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I've always thought this was a great Italian mandolin melody -- and it is. But it was written by an Italian pianist, Nino Rota, who passed away in 1979. I've been thinking I should lean it sometime and sometime turned out to be yesterday!
"Theme from the Godfather" is what most call this haunting melody but "Speak Softly Love" is the actual name of the music from which it comes. Later, words were added to the melody by Larry Kusik and Andy Williams had a hit with it.
Of course, the fact that most call it "Theme from the The Godfather (a blockbuster motion picture from 1972) is reasonable, I suppose, because the tune was actually composed as the theme song for the movie.
As to where the inspiration for the melody comes from is a little confusing because this famous movie theme closely resembles a part written for the opera Don Pasquale by Donizetti (1797-1848) and also reminds some of a passage from the Overture to "La Forza del Destino" by Verdi (1813-1901). As well, Rota himself had written a similar melody as the theme song for a 1958 film called Fortunella. So this melody has been around for a while in one form or another and as seen a lot of duty.
The tune is typically played in Bm or Dm and I chose to learn it in the latter key -- I generated the guitar chords using TablEdit software and it is played here at an Adagio tempo of about 60 bpm -- some play it faster but I like it this way.
I'm playing on a copy of a 1924 Gibson F-5 made by an unknown luthier in southern Ohio around 1970 -- I'd really like to know who made it as it has exceptional tone & good projection. It is strung with D'Addario J74's and played with a Wegen TF-140 pick.

I own no rights to this song but suggest that the copyright disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allows fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. This video was made solely for the purpose of study, review, critical analysis or education purposes.