Favorite Movie Themes: Five Pieces by Composer Jerry Goldsmith
Jerrald K. Goldsmith was born in 1929, and after studying piano with Jacob Gimpel, he studied composition, theory and counterpoint under Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who also taught John Williams and other legendary composers. Another tutor – this time at the University of Southern California – was the acclaimed composer Miklos Rozsa (Ben Hur), who taught Jerry Goldsmith about scoring for movies and TV.
After a brief career as a clerk typist in the CBS music department, Jerry began writing one score a week for live radio broadcasts in the 1950s. He got his first break in films when he was hired to write the score for 1962’s Lonely Are the Brave. From there, his contribution to the Hollywood repertoire grew, and his scores graced such diverse films as Freud, Planet ofthe Apes, Patton, The Omen, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, Basic Instinct, L.A. Confidential, and The Sum of All Fears, just to name a few.
Goldsmith also wrote music for the small screen, including the themes for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, and several of the Academy Awards telecasts.
Oh, and speaking of Academy Awards…Goldsmith was nominated 11 times for Best Original Score, but only won once – for 1976’s chiller The Omen
His son Joel is also a film composer, and the two worked on Star Trek: Nemesis.
Sadly, Jerry Goldsmith died in July of 2004 after a battle with cancer. He is survived by second wife Carol Heather Goldsmith, his sons Aaron and Joel, and his daughters Ellen, Carrie, and Jennifer. Aaron, the youngest, is the son of Goldsmith and Carol; the other children are from his first marriage to Sharon Hennagin, who he divorced in 1970.
Here, then, are five of the best themes Goldsmith composed for the silver screen:
1. Tora! Tora! Tora! – Main Theme (1970): This musical cue for the main title sequence in the fact-based movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor is superb. Clearly inspired by Japanese melodies and styles, the piece begins with a subtle introduction of the main musical idea, played by string instruments and backed by Oriental drums, then builds to a crescendo as the orchestra’s other sections repeat the theme, with dramatic flourishes by the brass section punctuating the militaristic mood of the title sequence.
2. The Sum of All Fears – Main Title (2002): This is a haunting piece, with a melancholy melody and sung in Latin by a choir as we watch the sequence in which a nuclear-armed Israeli A-4 is shot down during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The theme recurs in the film various times, and Patrick Williams wrote English lyrics for its End Titles incarnation, “If We Can Remember.”
3. Patton – March (1970): This is one of Goldsmith’s most famous themes. It reflects the spirited drive and personality of Gen. George S. Patton, Jr, and is, of course, written in the style of a military march. When performed along the “March from MacArthur” this cue is part of The Generals Concert Suite.
4. Alien – Theme: (1979) This is a dark, spooky, and Gothic composition that matches the moody atmosphere of Ridley Scott’s classic chiller about the seven-member crew of the Nostromo and its disastrous run-in with a deadly xenomorph.
5. Star Trek: First Contact – Main Titles (1996) Combined with Alexander Courage’s Where No One Has Gone Before fanfare from the Original Series, this theme – which is reminiscent of his Air Force One march – is bold, noble, and majestic. I consider it to be one of the more beautiful Star Trek themes, as good as (if not better than) his theme for the first feature film of the series.
