Have you ever heard Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major?
It was featured in the second half of the final Nodame Cantabile film released this summer, so quite a few people have probably heard it somewhere.
It is a wonderfully entertaining piece that begins with the crack of a whip, but for Japanese listeners it has another amusing feature that is rarely discussed.
Godzilla appears in the third movement.
After a series of rapid passages, the piano introduces this melody as a theme in measure 37.
Here is the score.
1.
For greater clarity, here is also the score where the clarinet plays it.
See? “Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla is coming!”
Now, everyone together:
“Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla is coming!” lol
Incidentally, the Godzilla theme was composed by Akira Ifukube, who apparently admired Ravel greatly. The same melody also appears in his Rhapsodia Concertante for Violin and Orchestra (see the YouTube video below), which is also worth hearing.
2
Footnotes
- The score used is from http://www.scribd.com/doc/249761/Ravel-Piano-Concerto-in-G-Orchestral-Score. It contains the entire work and is recommended.
- For the background, see Tracing the Roots of the Godzilla Theme: Shinya Matsuura’s L/D
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