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CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S LEGACY: CLASSICAL MUSIC IN FILM
in ascending chords. Soon after, we
hear the haunting “Anna’s theme” sung
tenderly by the violin; the chaconne
returns under it in the brass. A new
faster variant on the chaconne takes
off—music that in the film accompanies
Victoria’s discovery that her lover, the
19th-century English violin virtuoso
Frederic Pope, has betrayed her for
another woman; we hear her vengeful
gunshots in the drums. A hauntingly
beautiful section follows: a new variant
on “Anna’s theme,” extremely high
and soft in the violin. As the soloist
continues this anguished song, the
chaconne returns with tragic force.
An extraordinary solo cadenza mixes
variants of the chaconne theme, and the
piece ends in violent and virtuosic frenzy.
Instrumentation: Three flutes, including
piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two
bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three
trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp,
piano, celesta and strings.

THEME FROM SCHINDLER’S LIST
John Williams
Born in Floral Park, NY, February 8, 1932
Premiered in 1993, Steven Spielberg’s
movie Schindler’s List is now acknowledged
as one of the great classics of film history.
It received seven Oscars in 1994, including
the prizes for Best Picture, Best Director
and Best Score for John Williams’ deeply
moving soundtrack music. Williams was
also honored with a Grammy Award for
Best Instrumental Composition Written
for a Motion Picture or for TV. In 2007,
the American Film Institute ranked the
film as number eight on its list of the 100
best American films ever made.
Based on Thomas Keneally’s book
Schindler’s Ark, Schindler’s List tells the
story of Oskar Schindler, a German
businessman and a member of the Nazi
Party, who came to Krakow, Poland
in 1939 as a war profiteer after Hitler’s
conquest. At first, he was indifferent to the
plight of the Jewish workers in his factories,
whom he hired simply because they were
cheaper. But the brutal liquidation of the
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Krakow ghetto shocked his conscience,
and he embarked on a risky plot to
save not only his employees, but also
hundreds of other Jews from the gas
chambers of Auschwitz. It is estimated
he was ultimately responsible for the
survival of more than 1,000 Polish
Jews. With his Jewish assistant Itzhak
Stern, he drew up a list of Jews who
were “skilled workers indispensable to
the German war effort” and exhausted
his own wealth with copious bribes to
the Nazi authorities to keep them safe.
Today, Schindler is honored in Israel as
a “Righteous Person” among the gentiles
and buried in Jerusalem. A tree in the
Avenue of the Righteous leading to the
Yad Vashem Museum commemorates his
heroic rescue effort.
For the film’s score, Spielberg turned
to John Williams, the dean of American
film composers. Williams was initially so
overwhelmed by the film’s subject he told
the director: “You need a better composer
than I am for this film.” Spielberg replied:
“I know. But they’re all dead.” Central to
the score is the haunting signature theme
Williams first played to Spielberg on the
piano. The director immediately knew who
should play it for the soundtrack: the great
violinist Itzhak Perlman.
Instrumentation: Three flutes including alto
flute and piccolo, English horn, three clarinets
including bass clarinet, two bassoons, horn,
percussion, celesta and strings.
LOVE THEME FROM CINEMA PARADISO
Ennio Morricone
Born in Rome, Italy, November 10, 1928
Andrea Morricone
Born in Rome, Italy, October 10, 1964
Winner of both an Academy Award
for Best Score (2016) and an Academy
Honorary Award for his lifetime
achievement (2007), Ennio Morricone
is one of the most prolific composers
of scores for films and television; he
has created more than 400 of them as
well as many classical works. His most
memorable include all of Sergio Leone’s
so called “Spaghetti Westerns,” as well as
La Cage aux folles, The Untouchables and
the beautiful music for Roland Joffé’s
The Mission. Yet another of Morricone’s
triumphs was the achingly nostalgic score
for Giuseppe Tornatore’s legendary Italian
classic Cinema Paradiso (1988), a story told
in flashback about an Italian filmmaker
and his lifetime adoration of the movies,
forged at the eponymous little theater
in his Sicilian hometown. Paradiso’s
score was written in collaboration with
Morricone’s son, Andrea Morricone, and
it seems that the gorgeous Love Theme
we’ll hear was actually created by Andrea
and elaborated by Ennio.
Instrumentation: Three Flutes, three oboes,
three clarinets, three bassoons, four horns,
three trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, celesta
and strings.
TANGO FROM SCENT OF A WOMAN
Carlos Gardel
Born in Toulouse, France, December 11, 1890;
died in Medellin, Colombia, June 24, 1935
Though born in France, Carlos Gardel
immigrated to Argentina as a child and
became one of the great innovators of the
Argentinian tango. A popular singer as
well as a composer, he wrote hundreds
of tango songs for his concerts. Gardel’s
death at age 44 in a plane crash made
him a tragic hero still revered by South
Americans. One of his best-loved tangos
is “Por una cabeza” (1935). And it was
this tango, growing more ardent with
each verse, that was chosen for a critical
scene in Martin Brest’s 1992 film Scent
of a Woman, starring Al Pacino, who
won the 1993 Best Actor Oscar for his
portrayal of the blind Lt. Colonel Frank
Slade. Escorted by Charlie, a young prep
school student, Slade tries to stave off
thoughts of suicide with a hedonistic
weekend in New York. In this scene in
a posh Manhattan restaurant, he invites
a beautiful, much younger woman
waiting for her date to dance the tango
with him. Despite his handicap and
her protestations that she’s not a good
dancer, they perform “Por una cabeza”