OT: Farewell to Bernstein

Spot|DSE wrote on 8/18/2004, 11:24 PM
Elmer Bernstein passed away today. He was a prolific composer, I guess I liked his sparse approach to musical scores as opposed to the bombastic pieces of his contemporaries. He really loved the sound of solo or duet instruments. "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Gangs of NY", and "Magnificent Seven" were among his biggest successes. Many years ago we got to hear him speak at Sundance film festival, following his work with Redford on "A River Runs Through It" which was filmed in part on Redford's Sundance resort, not far from here. Simply amazing compositions, he was the Keith Richards of symphonic scores, using simple theory to elaborate much larger parts.

Comments

TorS wrote on 8/18/2004, 11:31 PM
>>>he was the Keith Richards of symphonic scores

You mean he ripped it all from the old masters? :-)

But yes, I agree. One of the greats. Quite up there with Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota.
Tor
Grazie wrote on 8/19/2004, 12:03 AM
Sad day . .. but what a legacy? . .. Thanks SPOT . . .

.. . our time can be short . .

Grazie
Videot wrote on 8/19/2004, 12:38 AM
Don't forget his jazz style scores like 'Man with the Golden Arm' & 'Walk on The Wild Side' or even his epics like 'The Ten Commandments' or "Hawaii'.
busterkeaton wrote on 8/19/2004, 12:45 AM
His filmography is huge.

Two of my favorites are Sweet Smell of Success and Animal House

On the Animal House DVD, they talk about his score affected the movie. Before then comedies were given "wacky-comedic" scores. The director John Landis knew him and asked him to do the score. In adds a tone of gravity to the movie and sets up the basic conflict as an epic struggle. After that tons of comedies were getting "real" scores.

Sweet Smell of Success is amazing. The characters in that movie are pretty despicable and the score is big and mean and brassy. It adds a sense of menace throughout the movie.

(An aside, Bernstein did a quite a few movies with Scorcese too......The special edition of Goodfellas has finally come out on 2 DVD set with some nice extras. Commentary from tons of people involved with the film. It's more like an audio documentary than a DVD voice over. There's another track with commentary from the real Henry Hill and the FBI agent who brought him in as a witness. The FBI agent went to my high school.)
Blues_Jam wrote on 8/19/2004, 1:09 AM
I can only hope he wasn't the composer of the pretentious piano music (all of two or three notes) for Eyes Wide Open... Who was that anyway? I don't really want to know... I have never been so irritated by a score!!!!!

Sorry if it was him....

Blues
Grazie wrote on 8/19/2004, 1:16 AM
Jocelyn Pook?
RexA wrote on 8/19/2004, 1:32 AM
>>The special edition of Goodfellas has finally come out on 2 DVD set with some nice extras. Commentary from tons of people involved with the film. It's more like an audio documentary than a DVD voice over. There's another track with commentary from the real Henry Hill and the FBI agent who brought him in as a witness. The FBI agent went to my high school
<<

Goodfellas is one of my all time favorites. The original DVD was one of the early ones and wasn't even done in anamorphic. The video quality sucked and you had to change disks in the middle of the movie.

I've been looking for a better version for years. I haven't picked up this new release yet, but definately will. I have heard that Scorsese's DVD commentaries are among the best so I look forward to that and other extras too.

BK, thanks for the mini-review.

DSE, and all... sorry for hijacking the thread from its original subject. It does happen here, though, doesn't it.
Videot wrote on 8/19/2004, 4:19 PM
No one has yet to mention perhaps his best known scores for 'The Magnificent Seven' & 'The Great Escape'.
JJKizak wrote on 8/19/2004, 4:57 PM
The Magnificent Seven, They probably will never get that many stars
in a fim again. Flowing with character, "clap your hands" for Mr. Bernstein.

JJK
Cheno wrote on 8/19/2004, 8:22 PM
Well and Jerry Goldsmith about two weeks ago too... both legendary composers. We'll see very little of their kind in the future.

mike
Stonefield wrote on 8/19/2004, 8:52 PM
This is quite sad as I was an admirer of Mr. Bernstein's music.

My favorites are rather odd pics. What I really liked about this man's talent was to give a certain degree of credibility to some of the funniest comedies of the 80's and 90's. There's a nice little theme in Meatballs that he wrote that still rings in my head whenever I walk in the park. Dana's theme from Ghostbusters was another beautiful melody that gave a great comedy just a bit more depth. Tarna's theme from Heavy Metal was a similar but just as beautiful theme in a soundrack that was dominated by the harder rock groups featured on that particular record.

I had almost forgotten about Jerry Goldsmith as well. Another favorite composer of mine. Along with James Horner, Alan Silvestri, and of course my favorite, John Williams. ( Jaws, Star Wars, Superman and Raider's of the Lost Ark...do you HAVE to do anything else ? )

Yes, Elmer will be missed but his wonderful legacy of musical themes will always be humming in my head forever.

Stan