Remembering The Gorgeous Goldsmith (1929-2004)

[crocodile 9,352]

It is 8 years today. Let's celebrate the man's legacy, people.

Karol

[Maglorfin 214]

Thank you for the music, dear !

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 11,275]

I was a work when his passing was mentioned on the radio news. I felt so sad.

[Thor 9,323]

He, he....'gorgeous'.....that was Benny Herrmann's nickname for him, wasn't it?

[chuck 155]

I thought it was Lionel Newman's.

[Marian Schedenig 10,838]

As far as I remember, Williams said "we used to call him Gorgeous" after Goldsmith's death. So I assumed that regardless of who originated it, it was Goldsmith's standard nickname among his peers.

[chuck 155]

And he was, no doubt about that.

[stewdog1 50]

I miss him dearly.

[chuck 155]

[stewdog1 50]

[media=]

That is a phenomenal performance of that piece.

By the way, is that concert available on CD? or MP3? Listening to some of it and it is awesome!

[flytrumpet 0]

8 years....wow. I guess I have been here a long time. Without posting for a while. Better late than never I guess. That being said, JG was definitely a top as far as movie scoring is concerned.

[Koray Savas 2,255]

A legend in the industry. I don't think there's a film score fan out there that doesn't love at least one of his scores.

[nightscape94 967]

My interest in Williams has lead me to many great composers that otherwise would have escaped me since they were primarily embedded in the film scoring scene. Goldsmith was amazing, and I really should spend more time with his music.

[stewdog1 50]

My interest in Williams has lead me to many great composers that otherwise would have escaped me since they were primarily embedded in the film scoring scene. Goldsmith was amazing, and I really should spend more time with his music.

Indeed

[flytrumpet 0]

Before I go to bed, I shall listen to one of my favorite goldsmith cues, The Enterprise, from TMP. Really good stuff.

[chuck 155]

I just finished listening to his score from The Ghost and The Darkness the other day. Totally awesome listening experience, I tell you that.

[Incanus 5,882]

To Jerry!

Has it really been that long already. It was a sad day. One of the most unique and powerful voices in film music whose music I discovered shortly after Maestro Williams' and it has stayed me ever since. May your music live forever Mr. Goldsmith!

Papillon

[Marcus 395]

A marvellous and very important composer, and a phenomenally good reader of film. I truly wish he would have spent more time writing music beyond cinema; his dramatic instincts would have served him well in other fields, I believe. That being said, his film music legacy lives on, and is an inspiration to all of us.

I had the privelege of meeting him once in London, and he seemed a very sweet person, there was an aura of tremendous warmth about him; he seemed genuinely touched when I told him of a piece of mine that I had dedicated to him, and I feel he never quite got the recognition he deserved from the classical music world.

So much of his music works incredibly well outside the context for which it was written, there is a very unique sense of structure to all his scores, a kind of symphonic conception of the score entire. Very often, his scores will contain really only two or three main elements that are then separated and explored singly, before ultimately being joined to form what might serve as a "main theme". Goldsmith was actually a far more contrapuntal musical thinker than what one might suspect upon an initial listen; there is a deceptively streamlined quality to his musical surfaces, which got even more and more "simplified" in the last decades of his career. I say 'deceptively', because I think Goldsmith's "point" was often not the material at hand, but rather the exploration of what kind of mileage you could get out of these devices. There is a lot to be learnt from him!

[Joni Wiljami 1,237]

Thank you for the beautiful music, Jerry.

I personally feel little bit sad for Mr. Goldsmith because of the quality of the films he got to score during his career.

What a waste of enormous talent!

The biggest problem for me is the movies he scored, I only love Alien and Papillon, like Coma, The Boys from Brazil and Gremlins. Piteous.

[Marian Schedenig 10,838]

I keep repeating this, but I think the quality of Goldsmith's movies is underrated. He may have scored an unusually large number of crappy movies, but don't forget he was a workaholic. There's still a sizable number of enjoyable, famous and well regarded movies in there. Just think of his collaborations with Schaffner, Crichton, Dante and Verhoeven, for example. And then there's a huge number of smaller films, especially earlier in his career, which I only know from the CD booklets. Few of them are remembered today, but they generally don't sound like bad films. And very often, they seem to have been pretty much what Goldsmith always preferred to score in the first place (i.e. character based pieces, as opposed to the action stuff he became famous for).

[crocodile 9,352]

I was listening to First Knight the other day and, while not my favourite of his, it struck me how timeless this score sounds. It would serve the film in the 50's and wouldn't be out of place in 2012 epic. It feels both old and new. Goldsmith had that unique gift.

Karol

[Joni Wiljami 1,237]

I keep repeating this, but I think the quality of Goldsmith's movies is underrated. He may have scored an unusually large number of crappy movies, but don't forget he was a workaholic. There's still a sizable number of enjoyable, famous and well regarded movies in there. Just think of his collaborations with Schaffner, Crichton, Dante and Verhoeven, for example. And then there's a huge number of smaller films, especially earlier in his career, which I only know from the CD booklets. Few of them are remembered today, but they generally don't sound like bad films. And very often, they seem to have been pretty much what Goldsmith always preferred to score in the first place (i.e. character based pieces, as opposed to the action stuff he became famous for).

My point was that he scored a large number of bad films and those films that wasn't that bad just happens to be films I dislike personally.

Like The First Knight Croc just mentioned there, the film I didn't like have kept me away from a probably good score.

An opposite example is Thomas Newman, I like almost every film or TV series he's composed, it is easy like to him.

That's why he is my favorite composer after Williams. Of still alive ones.

[chuck 155]

Must be the reason why he only got 18 Oscar noms and only one win.

[Marian Schedenig 10,838]

I never even watched that. I watched plenty of bad films scored by Goldsmith, but I don't let that distract me from enjoying the music.

[Xander Harris 8,496]

The lord has him conducting The Landing from Alien nightly.

[chuck 155]

Or Ave Satani.

[crocodile 9,352]

The lord has him conducting The Landing from Alien nightly.

Alien sounds amazing when played live!

Karol

[Incanus 5,882]

Now that I think about it, it is sad that I have never heard any of Jerry Goldsmith's music live.

I am looking at you Finnish orchestras!

When I listen to Jerry Goldsmith's scores they do as Marcus above said exhibit a wonderful structure in which the composer explores these few musical ideas through multiple variations and draws them together into interesting permutations and combinations. This is as valid and personal way of working as are Williams' often multi leitmotivic scoring practices. Goldsmith was also very much like Williams, a master at finding the core of the film and distilling it into musical form. He usually adeptly found the underlying layer, the unsaid or unseen which he then conveyed poetically through his scores. I have come to respect Goldsmith's daring experimentations in synthesizers and unorthodox instrumentation as even though they were not always highly succesful they pushed the envelope in film scoring and what was possible in the sound of film score medium. And when they worked they were unprecedentedly rousing, pulse pounding, hair raising, lyrical and beautiful inventions that surprised you with their originality.

[Joni Wiljami 1,237]

Hey we have played Star Trek! You wasn't there?

[publicist 4,649]

PS: GORGEOUS was Lionel Newman's idea and by no means a compliment, as the aborted Goldsmith bio by his daughter testifies:

"“I remember nights around the piano at our house, when Dad (Goldsmith and John (Williams) were friends, and the families hung out together. Now, there’s nothing social. It’s so weird; Dad talks about this competition with John for Lionel Newman’s affection.”

“Lionel had the power to get these guys pictures,” Anna reminded me, “but Lionel was a miserable, mean guy.”

Alex would tell Anna about Lionel “holding court” with Emil in his office, “and Jerry would walk in, and Lionel would be nice to his face. But the second Jerry left the room, Lionel would stab him in the back. He would call Jerry, ‘Geraldine’ and mimic him, like he was gay.”

Anna swatted at a fly on the table. “Alex would get up and say, ‘I’m not sticking around for this shit,’ but Alex wasn’t immune from Lionel‘s meanness either. When Alex won the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Lionel said it wasn’t necessary to do the photo montage behind Alex that usually went with the presentation.”

Anna stabbed the tart and picked off a large strawberry. “Lionel was a jealous, mean guy, and John became the favorite because with his personality, he’s the diplomat; he can pull himself out of situations. But John had enough of Lionel too, finally.”"

[chuck 155]

Wow. That's news to me.

[Incanus 5,882]

I remember reading this piece of the unfinished biography when it was still up in the internet. Obviously Lionel Newman was quite a mean fellow when he wanted to and it is a shame if this competition drove a wedge between these composers somehow. Lionel also comes off as a bit of a bully really, and bully with power is an unfortunate combination. And yes I would imagine Williams being the ultimate diplomat of film scoring scene, being polite and mild when other composers might have just walked away.

[chuck 155]

I read in the wiki that Lionel was intensely jealous of JG's female following in the Fox Department. Reading this bit of Lionel made me think of Randy Newman who sometimes came off as a grouch in some pubic appearances. Probably he got his attitude from his dear old Uncle Lionel.

[Incanus 5,882]

I read in the wiki that Lionel was intensely jealous of JG's female following in the Fox Department. Reading this bit of Lionel made me think of Randy Newman who sometimes came off as a grouch in some public appearances. Probably he got his attitude from his dear old Uncle Lionel.

Yes I think Randy Newman in the film music panel with Michael Giacchino, David Newman and Trevor Rabin exhibited some of this veiled (and not so veiled) envy for Giacchino's success and relationships in the business.

[Quintus 5,914]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDV_gMzq3hk&sns=em

I LOVE his reverb and xylophone!

[chuck 155]

I read in the wiki that Lionel was intensely jealous of JG's female following in the Fox Department. Reading this bit of Lionel made me think of Randy Newman who sometimes came off as a grouch in some public appearances. Probably he got his attitude from his dear old Uncle Lionel.

Yes I think Randy Newman in the film music panel with Michael Giacchino, David Newman and Trevor Rabin exhibited some of this veiled (and not so veiled) envy for Giacchino's success and relationships in the business.

What about Thomas Newman? He's far more successful than his older brother David.