Elliot Goldenthal (born May 2, 1954) is an American composer of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st-century classical music, 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 Modernism (music), post-tonal music after the death of ...

and

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and theatrical scores. A student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, he is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways. He won the

Academy Award for Best Original Score The Academy Award for Best Original Score is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by ...

in 2002 for his score to the motion picture ''

Frida Frida, Frieda, or Freida may refer to: People and fictional characters *Frida (given name), any of several people or characters ** *Frieda (surname), any of several people or characters *Afroditi Frida (born 1964), Greek singer *Frida (singer) ...

'', directed by his longtime partner Julie Taymor.

Early life and education

Goldenthal was born on May 2, 1954, the youngest son of a Jewish housepainter father and a Catholic seamstress mother in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, 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

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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 The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music a ...

, where he studied with composer John Corigliano (whom he greatly admired), to earn his

Bachelor of Music A Bachelor of Music (BMus; sometimes conferred as Bachelor of Musical Arts) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. The degree may be awarded for performance, music ed ...

degree (1977) and Master of Music degree (1979) in

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an Originality, original piece or work of music, either Human voice, vocal or Musical instrument, instrumental, the musical form, structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new pie ...

.Dan Goldwasser
The Sweet Revenge of Elliot Goldenthal
. ''SoundtrackNet'' Interview (January 21, 2000).

Career

Goldenthal has written works for concert hall, theater, dance and film. His work includes music for films such as '' Pet Sematary'', '' Alien 3'', '' Michael Collins'', '' Batman Forever'', '' Heat'' and the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

-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 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 ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

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 John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

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 ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

''. 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."Elliot Goldenthal" (March 2003) ''Sound on Sound''
He has also collaborated four times with Irish director Neil Jordan, including on his films '' Interview with the Vampire'' and '' In Dreams''.

Personal life

He lives in New York City "happily unmarried", as he once put it, with his partner Julie Taymor, whom he met in 1980 through a mutual acquaintance, who told him, "I know a person whose work is just as grotesque as yours". They have an office/apartment where they both live and work.

Style

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". Goldenthal often works with a team he assembled after the soundtrack for '' Drugstore Cowboy'': Teese Gohl as supervising producer, Robert Elhai as orchestrator, Joel Iwataki and Steve McLaughlin as sound engineers and Richard Martinez as electronic music producer. According to Martinez, "a lot of composers want to focus on writing their music, and that's what isteam allows Elliot to do." At the website filmscoremonthly.com, a former classmate of Goldenthal's commented on an article on the ''Sphere'' score from 1998 which stated that when he and Elliot were both studying at the Manhattan School of Music in the '70s, Elliot was already experimenting with unusual techniques. Once, when studying

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

, Elliot had asked him to "buzz into the wrong end of the mouthpiece and sing into it as well". He thought he was crazy but, looking back after a decade or so of Goldenthal's film and concert music, he "was just way ahead of the rest of us," he said.

List of works

Film and television works

Feature films

Television programs

Concert music works

Theatre works

Awards and nominations

* (2007) Pulitzer Prize for Music Nomination for his acclaimed ''"Grendel" opera'' * (2004) Emmy Awards Nomination, "''Great Performances: Dance in America''" – Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) * (2004) ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards Win, "''S.W.A.T.''" – Top Box Office Film Score * (2003) World Soundtrack Awards 2003 Win, "''Frida''" – Best Original Soundtrack of the Year * (2003) World Soundtrack Awards 2003 Win, "''Frida''" – Soundtrack Composer of the Year * (2003) World Soundtrack Awards 2003 ''Nomination, "Burn It Blue" from "''Frida''" – Best Original Song Written for a Film * (2002)

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

Win, "''Frida''" – Best Original Score * (2002) Academy Awards Nomination, "''Frida''", "Burn It Blue" – Best Original Song * (2002) Golden Globes Win, "''Frida''" – Best Original Score * (2002) World Soundtrack Awards 2002 Nomination, "The Dream Within" from "''Final Fantasy: The Sprits Within''" – Best Original Song Written for a Film * (1999)

Chicago Film Critics Association The Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) is an association of professional film criticism, film critics, who work in print, broadcast and online media, based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The organization was founded in 1990 by film cri ...

awards Nomination, "''The Butcher Boy''" – Best Original Score * (1998) ASCAP awards Win, "''Batman & Robin''" – Top Box Office Film Score * (1998) Chicago Film Critics Awards Nomination, "''The Butcher Boy''" – Best Original Score * (1998) Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 1998 Win, "''The Butcher Boy''" – Best Original Score * (1997) Tony Awards Nomination, "''Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass''" ( Broadway Production) – Best Original Musical Score * (1997) ASCAP awards Win, "''A Time to Kill''" – Top Box Office Film Score * (1997) Grammy Nomination, "Defile and Lament" from "''A Time to Kill''" * (1996) Academy Awards Nomination, "''Michael Collins''" – Best Original Score * (1996) Golden Globe Nomination, "''Michael Collins''" – Best Original Score * (1996) ASCAP awards Win, "''Batman Forever''" – Top Box Office Film Score * (1995) Grammy Nomination, "''Batman Forever''" – Best Instrumental Composition * (1995) ASCAP awards Win, "''Interview with the Vampire''" – Top Box Office Film Score * (1995) Golden Globe Nomination, "''Interview with the Vampire''" – Best Original Score * (1994) Academy Awards Nomination, "''Interview with the Vampire''" – Best Original Score * (1994) ASCAP awards Win, "''Demolition Man''" – Top Box Office Film Score * (1990) Edinburgh Festival Critics Choice Award Win, "''Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass''" – Best Music * (1990)

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

Richard Rodgers Award Win, "''Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass''" – Best Music * (1988)

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

Win, "''Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass''" (Original Production) – Best Music Among others including the

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...

Award, the New Music for Young Ensembles composition prize, the Stephen Sondheim Award in Music Theater and a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship.

References

External links

* * * * * * Elliot Goldenthalat

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

"A Website for the Composer"

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120314023402/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Mar03/articles/elliotgoldenthal.asp?print=yes An indepth interview from 2003 {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldenthal, Elliot 1954 births 20th-century American classical composers 21st-century American classical composers American film score composers American musical theatre composers American male musical theatre composers American musical theatre lyricists American opera composers American people of Romanian-Jewish descent Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Golden Globe Award–winning musicians Broadway composers and lyricists John Dewey High School alumni Living people American male film score composers American male opera composers Musicians from Brooklyn Obie Award recipients Pupils of Aaron Copland Atlantic Records artists Sony Classical Records artists Warner Records artists La-La Land Records artists Jewish American film people