Jerry Goldsmith, composer of greatest Hollywood hits

Recognized as a great composer of film soundtrack music, Goldsmith established himself in the 1960s as one of the most relevant figures on the Hollywood scene. Trained in classical composition, musician, scholar and incessant modernist, he takes his inspiration from the great classical composers of the 20th century, and integrates innovation into his contemporary style.

He is considered the voice of the avant-garde in the North American market, for his compositions for both film and television. He has received seventeen nominations for the Oscars, although he has only won one award, in 1976, for The prophecy.

Image owned by @en_10_minutos

Who is Jerry Goldsmith?

Of Jewish origin, Jerry King Goldsmith is one of the most important and recognized composers in Hollywood. He learned to play the piano at the age of six and at fourteen he studied composition, theory and counterpoint with the teachers Jakob Gimpel and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, both members of the European Jewish musical tradition.

He studied at the University of Southern California with maestro Miklós Rózsa, who wrote the score for the Alfred Hitchcock film Spellbound in 1945. Goldsmith became interested in writing music inspired by this composition.

Jerry Goldsmith's energetic music did not stagnate in any style, ranging from jazz to great symphonic works, through folk, ethnic music and even the synthesizer. He defended using music in films only when it was strictly necessary, and used his own score of patton, in which there is only half an hour of music, despite being a film that exceeds two hours of footage.

He participated in all film genres throughout his career, although it was in fantasy cinema where he achieved his greatest successes. The trilogy of Planet of the Apes, that of The prophecy, Logan's Run, Atmosphere zero, Alien, the eighth passenger either ChallengeYoor total, brought him respect and admiration, in addition to the two films of Gremlins.

Works of composer Jerry Goldsmith

Jerry Goldsmith made his first composition for the television series studio one in 1948 and for a decade he continued writing music for legendary series such as Gunsmoke (1955), Playhouse 90 (1956) or The twilight Zone (1959). At that stage his first film with credits was born, titled Black patch (1957), since two years earlier he had participated in the soundtrack of No Bother to Knock.

The first horror film for which he composed the soundtrack was Alien, the eighth passenger (1979), a cinema classic and cult film directed by Ridley Scott. The horror genre brought him his greatest satisfaction. Three years earlier he had won the Oscar for The prophecy (1976) and would later write for the unforgettable Poltergeist (1982) and the second part of Hitchcock's great classic, Psycho II (1983).

Likewise, the action genre allowed him to participate in some of the most memorable blockbusters of the 80s and early 90s such as Challenge total (1989) or previously several films in the saga Rambo.

Image property of FilmAffinity

Goldsmith: awards and prizes received

A data that reflects the Goldsmith's relevance in the history of film music is that, between 1962 and 1998, it received seventeen nominations for the Oscar Award, in the Best Score category. Although the fact is that he only won the award in one of them, for The prophecy (1977) by Richard Donner, a trilogy, among the few that have managed to transcend the genre, apart from The seed of the devil (1968) and The Exorcist (1973). His work on Donner's film also earned him a Best Original Song nomination for the title track, Ave Satani, one of the few songs in a foreign language, in this case, Latin, to be nominated.

Goldsmith's list of Grammy nominations reaches six, with The Man From U.N.C.L.E., QB VII, the wind and the Lion, The Omen, The alien and The Slaves. And at the Golden Globes he reached eight times, for the films seven dayAce in May, The Sand Pebbles, Chinatown, Extraterrestrial, Star Trek: lto movieass, Under Fire, Basic Instinct, LA Confidential and Mulan, a nomination shared with Matthew Wilder and David Zippel.

Among the multitude of recognitions he has received, the BAFTA Awards for Best Film Score, awarded by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In this case, he was nominated four times, for Chinatown, The wind and the lionn, Extraterrestrial and LA Confidential. And as for the Primetime Emmy Awards, after obtaining seven nominations, he won the award five times, as exceptional achievement in musical composition for a special in QB VII and babyand; exceptional achievement in musical composition by The red pony; exceptional achievement in musical composition for a limited series or special, for Masada and main title theme song award for Star Trek: Voyager.

Best Jerry Goldsmith Soundtracks

Making a selection of the ten best Jerry Goldsmith soundtracks entails great difficulty, but we could highlight the most interesting ones for their artistic quality, among more than 121 works recognized within his filmography, and counting compositions for films and adaptations. His arrival to fame gave him the opportunity to design what would be a bizarre and strange score, Planet of the Apes (1968), a mixture of apocalyptic passage and desolate landscape. Simple, eerie and beautiful, it puts its keys in the wind, with a hypnotic oboe and strings and percussion that shudder.

As we said, Ave Santani, from the 1976 film The prophecy, earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, with which he showed the public the strange sensation of finding ourselves surrounded by followers of Satan. Sometimes atonal and other times in a serious minor key, they rise to an increasingly hysterical crescendo.

Image property of FilmAffinity

Another of Goldsmith's unforgettable compositions is that of Alien, the eighth passenger (1979). Directed by Lionel Newman and performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, it offers tones of a romantic and mysterious feeling, which generate the atmosphere of terror and suspense that Ridley Scott was looking for. A few years earlier, in 1970, when Franklin J. Schaffner tackled the project of patton He did not hesitate, and ran in search of Jerry Goldsmith, for his good work in Planet of the Apes.

The original music of ChallengeTotal (1990) has a special anecdote in our country. Many of us had heard Goldsmith's score almost unintentionally, since it had been part of our imagination when it was played before each game that was broadcast on CANAL+.

If we continue our route through Goldsmith's discography in order of relevance, we find his work in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). His relationship with science fiction since 1960 led him to this galactic saga, coinciding with another of his most significant works: Alien, the eighth passenger.

At the end of the nineties, he had the opportunity to work with Disney in the production of Mulan, with an excellent composition and a soundtrack with a 'flavor' of oriental culture and music. It features the songs of Matthew Wilder and the main theme is 'Reflection', performed by singer Christina Aguilera.

Going back to the year 1973, we find Papillon, a two and a half hour film, for which the composer wrote a short but exciting score, which is based on a main theme with a French air and which refers, among other things, to the desire for freedom.

For the end, we have left two great films and soundtracks: Ba instinctsico, whose main theme alternates two minor chords in correspondence of the distant third and preponderance of the cello; and Poltergeist, produced by Spielberg, who when not directing gave free rein to composers like Goldsmith or Silvestri, to the detriment of his beloved and admired John Williams.

The Jerry Goldsmith Awards and their importance in film music

Film Music Festival annually awards the Jerry Goldsmith Awards, internationally consolidated after having acquired a well-deserved reputation among creators and fans. Since its inception in 2006, its objective has been to recognize the work of musicians in the audiovisual sector, especially those who, despite having an extensive professional career, have not obtained the recognition they deserve. Thus, the career of the composer who gives them their name is honored in some way.

The Jerry Goldsmith Awards are awarded in nine categories -music in full-length format, short film, video game, documentary soundtrack, television, advertising/promotion, song, performing arts and free creation, in addition to a tenth award for the best composer of each edition.

The entire production of the Californian composer, from the late 1950s until 2003, when he wrote his last work for cinema, were years of priceless services dedicated to the seventh art. His contributions on television and in other media were scarce, so he dedicated himself body and soul to cinema, which he adored. He dominated all genres, there being none for which he had not composed music and with great success, defining himself as a versatile and versatile composer. His soundtracks, especially those of action, science fiction and horror, have not been surpassed even today and continue to be a reference for new composers.