Goldenthal was born on May 2, 1954, the youngest son of a Jewish housepainter father and a Catholic seamstress mother in Brooklyn, New York City, where he was influenced from an early age by music from all cultures and genres. Both pairs of Goldenthal's grandparents emigrated to the United States from Bucharest and Iași, Romania. Goldenthal lived in a multi-cultural part of town, and this is reflected in his works. He attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn where, at the age of 14, he had his very first ballet Variations on Early Glimpses performed; he continued to display his eclectic musical range, performing with rock bands in the seventies. He then studied music full-time at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with composer John Corigliano (whom he greatly admired), to earn his Bachelor of Music degree (1977) and Master of Music degree (1979) in musical composition.
Goldenthal has written works for concert hall, theater, dance and film. His work includes music for films such as Alien 3, Michael Collins, Batman Forever, Heat and the Academy Award-winning score for Julie Taymor's Frida, a movie in which Goldenthal had a small acting part as a "Newsreel Reporter". Incidentally he also had a small part in the stage show Juan Darièn as a "Circus Barker / Streetsinger".
The Tony-Award-winning Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass (1988/'96) and The Green Bird (1999), based on a story by Carlo Gozzi, are a two of the composer's theatre works. In 2006, Goldenthal completed his original three-act opera with Taymor entitled Grendel an adaptation of the John Gardner novel of the same name which told the story of Beowulf from the monster Grendel's point of view. It had its world premiere in early June 2006 at the Los Angeles Opera, the role of Grendel performed by Eric Owens, with an audience that included John Williams and Emmy Rossum; the opus was added to the Los Angeles Opera's permanent repertoire and earned Goldenthal a nomination in April 2007 for the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In 2008 Goldenthal reunited with Michael Mann to score 1930s gangster movie Public Enemies and in 2009 he scored another Julie Taymor Shakespeare adaptation, The Tempest. He cites Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu as an influence and someone he styles his own career on; Goldenthal has said that the lines between traditional concert music and orchestral film score have become more blurred which is the way he thinks it should be. He has also collaborated four times with Irish director Neil Jordan, including on his films Interview with the Vampire and In Dreams.
Elliot Goldenthal has been called the "thinking man's composer" by film-music collectors and a generally more cerebral choice for film makers and lovers of film music. He is known for his experimentation, nuances and willingness to try unconventional techniques. He has scored films in almost every genre from horror to action to Shakespeare adaptations. He has not yet scored comedy, but he has composed comedic motifs for several films such as Demolition Man and the Batman series. His eclectic output has gained him a great deal of respect in the music and film communities and with fans. He is widely appreciated for his musical abilities and distinctive style, although some find his work to be too experimental or inaccessible. His action music is brutal and atonal. Sometimes, in underscore, he uses very fast French horn passages with bending tones and whining. Goldenthal has said that he doesn't "hear" atonal and tonal, rather, "I either hear melody or I hear sonority".
No One Knows
Elliot Goldenthal Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And the tears I cried for you
And when I smile, it's just a pose
My heart is breaking but no one knows
Friends won't learn the truth from me
I don't want their sympathy
You go to parties, dances and shows
Maybe some how, some time, some where
You'll walk by and hear my prayer
My loneliness will fade away
Darling please tell me you'll stay
But if you should pass me by
I'll be hurt but I won't cry
And though my love for you still grows
I feel it's better if no one knows
The song No One Knows by Elliot Goldenthal is a poignant and heart-wrenching expression of love lost and the pain of carrying that love alone. The singer laments that no one knows what they go through, the tears they cry for their lost love and the struggle to smile and pretend like everything is okay. The singer acknowledges that they may go to parties, dances and shows, but deep down their heart is breaking and no one knows.
The lyrics continue to describe the singer's reluctance to confide in their friends about the truth of their emotions. They do not want their friends' sympathy or for their friends to pry into their personal life. In the hope that their lost love will return someday, the singer prays for a chance encounter that will bring them back together and end their loneliness. However, if fate does not have that in store, the singer acknowledges that they will be hurt but they will not cry. They will continue to love the one who left them, but it is better if no one knows.
The message behind this song is one of heartbreak, longing and the desire to keep one's emotions hidden. It speaks to the idea that we often keep our deepest feelings locked away from the world, even from those who claim to know us best. In the end, the singer is left with the pain of unrequited love and the feeling that no one truly understands what they are going through.
Line by Line Meaning
No one knows what I go through
No one truly understands the emotions and struggles that I experience
And the tears I cried for you
I shed tears in sorrow for the love that I have lost
And when I smile, it's just a pose
Despite appearing happy, in reality, I am just hiding my pain
My heart is breaking but no one knows
Although I am suffering emotionally, I do not confide in anyone
Friends won't learn the truth from me
I do not reveal my true feelings to my friends
I don't want their sympathy
I prefer not to receive pity or understanding from others
You go to parties, dances and shows
You live your life normally while I still love you from a distance
I still love you but no one knows
My emotions for you remain strong, but I keep them hidden
Maybe some how, some time, some where
There is a possibility that one day, somewhere, our paths will cross again
You'll walk by and hear my prayer
Perhaps, if fate allows it, you will overhear my pleas for us to be together
My loneliness will fade away
If you return to me, my loneliness and pain will dissipate
Darling please tell me you'll stay
I want you to promise me that you will not leave again
But if you should pass me by
If you choose not to return to me
I'll be hurt but I won't cry
I will be upset, but refuse to shed any more tears
And though my love for you still grows
My heart still yearns for you, even if you are out of reach
I feel it's better if no one knows
I believe it is in my best interest to keep my feelings a secret, even if it causes me pain
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Spirit Music Group
Written by: ERNEST MARESCA, KEN HECHT
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
PolvereArgentata
I always break up and cry when listening to this if I am alone, I couldn't help it.
It is proof that certain music can touch your soul no matter what, given that it has the right deepness. I am swayed into a vortex of mixed memories interwined between key moments of the movie, my life and prospectives for the future alike, alongwith a strong sense of emphathy and understanding towards the character of Ellen Ripley. It's all in there, shaked like a cocktail of sadness inside the depths of my most intimate feelings. When confronting those memories, at the end there is some sort of feeling of 'Letting it go' to go on with life, but is that the right solution?
This score is so good because it perfectly fits the scenes, something that nowadays filmmakers are completely unaware of, seemingly. The music of Goldenthal here is a lively creature, stretching from the crude location where the story takes place, running alongwith the xenomorph and its hunt and finding that secret delicate place where Ripley holds her thoughts, feelings and regrets. It's all very mean, emotionally haunting and piercing, profound, as well as astonishing tender and nostalgic.
You get the idea of having each movie representing a step or phase in Ripley's unfortunate space-quest, and by the time you get to Alien 3 you feel like the whole puzzle is a fact. There is a longing for a resolution. I indeed find this soundtrack to be the most memorable among those from the other movies, because of its semi-avantgarde attitude I guess. Goldenthal nailed it here and composed a real masterpiece that's basicly talking about life and sacrifice.
Rewatching movies as you get older adds more layers to their plots, and Alien is basicly a Mother's tale, which is the struggle to survive through a harsh and hostile universe to protect your cuddles. Just as well, that's also the Alien(s) scope, to proliferate and keep their kin alive.
Bake Neko
It's incredible how this soundtrack is underrated. One of the most impressive work I've ever heard.
Paul Masih
You said it
Harry Sanders
Yes!
EskoMörkö
This is one of the most impressive soundtracks ever made.
MC Dark
The best soundtrack to an Alien movie so far
Ser Winzzalot
This movie keeps getting better and better with every viewing! Way way underrated...the characters were great and the concept is so true to the alien mythology....the directing is increduble and the actors had some meaty dialog
Harry Sanders
This!
Themeage
It deserves way more love than it receives. The quiet, slow and depressed pace & theme of the movie was IMO the right choice after the high action Aliens. I hated it the first time seeing it as a kid, but at some point it started to resonate with me more and more.
Nick Maue
An EXTRAORDINARY SCORE to an increasingly recognised Film - Goldenthal's music so impressed me I went straight from the cinema in 1992 and bought the OST! This is a Chilling, melancholic, almost Religious score that simply is one of the most astounding pieces of film music - Symphony No1 indeed!!
Mauricio Mendoza
I find kind of hard to say how beautiful and haunting this score is but you used the right words 🙌