The soundtrack to Terrence Malick's second feature, 1978's Days of Heaven, is typically credited to Ennio Morricone, and it's certainly beautiful enough to be the primary music associated with the movie. But like other Malick soundtracks (as well as ones by Kubrick, Godard, Scorsese and other postwar auteurs), this one treats the original score not as a continuous, complete statement, but a binding element holding together an assortment of work by various artists. Fiddle player and singer Doug Kershaw can be heard performing the Cajun tune "Swamp Dance" during a harvest celebration. A so acoustic guitar piece e called "Enderlin," by Leo Kottke, scores an early montage in which the kinda-protagonist, a hotheaded immigrant factory worker (Richard Gere), kills an abusive supervisor in Chicago and flees to Texas with his kid sister (Linda Manz) and the girlfriend (Brooke Adams) who pretends to be his other sister.

"In many ways, Ennio Morricone seems the perfect composer for Malick – used to working for directors who want music which can be placed all around the film rather than directly scoring to picture, but also able to write the kind of organic music of naturalistic beauty that is so ideal for the great director’s films," wrote James Southall on Movie Wave, a site devoted exclusively to music used in films. "The Italian composer did actually score to picture, but did so fully aware that the music was going to be moved around all over the place in the film. Indeed, Malick famously used 'Aquarium' from Saint-Saëns’s 'Carnival of the Animals' over the film’s opening." "Days of Heaven opens on a photo montage of life and work in early twentieth century America, set to a delicate, haunting piece for piano that cascades up and down the keyboard with sounds at once beautiful, fragile, nostalgic and ominous. Ennio Morricone's exquisite score sounds timeless, like an archival discovery of lost classical work—it's since been borrowed to evoke the early days of the twentieth century in other productions—but it's an original, much like the film it accompanies."—Sean Axmaker, Turner Classic Movies

TRACK LISTING

1. Aquarium [Le Carnaval des Animaux] (Camille Saint-Saëns) 2:05

2. We Used to Do Things (Linda Manz) 0:49

3. Enderlin (Written & Performed by Leo Kottke) 3:14

4. Harvest 2:59

5. Threshing 2:05

6. Happiness 2:13

7. The Honeymoon 1:26

8. Swamp Dance (Performed by Doug Kershaw. Words & Music by Doug Kershaw.) 3:32

9. The Return 2:31

10. The Chase 2:00

11. The Fire 7:48

12. Ashes & Dust 2:17

13. Days of Heaven 3:26

• Artist: Ennio Morricone / Leo Kottke / Doug Kershaw
• Genre: Soundtrack
• Type: Used - Vinyl
• Label: Pacific Arts
• Catalog ID: PAC8-128
• Country ID: USA
• SKU: 89030