by Swashbuckler on 11/10/2001
favorite track: 12
 
Well, who doesn't know the themes from this film? Francis Ford Coppola, feeling that The Godfather, while being an excellent crime drama, would perhaps work better as a family epic, sought out Nino Rota, famed composer for Frederico Fellini, to compose the score. Rota approached the film as a Sicilian-American odyssey, and based all his thematic material in a Sicilian folk idiom.

So perfect was the score for the film (and so perfect was the film) that the music was immediately burned into the conciousness of a nation. One often hears "The Godfather Waltz" as muzak, and pop versions of "Love Theme from The Godfather," which, of course became "Speak Softly Love," are ubiquitous.

The album presents several versions of both themes, opening with the "Main Title: The Godfather Waltz," which actually has three cues in it... the last of which is the famous garden scene between Michael and Vito.

Although the "Love Theme from The Godfather" is often considered the music for Michael and Apollonia, and works on this level in "Love Theme" (the courtship) and "Apollonia" (the wedding night), it also appears in "Sicilian Pastorale" (predating Michael having been struck by the "thunderbolt") and in The Godfather Part II for Young Vito's return to Sicily... it seems this theme is for Sicily itself.

The other major theme from The Godfather, one that gains prominence over the course of the score as the character gains prominence over the course of the film, is Michael's theme, first heard on the trumpet in the hospital sequence, "The Halls of Fear." "The New Godfather" presents his theme in a fully developed form, while "The Godfather Finale" adds a choir to the theme.

"The Pickup" is a tense piece of music for the scene in which Soluzzo and McClusky drive Michael to the Bronx, unheard in the film, in which a jazzy saxophone and piano play over repeated string lines. "The Baptism" is the organ piece during which Clemenza, Neri, Cicci, Lampone and several others eliminate all of the Corleone Family's enemies at once; it is loud and abrasive, with a silent-movie aspect about it (and features an odd edit in the middle of it that also appeared on the LP).

Two source music cues appear in the film, "I Have But One Heart" is performed by Al Martino, who played Johnny Fontane in the film (Al Martino is uncredited on the CD, although he was listed prominently on the LP jacket), and Carmine Coppola's medley "Connie's Wedding" (a better recording of which can be heard on the new Silva Screen album The Godfather Trilogy)

Of course, there is plenty missing from this brief album. Michael and Enzo the baker outside the hospital, the film version of "The Pickup," the bombastic version of Michael's theme heard right after the assassination of Soluzzo and McClusky, and the aftermath of Sonny's death are all wonderful moments in the score, but do not appear on this album.

The performance, conducted by Carlo Savina (also credited in the film and on the original LP, but not on the CD) is pretty good, although the muddy sonics obscure much of it.

Despite the fact that it could use a good remastering and expansion (the rating would be much higher if it were better represented on CD), this CD is still indispensible.