Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning composer Jerry Goldsmith has long been considered one of the most respected Hollywood music composers for film and television. He created classic compositions for such films as Chinatown, Patton, Planet of the Apes and The Sand Pebbles. Goldsmith was in demand among filmmakers, praised by critics and adored by the Hollywood community. He was nominated for an Oscar 18 times and won one for his work in 1976. Read more at los-angeles-trend.
Jerry Goldsmith may not be as famous as Ennio Morricone, John Williams or Hans Zimmer, but everyone knows his music. With his talent, the composer could create music for any type of film, from family comedies to horror and historical epics to science fiction.
JERRY’S PARENTS DEVELOPED HIS MUSICAL TALENT FROM AN EARLY AGE
A classic of film music, the outstanding American composer and conductor Jerry Goldsmith was born on February 10, 1929, in Los Angeles. His father, Morris, was a civil engineer and his mother, Tessa Goldsmith (born Rappaport), was an artist. His parents began developing their son’s musical abilities from a very early age, and by the age of 6, the talented Jerry was excellent at playing the piano.
He enjoyed playing this instrument and even intended to pursue a career as a pianist. At the age of fourteen, he studied composition and piano with Jakob Gimpel. However, he later became interested in counterpoint, music theory and the basics of musical composition that were taught by composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. The teacher said that the boy could write music himself, which determined the future of the young man.
After entering the University of Southern California, Jerry studied under another famous composer, Hungarian “veteran of Hollywood music” Miklós Rózsa. He was the one who awakened in Goldsmith a love for cinema and a passion for writing music for films. The young composer’s first movie was the Western Black Patch.
In 1962, he met influential film composer Alfred Newman, who saw his talents and helped him get a job at Universal Studios. From that time on, Goldsmith worked as a film composer and joined Twentieth Century Fox, quickly redefining contemporary film scoring. Throughout the 1970s, alongside his film scoring work, the composer signed numerous TV contracts. He became one of the few composers to successfully blend music for both movie and television in his work.
SOUNDTRACKS WRITTEN BY JERRY GOLDSMITH ARE PERPETUATED IN CINEMA HISTORY
It is difficult to list all the film and television works that feature Goldsmith’s music. Over his 47-year career, he has composed wonderful soundtracks for more than 250 movies.
Goldsmith created the score for the drama Papillon, which tells about the life of French criminal Henri Charrière, portrayed by Steve McQueen, who was convicted of a crime he did not commit. Goldsmith managed to create a main theme that would fit perfectly in almost any French movie. The score for R. Polanski’s last American film, Chinatown, was composed in a gloomy and melancholic jazz style. Although it was Goldsmith’s signature style, it added additional layers to the film.
The chilling music for The Omen earned the composer his first and only Oscar Award for Best Original Score. Goldsmith also wrote scores for two sequels to this movie. The soundtrack with oriental motifs for The Wind and the Lion, starring Sean Connery as the leader of Moroccan rebels, Ahmed Raisuni, marked Goldsmith’s eighth and third consecutive nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Jerry Goldsmith composed another score for the iconic Alien franchise. There are two versions of the theme song for the film credits. One version was played in the movie, and another was released specifically on the soundtrack. This composition, like with the films The Wind and the Lion and The Omen, was also nominated for a Grammy Award. Inspired by John Williams’ work in Star Wars in 1979, Jerry composed music for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which remains one of the best and most beautiful soundtracks in the composer’s career.
“It’s a Long Road” became the theme song not only for the first movie about John Rambo with Sylvester Stallone in the lead role but also for the subsequent parts of the franchise. There is an instrumental and a vocal version of this song.
The composer created an epic score for Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi action film Total Recall, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The producers initially planned to record the music for the movie in Munich because local musicians were cheaper. However, Goldsmith was not satisfied with their quality, so the recording was moved to London.
The dark and mysterious score made Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct even more intriguing. Jerry himself called it one of the most challenging and one of the best he had created in his career, mentioning that the director was demanding. Goldsmith received his final Oscar nomination for his work on Disney’s animated film Mulan, which had very diverse thematic material.
The great soundtrack to the film The Mummy turned out to be one of the last in Jerry Goldsmith’s career, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 75.
As you can see, Jerry succeeded in both chamber soundtracks and epic “orchestral canvases”. Moreover, his music contributes to the film’s overall excellence.
THE COMPOSER RECEIVED DOZENS OF AWARDS DURING HIS CAREER
Goldsmith was nominated for the Emmy Awards seven times and won five awards for his work. He also received nine Golden Globe nominations for film scores and seven Grammy nominations. There were also dozens of nominations for his soundtracks for various TV and film projects.
Television experts duly appreciated Goldsmith’s work, awarding him the Emmy Award five times, including for the music in the series Star Trek and The Twilight Zone. A distinctive feature of Goldsmith’s film music is the emphasis on tense moments of action with the help of string instruments and bass drums.
Goldsmith also wrote music for symphony orchestras
Goldsmith’s music can be heard almost every hour and every day around the world. Over his more than 50-year career in Hollywood, Goldsmith composed scores for almost 200 films, over a dozen famous TV projects and up to 20 TV movies and miniseries.
In addition to his busy schedule in the film and television industry, Jerry Goldsmith also created music for concerts. Among his symphonic works is the cantata “Christus Apollo” based on the lyrics by Ray Bradbury, narrated by Charlton Heston and later by Sir Anthony Hopkins.
Right after the September 11 attacks, Jerry Goldsmith wrote a commemorative elegy. He performed at the Hollywood Bowl just a few days after the tragedy.
In 1998, he accepted an offer from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to create an anthem for their annual awards ceremony. The fanfare for the Oscars debuted at the 70th annual Academy Awards and is still played at the ceremony every year.
Jerry Goldsmith conducted the largest orchestras, performing his works around the globe. In the United States, he directed such orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.
Internationally, he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Seville Orchestra and the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan.
