Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Film Music

Remembering Jerry Goldsmith Film Music Legend

When he was a kid, Jerry Goldsmith loved going to the movies to enjoy the music – just the way I loved going to the movies as a kid to enjoy Jerry Goldsmith!

Goldsmith, born on this date in 1929, wrote indelible scores for dozens of films, such as “The Sand Pebbles” (1966), “The Blue Max” (1966), “The Flim-Flam Man” (1967), “Planet of the Apes” (1968), “Patton” (1970), “Papillon” (1973), “Chinatown” (1974), “The Wind and the Lion” (1975), “MacArthur” (1977), “The Boys from Brazil” (1978), “The Great Train Robbery” (1979), “Alien” (1979, butchered in sound editing), and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979).

For television, he wrote for “Dr. Kildare,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “The Waltons.”

By the 1980s, the films began to get weaker. It seemed like Goldsmith was always getting tossed the projects John Williams passed on, or cheap knockoffs of Williams’ successes. By his final decade, he was stuck writing for such garbage as “The Mummy” (1999), “The Haunting” remake (1999), and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” (2003). A notable exception was “L.A. Confidential” (1997), but rarely were his later projects up to his talent.

Goldsmith had a reputation for being able to compose at white heat, so he was frequently called upon to write replacement scores for films like “The River Wild” (1994), “Air Force One” (1997) and “The 13th Warrior” (1999). He composed and recorded the score to “Chinatown,” one of the best of the 1970s, in only ten days.

Incredibly, he was honored with but a single Academy Award (of 18 nominations), for his influential score to “The Omen” (1976). Goldsmith died in 2004, at the age of 75. If he were to come back today, he would mop the joint with all the moody droners and computer noodlers, with their narrow palettes and paucity of inspiration.

Happy birthday, Jerry. I hope they’re still making good movies wherever you are.

Goldsmith discusses film music, circa 1986

Documentary from 1993

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUemenAQYQ4

Introducing and conducting his music with the National Philharmonic in 1989

Introducing and conducting his music, and others’, with the BBC Concert Orchestra in 1994

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR6c8QWIh90

Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqofviC4PG4

February 10, 2024
Sci-Fi Heroes Postponed Tune in to Film Music

The heroes are on hold!

Due to forces beyond our control (groundhogs munching on the power cables?), Roy and I regret to have to postpone our parallel countdown of favorite “Heroes of Sci-Fi.”

However, that frees up your evening so that you can enjoy music from semi-documentaries on my film music show, “Picture Perfect,” courtesy of composers Aaron Copland (“The Cummington Story”), Virgil Thomson (the Pulitzer Prize winning “Louisiana Story”), Ulysses Kay (“The Quiet One”), and Morton Gould (“Windjammer”). I’ll be jamming on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon, tonight at 8:00 EST/5:00 PST.

Stream it here:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

Then keep watching the skies for a make-up date for Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. We can’t wait to compare our lists of sci-fi and fantasy heroes and to read and share your comments. It’s guaranteed to be an “off” night, whenever it is! In the meantime, have a relaxing evening, and thank you for your understanding!

February 2, 2024
Carl Davis A Titan of Film Music Passes

The sound of silents is dead.

In addition to providing original music for countless silent classics, which he often conducted live with screenings of the films, and frequently recorded, Carl Davis wrote music for the television series “The World at War,” “Pride and Prejudice” (with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth), and countless others.

Among his scores for contemporary film were those for “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons), which was honored with a BAFTA for Best Film Music, Ken Russell’s adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rainbow,” and Roger Corman’s “Frankenstein Unbound.” Surely, his most ambitious undertaking on behalf of the silents was his work on a restoration of Abel Gance’s epic “Napoleon,” for which he composed and arranged nearly five hours of music.

He assisted Paul McCartney in the composition of the “Liverpool Oratorio.” He also wrote orchestral concert works and music for the ballet.

Though he made Britain his home since 1961, Davis was actually born in Brooklyn. He attended Bard College, where he studied composition with Paul Nordoff. He also studied with Hugo Kauder and later with Per Nørgard. Early on, he obtained valuable conducting experience with organizations such as the New York City Opera and the Robert Shaw Chorale. In 1959, his revue “Diversions” won an off-Broadway award.

He traveled to the Edinburgh Festival in 1961. His success there led to an invitation to compose music for the BBC satirical series “That Was the Week That Was.” Other TV and radio commissions followed, and Davis made a healthy living for himself in the U.K. He enjoyed a close relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

At the time of his death, he was 86 years old.

By coincidence, Carl Davis will conduct music by Charlie Chaplin for “Modern Times” on my syndicated film music show, “Picture Perfect,” tomorrow on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon. Stream it on the East Coast this Friday at 8:00 PM EDT (5:00 PDT).

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

R.I.P. Carl Davis.

“The World at War”

“Pride and Prejudice” (with Melvyn Tan on the fortepiano)

On composing the score to “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”

“Napoleon”

Collaborating with Paul McCartney on “Liverpool Oratorio”

“Liverpool Oratorio” (complete)

An interview with Carl Davis

August 3, 2023
John Williams’ Genius Beyond the Screen

I’m a little late in sharing this – the article ran yesterday – but I couldn’t agree more with the premise. Anyone who sneers at John Williams’ indelible themes doesn’t understand the full extent of his artistry, and those who continue to approach film music as mere grist for pops concerts (especially in “pops” arrangements) is doing film music at its best a serious disservice. I wish someone would have the guts to present extended passages from these scores without the images, so that listeners can appreciate more fully what the composer has achieved. Yeah, they’re not symphonies, but it takes a special kind of talent to make this type of music work as often as John Williams has. If there’s anyone else alive that can maintain this balancing act between the dramatically appropriate and musically satisfying as well as he does, I don’t know of it.

The article is written by Frank Lehman, Associate Professor of Music at Tufts University. It’s refreshing to see an appreciation piece written by someone who understands the inner workings of the music and can actually express himself in musical terms. Too often, these kinds of articles are written by well-meaning fans, who don’t really possess a larger perspective or the necessary tools to communicate musically. Not to trash the fans. Williams is who he is he is, in large part, because of them. But if his music is to be taken seriously, we need people like Lehman.

The article is interactive, with plenty of film and sound clips to illustrate the writer’s points. I wouldn’t want all newspaper articles to be done like this, but for a music piece, especially one about how music works with the movies, this was very well done. Great job, and a fun read, @[100059174186752:2048:The New York Times]!

July 8, 2023
Mahler in Hollywood Ken Russell’s Biopic

If you ever thought Mahler sounds an awful lot like film music, well, a lot of composers of Hollywood’s Golden Age – Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold spring to mind – were forged in Mahler’s Vienna. They shared his sensibility, to some extent, and boiled it down into a pop cultural gulasch when they settled in Hollywood.

Ken Russell’s “Mahler” (1974) goes one step further in marrying Mahler’s actual music to the director’s poetic fancies and metaphorical musings about the composer and his life. So don’t look at it as strict biography, though there are certainly truths to be divined from it.

Next to some of Russell’s other composer biopics (“Lisztomania,” for example), this one is positively restrained by comparison. Still, Russell being Russell, he couldn’t help but interpolate a Nazi dominatrix – presented as a silent movie parody, no less.

Happy birthday (?), Gustav Mahler!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGq7TFoxB4E

Watch for Oliver Reed in a brief cameo as a train conductor. Allegedly, his payment was three bottles of Dom Perignon.

July 7, 2023

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