The Great Dictator (1940)

by Charles Chaplin.
Music by Charles Chaplin, in association with Meredith Willson.
Score restored for live performance by Timothy Brock in 2023.
NB: Timothy Brock has conducting exclusivity for this title.

Synopsis:

During World War I, an anonymous private (Chaplin) fighting in the army of Tomainia, effects the valiant rescue of an officer named Schultz (Reginald Gardiner), but suffers loss of memory when the plane in which they are flying crashes into a tree. The little soldier is sent to a hospital where he remains for the next 20 years, unaware of the changes that are taking place around him. He does not know, for instance, that Hynkel (also played by Chaplin) has become Dictator of Tomainia, and is ruthlessly persecuting Jews with the help of his two ministers, Garbitsch and Herring.

Technical Specifications:

Instrumentation of THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940)

List of percussion:

Note on the ad-lib. synthesizer: Timothy Brock has a digital sample-library of a 1936 Novachord synthesizer which is what Chaplin wrote it for. If the orchestra has a small keyboard and a way to play it that would be THE BEST. Otherwise Timothy Brock has cued it for other instruments.


Trailer of The Great Dictator


Listen to the Music

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