Patton Soundtrack CD Jerry Goldsmith Complete Score 2CD Set

For the Oscar-nominated score the 1970 20th-Century Fox film Patton, composer Jerry Goldsmith wrote a brief score for the epic-length story of this most famous WWII general.  Goldsmith treated Patton as a three-tiered personality. "So there was, naturally, the Warrior, which would be treated with the march; the religious aspect of him, which was the chorale; and then the fanfare, which
was the archaic, his belief in reincarnation,” remarked Goldsmith.

When the film was first released, an actual soundtrack album was not made available. Instead, Goldsmith chose to go to England and record the highlights with faithful performances that he could tailor for listening purposes, as opposed to tempos and timings that mirrored the needs of the picture. It was a superb performance, one the composer himself described as “the best,” in a detailed recording that enhanced everything from the balancing of those famous echoplex trumpet triplets with the orchestra through the organ passages right on down to the snapping pizzicato figures in the strings. In addition to delivering a commanding performance, Goldsmith scored a unique new sequence never recorded for the film: a dynamic rendition of his German march melody, only a variation of which was quoted on the  soundtrack in "German Advance." Goldsmith took the opportunity to score a special version of this striking march in a straight-forward setting, illuminating the importance of the melody and using it to dramatically close out the first side of his original LP under the title “Winter March.”  On the 1970 stereo album released by 20th Century-Fox Records, the second side closed with the “End Title” actually being mixed in mono and relegated to one channel to make room for George C. Scott’s moving final speech. This premiere release of the LP program on CD presents that sequence in stereo without the dialogue as a bonus.

The second disc features a re-issue of the original soundtrack recording.  It also features a bonus: a lengthy track featuring a working session with Goldsmith and the echoplex to get the echoing fanfare just right.

This release features both discs in pristine sound, finally presenting all the material recorded for Patton in a single, definitive soundtrack edition for the film's 40th anniversary.