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Question

Original Donovan Soundtrack of Brother Sun Sister Moon

Does any qualified collector out there know if there was ever or still is an original English recording of the 1973 Franco Zefferelli movie Brother Sun Sister Moon. I am desperate to find either the original vinyl or a remastered CD version. I have the Italian version which is nice, but it's not Donovan. I was a Franciscan monk myself, so any leads would be appreciated. E-MAIL ANY response to bowdendavid18@yahoo.com and leave phone number if you wish and I will return your call asap. THANKS!!!!!!

bowdendavid18, May 22, 2013; 10:04 PM

Answers

Hi There,
“Brother Sun Sister Moon” is one of my favorite soundtracks including Donovan’s vocals and Ken Thorne’s orchestration/scoring. As far as I know, no LP or CD was released with Donovan's vocals. In the early 1970s, Donovan wrote and recorded songs for the English version of the film. The accompanying soundtrack album included none of Donovan's original recordings, as only the Italian version was ever released, with vocals by Claudio Baglioni and score by Riz Ortolani. The songs composed by Donovan that actually appeared in the movie were incredibly popular and many Donovan fans requested an official release of the songs. Accordingly, Donovan sought to acquire the rights to the original recordings. However, for some unknown reason Gulf/Paramount, the producers of the film, would not grant permission for the songs to be issued. Due to the nature of the original contract and complex publishing rights issues, it became evident to Donovan that releasing the original “Brother Sun Sister Moon” recordings would be extremely difficult if not impossible. Consequently, in 2005 Donovan decided to record new versions of the original songs and release them exclusively through the iTunes. However, for the new recordings, Donovan chose not to recreate the lush orchestration and choral vocals of the original recordings. Instead, he plays guitar and sings solo.
In 1972, a soundtrack was released as an LP (Paramount/EMI 3C 064 93393), but it was only Riz Ortolani’s rejected orchestral songs (that were not released in the film), although it also contained orchestral versions of Donovan’s original songs without any mention of his authority. Riz Ortolani was not credited in the film’s titles. His was reissued on his own label in 1980 on vinyl (Ricordi ORL 8482) and in 1989 (with the Italian title “Fratello Sole Sorella Luna”) on CD (Ricordi CDOR 8482). The CD covers credited the music as “composed” by Ortolani. Over the years bootlegs of the movie versions and demos of the songs have appeared, often with different names (as the original songs were never released and the original titles were unknown). Thus, “A Soldier's Dream” was usually listed as “Lazy Day,” as “On That Long-ago Lazy Day” or as “Suffering; Lullaby” as “Nun's Lullaby” or as “Mother's Love”; “Shape in the Sky” as “Mercy”; “The Little Church” as “Day by Day” (If You Want To) or as “Joy”; “Giving” as “Bread” (although this title is uncertain). The credits of the film lists: “words and music composed and sung by Donovan” and “music coordinated, arranged, and conducted by Ken Thorne.”
The CD you have is the only release I am aware of. However, it has neither the Donovan vocals nor Ken Thorne's beautiful orchestrations. One option would be to acquire the DVD of the actual movie and create a personal CD-R composed of Donovan's and Thorne's music using software such as Power Audio Recorder, which will record any sound on your computer. Of course, this would be very tedious and time consuming. Moreover, there would be some unavoidable dialogue. However, you would be able to listen to the music separately.

Best wishes!

rdaniel, May 25, 2013; 2:56 PM


The actual original "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" main title (sung by
Donovan) was released on a CD single by him. The single was called
"Newest Bath Guide". It was released on Silhouette Records (Cat no.
CDMDKR-3) in 1992. There are three tracks on the CD single: Newest
Bath Guide, Moira McCavendish and Brother Sun, Sister Moon.

markoz12, January 3, 2014; 2:13 AM


I know it has been years since this question was asked.
Go to the web site www.Donovan.ie
It is Donovan's web site. I stumbled across it by accident.
He took the simple iTunes music that he released and put it on a
physical CD. Brother Sun Sister Moon.
For a price he will also personally autograph for you.

paul, August 28, 2019; 11:26 PM

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