The musical score was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin. His score includes the hauntingly ominous ""El Degüello"" theme, which is heard several times. The Colorado character identifies the tune as "The Cutthroat Song". He relates that the song was played on the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna to the Texans holed up in the Alamo, to signify that no quarter would be given to them. The tune was used in Wayne's film "The Alamo" (1960). Composer Ennio Morricone recalled that director Sergio Leone asked him to write "Dimitri Tiomkin music" for "A Fistful of Dollars". The trumpet theme is similar to Tiomkin's "Degüello" (the Italian title of "Rio Bravo" was "Un dollaro d'onore", "A Dollar of Honor").