Jerry Goldsmith

Started by MN Dave, December 22, 2009, 05:10:48 AM

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MN Dave


vandermolen

"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

jowcol

Just for the record, I ADORE the Alien soundtrack-- at least the more lyrical parts.  I remember seeing it when I was just getting into 20th century symphonic music, and it pulled me in so deep that watching the movie (in, I confess, an inebriated state in front of the largest theater screen in the Washington DC area), became an overwhelming experience.  The opening and "landing" parts really seized me because the music was so much like the Scriabin, Hanson, and other stuff I was so excited about at the time.   I sprained my ankle when the captain bought it-- I jumped when I was in the wrong position.

A couple funny things about that sound track.  First, as many of you know, the quote from Hanson's second at the end.  If I recall, that was not Jerry Goldsmith's idea.  Supposedly Ridley Scott and the editor had serious disagreements about the use of music in the film, and the final version has many cues from ANOTHER soundtrack Goldsmith had written, as well as the Hanson quote. Goldsmith was angry about what happened for the rest of his life.  (The Goldsmith ending is an apotheosis of opening and landing themes, and is very powerful in its own right). 

I must admit that some of teh more dissonant parts of the score worked better for the movie than standalone listening. On my mp3 player, I keep an 18 minute edit of the score that focuses on it's strengths, and It seems that I have a hard time passing it by whenever I'm looking up 20th Century American composers...
"If it sounds good, it is good."
Duke Ellington

snyprrr

Did he do Planet of the Apes? Great primitive stuff!

Mirror Image

Quote from: snyprrr on September 13, 2010, 08:36:49 PM
Did he do Planet of the Apes? Great primitive stuff!

Yes, Goldsmith wrote the music to Planet of the Apes.

lescamil

Anyone here familiar with Goldsmith's concert works? His Music for Orchestra is a twelve tone serialist work, but don't let that deter you. It is thoroughly engaging and has a tangible sense of drama, despite the musical language. He has a few other concert works, such as Christus Apollo and Fireworks, but I haven't gotten to those yet.
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Sergeant Rock

Quote from: MN Dave on December 22, 2009, 05:10:48 AM
I was enjoying the Star Trek: The Motion Picture soundtrack last night

You might like Goldsmith's The 13th Warrior. The track "Old Baghdad" sounds like the Klingons sailing up the Tigris in the Red October  :D  The film is weird though: an Arab teams up with a group of Vikings to save a Caucausian village from stone-age, headhunting cannibals. I didn't make that up  ;D  Great music, though, with a sensational horn-led heroic theme.


Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

MN Dave

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on September 14, 2010, 06:54:25 AM
You might like Goldsmith's The 13th Warrior. The track "Old Baghdad" sounds like the Klingons sailing up the Tigris in the Red October  :D  The film is weird though: an Arab teams up with a group of Vikings to save a Caucausian village from stone-age, headhunting cannibals. I didn't make that up  ;D  Great music, though, with a sensational horn-led heroic theme.


Sarge

Thanks for the tip, Sarge.

Cato

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on September 14, 2010, 06:54:25 AM
You might like Goldsmith's The 13th Warrior. The track "Old Baghdad" sounds like the Klingons sailing up the Tigris in the Red October  :D  The film is weird though: an Arab teams up with a group of Vikings to save a Caucausian village from stone-age, headhunting cannibals. I didn't make that up  ;D  Great music, though, with a sensational horn-led heroic theme.


Sarge

The movie is based on a Michael Crichton novel from the 1970's called Eaters of the Dead, in which it is posited that a surviving group of Neanderthals might have terrorized a group of Vikings in the early Middle Ages.

The journal of Ahmad ibn Fadlan is the basis for Crichton's expanded fantasy.

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_ibn_Fadlan
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

bwv 1080


vandermolen

The opening (and closing) theme for 'Capricorn One' and the 'Alien' and 'Planet of the Apes' music remain my favourites. 'Total Recall' is a good score too.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Benji

Quote from: vandermolen on September 14, 2010, 08:22:49 AM
The opening (and closing) theme for 'Capricorn One' and the 'Alien' and 'Planet of the Apes' music remain my favourites. 'Total Recall' is a good score too.

All of my favourite Goldsmith is the sci-fi work - the ones mentioned above very much (Total Recall is awesome and works extremely well in the film - one of my all-time favourite tongue-in-cheek sci-fi action flicks!), but also Outlander and Star Trek TMP (and to a lesser extent the other Trek scores).

Perhaps my favourite of all time is The Twilight Zone Movie score. The music he wrote for the 2nd episode of the film, with the boy who has the power to have anything he wants come true and traps a fake 'family', has some of the most touching music i've heard for film. And the Goldsmith-meets-Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre-esque ending is super-fun too, scoring John Lithgow's hilarious hammy over-acting in the gremin-on-the-wing segment.

(Is there an award for most hyphenating in a post?)

karlhenning

Gosh, I need to revisit The Twilight Zone movie.

Cato

As part of the anti-child mania found in the cinematic milieu of the late '60's and '70's (Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, Carrie, etc.) a movie came out with Gregory Peck of all people about the Anti-Christ called The Omen.

The score by Jerry Goldsmith is fantastic, including a Hymn to Satan   >:D   in Latin (Ave, Satane!)   >:D

The movie is a potboiler, but has some interesting touches: a demonic dog pants the words "Versus Christus" (i.e. Anti-Christ) as he prowls around in search of Gregory Peck.
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

karlhenning

I've been meaning to watch The Omen, particularly knowing that Gregory Peck was in it . . . .

Brahmsian

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 14, 2010, 11:44:25 AM
I've been meaning to watch The Omen, particularly knowing that Gregory Peck was in it . . . .

It is a great movie.  And the score to the film is outstanding!  :)

vandermolen

Quote from: ChamberNut on September 14, 2010, 12:39:31 PM
It is a great movie.  And the score to the film is outstanding!  :)

Omen 2 has a great 'Black Mass' score by Jerry Goldsmith.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

snyprrr


Sergeant Rock

Quote from: snyprrr on September 14, 2010, 01:58:01 PM
ummm,...it's 2010! ::)

Karl exists in a very different temporal dimension  ;D

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

karlhenning

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on September 15, 2010, 04:08:26 AM
Karl exists in a very different temporal dimension  ;D

Sarge

And . . . loving it!