Equally beloved and arguably more appealing is the theme
of romance for
The Godfather that dies rather quickly for obvious
reasons in the franchise, only heard in short snippets in the sequels
but a chart-topper upon its debut in the original film. Equally
representing Michael Corleone's romances and his family as a whole in a
tragic sense, this theme is heard on the traditional instrumentation in
"Sicilian Pastorale," including acoustic guitar, and "Apollonia" before
a dramatic ensemble expression in "The Godfather Finale." The mostly
symphonic concert arrangement of this theme, heard in "Love Theme from
The Godfather," solicits a bittersweet, melancholy reaction that has
been longingly played by and for swooning, real-life lovers in countless
venues since. Even in this theme, Rota doesn't entirely abandon the
Sicilian style, reinforcing the primary theme of tradition with its
necessary romantic half. Casual listeners might forget that the love
theme was very sparingly utilized in the film and was added as something
of an afterthought by Rota and Coppola late in the process. Arguably the
most intriguing of the three themes in
The Godfather is the one
that has the greatest impact on the entire trilogy. Developing out of
the secondary trumpet phrase of the primary waltz and representing the
concept of trepidation, this idea is hinted in "Bad News" and "Bad Luck"
before being affirmed as a theme for Michael Corleone in ""The Halls of
Fear," "Marry Me, Kay," and, with more resolve, in "The New Godfather"
and "The Godfather Finale." Ultimately, "Michael's Theme," as it has
been later termed, becomes the underlying identity of the franchise, a
fitting development given the despair written directly into its weighty
progressions. Rota brilliantly summarizes all three ideas in "The
Godfather Finale" (otherwise titled "End Credits"), handing them off to
sections of the ensemble not native to their previous renditions and
applying the chorus for obvious impact value on the album version. The
most important thing to remember about Rota's work for
The
Godfather is that the short running time of the score causes it to
be highly redundant and lacking in development outside of the three
themes. Interesting offshoots, such as Rota's theme for Hollywood that
was meant to carry over to "The Pickup" and "Las Vegas," were largely
dropped from the film, including his organ music for "The Baptism;" all
of these were replaced by silence or source material on screen.
A very unsatisfactory album history for all of the
scores in this franchise historically caused these problems of
developmental stagnation to be compounded outside of context. The
original LP arrangement of cues from the score for
The Godfather
translated directly onto a 1991 MCA Records CD, and no expansion or
remastering of the music was afforded to collectors until 2022. This
situation caused Rota's work on album up to that point to be, with the
exception of only two cues, completely devoted to variations on the
three themes, omitting several important suspense cues. The two unique
entries are the aforementioned rejected cues: "The Pickup," the score's
most awkward merging of tense orchestral progressions and light
era-specific jazz on saxophone and other band elements (foreshadowing
the fear motif in Kay's later material) and "The Baptism," the solemn
organ piece employed as source music. The Carmine Coppola music for
"Connie's Wedding" and the song "I Have But One Heart" round out the
product, but even that representation is minimal compared to the half a
dozen songs coined by Coppola to be controversially performed live
during the filming. While casual concept enthusiasts will recall that
countless artists recorded vocalized versions of the popular "Love Theme
from The Godfather," none of those (aside from the official,
choral-aided suite arrangement) were actually related to the original
soundtrack and have never therefore appeared on its albums. In fact,
listeners seeking this compelling melody would be best served obtaining
compilations of such adaptations, because the original recording only
fleetingly supplies the idea. The sound quality on this product is
somewhat muted, though it wasn't readily possible to clean up the
archival sound of this recording with any significance. The tone of that
recording is always intimate and depressingly lonely, yielding a proper
emotional response to the engaging plotline, though a slightly enhanced
touch of reverb to the occasional trumpet solos is a nice addition for
the slight fantasy element of the whole concept. Devotees of the
franchise long expressed their displeasure with the treatment of Rota's
work for
The Godfather on album, demanding the full slate of
rejected and suspenseful Rota music alongside Coppola's original source
material and a handful of the licensed traditional pieces. In lieu of
that, the extensive quantity of compilations of related performance
dating back to the 1970's on LP records remained adequate addendums to
the score.
Finally, for the film's 50th anniversary in 2022, the
La-La Land Records label provided a 2-CD presentation remixed and
mastered with a much fuller selection of cues as Rota had written them
for
The Godfather. The resulting film presentation still only
runs 53 minutes, even with the rejected material included. The label
opted to separate Rota's score from the Coppola and other source pieces,
providing a first disc with only the film versions and thirteen minutes
of alternates. Of interest are the various assemblies that went into
"The Horse's Head," as producer demands actually led to two cues being
laid on top of each other for the scene; all three variations, including
the combined layering, are provided, though Rota's original version is
supplied in the primary position chronologically. The bulk of the
score's stewing suspense material, as heard in "Sollozzo the Turk/Luca
Brasi," "Bad Luck/Sicilian Message/Meditation," "Michael's Decision/The
Waiting Game," and "Set the Meeting/Michael Takes Over," reinforce
Michael's theme against rhythmically descending phrasing that Rota uses
throughout the score to denote fear. The whimsical romanticism of this
theme in "Marry Me, Kay" is a heartbreaking preview of Rota's handling
of the character in the sequel. Listeners should expect the cues to
remain relatively short, reflecting the scattered nature of music's
spotting in the film. Also of note is that the score proper contains no
choral layer. In the alternate takes, the "End Credits" version that
closes the first disc emphasizes the love theme to a greater degree. The
second disc in the 2022 set offers the original album arrangement and a
variety of Coppola's source pieces. The set is an impressive survey of
the film's music, a long overdue presentation of the score as both it
was meant to be used and supplying the pieces necessary for enthusiasts
to assemble a strict, chronological soundtrack of both score and source
music. Ultimately, the success of Rota's music for
The Godfather
exists in his three extremely compelling, smartly employed themes, as
well as the ability of the music to age well and avoid drowning the
traditional elements with either the sounds of the 1940's or 1970's. On
the other hand, the lack of strong secondary material is a detriment
that causes this score to be extremely two-dimensional. Thus, if you
have never had an affinity for Rota's much performed themes, then be
aware that there isn't much else to appreciate from this overall
package. The 1974 sequel score largely solves this problem, adding
themes for Vito and Kay that, when considered on top of the existing
material, produce a far more memorable listening experience. Expect to
enjoy the familiar themes, but always remember this score's
limitations.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
