You hardly ever notice it, but a score can either make or break a movie’s atmosphere,
and also play an important role in either its success – or failure. In the old days, scores were written in close harmony with the editing of a film, as was the case, for instance, with many old Orson Welles productions. Welles admitted that for Citizen Kane he adjusted his editing to the likes of Bernard Herrmann’s score. The use of original scores accompanying a movie was a direct extension of the live (piano) music played live along to silent movies, as well as the development of sound-tapes. Nowadays, scores seem to be an important element in the appreciation of a film’s atmosphere and music is used to convey the events portrayed in the film, rather than being a separate entity. One of the most famous contemporary score writers passed away a few days ago: Jerry Goldsmith.

Goldsmith, born in 1929, was originally a piano student and wrote his first scores for a bunch of TV series in the early 1950’s and 60’s. Goldsmith’s first serious movie score was written for Lonely Are the Brave and many were to follow in the years after. He wrote the music for an impressive amount of over 300 movies and TV series. A selected list of (recommended) scores:

Freud (1962) – Oscar nomination
A Patch of Blue (1965) – Oscar nomination
Planet of the Apes (1968) – Oscar nomination
Patton (1970) – Oscar nomination
Papillon (1973) – Oscar nomination
Chinatown (1974) – Oscar nomination
The Wind and the Lion (1975) – Oscar nomination
Ransom (1975)
Logan’s Run (1976)
The Omen (1976) – Goldsmith’s only Oscar (score), for the song Ave Satani he also received an Oscar nomination
The Boys from Brazil (1978)
Alien (1979)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) – Oscar nomination
Poltergeist (1982) – Oscar nomination
First Blood (Rambo) (1982)
Under Fire (1983) – Oscar nomination
Gremlins (1984)
Hootsiers (1986) – Oscar nomination
Basic Instinct (1992) – Oscar nomination
L.A. Confidential (1997) – Oscar nomination
Air Force One (1997)
Mulan (1998) – Oscar nomination
The Mummy (1999)
The 13th Warrior (1999)
Hollow Man (2000) – The opening credits of this film are amazing especially because of Goldsmith’s haunting score, with the use of a lot of strings (one of his trademarks)

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