[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Both scores suffer a bit from Morricone’s general repetition habit the same theme with minor changes only (at least LE PROFESSIONAL does for sure)

Yeah, THE PROFESSIONAL on album suffers more from that than LE MARGINAL, which features an additional theme, some pop songs, and more “varied” variations than THE PROFESSIONAL.

The original LP for LE MARGINAL had three major variants of the same idea, fully played out in 6 minute tracks, with some interesting differences (that I really found very interesting).

“Le Marginal” (6:23)
That’s basically the “primary” variant, what is usually on compilations (usually shortened by two and a half minutes). It has a determined, but up-beat pop flair to it.

Le Marginal (La Droguée Et Le Garçon) (6:32)
This follows mainly the same basic construction as the first variant, but switches the two melodies: what is played on strings is now played on winds and what was played on winds is now played on strings. So it’s basically some switched orchestration; the effect is that this second variant sounds more elegiac and relaxed, softer compared to the more up-beat “Le Marginal”.

And Le Marginal (Conclusion) (6:23)
This one among other things changes the 16th notes of the string theme to 8ths (or something like it, don’t have the score, just guessing from memory), and the theme sounds much more grim, edgier and darker, even though it is the same melody. It drops the lighter instrumentation and leans into a tense, sweeping orchestral arrangement that matches the grim, inevitable climax of the movie.

I found these three variants very exciting back in the day, because these were showcases how with minimal adjustments to the same basic music construct you could express very different musical moods.