This new release from Harkit Records out of the UK appears to be the most definitive and complete release yet of Komeda’s brilliant score for Polanski’s 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby. It *appears* to be, but it’s hard to be definitive, because like so much else surrounding Polanski, and particulary this film, the specific details are always somehow shrouded in mystery.

The liner notes to this version contain many compelling factoids such as:

Directed by Roman Polanski, whose pregnant wife, he actress Sharon Tate, was murdered in 1969 by Charles Manson and his followers, who titled their death spree “Helter Skelter” after the song by The Beatles, whose leader, John Lennon, would one day live (and in 1980 be murdered) in the Manhattan apartment building called The Dakota — where Rosemary’s Baby had been filmed.

and

To keep the rituals and chants as realistic as possible, director Roman Polanski had Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan and composer of “The Satanic Bibles,” serve as an assistant in the ritual scenes. In return for his help, LaVey was allowed to play Satan in the “impregnating sequence.”

That’s all well and good, but couldn’t the liner notes tell us something about the difference between the two tracks both called “Main Title” which seem to be alternate versions?? Which one is the actual Main Title?? I’m posting track 1 from the CD. There have been several releases of this soundtrack over the years, and no amount of Googling can sort out the details — accusations abound of re-records, mislabeled tracks, shoddy remastering, bootlegs, etc etc. Suffice to say that this release contains a lot of astounding music, which sounds like it was taken straight from the mag masters of the film. There is also a “jazz” version of the main theme recorded live in a Warsaw club in 1989 which starts out as a breathtaking avant garde vocal interpretation but then devolves into kitsch jazz after the 80 second mark, and two takes of Komeda improvising around the theme at the piano, apparently while writing it. These improvisations are remarkable in their spontaneity and rawness - not a view of the composing process one usually gets on a soundtrack CD. It actually seems unlikely to me that Komeda would have agreed to their release if he were still alive.

Krzysztof Komeda was the Polish Jazz master who scored 65 films, including ten for Roman Polanski, the first being Polanski’s 1958 student short Two Men and A Wardrobe. He died from head injuries sustained in a mysterious accident shortly after completing the score to Rosemary’s Baby. (Anybody know that story? The details on that are also mysteriously impregnable to Google searches).

You can buy this version of the Rosemary’s Baby soundtrack here, or from the label in the UK here. Harkit has also just released another excellent Komeda/Polanski score, The Fearless Vampire Killers, which you can find here and here. Komeda has an official (posthumous) web site here.