Elliot Goldenthal (born May 2, 1954) is an American composer of contemporary classical music and film and theatrical scores. He studied formally with John Corigliano and was deeply influenced and mentored by Aaron Copland, developing a distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways. He is known for wide-ranging body of work spanning film, opera, ballet, theater and concert music, including Academy Award for Best Original Score in 2002 for his score to the motion picture Frida, directed by his longtime partner Julie Taymor.
Elliot Goldenthal | |
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 Goldenthal in 2014 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | May 2, 1954 Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1978–present |
| Website | www |
Early life and education
editGoldenthal was born on May 2, 1954, the youngest son of a Jewish housepainter father and a Catholic seamstress mother in Brooklyn, New York City, where he was influenced from an early age by music from all cultures and genres. Goldenthal's maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Poland.[1] Goldenthal lived in a multi-cultural part of town, and this is reflected in his works.[2] 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.[3]
He then studied music full-time at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with composer John Corigliano (whom he greatly admired), to earn his Bachelor of Music degree (1977) and Master of Music degree (1979) in musical composition.[4][5]
Career
editGoldenthal has written works for concert hall, theater, dance and film. His film highlights include scores for films such as Pet Sematary, Titus, A Time to Kill, Interview with the Vampire, Alien 3, Michael Collins, Batman Forever, Heat and the Academy Award-winning score for Julie Taymor's Frida, a movie in which Goldenthal had a small acting part as a "Newsreel Reporter".
A leading voice in contemporary theater music, Goldenthal has collaborated extensively with Julie Taymor and Andre Șerban on productions ranging from Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass (which earned him a Tony Award nomination,[6] Obie Award,[7] and multiple Drama Desk nominations) to The Green Bird, M. Butterfly, and Grounded. His contributions to American stage have been recognized with the Stephen Sondheim award and the Edinburgh Festival Critics Choice Award.
Goldenthal has established a presence as a composer of classical music through symphonic, vocal, chamber, and operatic works. Highlights include Fire Water Paper, A Vietnam Oratorio, recorded for Sony Classical with Yo-Yo Ma;[8] the Symphony in G-sharp Minor (2014), premiered by the Pacific Symphony under Carl St. Clair,[9] and Symphony No. 3, "Sadowska Poems" (2021), inspired by the writing of Polish poet Barbara Sadowska.[10] His chamber music includes the acclaimed String Quartet No. 1, "The Stone Cutters" (2013),[11] while his opera Grendel, created with director Julie Taymor premiered at the Los Angeles Opera[12] and was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Music.[13] Through these works, Goldenthal has emerged as a distinctive contemporary composer whose concert music combines symphony ambition with dramatic intensity.
His most significant work for dance is Othello (1997), a full length, three-act ballet commissioned by American Ballet Theatre and San Francisco Ballet and choreographed by Lar Lubovitch. Premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House, the production became a staple of the American Ballet Theatre repertory and was subsequently performed internationally, including engagements by the San Francisco Ballet [14] and the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago.[15] Widely praised for dramatic power and richly orchestrated score, Othello later served as the basis for his Symphony No. 2, "Othello Symphony."[16]
Goldenthal 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.[17]
Personal life
editHe lives in New York City "happily unmarried", as he once put it,[18] 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.[19]
Style
editElliot 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.[20][21] 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.[22] 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.[23][24][25][26] 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".[17]
Every project we do requires a different approach, but one thing that's always consistent is the framework that Rick provides. In essence, he's giving me all these new instruments to work with. He keeps coming up with surprising combinations of sounds.
— Goldenthal (March 2003), on Richard Martinez[27]
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.[27] According to Martinez, "a lot of composers want to focus on writing their music, and that's what [his] team allows Elliot to do."[27] 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, 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.[28]
List of works
editFilm and television works
editFeature films
editTelevision programs
edit| Year | Title | Director(s) | Network(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Criminal Justice | Andy Wolk | Home Box Office | Television film |
| 1991 | Grand Isle | Mary Lambert | Turner Network Television | |
| 1992 | Behind the Scenes | Ellen Hovde Muffie Meyer |
Public Broadcasting Service | 10-episode miniseries. |
| Fool's Fire | Julie Taymor | Television film | ||
| 1994 | Roswell | Jeremy Kagan | Showtime | |
| 1996 | The West | Stephen Ives | Public Broadcasting Service | Episode: "The Geography of Hope" |
| 2000 | Por un beso | Alfredo Gurrola | Televisa | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 2003 | Great Performances: Dance in America | Julie Taymor | Public Broadcasting Service | Episode: "Lar Lubovitch's 'Othello'" |
Concert music works
edit| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Three Pieces for Piano | |
| 1977 | Requiem Mass | Un-premiered |
| 1979 | Sonata for Double Bass and Piano | Recorded by Tim Cobb & Stephen Gosling |
| Los Heraldos Negros – a song cycle for singer and percussion | Un-premiered | |
| Brass Quintet No. 1 | ||
| Jabberwocky for Woodwind Quartet | Set to the poem by Lewis Carroll
Also arranged for two bassoons and winds | |
| 1980 | Brass Quintet No. 2 | Recorded by the Extension ensemble |
| 1988 | Pastime Variations – A Memorial for Ebbets Field | |
| 1990 | Shadow Play Scherzo for Orchestra | |
| 1996 | Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio | Recorded by Pacific Symphony Orchestra, featuring Yo Yo Ma |
| 2013 | String Quartet No. 1 "The Stone Cutters" | Premiered by the FLUX Quartet in 2015 |
| Adagietto Doloroso for orchestra | Premiered at the Ghent Film Music Festival conducted by Dirk Brossé | |
| 2014 | Symphony in G♯ Minor | |
| Grand Gothic Suite | ||
| 2015 | Lyric Suite: The Floods of Avon for String Orchestra and Piano | |
| 2017 | Waltz & Agitato "Pravda" for Orchestra | |
| For Trumpet & Strings (First Movement of "Trumpet Concerto") | Conducted by Dirk Brossé with trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth | |
| 2018 | Trumpet Concerto | Conducted by Dirk Brossé with trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth |
| 2019 | OCTOBER LIGHT: Adagio for Orchestra | Premiered with Pacific Symphony under Carl. St. by Clair December 2019 |
| 2021 | SYMPHONY NO.3 for Soprano and Orchestra
Poems by Barbara Sadowska |
Premiered by soprano Adriana Ferfecka, the Beethoven Academy Orchestra and conductor Monika Stefaniak at the Krakow Filharmonia, 15 December 2021 |
Theatre works
edit| Year | Title | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | The King Stag | Play | |
| 1985 | Liberty's Taken | Musical | Composed with David Suehsdorf and Julie Taymor |
| 1986 | The Transposed Heads | Adapted by Sidney Goldfarb and Julie Taymor | |
| 1988 | The Serpent Woman | Play | |
| Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass | Musical | Reworked and recorded in 1996 | |
| 1997 | Othello | Ballet | Choreography by Lar Lubovitch |
| 1999 | The Green Bird | Musical | |
| 2006 | Grendel | Opera | Libretto by Julie Taymor & J. D. McClatchy |
| 2013 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Play | Production at the Polansky Theater |
| 2015 | Grounded | Premiered at The Public Theater | |
| 2017 | M. Butterfly |
Other appearances
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary | Himself | Documentary film |
Awards and nominations
edit- (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 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 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 Richard Rodgers Award Win, "Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass" – Best Music
- (1988) Obie Award Win, "Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass" (Original Production) – Best Music
Among others including the Arturo Toscanini 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.[29]
See also
editReferences
edit- ↑ Pall, Ellen (May 11, 1997). "Modern Romantic". New York Times.
- ↑ "Movies & TV reviews | Yahoo Life Singapore". Yahoo Style. Archived from the original on September 19, 2007.
- ↑ "Elliot Goldenthal". Hollywood.com. 10 February 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
- ↑ Dan Goldwasser "The Sweet Revenge of Elliot Goldenthal". SoundtrackNet Interview (January 21, 2000).
- ↑ Macdonald, Lawrence E. (2013-05-02). The Invisible Art of Film Music: A Comprehensive History. Scarecrow Press. p. 395. ISBN 978-0-8108-8398-7.
- ↑ Viagas, Robert (May 5, 1997). "The 997 Tony Nominations". Playbill. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- ↑ "1980s". Obie Awards. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- ↑ Pasles, Christ (April 14, 1996). "Goldenthal: "Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio."..." Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- ↑ "Discography". Pacific Symphony. June 10, 2026.
- ↑ "KFMF marks Elliot Goldenthal's 70th with his 'Symphony No. 3'". The Cliff Edge. May 20, 2024. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- ↑ "String Quartet No. 1 "The Stone Cutters"". Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- ↑ Gregson, David (June 9, 2006). "World Premiere of Elliot Goldenthal's "Grendel" in Los Angeles". Opera West. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- ↑ "Finalist: Grendel, by Elliot Goldenthal". The Pulitzer Prizes. 2007. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- ↑ Segal, Lewis (April 6, 1998). "'Othello' a Show of Passion by San Francisco Ballet". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- ↑ "Review: Nonstop dancing no tragedy in this 'Othello'". Chicago Tribune. April 25, 2013. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- ↑ "The Premiere of Elliot Goldenthal's Othello Symphony". Alvernia. June 2, 2014. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- 1 2 "Elliot Goldenthal" (March 2003) Sound on Sound Archived March 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Filmtracks: Elliot Goldenthal". Filmtracks.com.
- ↑ ""Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal: United in Their Love of the Outsider," by Don Shewey". Donshewey.com.
- ↑ "Goldenthal: Demolition Man". Movie-wave.net. 2006. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ↑ "Demolition Man (Elliot Goldenthal)". Filmtracks.com. 1993-11-23. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
- ↑ "Elliot Goldenthal". Filmtracks.com. June 17, 2009. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
- ↑ "Elliot Goldenthal". Soundonsound.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
- ↑ "In Dreams (Elliot Goldenthal)". Filmtracks.com. 1999-10-12. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
- ↑ "Batman Forever". Moviemusicuk.us. Archived from the original on January 12, 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
- ↑ "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Elliot Goldenthal)". Filmtracks.com. 2001-07-03. Archived from the original on 2014-07-10. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
- 1 2 3 Staudter, Thomas (March 23, 2003). "...and the Music for 'Frida,' Produced in a Scarsdale Basement". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
Bigger film projects then were offered to Mr. Goldenthal, and to meet the demands he assembled a four-person team that included Teese Gohl as supervising producer, Robert Ehlai as orchestrator, Joel Iwataki as sound engineer and Mr." Martinez, who is known as Rick, as electronic music producer.
- ↑ "3/3/98: Sphere of Influence (Goldenthal)". Filmscoremonthly.com. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
- ↑ "WarnerBros.com | Landing". Warnerbros.com. Archived from the original on December 30, 2007.
External links
edit
- Official website
- Elliot Goldenthal at IMDb
- Elliot Goldenthal at the Internet Broadway Database
- Elliot Goldenthal at the Internet Off-Broadway Database (archived)
- Elliot Goldenthal discography at Discogs
- Elliot Goldenthal at Allmusic
- "A Website for the Composer"
- Elliot Goldenthal at Moviemusicuk.us
- An Interview with both Taymor and Goldenthal by the New York Times
- An indepth interview from 2003