City Lights [Import, Original recording remastered]

Charlie Chaplin (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 5, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Disconforme
• ASIN: B00017NVR6
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #881,757 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Overture

2. Unveiling The Statue

3. Violetera

4. At The Night Club (Suite)

5. Blind Flower Girl, Again

6. Misfortunes Of A Street Cleaner

7. Burden Of Poverty

8. Hopes Of Riches

9. A Boxer By Necessity

10. Overture

11. Lunchtime

12. Workers Demonstrate

13. A Huge Meal, Thanks To The Police

14. Skating In The Big Stores

15. A Nonsense Song

16. Finale

17. Overture

18. Road To Fortune

19. Delicious Dish: Boiled Boot

20. Ballet Of The Bread Rolls

See all 34 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Memorable Chaplin music he composed for his classic films, December 9, 2005

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: City Lights (Audio CD)

In addition to writing, directing and starring in his greatest films, Charlie Chaplin also composed the music for many of them as well, and while the title of this album comes from my personal favorite, 1931's "City Lights," it includes music from four other classic films as well (okay, three other classic films). What is interesting here is how often you will recognize the music and have the scene in that film come to mind. You then pick up the album, check out the track number and find the description is exactly of the scene that you though it was. This is not by any means a complete collection (you do not have the theme to "Limelight," for example), but it is certainly representative of his main body of work as a composer for his own films.

For "City Lights" (1931, tracks 1-9) it is the memories of the blind flower girl and Chaplin as a boxer than stands out. Next comes "Modern Times" (1936 tracks 10-16) with the distinction sounds of the workers demonstration, the nonsense song (where Chaplin "speaks" for the first time in a film), and the finale, which would eventually become the song "Smile." We then go back in time to "The Gold Rush" (1925, tracks 17-20) with the "Road to Fortune" tune and the immortal "Ballet of the Bread Rolls." "The Circus" (1928, tracks 21-32) has the most offerings, but for me is the least distinguished score. The album ends with a pair of offerings from "The Great Dictator" (1940, tracks 33-34), including the overture.

Chaplin was not as great of a composer as he was a comedian, but when it came to writing music he was certainly competent and he took as much care with writing music as he did with crafting his scenes. When the talkie era began Chaplin resisted it in terms of allowing his character to speak: The Tramp is not "heard" until he sings a nonsense song in "Modern Times" and does not speak actual words until "The Great Dictator," although he does gibberish for other characters (e.g., the speeches at the unveiling of the statute in "City Lights"). But he did use sound when it became available, both for music and for sound effects. What he hung on for as long as possible was the art of pantomime. Listening to the music independent of the visual images is like looking at still photographs rather than motion pictures.