Customer Reviews

How Green Was My Valley (1941 Film)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This 1941 score is easily one of Alfred Newman's best original scores (along with Captain From Castile, How the West Was Won, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Robe, and The Song of Bernadette). It is simply exquisitely beautiful. It is also matches the movie perfectly. For best appreciation of the score, watch the movie and the emotion that it creates in the film. It also has pretty good sound quality considering its age. Buy this right now!

"How Green Was My Valley" is an exceptionally beautiful film-arguably it is the very best example of "golden age" studio craftsmanship that exists-and the importance of its score can't be overestimated. This CD presents the original tracks recorded for the film, and although 60 years old, they sound superb. it's not difficult to relive the film while listening to the soundtrack-there's tremendous lyricism, emotion, tension-everything from the smallest to the biggest moments from the film are illustrated by the brilliant composer Alfred Newman. If you love the movie, you simply must get the soundtrack. If you haven't seen it-listening to the music will make you want to.

I wish everyone could discover this soundtrack. It brings chills and tears from the sheer beauty of the music and makes you long for those days of yore. You can't go wrong with this one!

Alright, sorry there is little singing of the wonderful Welsh tunes that one hears in the movie, which, indeed, was a large part of the film. But, Alfred Newman pays homage to those wonderful Welsh tunes ("Myfanwy," etc.) in his orchestrations of them. As once said in a composition class of mine, "If you are going to steal someone else's tune, make sure it is worth ripping off." Ha-ha. So much for that school of thought.

This music comes from a golden age of movie-making. No synthesizers, no computer hacks who make music. Newman's music is heartfelt, and fits the scenes appropriately. I played it yesterday, with sunlight shining into my home, and suddenly it was turned into the Morgan household. Beautiful music, from one of the legends of Hollywood, who, from what I have determined, has received more Oscar nominations than anyone! His progeny (Randy, et al) would become music and Hollywood legends by themselves.

If one wants to attain a better Judeo-Cymric understanding of all this, and a better flavor ("flavour"?) for the time period, why not visit the church (still there!) where the Welsh singers of the movie came from? (This movie was filmed in the back hills of Malibu, anyway. Did you notice how bright some of the scenes were in "How Green Was My Valley"? That's a Southern California sun, not a Welsh one!) It is the Welsh Presbyterian Church on 12th and Valencia Streets southwest of downtown Los Angeles, and the site and building was also one of the first synagogues in Los Angeles! That was where John Ford, et al, got the singers for the movie, and, yes, they sang well, but not too often on this CD! Better to check out some CDs on amazon.com by the Treorchy Male Voice Choir or the Morriston Orpheus Choir, or more recently, the Llanelli Male Voice Choir or a younger group from Wales still in the tradition, Only Men Aloud! Believe me, seeking out the best Welsh songs is a life-long research project in itself.

As for this release from 20th-Century Fox, Newman's music is excellent. It will brighten your day! But, I can understand other reviewers arguments of "What, no singing?!" It's still worth the investment, however, to bring back memories of this still very fine film. It shows the innocence of America (and, yes, Wales) in 1941, which, as we all know, was a rather infamous date.

I don't know how this qualifies as a sound track when it includes NONE of the singing that was so prominent in the movie. This is simply Newman's orchestral score. That is fine and the several main themes are repeated and interwoven but there was singing in and over all the action. Why wasn't it included? The only singing appears in the opening and final credits. It's definitely a disappointment.

When I ordered this CD, it was before the age of widespread Internet access. I thought I was going to get a compliation of all the beautiful songs sung in the movie (e.g. Cvm Rhondda and God Save the Queen), not just a bunch instrumental background music which is all you will find on this CD save for one measlely track, track #2.