"Jill's Theme" in "Once Upon a Time in the West"

YouTube link.

In an unusual but inspired move Leone had Morricone write the score before filming began, and then had the music played on the set, which not only allowed Leone to synchronize camera movements and modulate editing rhythms with the tempo of the music, but also inspired the actors to shape their performances around the rhythms of the score. The result is an unrivalled marriage of music and image.

Consider the 90-second track and crane shot that accompanies Jill’s arrival in Flagstone. As the first few notes of Jill’s Theme begin, the camera tracks with Jill as she walks to the Flagstone train station, and then, as the music continues to build, the camera slowly cranes skyward, higher and higher until it passes over the station’s rooftop, finally revealing Jill on the other side walking in the bustling, half-built Western town just as Morricone’s soaring music reaches its rhapsodic crescendo.

I never knew that; you learn something every day. More re the musical score of this movie at Notes of a Film Fanatic, a blog that should interest film buffs.

Via Old Hollywood, an excellent photo-based film blog.

Addendum:  For those who are interested in the content of the video as well as the music and are wondering why her new family didn't meet her at the train station, this video picks up where the previous one left off:

YouTube link.

Addendum #2:
Here is the same piece performed by Patricia Janečková:

YouTube link.

Quite a voice.  I believe she was 12 years old at the time of this performance.

Patricia Janečková (born 18 June 1998) is a German born Slovak opera singer. She was the winner of the Czecho–Slovak television show Talentmania (cs) in December 2010.

Her webpage is here.

Reposted to celebrate Ennio Morricone finally being awarded a well-deserved (and long-overdue) Academy Award.