Bonus Blogpost: Deborah’s Theme

By Tom Quiner

I experienced a magical moment at the Chris Botti jazz concert at Hoyt Sherman last night. The jazz trumpeter played Ennio Morricone’s tender piece, “Deborah’s Theme,” from the 1984 gangster film, “Once Upon a Time in America.” Seldom have I seen an audience as riveted as they were hearing this haunting piece.

The ache of a love lost because of one’s own brutish actions is almost unbearable to handle in 171 seconds of exquisite melodic beauty. The audience had tears in their eyes and lumps in their throats without a single word being sung. That is the power of music.

I have not included this piece in my countdown of the “52 Greatest Love Songs Ever,” simply because that list focuses on songs with lyrics. But “Deborah’s Theme” needs recognition for its ability to conjure up such intense emotion with relatively few notes.

Before you take a listen, a few observations.

Film composers often write a piece of music that assigns a theme or riff to a particular character. John Williams and Ennio Morricone are about as good as it gets when it comes to composing these wonderful melodies for film.

Deborah’s Theme focuses on a gangster, ‘David Noodles’ (portrayed by Robert De Niro), who loved a beautiful girl in his youth, and who violently blew the relationship.

He regrets his actions the rest of his life. Deborah’s Theme almost magically expresses the intense feelings of longing, nostalgia, and regret associated with a lost love.

Ennio Morricone conducts Deborah’s Theme

The title of the piece is boring. And yet it got me thinking: do we each have our own unique theme in heaven?

We know there’s music in heaven. Angels and man sing God’s praises according to the Book of Revelations. There’s even trumpet music. (I’d be curious to know how they handle time signatures in heaven!)

We know we’re assigned a new, unique name in heaven, again according to Revelation (2:17 and 3:12).

How about our own unique theme song? Why not, especially with the likes of a the late, great Catholic composer, Ennio Morricone, who most probably resides in heaven as I type this!

And if we have our own theme, WHEN is it assigned? Surely at the instant of fertilization. And if you think of it in that light, how, in the name of God could we allow abortion, which silences the music of a unique creation of God? Heaven will hear it, but the world won’t.

So, take a listen to Deborah’s Theme. It tells a story of a life and a love in less than three heart-wrenching minutes. The album version featuring Chris Botti is at the top of the page.

Deborah’s Theme with scene from “Once Upon a Time In America”

Thank-you, Ennio Morricone. Thank-you, Chris Botti, for your performance of this work of beauty. You are two of the greats.

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