Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004) was an American … Read Full Bio ↴Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004) was an American composer and conductor, most known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for five films in the Star Trek franchise and three in the Rambo franchise, as well as for Logan's Run, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Chinatown, Poltergeist, Gremlins, Hoosiers, Total Recall, Air Force One, L.A. Confidential, Mulan, and The Mummy. In May 1997, with the release of The Lost World: Jurassic Park, he gained more popularity with his fanfare of the 1997 Universal Studios opening logo and the short version of the fanfare for its television arms, which would be among the most iconic studio logo music of all-time.
He collaborated with some of film history's most accomplished directors, including Robert Wise, Howard Hawks, Otto Preminger, Joe Dante, Richard Donner, Roman Polanski, Ridley Scott, Michael Winner, Steven Spielberg, Paul Verhoeven, and Franklin J. Schaffner. His work for Donner and Scott also involved a rejected score for Timeline and a controversially edited score for Alien, where music by Howard Hanson replaced Goldsmith's end titles and Goldsmith's own work on Freud: The Secret Passion was used without his approval in several scenes.
Goldsmith was nominated for six Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, nine Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, and eighteen Academy Awards (winning in 1976 for The Omen). He composed the Paramount Pictures Fanfare used from 1976 through 2011. The American Film Institute respectively ranked Goldsmith's scores for Chinatown (1974) and Planet of the Apes (1968) No. 9 and No. 18 on their list of the 25 greatest film scores. He is one of only five composers to have more than one score featured in the list, including Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, and John Williams.
Goldsmith was born February 10, 1929 in Los Angeles, California. His family was Romanian-Jewish. His parents were Tessa (née Rappaport), a school teacher, and Morris Goldsmith, a structural engineer. He started playing piano at age six, but only "got serious" by the time he was eleven. At age thirteen, he studied piano privately with concert pianist and educator Jakob Gimpel (whom Goldsmith would later employ to perform piano solos in his score to The Mephisto Waltz) and by the age of sixteen he was studying both theory and counterpoint under Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who also tutored such noteworthy composers and musicians as Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, Herman Stein, André Previn, Marty Paich, and John Williams.
At age sixteen, Goldsmith saw the 1945 film Spellbound in theaters and was inspired by veteran composer Miklós Rózsa's soundtrack to pursue a career in music. Goldsmith later enrolled and attended the University of Southern California where he was able to attend courses by Rózsa, but dropped out in favor of a more "practical music program" at the Los Angeles City College. There he was able to coach singers, work as an assistant choral director, play piano accompaniment, and work as an assistant conductor.
Jerry Goldsmith has often been considered one of film music history's most innovative and influential composers. While presenting Goldsmith with a Career Achievement Award from the Society for the Preservation of Film Music in 1993, fellow composer Henry Mancini (Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Pink Panther) said of Goldsmith, "... he has instilled two things in his colleagues in this town. One thing he does, he keeps us honest. And the second one is he scares the hell out of us." In his review of the 1999 re-issue of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture soundtrack, Bruce Eder highly praised Goldsmith's ability, stating, "...one of the new tracks, 'Spock's Arrival,' may be the closest that Goldsmith has ever come to writing serious music in a pure Romantic idiom; this could have been the work of Rimsky-Korsakov or Stravinsky — it's that good." In a 2001 interview, film composer Marco Beltrami (3:10 to Yuma, The Hurt Locker) stated, "Without Jerry, film music would probably be in a different place than it is now. I think he, more than any other composer bridged the gap between the old Hollywood scoring style and the the modern film composer."
In 2006, upon composing The Omen (a remake of the Goldsmith-scored 1976 film), Marco Beltrami dedicated his score to Goldsmith, which also included an updated arrangement of "Ave Satani" titled "Omen 76/06". Likewise, when composer Brian Tyler was commissioned in 2012 to update the Universal Studios logo for the Universal centennial, he retained the "classic melody" originally composed by Goldsmith in 1997, opting to "bring it into the 21st century."
Goldsmith was greatly influenced by movements of early 20th-century classical music, notably modernism, Americana, impressionism, dodecaphonism, and early film scores. He has cited Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Miklós Rózsa, Bernard Herrmann, Béla Bartók, and Alban Berg, among others, as some of the main influences to his style of composition.
His style has been noted for its unique instrumentation, utilizing a vast array of ethnic instruments, recorded sounds, synthetic textures, and the traditional orchestra, often concurrently. When asked about his inclination for embracing new techniques and constantly shifting his musical palette throughout his career, Goldsmith said, "It seems like it's me, and that's that! Certain composers are doing the same thing over and over again, which I feel is sort of uninteresting. I don't find that you grow very much in that way. I like to keep changing, trying to do new things. Basically, I'm saying the same thing with a little different twist on it. Once you get caught up in the creative process, something inside takes over, and your subconscious just does it for you."
One reason for the consistency of Goldsmith's aural resonance and signature sound is his long time professional association with orchestrator Arthur Morton. Their first collaboration was on the film, Take Her She's Mine. In 1965, Goldsmith was tapped to score the features, Von Ryan's Express and Morituri. He recruited Morton to serve as his orchestrator. Their bond for a unique and expressive sound was borne, and their friendship flourished. Goldsmith went on to compose the soundtracks for Our Man Flint, The Trouble with Angels (with Frank De Vol), The Blue Max, The Sand Pebbles, and Stagecoach, all in 1966. Morton was there providing his orchestration services, assisting Goldsmith in attaining his visionary sounds. Their partnership endured for over 30 years and included the notable scores for Planet of the Apes (1968), Patton (1970), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Papillon (1973), Chinatown (1974), The Omen (1976), MacArthur (1977), Capricorn One (1978), Alien (1979), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Poltergeist (1982), First Blood (1982), Under Fire (1983), The Russia House (1990). The final score that Arthur Morton orchestrated for Goldsmith was L.A. Confidential (1997).
Goldsmith died at his Beverly Hills home on July 21, 2004, from colon cancer at the age of 75. He was survived by his wife Carol and his children Aaron, Joel (who also died of cancer on April 29, 2012), Carrie, Ellen Edson, and Jennifer Grossman.
He collaborated with some of film history's most accomplished directors, including Robert Wise, Howard Hawks, Otto Preminger, Joe Dante, Richard Donner, Roman Polanski, Ridley Scott, Michael Winner, Steven Spielberg, Paul Verhoeven, and Franklin J. Schaffner. His work for Donner and Scott also involved a rejected score for Timeline and a controversially edited score for Alien, where music by Howard Hanson replaced Goldsmith's end titles and Goldsmith's own work on Freud: The Secret Passion was used without his approval in several scenes.
Goldsmith was nominated for six Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, nine Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, and eighteen Academy Awards (winning in 1976 for The Omen). He composed the Paramount Pictures Fanfare used from 1976 through 2011. The American Film Institute respectively ranked Goldsmith's scores for Chinatown (1974) and Planet of the Apes (1968) No. 9 and No. 18 on their list of the 25 greatest film scores. He is one of only five composers to have more than one score featured in the list, including Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, and John Williams.
Goldsmith was born February 10, 1929 in Los Angeles, California. His family was Romanian-Jewish. His parents were Tessa (née Rappaport), a school teacher, and Morris Goldsmith, a structural engineer. He started playing piano at age six, but only "got serious" by the time he was eleven. At age thirteen, he studied piano privately with concert pianist and educator Jakob Gimpel (whom Goldsmith would later employ to perform piano solos in his score to The Mephisto Waltz) and by the age of sixteen he was studying both theory and counterpoint under Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who also tutored such noteworthy composers and musicians as Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, Herman Stein, André Previn, Marty Paich, and John Williams.
At age sixteen, Goldsmith saw the 1945 film Spellbound in theaters and was inspired by veteran composer Miklós Rózsa's soundtrack to pursue a career in music. Goldsmith later enrolled and attended the University of Southern California where he was able to attend courses by Rózsa, but dropped out in favor of a more "practical music program" at the Los Angeles City College. There he was able to coach singers, work as an assistant choral director, play piano accompaniment, and work as an assistant conductor.
Jerry Goldsmith has often been considered one of film music history's most innovative and influential composers. While presenting Goldsmith with a Career Achievement Award from the Society for the Preservation of Film Music in 1993, fellow composer Henry Mancini (Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Pink Panther) said of Goldsmith, "... he has instilled two things in his colleagues in this town. One thing he does, he keeps us honest. And the second one is he scares the hell out of us." In his review of the 1999 re-issue of the Star Trek: The Motion Picture soundtrack, Bruce Eder highly praised Goldsmith's ability, stating, "...one of the new tracks, 'Spock's Arrival,' may be the closest that Goldsmith has ever come to writing serious music in a pure Romantic idiom; this could have been the work of Rimsky-Korsakov or Stravinsky — it's that good." In a 2001 interview, film composer Marco Beltrami (3:10 to Yuma, The Hurt Locker) stated, "Without Jerry, film music would probably be in a different place than it is now. I think he, more than any other composer bridged the gap between the old Hollywood scoring style and the the modern film composer."
In 2006, upon composing The Omen (a remake of the Goldsmith-scored 1976 film), Marco Beltrami dedicated his score to Goldsmith, which also included an updated arrangement of "Ave Satani" titled "Omen 76/06". Likewise, when composer Brian Tyler was commissioned in 2012 to update the Universal Studios logo for the Universal centennial, he retained the "classic melody" originally composed by Goldsmith in 1997, opting to "bring it into the 21st century."
Goldsmith was greatly influenced by movements of early 20th-century classical music, notably modernism, Americana, impressionism, dodecaphonism, and early film scores. He has cited Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Miklós Rózsa, Bernard Herrmann, Béla Bartók, and Alban Berg, among others, as some of the main influences to his style of composition.
His style has been noted for its unique instrumentation, utilizing a vast array of ethnic instruments, recorded sounds, synthetic textures, and the traditional orchestra, often concurrently. When asked about his inclination for embracing new techniques and constantly shifting his musical palette throughout his career, Goldsmith said, "It seems like it's me, and that's that! Certain composers are doing the same thing over and over again, which I feel is sort of uninteresting. I don't find that you grow very much in that way. I like to keep changing, trying to do new things. Basically, I'm saying the same thing with a little different twist on it. Once you get caught up in the creative process, something inside takes over, and your subconscious just does it for you."
One reason for the consistency of Goldsmith's aural resonance and signature sound is his long time professional association with orchestrator Arthur Morton. Their first collaboration was on the film, Take Her She's Mine. In 1965, Goldsmith was tapped to score the features, Von Ryan's Express and Morituri. He recruited Morton to serve as his orchestrator. Their bond for a unique and expressive sound was borne, and their friendship flourished. Goldsmith went on to compose the soundtracks for Our Man Flint, The Trouble with Angels (with Frank De Vol), The Blue Max, The Sand Pebbles, and Stagecoach, all in 1966. Morton was there providing his orchestration services, assisting Goldsmith in attaining his visionary sounds. Their partnership endured for over 30 years and included the notable scores for Planet of the Apes (1968), Patton (1970), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Papillon (1973), Chinatown (1974), The Omen (1976), MacArthur (1977), Capricorn One (1978), Alien (1979), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Poltergeist (1982), First Blood (1982), Under Fire (1983), The Russia House (1990). The final score that Arthur Morton orchestrated for Goldsmith was L.A. Confidential (1997).
Goldsmith died at his Beverly Hills home on July 21, 2004, from colon cancer at the age of 75. He was survived by his wife Carol and his children Aaron, Joel (who also died of cancer on April 29, 2012), Carrie, Ellen Edson, and Jennifer Grossman.
The Meld
Jerry Goldsmith Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by Jerry Goldsmith:
A Girl Worth Fighting For For a long time we've been marching off to battle In…
Alien: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Capricorn One: Docking What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Cleopatra: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Damnation Alley: End Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Fears Remember If we could remember The moment of our birth We giv…
Freud: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Honor To Us All This is what you give me to work with Well, honey,…
I Mirror mirror tell me beware Coldly revealing all the faces …
It's a Long Road It's a long road When you're on your own And it hurts…
Just You Just Me Just you, just me Let's find a cozy spot To cuddle and…
Let Go Well, I rush out blazin' My pulse is racin' As the rain…
Magic I like to dream, yes, yes Right between the sound machine On…
Magic: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Main Title Episode One What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Malice: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Ooby Dooby Hey baby, jump over here and you do the ooby…
Patton: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Poltergeist: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Reflection Look at me You may think you see Who I really am But…
Rudy: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Star Trek First Contact: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Star Trek V What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Star Trek: Insurrection What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
Star Trek: Nemesis What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
The Challenge: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
The Clothes Snatchers INSTRU mxmlyricstag MENTAL…
The Detective Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
The Haunting Wash away all the lines on your face that show…
The Illustrated Man: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
The Loner: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
The Omen: Ave Santani Sanguis Bibimus Corpus Edimus Sanguis Bibimus Corpus Edim…
The Omen: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
The Score It seems like a dream, yet I know it happened A…
The Stripper: Main Title What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
The Sum of all Fears Remember If we could remember The moment of our birth We giv…
The Very Thought of You The very thought of you And I forget to do Those little…
Theme From Papillon What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
This Boy Needs To Rock Kid out of touch Laying down with a dream On a runaway…
Total Recall Theme What's it all about, this crazy love How did our two…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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@Brian6587
Undoubtedly one of the greatest Star Trek scores ever composed. The music alone along with the visuals elevates this movie so much. The Human Adventure is just beginning....
@jackiescanlon
This piece alone proves Jerry should have won the Oscar for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
@christopherthorkon3997
Absolutely. He complained about not winning that year and quite frankly he was very right to do so. It was so very obvious that it was the best score of the year -- and the greatest of his career, probably.
@Simpleburger1968
@Christopher Thorkon He may have done. He shouldn't have wasted worry over the "Academy" offering their view.....our views and appreciation are - in the long run - far more valuable :-)
@Angyali
The movie has it's structural problems, but it's still a good movie. And the music is simply the best there is.
@Tadashi2
It's certainly better than J.J. Abram's shitty fanfiction.
@TallDocK
@Tadashi2 The first one was ok. I liked it, down from there though.
@quatz1981
The Motion Picture had the best score of all the Trek movies. Its just so beautifully done and Jerry should have won the oscar that year as well as for Poltergeist in 1982.
@nathanfitzgerald6651
I'll drink to that!
@jandreidrn
He also should've won an Oscar for the original Planet of the Apes, Patton, Chinatown, Under Fire and Basic Instinct.