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Music in The Godfather

Leitmotifs, Incidental Music, Diegetic Music

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Leitmotifs (‘leading motifs’ – musical term referring to a recurring theme)

3 major leitmotifs heard in finale & end-titles:• Godfather theme

• Michael theme

• Sicily theme

All in minor key(connotes sadness)

Leitmotifs undergo transformations

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Godfather Theme 1

• Has the character of an Italian folk melody (connoting the historical roots of the Corleones)

• Solo trumpet – common instrument in Italian villages – signifies the loneliness and melancholy of the Godfather

Chapter 1: 0:00:06-0:00:49

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Godfather Theme 2

• Transformed into an elegant waltz at the wedding as Don Vito dances with his daughter

Chapter 3: 0:24:53-0:25:30

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Godfather Theme 3

• Transformed to a distorted carousel tune in the horrific severed horse head scene

Chapter 4: 0:31:04-0:32:31

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Godfather Theme 4

• Clarinet and oboe over strings

• Calm music to signify that, for the Corleones, murder is an everyday event like eating or urinating

• Bridge to next scene where Michael is thinking of his father in hospital (the use of the theme foreshadows the fact that Michael will succeed his father as Godfather) Chapter 7: 0:55:00-0:55:47

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Godfather Theme 5

• Godfather theme with folk-like accompaniment and distorted harmonies as Michael is drawn into the family business

Chapter 8: 1:03:26-1:03:53

Godfather Theme 6

• Played again over the final scene.

• Mirrors the opening scene – showing Michael’s total transformation / new role as Godfather

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Chapter 22: 2:44:22-2:46:35

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Michael Theme 1

• Dark funeral dirge connoting actual death and Michael’s spiritual death

Chapter 7: 0:50:21-0:50:48

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Michael Theme 2

• Funeral dirge on trumpet with slow pulse on drums

Chapter 8: 0:59:38-1:00:25

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Michael Theme 3

• Stinger chord starts funeral dirge as Michael leaves the scene of his first executions

Chapter 10: 1:25:20:-1:25:45

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Michael Theme 4

• Funeral dirge against descending chords (falling leaves?)

• Michael’s funereal coat and hat connotes both his spiritual death and as a bringer of death

• Funeral melody foreshadows Kay’s spiritual death when reunited with Michael Chapter 18: 2:07:33-2:08:02

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Michael Theme 5

• Funeral dirge on cello as old family friend Sal Tessio is taken away to be executed

Chapter 21: 2:36:58-2:37:31

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Sicily Theme 1

• Poignant melody on strings with sound of cowbells as Don Vito remembers Sicily &/or thinks of Michael in Sicily

Chapter 12: 1:32:41-1:33:14

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Sicily Theme 2

• Melody on accordion, strings and woodwind in Michael’s courtship of Apollonia

Chapter 12: 1:40:02-1:41:30

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Sicily Theme 3

• Melody on mandolin with guitar accompaniment for love scene

Chapter 14: 1:46:30-1:47:41

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Incidental Music

• Dance tunes at wedding composed by Carmine Coppola (diegetic)

• Swing version of “Manhattan Serenade” (show-biz connotations) when Tom Hagen goes to LA

• Songs (mainly non-diegetic) e.g. “Mona Lisa”, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, Frank Sinatra’s “I Have But One Heart” (in-joke as Johnny Fontaine storyline based on Sinatra)

• Music to create mood e.g. tension in hospital scene (non-diegetic)

• Traditional tunes in Sicily (diegetic)

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Music, Dialogue & Sound in Baptism Montage Sequence

• Most of organ music is J S Bach’s Passacaglia in C Minor (ambiguous – starts diegetic but then becomes very loud non-diegetic – functions to create mood cf. use of train sound in Sollozzo killing)

• Sound of crying baby (diegetic) • Sound of priest reciting Latin prayers and baptismal vows in English

as well as Michael’s responses (diegetic)• Sounds from preparation and carrying out of executions (diegetic)• Organ music swells to a climax with stinger chords at the executions• Sound mix from is dense layers of sounds which clear to let us hear

priest’s words (“Do you renounce Satan?” and Michael’s vows (“I do” and “I do renounce them”)

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Baptism Montage Sequence

Chapter 21: 2:30:03-2:34:53