Jerry Goldsmith – Star Trek Theme (piano sheet music)

Jerry Goldsmith – Papillon (main theme)

Jerry Goldsmith

Composer of soundtracks, born on February 10, 1929 in Los Angeles (California) and died on July 21, 2004 in Beverly Hills, whose full name was Jerrald, although he was better known by the hypocoristic Jerry.

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Life

Known in the artistic world as Jerry Goldsmith, he was born into a family of music lovers who supported his musical vocation from the very beginning. For this, they had the best teachers that a student of the time could imagine. He learned piano assisted by teacher Jakob Gimpel and composition with Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco, who also taught another well-known film score composer, John Williams.

Goldsmith was a great fan of cinema, one of his dreams was precisely to become an author of film music. His family welcomed this professional possibility and enrolled the young man at the University of Southern California. There he had occasion to attend the master classes of Miklos Rozsa, from whom he learned the fundamentals of soundtrack composition. A tireless worker, Goldsmith soon showed up at the studios to present his work and offer his services.

It was in 1955 that CBS executives decided to give it a try. Goldsmith put all his effort into developing the incidental music for the television series Climax and Gunsmoke, both of which were highly successful on North American television. Since then, the pace of work was frenetic for him. He composed for such series as Perry Mason (1957), On the Edges of Reality (1960), Doctor Kildare (1961), and Whip (1961). The renown he achieved in the television world endorsed his move to Hollywood.

One of his most elaborate works during the 1960s was Torment and Ecstasy, in which the composer’s taste for orchestral romanticism is noticeable, also perceptible in the score of El Yangtze en llamas. However, it was Planet of the Apes the film that gave him prestige. His music for this sci-fi feature film is impressively original, with hitherto almost unthinkable use of percussion and the wind section.

Goldsmith was an extraordinarily prolific author, which forced him to combine less brilliant compromise works with others in which he unleashed all his genius as a composer. Among his soundtracks with an intimate and mysterious atmosphere, Chinatown (1974) stands out, one of his best-known works. He was nominated for an Oscar 17 times, only once with The Prophecy (1976), an overwhelming score, in which the use of choirs stands out to evoke the diabolical condition of the child protagonist, who according to film fiction is the Antichrist.

In 1978 he successfully solved two complex assignments. On the one hand, he composed elegant and catchy music for The Children of Brazil (1978), a film whose plot revolves around a project that aims to obtain clones of Hitler. On the other hand, he wrote a mysterious score, full of terrifying effects, for the film Alien, the eighth passenger (1978), with which he managed to renew the panorama of this type of soundtrack.

Goldsmith was a particularly gifted musician who can successfully take on all manner of arguments. He composes dreamy music like Legend (1985) as well as powerful marches like Rambo (1985). Already in the 90s Basic Instinct (1992) stands out as one of his most celebrated works.

During the last years of his life, he combined composition with teaching. He taught film composition courses to young musicians at the University of Southern California (UCLA). Among his outstanding disciples is the composer Marco Beltrami, of recognized fame on the Hollywood scene from 1990.

He also composed works outside the cinematographic world, such as Music for orchestra, characterized by its atonal style; the oratorio Christus Apollo, with a text by the writer Ray Bradbury; the ballet A patch of blue, based on his own score for the film of the same name (A patch of blue) from 1965; and Fireworks, commissioned by the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra in 2002 to celebrate his anniversary and accompany a fireworks display.

Jerry Goldsmith married twice and had four children, one of them, Joel Goldsmith, has also dedicated himself to film composition.

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Jerry Goldsmith Discography

0–9

The 13th Warrior
100 Rifles

A

Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies
The Agony and the Ecstasy (film)
Air Force One (film)
Alien (film)
Along Came a Spider (film)
Angie (1994 film)

B

Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend
Bad Girls (1994 film)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Bandolero!
Basic Instinct
Black Patch (film)
The Blue Max
The Boys from Brazil (film)
Breakheart Pass (film)
Breakout (1975 film)
The Brotherhood of the Bell
The 'Burbs

C

Caboblanco
Capricorn One
The Cassandra Crossing
Chain Reaction (1996 film)
The Chairman (1969 film)
The Challenge (1982 film)
Chinatown (1974 film)
City Hall (1996 film)
Coma (1978 film)
Congo (film)
Contract on Cherry Street
The Crimebusters
Criminal Law (film)
The Culpepper Cattle Co.

D

Damien: Omen II
Damnation Alley (film)
Deep Rising
Dennis the Menace (film)
The Detective (1968 film)
Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate
The Don Is Dead

E

The Edge (1997 film)
Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Executive Decision
Explorers (film)
Extreme Prejudice (film)

F

Face of a Fugitive
Fate Is the Hunter (film)
Fierce Creatures
First Blood
The First Great Train Robbery
First Knight
The Flim-Flam Man
Forever Young (1992 film)
Freud: The Secret Passion

G

A Gathering of Eagles
The Ghost and the Darkness
Gremlins
Gremlins 2: The New Batch

H

The Haunting (1999 film)
High Velocity (film)
Hollow Man
Hoosiers (film)
Hour of the Gun

I

I.Q. (film)
The Illustrated Man (film)
In Harm's Way
In Like Flint
Inchon (film)
Innerspace
Islands in the Stream (film)

J

Justine (1969 film)

K

King Solomon's Mines (1985 film)

L

L.A. Confidential (film)
The Last Castle
The Last Hard Men (film)
The Last Run
Legend (1985 film)
Leviathan (1989 film)
Lilies of the Field (1963 film)
Link (film)
Lionheart (1987 film)
The List of Adrian Messenger
Logan's Run (film)
Lonely Are the Brave
The Lonely Guy
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Love Field (film)

M

MacArthur (1977 film)
Magic (1978 film)
Malice (1993 film)
The Man (1972 film)
Matinee (1993 film)
Medicine Man (film)
The Mephisto Waltz
Mom and Dad Save the World
Morituri (1965 film)
Mr. Baseball
Mulan (1998 film)
The Mummy (1999 film)

N

Night Crossing
Not Without My Daughter (film)

O

The Omen
Omen III: The Final Conflict
One Little Indian (film)
The Other (1972 film)
Our Man Flint
Outland (film)

P

Papillon (1973 film)
A Patch of Blue
Patton (film)
Planet of the Apes (1968 film)
Players (1979 film)
Poltergeist (1982 film)
Poltergeist II: The Other Side
Powder (film)
The Prize (1963 film)
Psycho II (film)

R

Raggedy Man
Rambo: First Blood Part II
Rambo III
Ransom (1974 film)
The Red Pony (1973 film)
The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
Rent-a-Cop
Rio Conchos (film)
Rio Lobo
The River Wild
Rudy (film)
Runaway (1984 American film)
The Russia House (film)

S

The Salamander (1981 film)
The Sand Pebbles (film)
The Satan Bug
Sebastian (1968 film)
Seconds (1966 film)
The Secret of NIMH
Seven Days in May
The Shadow (1994 film)
Shamus (film)
Shock Treatment (1964 film)
Six Degrees of Separation (film)
Sleeping with the Enemy
Small Soldiers
Soarin'
The Spiral Road
S*P*Y*S
Stagecoach (1966 film)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Nemesis
The Stripper (film)
Studs Lonigan
The Sum of All Fears (film)
Supergirl (1984 film)
The Swarm (1978 film)

T

Take a Hard Ride
Take Her, She's Mine
To Trap a Spy
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Total Recall (1990 film)
The Traveling Executioner
The Trouble with Angels (film)
Twilight Zone: The Movie
Twilight's Last Gleaming

U

U.S. Marshals (film)
Under Fire (1983 film)

V

The Vanishing (1993 film)
Von Ryan's Express

W

Warlock (1989 film)
Warning Shot (1967 film)
Wild Rovers
The Wind and the Lion
Winter Kill