About the movie

The sixth adaption of the world-famous 1868 bestseller by Louisa May Alcott, proved to be one of the best. The story is set in Massachusetts during and after the Civil War. The four March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy live alone with their mother Marmee, while their father is fighting in the Union Army. The movie primarily focuses upon Jo, who leaves for New York to persue a career in the Arts and, after many a disapointment, returns home to become Louisa May Alcott. Meanwhile in New England, the seasons turn and the years pass and the little women grow up.

Starring Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Trini Alvarado, Samanthas Mathis, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, Christian Bale, Mary Wickes and Susan Sarandon.
Produced by Denise Di Novi.
Directed by Gillian Armstrong.

About the music

Little Women must be one of Thomas Newman's most popular scores to date and it's not very hard to see and hear why. While many of his other scores might best be discribed as 'experimental', this disc features some of Thomas Newman's most accessible music. This score has been described as "a cross-fertilization between an English pastoral idiom and a broad Americana", and that's really what it sounds like. There's the grand contrapuntal writing for brass in the Main Title (already a classic piece of trailer-music), there's a beautiful, playful pastoral theme for strings (track 6: Spring) and there are some very lush romantic pieces of Americana. Although there are four tracks with source music on this soundtrack, I wouldn't recommend programming them out, as they were especially recorded for the movie and fit the tone and mood of the score perfectly. If this is the Thomas Newman-score that caught your attention, make sure to check out his music for How to Make an American Quilt, Fried Green Tomatoes and Oscar and Lucinda. Highly recommended!

The soundtrack

Street date: January 1995 - a promotional CD (SSK-6701) was released about two months earlier.
Availability: in print.

This score was nominated for an Academy Award. It also received a BMI Film Music Award in 1995.

Under the Embrella is included on Cinema's Classic Romances (Silva Screen SILKCD 6018), a collection of romantic film music by Kenneth Alwyn and the City of Prague Philharmonic. The track Little Women was rerecorded by Emilio Kauderer and the Michael Garson Orchestra for Screen Themes '94 (Discovery Records) in a slightly longer version.

Track listing

1. Orchard House - Main Title (3:29)
2. Meg's Hair (0:45)
3. Snowplay (0:48)
4. Scarlet Fever (1:10)
5. Ashes (0:43)
6. Spring (0:57)
7. Francis Johnson: La Fayette's Welcome (1:01)
8. A Telegram (0:45)
9. Two Couples (1:32)
10. Burdens (1:57)
11. New York (2:15)
12. Harvest Time (1:25)
13. Gaetano Donizetti: Maria Redowa (1:22)
14. Letter From Jo (1:17)
15. Amy Abroad (1:04)
16. Limes (0:35)
17. Beth's Secret (2:08)
18. Conrad Kocher: For The Beauty Of The Earth* (0:26)
19. Little Women (1:19)
20. Learning To Forget (2:20)
21. Valley Of The Shadow (2:09)
22. Claudio Grafulla: Port Royal Gallop (0:55)
23. Domestic Experiences (0:51)
24. The Laurence Boy (0:37)
25. Lovelornity (1:21)
26. Under The Embrella - End Title (3:41)