Carl Davis on Chaplin's film music:
The score has copious classical borrowings: Wagner's "Evening Star" from Tannhäuser to evoke starvation; Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee for a blizzard; Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Waltz in a rough dance hall and throughout the film; Wagner's ominous Ring theme for the gold itself. There is some rather anonymous mood music, but one quote really foxed me because it was so superior to all the rest.
Only when I began to research the score did I discover it to be a highly stretched version of a late Brahms Intermezzo. It was, of course, the love theme.
