Monsignor

Monsignor is the John Williams score for the 1982 film directed by Frank Perry, based on the novel by French author Jack-Alain Léger, and starring Christopher Reeve and Genevieve Bujold. While the film would go on to garner largely negative reviews and earn a poor box-office showing, the score became another notable accomplishment for the composer due to its striking themes and a grand, Latin choral piece ("Gloria") featured during the film's denouement.

The composing process
Williams' composing process for Monsignor was greatly curtailed by an overwrought schedule. He spent the early months of 1982 composing and recording the score for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, then moved straight into the Boston Pops season, which lasted until mid-summer. The "lock" date for Williams' next scheduled score, Return of the Jedi, was moved up at the last minute, requiring that he begin work on that project in September—leaving him a mere six-week window to compose and record Monsignor (and still be done in time for two conducting performances at Tanglewood at the end of August).

Williams wrote the score in California in early July of 1982. The compressed time frame led Williams to make use of music for the movie that would later become an oft-played movement for the Boston Pops: the "Esplanade Overture," a piece the composer described in a May 1982 Boston Globe interview as a "'comedy overture'" that "doesn't go to any specific comedy—the audience will have to invent one as it goes along." Though the full work doesn't appear in the film, it was later released on the soundtrack album under the title "The Meeting in Sicily."

Recording sessions
The recording sessions took place in London in mid-August with the London Symphony Orchestra. The title theme and the piece "Forgotten Vows" featured the solo trumpet of Maurice Murphy, whose first job with the LSO had been under the baton of John Williams during the recording sessions for Star Wars in 1977.

Casablanca Original LP
In 1982 the Spanish label Casablanca released an LP corresponding to the film release.



Original Soundtrack
Intrada Records made a limited CD release of Monsignor in 2007 (only 3,000 copies were printed). It was the first time the score had ever been featured on CD, and it marked the last post-Star Wars score from John Williams released on CD.