Days of Heaven - Soundtrack

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Days of Heaven is a strong reflection of the film's context. Ennio Morricone provided the film's score and received his first Academy Award nomination in his soundtrack composing career for his work on the film. It marked a significant departure for Morricone, who usually provided the film scores for spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone, while Days of Heaven was a tragic love story. Morricone recalled the process as being "demanding" and said of Malick: "He didn't know me very well, so he made suggestions, and in some cases, gave musical solutions. This kind of annoyed me because he'd say: 'This thing . . . try it with three flutes.' Something impossible! So, to humor him, I would do it with three flutes and then he'd decide to use my version after all. His was impossible or I would have written it myself. And more nitpicking like that which means he was very attentive and careful about music."

There are three main scores composed to Days of Heaven: the main theme, which references “Aquarium", the seventh movement from Camille Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals, a "pastoral melody" for flute, and finally a love theme. The soundtrack was remastered and re-released in July 2011 in a two-disc edition and features excerpts of Manz's narration.