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A Little Romance
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Composed, Orchestrated, Conducted, and Produced by:
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LABELS & RELEASE DATES
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Varèse Sarabande
(May 12th, 1992)
Soundtrack Listeners Communications (Japan) (June 21st, 1992)
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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Both albums were regular commercial releases in their respective nations.
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AWARDS
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Winner of an Academy Award. Nominated for a Golden Globe.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... for its delightfully pretty main title cue and similar
material sprinkled throughout the otherwise disparate, light-hearted
score.
Avoid it... if you expect the narrative of this unoffensive work to
satisfy, Georges Delerue abandoning that title theme and never offering
evolution to his other two, repetitive themes.
BUY IT
 | | Delerue |
A Little Romance: (Georges Delerue) To widespread
acclaim, 1979's A Little Romance is a coming-of-age tale of two
13-year-olds in Paris who fall in love and decide to run off to Venice
so they can share a kiss beneath the Bridge of Sighs at sunset. Their
family situations aren't the most supportive of the budding pairing, of
course, nor should they be happy with an old man played by Laurence
Olivier who gave the kids the idea in the first place. He's in fact a
pick-pocket thief and helps the duo achieve their journey by stealing
from bumbling tourists along the way. Still, the story is one of mostly
pure innocence, with the kids achieving their aim and reunited with
their parents, who allow them one last moment together before the girl
heads back to her native America. Along with praise for the movie's
young stars, the score by French composer Georges Delerue also received
significant recognition from the major awards bodies, netting him his
only Academy Award win. Although a vital step in encouraging the
composer to move to America for more widespread projects in Hollywood,
this win was questionable. The score, while lovely in a few parts per
usual for Delerue, didn't deserve the recognition compared to his other
projects of more meaningful significance. His music is a highly varied
combination of his own romance techniques with comedy, source, and
classical diversions everywhere. There is no distinct narrative
throughout, each element handled with its own separate mode. In that
regard, it's structured almost like an Ennio Morricone score, with no
mingling of recurring themes and no real evolution for most of them,
either. Delerue heavily accesses the music of Baroque composer Antonio
Vivaldi for the score, his love theme pulled from the Largo movement
from "Lute concerto in D major, RV 93." The other theme in A Little
Romance utilizes an extended classical mode that borrows from a
French Renaissance style of writing. The orchestra is full but strongly
emphasizes strings and acoustic guitar, and the composer's trademark
woodwind solos are also prevalent in areas. Vibrant guitar or mandolin
plucking occupies the secondary theme while brass serves in a supporting
role, mostly evident in the source-like portions. An accordion,
vibraphone, and piano are notable accents along the journey. The
personality of the score is breezy aside from the stuffy classicism of
"Julius Edmond Santorin" to introduce the old man and the outright
suspense of "Hiding in the Movies," which offers the work's singular
fright.
Strangely orphaned overall in A Little Romance
is the "Main Title" cue that is structurally unique in the score and the
obvious highlight for the composer's collectors. This distinctly
Delerue-specific romance piece represents the score on his popular,
later compilations, and yet it is completely detached melodically from
everything else. Instead, the score offers two recurring themes,
starting with the low-key love theme. The direct carryover from the
Vivaldi piece with acoustic guitar taking the lute line, this idea is
lightly plucked on guitar and strings in "Love's Not Like That" and
starts similarly in "The Young Lovers" but wafts through more typical
Delerue woodwinds later in the cue. This same format occupies "The
Lover's Decision," and these interludes of airiness are the closest
Delerue gets to his title theme elsewhere. The love theme is pulled back
to its sparsely personal mode on guitar in "A Little Romance," and the
idea's instrumentation is sent to more mundane contemplation in "No
Turning Back." It once again persists in the same form in "Farewell...
for Now" but accelerated in tempo. The other theme in A Little
Romance represents the exuberant chase as the kids make their way to
Venice, the comfortable French Renaissance influence on the score with
an enthusiastically plucked lead. There's a touch of sophistication to
the idea that lends comedy through pomposity, and you hear that tone
right away in its string formality during "Off to Italy" before yielding
to its mandolin humor. Developing out of the source marching band
material at the outset of "The Bicycle Race," this idea shifts higher on
the strings in "Venice," the plucked portions replaced by a lovely
violin, and is supplanted in "The Gondola" by a gorgeous flute offshoot
of the melody. It's fully summarized in both its mandolin and string
parts in "A Little Romance - End Title." Outside of these two themes,
Delerue provides some momentarily splashes of sonic color in the source
lounge music for vibraphone, bass string, piano, and percussion in
"Paris Montage," some solo piano elegance in "Birthday Party," and a
somewhat sickening, Italian-styled march in "Outdoor Cafe" that is
translated to accordion for a French version in "Moving On." On the
whole, some of the source-like portions can mildly annoy, but there's
otherwise nothing offensive in the music for A Little Romance.
The sound quality is pretty decent for era, better than a contemporary
like Rich and Famous, but the tracks on its solo album
presentation are sometimes mislabeled on the packaging to combine cues
that are actually separate. While some listeners may be charmed by the
subdued Vivaldi adaptation and secondary chase material, it's the unique
main title cue that shines.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Georges Delerue reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.89
(in 10 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.35
(in 2,542 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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No awards? Expand >>
lexande 95 - September 27, 2026, at 11:30 a.m. |
2 comments (142 views)
Newest: September 27, 2026, at 1:08 p.m. by
litez |
| 1992 Varèse Sarabande Album Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 40:24 |
• 1. Main Title (3:10)
• 2. Love's Not Like That (1:00)
• 3. Paris Montage (2:32)
• 4. Julius Edmond Santorin (3:45)
• 5. Tho Young Lovers (1:49)
• 6. Off to Italy (2:15)
• 7. Birthday Party (2:40)
• 8. Outdoor Cafe/Moving On (3:10)
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• 9. A Little Romance (1:25)
• 10. The Bicycle Race (4:30)
• 11. The Lovers' Decision (1:00)
• 12. Venice (1:25)
• 13. Hiding in the Movies (2:21)
• 14. No Turning Back (1:07)
• 15. The Gondola (2:00)
• 16. Farewell... For Now/End Title (5:29)
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The insert of the Varèse Sarabande album includes notes about the score and film.
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