Jerry Goldsmith

July 22, 2004 10:06 AM

Film composer Jerry Goldsmith died on Wednesday. At Deconstructing Goldsmith, you can find short and occasionally contentious commentaries on just about all of Goldsmith's scores, including rejected ones.
posted by Prospero (10 comments total)

How odd and tragic that at last night's TypeCon "Type High" in David Peters' retrospective on film titles during the 1960's, I was admiring the musical score to the opening titles of Seconds, which were directed by Saul Bass and scored by Jerry Goldsmith.

It's true — The cinematic greats of the past really *are* all disappearing...
posted by Down10 at 11:47 AM on July 22, 2004

Goldsmith's scores have been the underpinning for a lot of works--his contributions to Star Trek alone will ensure his name will be remembered by future (dare I say next?) generations of geeks. Hell, he's prevented me from not being able to say anything nice about Voyager, as I found the theme for the show lovely and inspiring. And I thought his score for The Sum of All Fears to be excellent. He'll be missed.
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:45 PM on July 22, 2004

He did the music for Secret of NIMH and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, movies which were not-insignificant childhood influences to me. It was through Goldsmith's "Klingon theme" that I first grasped the concept of the first and fifth tones of a musical chord. You couldn't do that with James Horner's Klingon theme.
posted by brownpau at 12:50 PM on July 22, 2004

I wore out my copy of his score to Explorers.
One of the first combination orchestral/synth works that I listened too... along with the soundtrack to Gremlins.
posted by weston at 2:01 PM on July 22, 2004

Very sad, he will be sorely missed. Though on the bright side, there's probably at least five full time film composer jobs that have come available; damn he did a lot of films.
posted by fvw at 2:02 PM on July 22, 2004

Voyager, as I found the theme for the show lovely and inspiring

the voyager theme was the best of them all imo, the most inspiring of the various st shows. it really gave a sense of space and infinity, of being there.

i'd say rest in peace mr. goldsmith, but maybe he'd rather rest in music.
posted by t r a c y at 2:30 PM on July 22, 2004

i'd say rest in peace mr. goldsmith, but maybe he'd rather rest in music.

Wow. That's really cool! I want to rest in music too.
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:42 PM on July 22, 2004

Goldsmith was one of the few film score composers who actually contributed original, memorable melodies and constructs to the art instead of just the same old recycled Holst, Stravinsky and whatever 19th century composers were near at hand. His music for _Lilies of the Fields_ and _A Patch of Blue_ were downright haunting, and he showed a nice hand with modernism in strictly-NOT-by-the-book pieces like the original _Planet of the Apes_.

And I'll bet he'd've beat John Williams arm-wrestling. Any day.
posted by tspae at 6:37 PM on July 22, 2004

A toast...
*(clink)* raising glass silently....
posted by charms55 at 12:42 AM on July 24, 2004

It was through Goldsmith's "Klingon theme" that I first grasped the concept of the first and fifth tones of a musical chord.

Y'know, this weekend I'm going through my music collection to make some custom stadium music for my team in the excellent ESPN NFL 2K5 (only $20, go get it!) and while I was going to use Vader's theme to strike fear into my opponent's hearts, I think I'm going to use the relevant portion of Goldsmith's Klingon march, upon re-listening to it. It doesn't sound EVIL to my ears as the Imperial March does, but rather like fierce warriors going into battle, which is more appropriate.

[end music/football/drama queen musings]
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:24 PM on July 24, 2004