cinemabon
07-26-2004, 03:48 AM
There is an aging population in Hollywood consisting of the second guard of film composers: John Barry, Maurice Jarre, Elmer Bernstein, Andre Previn, John Williams, and Jerry Goldsmith. This was the core group that learned from the first generation of film composers. They picked up the baton and have carried it for nearly fifty years. Only in the past two decades have a new series of serious composers emerged, like Danny Elfman, Bruce Broughton, Howard Shore, and others.
Jerry Goldsmith came from the “old” film school at USC. A graduate student fresh out of school, Goldsmith joined CBS television and composed for years on weekly TV shows like The Twilight Zone, Playhouse 90, Perry Mason, and Have Gun Will Travel, lending his excellence to the level those shows brought to television. In 1962, an aging Alfred Newman, head of Fox’s music department for over twenty years and always interested in bringing in fresh musical voices and talents, gave Goldsmith his first break into feature films. Goldsmith was an innovator and experimenter from the start, bringing in new ideas or expounding on old ones.
Through the years and contributions to over 300 film and television projects, Goldsmith has been nominated 18 times for an Academy Award, but only given the prize once for the strikingly original work, The Omen. (Surprisingly, he was nominated against his old friend Bernard Hermann who passed away that year, splitting the vote between two films and giving the award to Goldsmith instead).Based on themes similar to those by Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Goldsmith brought innovation to the screen in The Omen by combining a haunting refrain mixing chorus and orchestra in gothic operatic overtones hinting of evil, giving a voice to the devil himself. This approach in film had never been tried before. The result is that Goldsmith’s original film composition since then has been copied time and again by Hollywood’s finest, including Danny Elfman, Howard Shore, and many others. In 1970, Goldsmith used an off key organ and echoing horn blasts along with a high pitched piccolo to open the film Patton before bringing in the characteristic “march theme” that opens so many films; a characteristic Williams later did six years later, then repeated again and again, making a march theme as the opening refrain for a countless number of his projects.
Goldsmith was versatile, composing for a wide variety of subjects, ranging from drama classics like The Sand Pebbles, Papillon, Chinatown, and The Wind and the Lion; to science fiction with Planet of the Apes, Alien, Poltergeist, and Star Trek (his ‘Trek’ theme being the most easily recognized march next to William’s Star Wars march). In the 1990's, Goldsmith will long be remembered for his Basic Instinct score, reminiscent of Bernard Hermann’s Psycho in that it lent itself to musically describing a character killing using an ice pick. I personally enjoyed his score for The Shadow, which Universal then proceeded to butcher on the DVD.
In the past year, Goldsmith suffered from cancer, and died on July 21st this year. His contribution to the advancement of motion picture music is immense. Fortunately for us all, his scores will live on forever. Sadly, Jerry is no longer here to give us more of his beauty through music. A great musician has left us, and Hollywood is the poorer for it.
Jerry Goldsmith came from the “old” film school at USC. A graduate student fresh out of school, Goldsmith joined CBS television and composed for years on weekly TV shows like The Twilight Zone, Playhouse 90, Perry Mason, and Have Gun Will Travel, lending his excellence to the level those shows brought to television. In 1962, an aging Alfred Newman, head of Fox’s music department for over twenty years and always interested in bringing in fresh musical voices and talents, gave Goldsmith his first break into feature films. Goldsmith was an innovator and experimenter from the start, bringing in new ideas or expounding on old ones.
Through the years and contributions to over 300 film and television projects, Goldsmith has been nominated 18 times for an Academy Award, but only given the prize once for the strikingly original work, The Omen. (Surprisingly, he was nominated against his old friend Bernard Hermann who passed away that year, splitting the vote between two films and giving the award to Goldsmith instead).Based on themes similar to those by Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Goldsmith brought innovation to the screen in The Omen by combining a haunting refrain mixing chorus and orchestra in gothic operatic overtones hinting of evil, giving a voice to the devil himself. This approach in film had never been tried before. The result is that Goldsmith’s original film composition since then has been copied time and again by Hollywood’s finest, including Danny Elfman, Howard Shore, and many others. In 1970, Goldsmith used an off key organ and echoing horn blasts along with a high pitched piccolo to open the film Patton before bringing in the characteristic “march theme” that opens so many films; a characteristic Williams later did six years later, then repeated again and again, making a march theme as the opening refrain for a countless number of his projects.
Goldsmith was versatile, composing for a wide variety of subjects, ranging from drama classics like The Sand Pebbles, Papillon, Chinatown, and The Wind and the Lion; to science fiction with Planet of the Apes, Alien, Poltergeist, and Star Trek (his ‘Trek’ theme being the most easily recognized march next to William’s Star Wars march). In the 1990's, Goldsmith will long be remembered for his Basic Instinct score, reminiscent of Bernard Hermann’s Psycho in that it lent itself to musically describing a character killing using an ice pick. I personally enjoyed his score for The Shadow, which Universal then proceeded to butcher on the DVD.
In the past year, Goldsmith suffered from cancer, and died on July 21st this year. His contribution to the advancement of motion picture music is immense. Fortunately for us all, his scores will live on forever. Sadly, Jerry is no longer here to give us more of his beauty through music. A great musician has left us, and Hollywood is the poorer for it.