I knew already, that Charlie Chaplin composed some music. But I did not know, that he did also compose a piece for the mandolin – the Mandolin Serenade used in his movie A King in New York.
Recently I have discovered videos with this Mandolin Serenade. The first video is from a record with the Mandolin Serenade conducted by Charlie Chaplin. This record was published in 1957. I did not find any note about the mandolin player who played on this recording. As the movie was filmed in the UK, maybe this recording was also done in the UK with a British mandolin player?
Charlie Chaplin – Mandolin Serenade
Another version of the Mandolin Serenade was recorded by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Carl Davis eingespielt and has been published on a double CD The Essential Film Music Collection. The mandolin has been played by Gareth Williams on this recording. I did not find any information about a mandolin player with this name.
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Composed by Charlie Chaplin
Mandolin Serenade theme from Charlie Chaplin’s A King in New York (1957) performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Carl Davis (Aufgenommen 2005)
Playlist Charlie Chaplin – Mandolin Serenade
When I tried to find some information about Charlie Chaplin as a composer, I found the following article from a 1940 issue of the time magazine.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,764630,00.html
There you can read:
Charlie Chaplin had no musical training, cannot read a note. But he plays the piano well for an amateur, the violin and concertina very well. Chaplin composes by humming, whistling or playing his themes on a piano while someone takes his tunes down. Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,764630,00.html#ixzz0kK4tkKka
I guess that the music for the movie A King in New York has been composed in the same way.
More information about Charlie Chaplin as a composer can be found in the following two articles:
Charlotte Higgins: The great composer; The Guardian Monday 27 November 2000 01.20 GMT:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2000/nov/27/artsfeatures1
Chaplin as a composer; Extract from « Charlie Chaplin » by Theodore Huff, published by Henry Schuman Inc., New York 1951:
http://www.charliechaplin.com/biography/articles/207-Chaplin-as-a-composer
Additional information
Homepage about Charlie Chaplin with a lot of informations: http://www.charliechaplin.com/
Review of the CD The Essential Film Music Collection: http://www.musicweb-international.com/film/2006/jun06/essen_chaplin.html
Wikipedia about “A King in New York”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_King_in_New_York
Deeproots Magazine about Charlie Chaplin – with many great videos
CD tip (Amazon partnerlink)