ELMER BERNSTEIN 1922 - 2004

"I found it very exciting to be given a musical problem, solve the problem, and then hear the results almost immediately...With film music you can write something and quickly find out if it functions in the situation. You know immediately if you've won or lost, and I've always found that very stimulating."

Elmer Bernstein was born in New York on April 4, 1922, the child of Ukranian immigrants Edward and Selma Bernstein. Bernstein was an unusually creative child, winning prizes for his painting as well as studying the piano. At the age of 12 he studied with Julliard's Henriette Michelson, planning to become a concert pianist, but his aptitude for improvisation led to an introduction to Aaron Copland, whom Bernstein later termed "the musical father of all American composers." Copland arranged for Bernstein to study with one of his own pupils, Israel Sitkowitz, and while attending New York's Walden School, Bernstein gave his first concert at the age of 15 at Steinway Hall.

Graduating from Walden, he attended New York University, and in 1941 developed his first interest in film scoring when he saw The Devil and Daniel Webster, featuring an Oscar winning score by Bernard Herrmann. He earned his bachelor's degree in Music Education in 1942, and in 1943 was inducted into the U.S. Army. He joined the Army Air Corps, where he ended up writing orchestral arrangements of folk songs for Major Glenn Miller and his Air Force Band. This led to his scoring a radio program for the Armed Forces Radio Service, and by the time he left the Army he had composed nearly eighty radio scores.

Back in civilian life, he returned to the piano, giving his first concert at Town Hall in 1946, the same year he married his first wife, Pearl Gusman. While he continued performing, his interest in composition grew and he studied with composers Roger Sessions (from whom he learned the "nuts-and-bolts" of composing) and Stefan Volpe (with whom he analyzed the work of other composers). His radio compositions during the war led to a job scoring a UN Radio documentary on the armistice in Israel, with narration by Henry Fonda, which was broadcast on NBC, and based on this he was hired to score a radio drama from acclaimed writer-producer Norman Corwin.

His radio work led to his first feature film scoring assignments -- Saturday's Hero, a college football drama starring John Derek, and Boots Malone, a William Holden vehicle. The suspense thriller Sudden Fear promised to be his breakthrough film, earning four Oscar nominations including nods for stars Joan Crawford and Jack Palance, but Bernstein's open participation in left-wing causes led to him being, if not blacklisted than "greylisted" (Bernstein's term), and he found himself scoring B-movies like Cat-Women of the Moon (where his name was misspelled "Bernstien") and the famously terrible Robot Monster, where Bernstein's imaginative music accompanied an alien robot played by a man in a gorilla suit wearing a diving helmet.

Bernstein's fortunes began to improve thanks to the help of some powerful patrons. 20th Century Fox music department head Alfred Newman hired him to score the studio's Southern drama The View From Pompey's Head, based on the recommendation of Bernard Herrmann. When Bernstein called Herrmann to thank him, the more experienced composer bellowed "Don't bother me -- if I didn't think ya had any talent I wouldn't-a recommended you!" and hung up.

Around the same time, he got the job of rehearsal pianist (and uncredited dance music composer) for Fred Zinnemann's lavish film of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Oklahoma. The film's choreographer was Agnes DeMille, and she recommended Bernstein to her uncle Cecil, who needed a composer for his epic film of The Ten Commandments, as his usual composer, Victor Young, was ailing. Despite a controversial incident a few years earlier where DeMille had tried to pressure all the Director's Guild members to sign loyalty oaths, the director was not intimidated by Bernstein's "greylisting" and hired the young composer, who spent over a year on the project and composed an epic symphonic score for the hugely successful film, DeMille's final project as a director (years later Bernstein remarked on the number of major directors whose final film he scored, including Michael Curtiz, John Ford, George Roy Hill, William Wyler and Fred Zinnemann). One story has it that Bernstein's original cue for the Exodus sequence played at a tempo that too accurately matched the slow walking pace of the desert travelers, so DeMille had him write a faster version, and Bernstein's wonderfully rousing cue might make you think Moses was leading his people across the desert on speeding chariots.

"The truly fascinating thing about scoring film is that it allows for any kind of music."

DeMille's employment of Bernstein helped end the greylist, as did Otto Preminger (whose hiring policies helped end the blacklist througout Hollywood) when he signed Bernstein to score the gritty drama The Man With the Golden Arm. Preminger liked to have his composers around as much as possible, and Bernstein was present at the first cast script reading as well as every day of filming - unlike other composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, who preferred to wait until seeing a cut of a film to begin his creative process, Bernstein liked to be involved as early as possible. Bernstein explained that "the main character was a man who wanted to be a jazz drummer, so I there tried to make that broad jazzy theme speak for his ambitions, and by giving it a sad quality it also implied his frustration." While Alex North's score for A Streetcar Named Desire helped introduce jazz elements into film scoring, Bernstein's Golden Arm score, like Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn music, helped make jazz-based film scoring a potent commercial asset. Bernstein himself later lamented the way that jazz music came to be associated in films with sleaziness (such as in his own Sweet Smell of Success), and a couple years after Golden Arm's huge success (which led to Bernstein's first Oscar nomination), Bernard Herrmann loudly and publicly denounced Bernstein as "that great VAMP writer!," which caused Bernstein not to speak to his former supporter for two years.

Since they attained fame at around the same time, Bernstein was often confused with stage and concert composer Leonard Bernstein, and to tell them apart they were sometimes referred to as "Bernstein West" (Elmer) and "Bernstein East" (Leonard). Bernstein West was now greatly in demand, providing moving scores for such dramas as Desire Under the Elms, Kings Go Forth and Some Came Running. He brought his jazz scoring style to television with the series Johnny Staccato, with John Cassavetes as a jazz pianist/private eye. Cassavetes was heavily involved with the show's music and Bernstein described him as "a lot of fun to work with." The show's onscreen jazz performances included appearances by Shelly Manne and "Johnny" Williams.

The period adventure drama series Riverboat, starring Darren McGavin and Burt Reynolds, gave Bernstein the chance to work in a Copland-ish Americana style and musically was "a rehearsal" for a project that would feature perhaps Bernstein's most famous melody. He actively sought the job of scoring The Magnificent Seven, the John Sturges-directed Western reworking of Kursoawa's Seven Samurai (which Bernstein hadn't seen at the time), and acknowledged that, like his Commandments Exodus cue, the tempo of the score was faster than the onscreen action: "The film needed music to help give it drive. In that sense, it is a quite physical score, as much foreground as background." His main theme was an instant success, even before it became ubiquitous in Marlboro cigarette commercials, though it took over thirty years for the original score tracks to become commercially available.

"That's part of the fun of being a film composer, that you are reaching people at a subliminal level, where they are relatively defenseless."

He was Oscar nominated again for his gorgeous music for the Tennessee Williams adaptation Summer and Smoke, recognizing that "the problem of the music was to portray something of the inner turmoil of these two characters without stepping on the delicacy of the film or overshadowing it," and this was followed soon after by a score that is widely considered his masterpiece, with music as delicate as Magnificent Seven's was thunderous. Harper Lee's only novel, the autobiographical To Kill a Mockingbird, was lovingly adapted for the screen by writer Horton Foote, producer Alan J. Pakula and director Robert Mulligan, and featured Gregory Peck in his Oscar-winning role as small-town lawyer Atticus Finch, probably the most appealing father figure in all of American cinema. Bernstein struggled with the approach for this score, ultimately deciding "to focus on the kind of particular and peculiar magic that is the imaginative world of a child. Simplicity was the keynote." Bernstein's exquisite, heartbreaking score is one of the all-time film music classics. Its theme was even played at Peck's funeral, and the composer spoke at the actor's memorial tribute.

Bernstein continued to be staggeringly prolific, turning out feature scores in nearly every genre (though the success of Magnificent Seven made him especially popular in Westerns, scoring the three sequels as well as eight John Wayne pictures including his final film, The Shootist) as well as music for TV episodes, documentaries (his score for the TV special The Making of the President -- 1960 won an Emmy), and short films (he scored dozens of shorts for filmmakers Charles & Ray Eames). Another project with John Sturges, the wonderful WWII adventure film The Great Escape, featured another of Bernstein's most beloved and familiar themes, though shockingly the score wasn't nominated for an Oscar. Another of his classic melodies emerged from this period, the instantly recognizable theme to TV's series of National Geographic documentaries (in the opening sequence of Twilight Zone: The Movie, Albert Brooks makes up lyrics to the theme: "Look at this fossil, here is where it was found."). The epic Hawaii featured another famous main theme, and was an especially tricky scoring job as Bernstein's research into the subject matter showed that "Hawaiians of the period had no melodic instruments at all."

He even found time to write a Broadway musical, the screwball romantic comedy How Now Dow Jones, starring Tony Roberts, Brenda Vaccaro and Marlyn Mason (later the co-star of TV's Longstreet). Though the musical was no classic, it ran for 220 performances beginning in December of 1967 and earned Bernstein's score a Tony nomination, and the cast album, released on CD by RCA, features catchy songs and clever lyrics by Carolyn Leigh (Little Me, "The Best Is Yet To Come"). Shockingly, it was another musical that won Bernstein his first and only Oscar. The period pastiche Thoroughly Modern Millie, directed by George Roy Hill, earned nominations for Sammy Cahn's classic title song and Andre Previn and Joseph Gershenson's song adaptations, but it was Bernstein's original incidental music that took home the gold, beating such competition as Quincy Jones' In Cold Blood and Richard Rodney Bennett's Far From the Madding Crowd. Other Oscar appearances included accepting John Addison's award in 1964, serving as musical director for the 1968 and 1970 ceremonies, and presenting Burt Bacharach the Best Score award for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

As popular songs began to dominate film music in the late sixties and early seventies, Bernstein, like many of his peers, began to work more regularly in television, scoring episodes of series like The Big Valley and Gunsmoke and providing the main themes for The Rookies, Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, and the marvelously catchy Ellery Queen. His Emmy nominated score for the mini-series Captains and the Kings was his favorite of his TV work, and featured Irish elements which presaged his run of Irish-themed scores in the late 80s and 90s.

He also demonstrated his love of film music by producing a subscription series of albums under the Elmer Bernstein Film Music Collection label, where he conducted faithful new recordings of the works of great film composers -- not only his own scores (The Miracle/Toccata For Toy Trains, To Kill a Mockingbird) but also those of Herrmann (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Torn Curtain), Newman (Wuthering Heights), North (Viva Zapata/Death of a Salesman), Rozsa (Madame Bovary, Young Bess, The Thief of Bagdad), Steiner (Helen of Troy/A Summer Place), Tiomkin (The High and the Mighty/Search For Paradise, Land of the Pharoahs/Gunfight at the O.K. Corral), and Waxman (The Silver Chalice) as well as the original tracks to Jerry Fielding's Scorpio. He also published a newsletter, Film Music Bulletin, featuring articles and interviews with great film composers, which was recently published in book form by the Film Music Society.

"I have this thing that if I run the rough cut of the film often enough, over and over again, it will start to talk to me. It will tell me stuff. Eventually, the tone I need will come to me. Then you have something that fits, some sense of integration with the film instead of just slapping some wallpaper at the end."

His career took an unexpected turn when director John Landis, a high school friend of his son, composer Peter Bernstein, hired the composer for his sleeper smash comedy National Lampoon's Animal House. It was Landis' idea that Bernstein de-emphasize the comic elements in his scoring, and the result was an expert mixture of the somber and the lighthearted, though frustratingly the score has never received an album release even though the film remains one of the comedy classics of the decade. Bernstein worked frequently with Landis for over a decade, even providing incidental music for the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video, and his Landis scores include a spooky, seven-minute score for An American Werewolf in London, Oscar-nominated classical adaptations for Trading Places, a marvelous comedy adventure pastiche for Spies Like Us, and a delightful homage to his own classic Magnificent Seven in Three Amigos.

Animal House was followed by two other hit comedies which helped typecast Bernstein for the next decade. For the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker disaster spoof Airplane!, Bernstein scored the film from the perspective of a young B-movie composer trying to tackle his first A-list assignment, and his straight-faced comedy score was a deft complement to the deadpan performances of Hollywood stalwarts Robert Stack, Peter Graves and especially Leslie Nielsen. His score for the summer camp comedy Meatballs, featuring four songs written with lyricist Norman Gimbel, began his prolific relationship with producer-director Ivan Reitman, which led to such other Bill Murray hits as Stripes (with its infectious march theme) and Ghostbusters.

His partnership with Reitman led to another of Bernstein's film music masterpieces. The animated feature Heavy Metal was an anthology film comprised of sci-fi fantasy stories, and Bernstein's magnificent score incorporated masculine adventure, feminine adventure(incorporating the love theme Bernstein originally wrote for Stanley Donen's sci-fi disaster Saturn 3, which Donen dropped from the film along with some of Bernstein's more offbeat cues), lighthearted noir, and thrilling action. The score marked Bernstein's first use of the electronic keyboard instrument the ondes martenot, which Bernstein became enamored of when he and orchestrator Christopher Palmer first heard it demonstrated, and Palmer suggested a place for it in Metal. Bernstein's score unfortunately had to fight for space with a large number of rock songs, and though it was originally intended that Joe Walsh would provide all the rock and Bernstein would provide the score, the two men coordinating their efforts, a variety of rock performers were ultimately used and one of Bernstein's most thrilling cues ("Bomber and the Green Ball") was dropped to make room for a rock song whose original placement scene was dropped from the film.

Reitman and Bernstein even collaborated on a Broadway musical, Merlin, with lyrics by Don Black and a book by ace TV writers Richard Levinson & William Link (Columbo, That Certain Summer), starring magician Doug Henning and Broadway great Chita Rivera. The show ran for 199 performances and no cast album was released, though a collection of the show's songs was published as sheet music.

After spending most of the 80s toiling as a comedy composer, Bernstein found his career changing direction once again when a modest Irish biopic he scored, My Left Foot, became a Best Picture nominee and won Oscars for actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker. Bernstein rapidly became in as great a demand for serious dramas as he had been three decades earlier, writing music for such Oscar nominated performances as Laura Dern and Diane Ladd in Rambling Rose, Richard Harris in The Field, and Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening in The Grifters. Bernstein's droll score for Grifters was influenced by Weill's Threepenny Opera, though his working relationship with director Stephen Frears was negatively affected when Frears radically rearranged Bernstein's cues in the score, using some of them repeatedly. Still, the Frears sequencing works extremely well in the film, while the Varese score CD features the music in the order Bernstein intended.

Martin Scorsese was one of Grifters' producers, and when Scorsese planned to rework Bernard Herrmann's original score for the 1961 thriller Cape Fear for his own remake of the film, Bernstein sought and won the job of adapting Herrmann's music (also incorporating some of Herrmann's rejected Torn Curtain score). The film, a rare boxoffice success for the revered director, helped bring Herrmann's music to a whole new audience, and began a creatively fruitful relationship between Scorsese and Bernstein, with Bernstein scoring such Scorsese productions as Mad Dog and Glory and Search and Destroy. Their collaboration on the Edith Wharton adaptation The Age of Innocence produced one of Bernstein's last great scores, and earned him his first original score nomination since his 1967 Oscar.

"Today, a love scene scored with a beautiful melody for strings is likely to be scoffed at."

Unfortunately, Bernstein, like many of the great Silver Age composers (Barry, Goldsmith, Jarre) found his scores being rejected at a surprising rate during the 80s and 90s. Unusued Bernstein scores include The Journey of Natty Gann, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (though the Bernstein score was included on European prints), Stars and Bars, A River Runs Through It (Bernstein later agreed that his mystical approach didn't gibe with what director Robert Redford was seeking, and Mark Isham's folk-based replacement score earned Isham his only Oscar nomination so far), I Love Trouble, The Scarlet Letter (Bernstein allegedly wrote to star Demi Moore, who had helped ax his score, thanking him so he could now use the music in a better film), Last Man Standing, Rat Race, and, most unexpectedly, Gangs of New York, Martin Scorsese's period epic. Gangs was a famously troubled production, made under the heavy hand of Miramax head Harvey Weinstein (notorious for replacing composers), and the film was an impressive but unsatisfying mess that probably only Ennio Morricone could have found the proper tone for.

Despite the Gangs setback, Bernstein achieved a new burst of popularity and acclaim with his score for Far From Heaven, director Todd Haynes' stylish and moving homage to the glossy 50s films of Douglas Sirk. Bernstein's lush, romantic sensibilities were perfectly suited to the assignment, and he contributed a melodic score that felt true to the period without edging into campy pastiche.

In late 2003, Bernstein wrote was proved to be his final full-length score, for a TNT documentary on his early patron, Cecil B. DeMille. Bernstein spoke of the important role the director held in his carer and his life: "I have always been grateful for Mr. DeMille's confidence in and care for me, not only as an artist but as a person. I have always felt deeply indebted to him for his care and for how much I learned about film making just from watching him on that project. His knowledge and advice were invaluable, and I am very pleased to have been able to honor his memory in what seems to be a most appropriate way."

"The most important thing for the aspiring film composer is simply to see as many films as he can and study them with both his eyes and his ears. It is vital to understand that film is a combination of sight and sound. Those composers who are simply looking for an outlet to write music had best forget films."

This June, John Mauceri conducted Bernstein's new composition "Fanfare for the Hollywood Bowl," to commemorate the Bowl's new remodeling. On August 18th, 2004, Bernstein died at his home in Ojai, California after a long illness, attended by his daughters Emilie and Elizabeth, and his second wife Eve. He is also survived by two sons, Gregory and Peter, and five grandchildren.

--Scott Bettencourt

Principal research sources for this article include the books A Heart at Fire's Center by Steven C. Smith, The Score by Michael Schelle, Knowing the Score by David Morgan, TV's Biggest Hits by Jon Burlingame, and Film Score and Music For the Movies by Tony Thomas.

This list is incomplete at best, omitting especially his early radio work, and all titles are feature film scores unless otherwise noted. The order is roughly chronological - - very roughly.

WOODSTOCK FAIR (concert piece)
SATURDAY'S HERO
BOOTS MALONE
NEVER WAVE AT A WAC
SUDDEN FEAR
2:03 on the Ava CD Elmer Bernstein: Movie and TV Themes
BATTLES OF CHIEF PONTIAC
ROBOT MONSTER
CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON
A COMMUNICATIONS PRIMER (documentary short score)
MAKE HASTE TO LIVE
Score LP on Citadel, paired with The Eternal Sea
SILENT RAIDERS
S-73 (short film score)
MISS ROBIN CRUSOE
THE ETERNAL SEA
Score LP on Citadel
OKLAHOMA (dance music for the film)
THE VIEW FROM POMPEY'S HEAD
Score CD on Film Score Monthly, paired with Blue Denim
THE HELLCATS (TV episode scores)
THE LITTLE LEATHERNECKS (TV episode scores)
TRAMP SHIP (TV episode scores)
THE COURT JESTER (musical assistance to songwriter Sylvia Fine)
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
Score CD on Polygram; Oscar nominee Music - Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
STORM FEAR
IT'S A DOG'S LIFE
HOUSE: AFTER FIVE YEARS OF LIVING (documentary short score)
Score featured on the Citadel CD Midas Run, and on the Amber CD Music For the Films of Charles & Ray Eames Volume 1
TAKE FIVE (TV pilot theme)
3:08 on the Ava CD Elmer Bernstein: Movie and TV Themes
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Score CD on MCA; Oscar finalist Music - Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
CODE 3 (TV episode scores)
THE NAKED EYE (documentary score)
EAMES LOUNGE CHAIR (documentary short score)
MEN IN WAR
Score LP on Imperial
FEAR STRIKES OUT
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
3:19 on the Ava CD Elmer Bernstein: Movie and TV Themes
COWBOY 57 (TV score)
DRANGO
Score LP on Liberty
THE TIN STAR
THE INFORMATION MACHINE (short film score)
DAY OF THE DEAD (short film score)
DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS
Score LP on Dot
SADDLE THE WIND
KINGS GO FORTH
Score CD on Cloud Nine, paired with Some Came Running
GOD'S LITTLE ACRE
Score LP on United Artists
THE BUCCANEER
Score CD on DRG
EXPANDING AIRPORT (short film score)
SOME CAME RUNNING
Score CD on Cloud Nine, paired with Kings Go Forth; Oscar finalist Music - Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
THE C.I.C PROJECT (TV score)
THE DEAN JONES SHOW (TV score)
DR. KATE (TV score)
MANLEY AND THE MOB (TV score)
ANNA LUCASTA
3:50 on the Ava CD Elmer Bernstein: Movie and TV Themes
GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER (TV series theme and 30 episode scores)
Score LP on Columbia
TOCCATA FOR TOY TRAINS (Short film score)
Featured on the Amber CD Music For the Films of Charles & Ray Eames Volume 1
JOHNNY STACCATO (TV series theme and episode scores)
Score LP on TER
RIVERBOAT (TV series first season theme and 15 episode scores)
2:15 on the RCA CD Double Impact
THE MIRACLE
Score LP on Elmer Bernstein's Film Music Collection
THE RACE FOR SPACE (TV documentary score)
GLIMPSES OF THE USA (short film score)
PENNSYLVANIA OVERTURE (concert piece)
THE STORY ON PAGE ONE
Score CD on Intrada Special Collection
THE FABULOUS FIFTIES (documentary score)
THE RAT RACE
2:12 on the Ava CD Elmer Bernstein: Movie and TV Themes
FROM THE TERRACE
Score CD on Film Score Monthly
LAURETTE (incidental stage music)
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Score CD on Varese Sarabande; re-recording conducted by James Sedares on Koch; re-recording conducted by Bernstein on RCA; Oscar nominee Music - Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
ISRAEL (documentary score)
PETER PAN (ballet music for the stage musical)
INTRODUCTION TO FEEDBACK (documentary short film score)
BY LOVE POSSESSED
THE YOUNG DOCTORS
THE COMANCHEROS
Score CD on Film Score Monthly
SOMETHING ABOUT FUNCTIONS (short film score)
TOPOLOGY (short films score)
SUMMER AND SMOKE
Score CD on RCA (import); Oscar nominee Music - Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
BIOGRAPHY OF A ROOKIE (TV documentary score)
PROJECT MAN IN SPACE (TV documentary score)
SYMMETRY (TV documentary score)
IBM MATHEMATICS PEEP SHOW (documentary short film score)
HOLLYWOOD: THE GOLDEN YEARS (TV documentary score)
WALK ON THE WILD SIDE
Score CD on Mainstream; Oscar nominee Music - Song; Oscar finalist Music Score - Substantially Original; Grammy nominee Instrumental Theme; Grammy nominee Orchestra or Instrumentalist With Orchestra - Not Jazz Or Dancing
BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ
2:27 on the Mainstream CD Elmer Bernstein: A Man and His Movies
D-DAY (TV documentary score)
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Score CD on Varese Sarabande; Oscar nominee Music - Music Score substantially original; Golden Globe winner Best Motion Picture Score
BEFORE THE FAIR (short film score)
THE HOUSE OF SCIENCE (short film score)
THE MAN FROM INDEPENDENCE (TV documentary score)
STORY OF A BOXER (TV documentary score)
SAINTS AND SINNERS (TV episode scores)
1:59 on the Ava CD Elmer Bernstein: Movie and TV Themes
SAN FRANCISCO FIRE (documentary short film score)
THE BEACHCOMBER (TV series theme and episode scores)
A GIRL NAMED TAMIKO
SEATTLE EXPO IBM (documentary score)
HUD
THE GREAT ESCAPE
Score CD on Varese Sarabande; re-recording conducted by Bernstein on RCA
THE CARETAKERS
Score CD on Mainstream, paired with Baby the Rain Must Fall
HOLLYWOOD: THE GREAT STARS (TV documentary score)
HOLLYWOOD: THE FABULOUS ERA (TV documentary score)
THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT -- 1960 (TV documentary score)
Emmy winner Original Music
STORY OF A YEAR - 1927 (TV documentary score)
THE WORLD'S GREATEST SHOWMAN: CECIL B. DEMILLE (TV documentary score)
RAMPAGE
KINGS OF THE SUN
THE PASSING YEARS (short film score)
THINK! (short film score)
LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER
Oscar finalist Music - Song
HOLLYWOOD AND THE STARS (TV documentary series)
2:59 on the Denon CD Elmer Bernstein by Elmer Bernstein
THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT
Score CD on Film Score Monthly; Oscar finalist Music Score - Substantially Original
A THOUSAND DAYS - TRIBUTE TO JFK (TV documentary score)
SLATTERY'S PEOPLE (TV episode scores)
THE CARPETBAGGERS
Score LP on Ava
FOUR DAYS IN NOVEMBER (documentary score)
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (TV documentary series theme and episode scores)
Theme and episode score "Yankee Sails Across Europe" released on CD by Intrada Special Collection
BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL
Score CD on Mainstream; Oscar finalist Music - Song
THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL
Score LP on United Artists
COMPUTER DAY AT MIDVALE (short film score)
THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER
Score LP on Columbia
THE REWARD
Score CD on Intrada Special Collection, paired with The Story on Page One
THE BIG VALLEY (TV episode scores)
WESTINGHOUSE IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER (documentary short film score)
Featured on the Amber CD Music For the Films of Charles & Ray Eames Volume 1
VIEW FROM THE PEOPLE WALL (short film score)
TIME-LIFE SPECIALS: THE MARCH OF TIME (TV documentary series scores)
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE (short film score)
THE SMITHSONIAN NEWSREEL (short film score)
IBM PUPPET SHOWS (short film score)
IBM AT THE FAIR (documentary short film score)
THE SILENCERS
Score LP on RCA
CAST A GIANT SHADOW
Score CD from Varese Sarabande CD Club
7 WOMEN
Score CD on Film Score Monthly, paired with Never So Few
HAWAII
Score CD from Varese Sarabande CD Club; Oscar nominee Music - Original Music Score; Oscar nominee Music - Song; Golden Globe winner Best Original Score
RETURN OF THE SEVEN
Score CD on Rkyo; Oscar nominee Music - Scoring of Music, adaptation or treatment
STAGE 67 (TV episode scores)
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE
Oscar winner Music - Original Music Score; Golden Globe nominee Best Original Score
HOW NOW DOW JONES (Broadway musical)
Broadway Cast CD on RCA; Tony nominee Composer and Lyricist (with Carolyn Leigh)
IBM MUSEUM (short film score)
A COMPUTER GLOSSARY (documentary short film score)
THE SCALPHUNTERS
JULIA (TV series theme)
I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS!
Oscar finalist Music - Song
ROUGH SKETCH OF A PROPOSED FILM DEALING WITH THE POWERS OF TEN AND THE RELATIVE SIZE OF THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE (short film score)
MIDAS RUN
Score CD on Citadel
TRUE GRIT
21:35 on the Varese Sarabande CD The Films of John Wayne; Oscar nominee Music - Song, original for the picture; Oscar finalist Music - Original Score -- For A Motion Picture [Not A Musical]; Golden Globe nominee Best Original Song
GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN
2:31 re-recorded for the Silva CD The Longest Day: Music From the Classic War Films
THE WOLF MEN (TV documentary score)
THE GYPSY MOTHS
Score CD on Film Score Monthly
WHERE'S JACK?
Score LP on Paramount
TOPS (short film score)
THE LIBERATION OF L.B. JONES
CEMETERIES (short film score)
WALK IN THE SPRING RAIN
HARMONY OF NATURE AND MAN (documentary score)
CANNON FOR CORDOBA
KIFARU...THE BLACK RHINO (documentary score)
THE UNFINISHED JOURNEY OF R.F.K. (TV documentary score)
DOCTORS' WIVES
BIG JAKE
Score CD on Prometheus
SEE NO EVIL
ALASKA (TV documentary score)
OWEN MARSHALL: COUNSELOR AT LAW (TV movie score and series theme)
THE TELL-TALE HEART (short film score)
COMPUTER LANDSCAPE (documentary short film score)
APPOINTMENT WITH DESTINY: THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN DILLINGER (TV documentary score)
THE ROOKIES (TV movie score and series theme)
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN RIDE!
GUNSMOKE (TV episode score)
ARTHUR OF THE BRITONS (TV series theme)
SX-70 (short film score)
COMPUTER PERSPECTIVE (documentary short film score)
THE AMAZING MR. BLUNDEN
INCIDENT ON A DARK STREET (TV movie score)
CAHILL U.S. MARSHALL
8:40 on the Varese CD The Films of John Wayne Volume Two
NIGHTMARE HONEYMOON
IN SEARCH OF LOST WORLDS (documentary score)
COPERNICUS (documentary short film score)
MCQ
Score CD on Film Score Monthly
MEN OF THE DRAGON (TV movie score)
GOLD
Score LP on RCA; Oscar nominee Music - Song ("Wherever Love Takes Me"); Oscar finalist Music - Song ("Gold")
THE TRIAL OF BILLY JACK
Score LP on ABC
REPORT TO THE COMMISSIONER
ELLERY QUEEN (TV movie and episode scores)
THE FORCE (documentary score)
MR. QUILP
METROPOLITAN OVERVIEW (short film score)
SERPICO: THE DEADLY GAME (TV movie score and series theme)
THE SHOOTIST
12:21 on the Varese CD The Films of John Wayne Volume Two
FROM NOON TILL THREE
BEST SELLERS (TV series theme)
CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS (TV miniseries score)
Emmy nominee Music Composition - Series (Dramatic Underscore) for Chapter Eight
ONCE AN EAGLE (TV miniseries theme)
THE LOOK OF AMERICA (short film score)
THE INCREDIBLE SARAH
SEVENTH AVENUE (TV miniseries score)
BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON
COUSTEAU ODYSSEY (TV documentary series scores)
THE 3000 MILE CHASE (TV movie score)
THE WORLDS OF FRANKLIN AND JEFFERSON (documentary short film score)
POWERS OF TEN (documentary short film score)
POLAVISION (short film score)
Featured on the Amber CD Music For the Films of Charles & Ray Eames Volume 1
DAUMIER: PARIS AND THE SPECTATOR (short film score)
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE
Song CD on MCA featuring 2:19 of Bernstein's score
LISA DRAWS A LETTER (short film score)
LUCIA CHASE (short film score)
MACBETH (short film score)
MASKS (short film score)
BLOODBROTHERS
LITTLE WOMEN (TV movie score)
DEGAS IN THE METROPOLITAN (short film score)
CEZANNE (short film score)
ART GAME (short film score)
CHARLESTON (TV movie score)
THE CHISHOLMS (TV miniseries score)
Adapted from the music of Aaron Copland
ZULU DAWN
Score CD on La-La Land
MEATBALLS
Song, dialogue and score LP on RSO
KITES (short film score)
THE GREAT SANTINI
A REPORT ON THE IBM EXHIBITION CENTER (short film score)
SATURN 3
4:04 re-recorded of the score on the GNP/Crescendo CD Greatest Science Fiction Hits IV
TRUE ROMANCE (incidental stage music)
GUYANA TRAGEDY: THE STORY OF JIM JONES (TV movie score)
MOVIOLA: THIS YEAR'S BLONDE (TV movie score)
THE BLUES BROTHERS ("God music" only)
AIRPLANE!
4:30 re-recorded for the Silva CD The Disasters! Movie Music Album
GOING APE
STRIPES
HEAVY METAL
Score LP on Full Moon/Asylum
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON
THE CHOSEN
TODAY'S F.B.I. (TV movie score)
HONKY TONK FREEWAY
Co-composed with George Martin
GENOCIDE (documentary feature score)
Score CD on Intrada
FIVE DAYS ONE SUMMER
SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE
TRADING PLACES
Oscar nominee Original Song Score or Adaptation Score
MERLIN (Broadway musical)
Tony nominee Score (with Don Black)
CONCERTINO FOR ONDES AND ORCHESTRA (concert piece)
CLASS
THRILLER (incidental score for music video)
GHOSTBUSTERS
Song CD on Arista with 6:28 of Bernstein's score; Grammy nominee Best Album of Instrumental Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special
BOLERO (score for "love scenes")
Score CD on Prometheus; score composed by Peter Bernstein
PRINCE JACK
GULAG (TV movie score)
THE BLACK CAULDRON
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN (rejected score)
SPIES LIKE US
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
MARIE WARD
Score CD on Varese Sarabande CD Club
LEGAL EAGLES
Score LP on MCA
THREE AMIGOS
Score LP on Warner Bros.
AMAZING GRACE AND CHUCK
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
LEONARD PART 6
FUNNY FARM
DA
Score CD on Varese Sarabande, paired with My Left Foot
THE GOOD MOTHER
STARS AND BARS (rejected score)
Score CD from Varese Sarabande CD Club
A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF JIMMY REARDON (rejected score, included in European prints)
MY LEFT FOOT
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
SLIPSTREAM
MURDER IN MISSISSIPPI (rejected TV movie score)
THE FIELD
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
THE GRIFTERS
Score CD on Varese Sarabande; Additional music by Emilie Bernstein
SONGS OF LOVE AND LOATHING (concert piece)
ONE DAY IN DALLAS (short film score)
A RAGE IN HARLEM
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
OSCAR
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
RAMBLING ROSE
Score CD on Virgin
CAPE FEAR (adaptation of Bernard Herrmann's 1961 score)
Score CD on MCA
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT (rejected score)
THE BABE
Score CD on MCA
THE CEMETERY CLUB
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
MAD DOG AND GLORY
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
LOST IN YONKERS
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
Score CD on Epic; Oscar nominee Music - Original Score; Grammy nominee Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
THE GOOD SON
Score CD on Fox
I LOVE TROUBLE (rejected score)
ROOMMATES
Score CD on Hollywood
SEARCH AND DESTROY
CANADIAN BACON
Score co-composed by Peter Bernstein
THE SCARLET LETTER (rejected score)
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS
Song CD on Columbia featuring 7:03 of Bernstein's score
FRANKIE STARLIGHT
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
A PERSONAL JOURNEY WITH MARTIN SCORSESE THROUGH AMERICAN MOVIES (documentary score)
BULLETPROOF
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
LAST MAN STANDING (rejected score)
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
BUDDY
Score CD on Varese Sarabande
ROUGH RIDERS (TV movie theme)
Score CD on Intrada; Score composed by Peter Bernstein
HOODLUM
Score CD on RCA
JOHN GRISHAM'S THE RAINMAKER
Score CD on Hollywood
TWILIGHT
Score CD on Edel
PUPPIES FOR SALE (short film score)
THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN
Score CD on Milan
CONCERTO FOR GUITAR AND ORCHESTRA (concert piece)
Released on CD by Angel
WILD WILD WEST
Score CD on Varese Sarabande; Additional Music by Peter Bernstein
INTRODUCING DOROTHY DANDRIDGE (TV movie score)
Song CD on RCA featuring 6:45 of Bernstein's score
BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
Score CD released as a limited edition "For Your Consideration" Oscar promo
KEEPING THE FAITH
Score and Song CD on Hollywood
RAT RACE (rejected score)
TAKING THE WHEEL (short film score)
GANGS OF NEW YORK (rejected score)
FAR FROM HEAVEN
Score CD on Varese Sarabande; Oscar nominee Music - Original Score; Chicago Film Critics Association award winner Best Score; Los Angeles Film Critics Association award winner Best Music Score; Seattle Film Critics Award winner Best Music; Golden Globe nominee Best Original Score
THE RISING OF THE MOON (short film score)
CECIL B. DEMILLE: AMERICAN EPIC (TV documentary score)
FANFARE FOR THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL (concert piece)

SUBJECT: The Magnificent Elmer
 
Seminal influences stick.

Not only do they radically transform one's evolving consciousness, but they're equally revolutionary in the way they richly reflect elements of your essential character you may not have even been aware of. And when these crystalizing events occur, it's no Himalayan understatement to say nothing will ever be the same again - especially yourself.

That's the equalizing effect film music has always had on me from the earliest of origins. And the illustrious example which started it all?

Elmer Bernstein's immortal "The Magnificent Seven".

Now, I can't honestly say I subscribe to the theory of love at first sight, but I definitely do believe in the concept of heaven's harmony at first hearing. Which is precisely the wonderful wave of escalating euphoria (in no way false) enveloping this embryonic, still aborning soul when I first saw John Sturges' fabulous film upon its original 1960 release.

In tandem with the romantically robust, transcendently thrilling musical beat emanating from Bernstein's brilliantly-inspired baton, none of this aural affection, emotional attachment, psychological identification or spiritual transformation has abated in any way, shape or form these many moons later. As to that, if anything, the associative value has actually increased.

Which is why it's my All-Time (High) Favorite Score and Film.

One of the hallmarks of advancing awareness is, if you're lucky enough to stick around long enough, the evident virtue of your private affection is eventually vindicated via the public's late awakening (hence acknowledgment) that what you've admired for so long has ever-lasting value, after all - not that we NEEDED their tentative testimony in the first place.

A'course, it's been a source of both singular amusement and general bemusement observing the overall public belatedly wake up as well as catch-up to the joys and delights of this art form we've admired and loved so long thanks to the transcendent talents of artists like Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith. Granted, the public's appreciation remains a mite too one-dimensional and lemming-like in its adolescent infatuation and overall superficiality, yet we oughta allow them space to expand at their own pace, oui?

Then, too, as always, there remains much too much unwarranted snobbery from the neurotic nitwits in the so-called "classical" arena and the less informed, lacking in intelligent insight "mainstream" press but, by and large, matters filmusical are infinitely more meaningful - if, mayhap, not as immediately memorable - than they once were.

Thus, for those of us who've been inseparably attached and irreparably enamoured of the art and discipline that's the distinction of film music - and which Bernstein and Goldsmith so irrepressibly embodied - this is a time of no small significance with much to applaud.

And quite a lot to lament.

If "the more things change, the more they stay the same" has a residual truth to it encoded cliche, then the state of the film industry now has never been so creatively bankrupt. And if you have an artistic or inspired soul in your body, you reach a point of no return: the compromises aren't worth it, the frustrations don't reward it and you simply feel if you bend over backward one more time, that's one time entirely too many.

So it's no surprise that those Elder Statesmen of Film Music, both still with us and recently having left us, were past the point of "going along to get along". Bernstein's refusal to even watch a temp-tracked film, the endless barbarism of disrespect where scores of were thrown out - fates Goldsmith, Bernstein, John Barry, Basil Poledouris and many more too numerous to name - definitely damn an industry with no long-range foresight and scant appreciation - or INSIGHT - as to its past and those who've contributed to its advancement.

It's why Bernstein had the consummate courage at the Society of Composers and Lyricists Conference in 1998 (so authoritatively reported by Lukas in FSM June of that year) to lament what he nailed as the "improvisation, not inspiration" aspect of what composers had to deal with. Or why a Basil Poledouris can now wish for a more fulfilling experience expressing his art rather than what will enrich his bank account.

To say nothing of a John Barry currently echoing director John Sturges' famous drop-dead quote: "I'm too old and too rich to put up with this shit".

Enough.

We've suffered losses on a monumental scale this past month or so, not just musically but in human terms, too. If they don't make films like they use to, they don't produce artists like Elmer Bernstein any more, either.

Luckily, he lived long enough to witness the wonderful effect his heavenly harmonies had on an enlarged world wise enough to bask - and be thankful for - his beauty.

All of which generally compensates for an industry still too infantile, adolescent and maliciously mercenary NOT to take for granted those whose art is the hallmark of its honor.

What can you say about the passing of Elmer Bernstein? To me it feels like a personal loss. I rated him as one of my five personal favorite composers. Only Sunday I watched "The Hallelujah Trail" enjoying one of the happiest film scores ever written. I am listening to "To Kill A Mockingbird" and remembering. Just remembering.

My condolences go out to his family. And my thanks go out to this great composer who has left us with a wonderful legacy.

Another master has passed from us. CNN reports Elmer Bernstein has died in his sleep. This year has brought much loss to lovers of film scores. I am still aching from Jerry's passing.

Keep up the fine articles and I look forward to your feature on Elmer's life.

Have a nice day.

I found it terribly sad that in the space of less than a month two legendary composers have died. When I heard of the death of Elmer Bernstein it hit me hard since I was still reeling over Jerry Goldsmith's passing. To put into words the contributions that Bernstein gave to music for the cinema is about as easy as assessing Goldsmith's talent. I can't.

Elmer Bernstein was another favorite of mine. He was another innovator who always wrote great music and was gifted as a great melodist as well. When you listen to his scores you will know what I mean. His music was always very robust and full, and AMERICAN!! He was among the first who wrote away from that style of writing that all those European emigres (Tiomkin, Steiner, Rozsa, etc.) have been putting in films. He had a unique and distinctive style -- as all true artists should but seldom do now -- that is instantly recognizable. His scores for Westerns are legendary as was the man himself. and he could do it all: composing, arranging, concert pianist, etc. Like Jerry Goldsmith his name was synonomous with high quality, polish, style, and just plain great music to listen to. It is hard to take that these two legends are no longer with us (I should say three since David Raksin has also left us) to please us with the great music I'm sure they both had locked inside them.

I believe some artists should never die but as long as their music survives they do live. So they have acheived immortality in a way no ordinary person like myself could ever have. To have been alive in the same century as these two honors me as well as having the good taste to admire the type of music they wrote for us. They are truly the great treasures in cinema who should be cherished and remembered and be given great tributes that are usually reserved for actors and directors.

I know that as long as I live the names of these great composers will never be forgotten and I look forward to any new recordings of their scores because I know there should be. Though I didn't know them I shall miss them. This year is definitely a dark one for film music. Their music will endure and God bless them both. Thank you.

MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com