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I've got a 20-or-so page section of the latter part of my Simians & Serialism book that provides the behind-the-scenes on how the film went from Jerry Goldsmith to Leonard Rosenman as composer on BENEATH and some real dirt on how the "concept" LP came to be (hint--it wasn't originally planned to be so bizarre!).
I really love Rosenman's score, though many still pine for a Goldsmith sequel score. With regards to the Morricone pastiche or tribute, I'm personally not so sure about that...given that I'm not so sure Rosenman knew Morricone's work at that time. I'm certainly not disputing it's true; however, a look at his sketches might go a long way to either confirm or refute this hypothesis. Would be very cool if it were true!
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I love the film recording and LP equally, and for very different reasons. It's a really tremendous score - incredible musical architecture throughout, and fascinating development of ideas - whether motivic (must love that Ape army tune!) or textural. I discover new things every time I listen to it. Must confess I love his score for "Battle", too - that "Main Title" is wonderfully catchy, and really biting and funny - it scores the soldier that Claude Akins thinks he is, instead of the one he is in reality - almost a satirical "Patton".
I wouldn't be surprised if Rosenman had at least a passing familiarity with Morricone's work at this time, since he lived in Rome for much of the mid-60s, studying with Dallapiccola, and serving as a composer and conductor-in-residence with the orchestra of Santa Cecilia - so he'd probably heard a little Morricone through the local cinema and so on. However, I don't really hear the Morricone influence as much as I hear an extension of the techniques he was exploring in his "Chamber Music II" from 1968 - particularly in some of the electronic effects utilized throughout "Beneath", as well as some of the more odd punctuation and "spaciousness" of this music, "Chamber Music II" provides an interesting antecedent (though no material is recycled between the piece and the score) - whereas a lot of the more klangfarben based things go back to the "Chamber Symphony", and are also a logical extension from some of the writing in "Fantastic Voyage" (the rapid coloristic shifts, particularly through levels of transparency between chords and such). Still, it's an interesting connection to make.
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I think music from Rosenman's BENEATH is used in the opening of BATTLE as images of ESCAPE and CONQUEST recounting the birth of Milo and rise of Caesar are seen.
Actually it's tracked (very well executed) from different parts of the BATTLE score. This happened because the film had a whole subplot removed (available in the Director's version on DVD and Blu-ray) and the film clocked in at around 83-minutes. The extended ESCAPE and CONQUEST flashbacks were added to pad-out the length to make the Studio and Theatre owners happy. (It still only came in at 86 minutes and IMHO is better with the sub-plot in the storyline.)
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