playing with the other. This technique doesn’t allow the player to pluck a large number of notes since the hand that is muffling is positioned so that each finger muffles only one string at the time.  This worked perfectly for Morricone’s intro since it is built on a few notes that repeat back and forth. This technique is called xylophonic sounds but I have heard it described as "scuba dive sounds" since it sounds as if one is playing under water.  Or, as my brother Luca named it after seeing how it is done, “Mano a ranocchia”. “Frog hand!” 😂🐸🖐🏻
Here is an example of the Xylophonic sounds used in the intro. 

✨The lyrics of The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti (at the end of this blog post) begin with the protagonist confessing to a priest before being executed his "crime" of love and brotherhood and condemning the ongoing social and racial injustice.  A section imbued with hope and redemption for all humanity follows to end the piece.  As the text becomes hopeful I added a rhythmic pattern on the harp's sound board. The harp can be used also a percussion instrument!  I was having so much fun that I added a few more effects. One with a paint brush. (Clean! 😂),  and one playing with my fists on the lower part of the sound board, a sort of a bass drum effect. 

But the coolest effect was one that is obtained with a metal tuning key wedged between two high strings thus producing a very high-pitched sound, very similar to an electric guitar. It made me feel like a rock star!! 🤘🏻 

✨As the lyrics come to an end and the initial harp motive returns,  it is the tuning key effect that ends the piece echoing the lyrics “death is small”, a sort of ultimate statement by the soul, that even if stripped of its mortal body, will never cease to raise up its voice for justice and love. 

✨You will find my arrangement of The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti on my debut album A Ticket Home available for pre-sale on July 23.  

✨Please let me now if you enjoyed this inside look into my creative process. It will provide fuel for future blog posts! And please like, comment and subscribe! 
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And now I am proud to present my very first video: The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti by Ennio Morricone and Joan Baez.

Yours in music,

The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti 

Lyrics Joan Baez
Music Ennio Morricone

Father, yes, I am a prisoner 
Fear not to relay my crime 
The crime is loving the forsaken 
Only silence is shame 

And now I'll tell you what's against us 
An art that's lived for centuries 
Go through the years and you will find 
What's blackened all of history 

Against us is the law 
With its immensity of strength and power 
Against us is the law! 
Police know how to make a man 
A guilty or an innocent 
Against us is the power of police! 

The shameless lies that men have told 
Will ever more be paid in gold 
​Against us is the power of the gold! 
Against us is racial hatred 
And the simple fact that we are poor 

My father dear, I am a prisoner 
Don't be ashamed to tell my crime 
The crime of love and brotherhood 
And only silence is shame 

With me I have my love, my innocence, 
The workers, and the poor 
For all of this I'm safe and strong 
And hope is mine 

Rebellion, revolution don't need dollars 
They need this instead 
Imagination, suffering, light and love 
And care for every human being 

You never steal, you never kill 
You are a part of strength and life 
The revolution goes from man to man 
And heart to heart 
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And I sense when I look at the stars 
That we are children of life 
Death is small

 © Giuseppina Ciarla, 2021

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