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Composer Tributes



Filmtracks' Tribute to Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004)


"If our music survives, which I have no doubt it will,
then it will because it is good."

signature

Recommendations | Credits | Biography | Additional Quotes
Goldsmith in 2000
Jerry Goldsmith conducts at a London concert in 2000.

J

erry Goldsmith has been an awesome inspiration for two generations, scoring masterpieces that range from the early 60's to the present. His scores have been essential in promoting the fine art of film music composition. A vast knowledge of music history and structure has enabled him to create a wide variety of moods in the films he has scored. Conducting in his jeans, brightly colored shirts and ties, with his sleeves rolled up and ready for action, Goldsmith is known in the industry as a great and admirable personality.

Goldsmith conducts The last two decades of Goldsmith's career have proven to be the most diverse years in Goldsmith's impressive career. After mastering the technique of combining orchestra and electronics in the two previous decades, his experience has made him one of the most versatile composers in the world. At the same time, though, he has been criticized by film music experts for the lack of epic, thematically influential scores in the latter stages of his career. Goldsmith's willingness to take on such projects as Mom and Dad Save the World and Dennis the Menace alienated many of those who were his closest fans in the days of The Wind and the Lion and Chinatown, but enlightened an entirely new generation of film music fans. Goldsmith's quest for new challenges, leading to this new range of quirky, smaller films, has produced such wonderful efforts as Gremlins and The 'Burbs.

So popular is Goldsmith's career that nearly every work he has produced has been pressed onto a CD album. Those few that don't exist on album are the frightful cases in which the master tapes of Goldsmith's recordings are likely lost. In the 1990's there were two collectible CDs that expertly capture the essense of Jerry Goldsmith: in 1993, The Society for the Preservation of Film Music gave 500+ CD's to those who attended the annual dinner (which that year honored Jerry Goldsmith). Now, at an estimated price of $500+, it is one of the most collectible soundtrack-related CDs of all time. All of the music it contains was unreleased at the time. The other great Goldsmith compilation CD is a collection of suites and themes released by the Master Film Music series in 1988 and has the live music most often heard on Goldsmith's concert tours. Originally valued at about $100-$125, this album's recording has since been offered on other CD releases and is no longer a collectible.

A frequent source for compilation cues and re-recordings, Goldsmith's work has been at the center of many third-party CD offerings since 1997. Varese Sarabande released a compilation album called "Frontiers," including the best of his sci-fi music, and several other labels followed with world-wide re-recordings in a similar fashion. Expanded re-releases of many of Goldsmith's best works have also graced record stores, including Patton, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Stagecoach, A Patch of Blue, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Rio Conchos, The Swarm, and Poltergeist, and have spoiled film music fans with crisp-sounding, complete CD releases of his best works. At the same time, with the volume of work that Goldsmith has produced, many of his smaller efforts of the 1990's have completely gone out of print and disappeared from record stores, making life more difficult for collectors and Goldsmith "completists."
Goldsmith Conducting
As Goldsmith enters the 21st Century, he continues to prove that he's ready to branch out and reach for new horizons. In 1998, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his epic score for the animated film Mulan, his first and very successful teaming with Disney. At the same time, his fans have been delighted by his loyalty to his most famous franchise, scoring three Next Generation Star Trek films late into his career. The older generation of fans will insist, however, that Goldsmith's prime existed in from 1970 to 1990, with several of his most classic scores including Hoosiers, The Russia House, The Wind and the Lion, Patton, and Under Fire. Whatever comes next, whether it be action, romance, sci-fi, or westerns, Goldsmith is always ready to tackle a score with enthusiasm and creativity, and provide fans with endless moments of movie music magic.



Highly Recommended:
Compilations and Other Pages of Interest:



Jerry Goldsmith's Credits:
Information about Goldsmith's background:

Born February 10th, 1929, Jerry Goldsmith studied piano with Jacob Gimpel and composition, theory and counterpoint with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He also attended classes in film composition given by Miklos Rozsa at the Univeristy of Southern California. In 1950, he was employed as a clerk typist in the music department at CBS. There, he was given his first embryonic assignments as a composer for radio shows such as "Romance" and "CBS Radio Workshop." He wrote one score every week for these shows and they were performed live on transmission. He stayed with CBS until 1960, having already scored "The Twilight Zone." He was hired by Revue Studios to score their "Thriller" series. At the same time, he met and became acquinted with the influential film composer Alfred Newman. Newman, recognizing Goldsmith's talents, hired him to score the film Lonely Are The Brave in 1963, and this was his first major feature film score.

He quickly burst onto the popular scene with magnificent scores to A Patch of Blue (1965), The Blue Max (1966), and The Sand Pebbles (1966), his first epic. An experimentalist, Goldsmith is constantly pushing forward the bounds of film music. In 1968, Planet of The Apes included horns blown without mouthpieces and a bass clarinetist fingering the notes but not blowing. Meanwhile, Patton and The Wind and the Lion, both nominated for Academy Awards, showed Goldsmith as an expert of the massive Hollywood theme, capturing every motif from reincarnation and militaristic joy to Allah and the mysteries of the heart. After winning his first Academy Award with The Omen in 1976, Goldsmith began a new type of experimentation: electronics.

He is unafraid to use the wide variety of electronic sounds and instruments which are now available, although he does not use them for their own sake. In the late 1970's and 1980's, in such critical successes as Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Under Fire, and Hoosiers, Goldsmith utilizes the best of synthesized accompaniment. By the 1990's, Goldsmith, father of upcoming composer Joel Goldsmith, began composing more scores than ever before, proving that he hasn't lost his magical touch over his 40+ year career. His scores for The Russia House, Rudy, The Ghost and the Darkness, and The 13th Warrior highlight his recent efforts.

Known for his amiable personality, Goldsmith is one of the best composers to work with. Many directors and producers request his services, and he isn't particular in the types of projects he will accept. His sense of humor is also noted; he wore an ape mask, for instance, when conducting the score for Planet of The Apes. His only recent rejections (scores that were thrown out by the producers/director in post-production) are Alien Nation (1988), Gladiator (1992), The Public Eye (1992), and his final film score, Timeline (2003).

Goldsmith died at the age of 75 on July 21st, 2004, after a long battle with cancer. He passed away peacefully in his sleep at his Beverly Hills home. He is survived by his wife, Carol, children Aaron, Joel, Carrie, Ellen Edson and Jennifer Grossman, six grandchildren and a great-grandchild.




  2004
  • (none)

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987


1986

1985

1984

  • Gremlins ****
  • Supergirl
  • Runaway
  • The Lonely Guy (unreleased)

1983

  • Psycho II
  • Under Fire ***** (Japanese label) (Academy Award Nomination)
  • Twilight Zone, The Movie

1982

1981

  • Masada
  • The Final Conflict
  • The Salamander (unreleased)
  • Raggedy Man ** (limited release)
  • Outland *

1980

  • Caboblanco

1979

1978

  • The Swarm **** (limited release)
  • The Boys From Brazil (limited release) (Academy Award Nomination)
  • Damien: Omen II
  • Magic *** (limited release)
  • Coma (limited release)
  • Capricorn One *** (released with "Outland")

1977

  • Twilight's Last Gleaming ** (released first through The Goldsmith Society)
  • MacArthur ***
  • The Cassandra Crossing (limited release)
  • Damnation Alley (unreleased)
  • Islands in the Stream
  • High Velocity (Belgian release)

1976

  • Breakheart Pass (unreleased)
  • The Omen **** (Academy Award Winner)
  • Logan's Run

1975

  • The Terrorists (unreleased)
  • The Wind and the Lion ***** (Academy Award Nomination)
  • The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (unreleased)
  • Take a Hard Ride **** (limited release)
  • Breakout *** (limited release)

1974

  • Chinatown *** (Academy Award Nomination)
  • S.P.Y.S. (unreleased)

1973

  • Shamus (unreleased)
  • One Little Indian (unreleased)
  • Papillon *** (English label) (Academy Award Nomination)
  • Ace Eli and Roger of the Skies (unreleased)
  • The Don is Dead (unreleased)

1972

  • The Other (unreleased)
  • The Man (unreleased)

1971

  • The Wild Rovers ****
  • Escape From the Planet of The Apes
  • The Last Run
  • The Mephisto Waltz

1970

  • The Ballad of Cable Hogue (limited release)
  • Tora! Tora! Tora! **** (1997 re-recording)
  • Patton ***** (1997 re-recording & 1999 FSM release) (Academy Award Nomination)
  • The Travelling Executioner (released on German CD with "The Stripper")

1969

  • 100 Rifles *** (limited release)
  • Justine
  • The Chairman
  • The Illustrated Man (limited release)

1968

  • Bandolero
  • Sebastian (unreleased)
  • Planet of the Apes ** (Academy Award Nomination)
  • The Detective (unreleased)

1967

  • Warning Shot (unreleased)
  • In Like Flint
  • The Flim-Flam Man *** (limited release)
  • Hour of the Gun

1966

  • The Sand Pebbles **** (limited release) (Academy Award Nomination)
  • Stagecoach ** (multiple releases)
  • Seconds (unreleased)
  • Our Man Flint
  • The Blue Max ****
  • The Trouble With Angels ***

1965

1964

  • Shock Treatment (unreleased)
  • Fate is the Hunter (unreleased)
  • Rio Conchos *** (multiple releases)
  • Seven Days in May (unreleased)

1963

  • The Prize (unreleased)
  • The List of Adrian Messenger (unreleased)
  • Take Her, She's Mine (unreleased)
  • Lilies in the Field
  • The Stripper

1962

  • The Spiral Road (limited release)
  • Lonely Are the Brave
  • Freud (Academy Award Nomination)
  • A Gathering of Eagles (unreleased)

1960

  • Studs Lonigan (limited release)

1959

  • City of Fear (unreleased)
  • Face of a Fugitive (unreleased)

1957

  • Black Patch (unreleased)



Additional Jerry Goldsmith Quotes:





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Page created 9/24/96, updated 5/10/05. Version 3.0 (Filmtracks Publishing) Copyright © 1996-2005, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. The reviews, pictures, and notes contained in the filmtracks.com composer tributes may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications.