Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #648
Written 7/7/03, Revised 3/18/09
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Buy it... if you'd enjoy hearing a strong compilation of re-recorded themes
from The Godfather saga, performed with the appropriate melodramatic
weight and a satisfying, Sicilian touch.
Avoid it... if nothing but the original recordings of the masterpieces will
suffice.
The Godfather Trilogy: (Compilation) As much as John
Williams fans would argue with the claim, no trilogy of film music has had a more
significant influence on worldwide audiences than the scores by Nino Rota and
Carmine Coppola for the three parts of The Godfather saga (and Rota's
music in particular). Rota only lived less than ten years beyond his involvement
with the first two films for The Godfather franchise, and he recalled in
those late years how astonished he was to hear the love theme from the original
film performed on so many street corners as he would travel about his city.
Indeed, the themes from Rota's two scores are infamous in such a way that the
music has touched a grand array of people beyond the usual realm of film music
enthusiasts. It also helps that the first two films are considered among the best
of all time, with devoted fans ranging from the saga's own actors to the deposed
Saddam Hussein of Iraq. In many ways, the quality of the music for the films is
difficult to qualify from an American perspective. Both of Rota's efforts were
nominated for Academy Awards, with a rare sequel win for the second score. The
producers of the film, at the time of assigning the first score, wanted to avoid
both an Americanized sound as well as one that simply conveyed Italian cliches,
and they thus hired the classical European composer to provide the convincing
Sicilian accent for the series. Director Francis Ford Coppola also hired his own
father (who had scored several decent, though not overwhelming films in his
lengthy writing career) for additional dance numbers to exist as source music for
the film. While Carmine Coppola's material compliments several key scenes in the
first two entries, it is Rota's melodramatically thematic music that stands out
as the obvious favorite. Coppola's score for the third installment integrated
themes from the first two scores and extends the same source sound that
identified his contributed music for the first two scores. The choice of Rota for
the start of the saga was successful because his work brilliantly played to both
the authentic and stereotypical expectations for the series, breathing sonic life
into the myth of Sicilian power.
The romantic elements inherent in the scores add to the appeal
of an otherwise dreary and horrific storyline. The title theme for the series was
adapted from one of Rota's early comedy scores, though the first two films in
this franchise are best known by their respective secondary themes. The love
theme from the first one is the piece that Rota always heard on street corners,
saturated with bittersweet tones in its tragic progressions. The immigrant theme
in the second score carries the most emotional weight of any in
The
Godfather series, and, with its merging of that heavy atmosphere and a sense
of optimism, remains a highlight of Rota's career. In 2001, the City of Prague
Philharmonic, under a long-standing contract with the Silva Screen Records label
in England, recorded a variety of film scores (with John Barry classics among
their most usual selections) that included a collection of about 50 minutes of
music from
The Godfather saga as one of those endeavors. With selections
from all three films, the City of Prague Philharmonic captured the spirit of the
Sicilian crime family with interestingly precise performances. While the music
isn't that complicated to interpret, the emotional style in which it was
originally performed was key to its appeal. The Prague performers excelled in
their task of revisiting the original scores' distinct Sicilian style, and the
broad character of the three primary themes is well handled. The highlight of the
album is the four-minute finale cue for the first film, during which the Crouch
End Festival Chorus offers magical accompaniment to the otherwise instrumentally
consistent presentation. The selections from the third film reflect the
weaknesses of Coppola's score, and, in the end, it is Pietro Mascagni's
"Cavalleria Rusticana" prelude piece (which accompanies the coordinated hits at
the end of the film) that carries the most attention from the score. A more
diverse selection of cues from the second score may have also assisted this album
in achieving greater appeal, though with the ensemble only lightly incorporating
the composition's specialty elements (such as the mandolin), this inclusion may
not have been possible. As is, however, the album remains a strong set of
performances of the very best music from a trio of cinematic icons.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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