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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
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Godfather Theme 6
• Played again over
the final scene.
• Mirrors the opening
scene – showing
Michael’s total
transformation /
new role as
Godfather
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 nondiegetic – 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
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