Deer Hunter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
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Music CD Cover
Performer: Robert De NiroPerformer: Christopher Walken
Performer: John Cazale
Performer: John Savage
Performer: Meryl Streep
Performer: George Dzundza
Performer: Chuck Aspegren
Performer: Shirley Stoler
Performer: Rutanya Alda
Performer: Pierre Segui
Performer: Mady Kaplan
Performer: Amy Wright
Performer: Mary Ann Haenel
Performer: Richard Kuss
Performer: Joe Grifasi
Performer: Vilmos Zsigmond
Performer: Michael Cimino
Performer: Peter Zinner
Performer: Deric Washburn
Edition: Music CD
Format: Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: MCA/Universal Home Video
Soundtracks:
- Cavatina
- Praise The Name Of The Lord
- Troika
- Katyusha
- Struggling Ahead
- Sarabande
- Waiting His Turn
- Memory Eternal
- God Bless America
- Cavatina (Reprise)
Free Music Notes for Deer Hunter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Free Music Review: A true modern classic
Hit: 5 Stars
The title track alone to Michael Cimino's film "The Deer Hunter" makes it a worthwhile purchase.
Truth be told, you're not getting too much more than that. The three significant guitar pieces on this album (composed by Stanley Myers) are the title theme, the Sarabande, and a reprise of the title music (in a slightly longer and fuller arrangement).
The Sarabande is lovely, and comparatively underrated, but it's just not quite in the same league as its companion.
The Russian Orthodox choral pieces, while also good, are recorded live and thus lack the careful intonation and clean sound of studio versions.
The folks songs "Katyusha" and "Troika" are performed energetically. They also have, for better or worse, all the shouting, stamping, clapping, whistling, and audience sing-along that goes with a good live performance.
Finally, "Struggling Ahead" and "Waiting His Turn" are short, comparatively minor variations on the theme music that underscore particular scenes, just as good film music is supposed to do.
Now, here's what the soundtrack album doesn't have that it SHOULD:
(A) Frankie Valli singing "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You." The boys in the bar horse around to this song.
(B) Bobby Bare singing "Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through the Goalposts of Life." When the boys return to the bar after their hunting trip, they drunkenly sing this.
(C) Frederic Chopin's sixth nocturne for piano (Opus 15, Number 3), in g minor. John the bartender plays it (just the first section, actually) just as the movie shifts from Pennsylvania to Vietnam.
All three of these pieces are significant in establishing the movie's moods. (Just like the simple, hymnlike version "God, Bless America," which IS found here.) Why in the world they were omitted from the soundtrack album, I can't figure.
That said, this album is still absolutely worth it. The theme music, published under the title "Cavatina," has become classical guitarist John Williams's signature piece. ("Cavatina," in case you're wondering, is an Italian musical term meaning a sustained melody or simple song.) It's been recorded many, many times since by other admiring musicians (in arrangements good, bad, and horrible). I suspect music lovers will be falling in love with it a hundred years from now. I've found the piece on other albums, but to me the two soundtrack versions -- particularly the concluding reprise -- remain, all told, the best combination of arrangement and performance. (Williams has also arranged this piece for solo guitar. The soundtrack recording benefits from a gently subdued strings-and-woodwind orchestral backing.)
By the way, people have rightly wondered why Myers's score didn't win an Oscar when "The Deer Hunter" did so well otherwise at that year's Academy Awards. It may be because (as I understand it) Stanley Myers had actually composed the piece several years earlier, and had even used it in another movie, titled "The Walking Stick." It apparently just hadn't grabbed people's attention yet. So guitarist John Williams deserves major credit for recognizing and championing this beautiful composition until people finally sat up and listened.
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