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Does anyone know exactly when Goldsmith's serious health issues surfaced at the end of his career? It seems like his productivity declined starting around 2000, and there is a mention of a cancer surgery (seemingly around the time of "The Last Castle") in the "Sum of All Fears" expanded edition liner notes. In some searches on this board there are some bittersweet posts when he cancelled some appearances in early 2004 where everyone is speculating about his health "in the last few years." But a lot of that seems to be speculation more than actual info.
Just looking at his output, it seems like something happened, maybe around mid to late 2000, when those issues started to arise. I'm not interested in detailed information, but from a more academic perspective I'm interested in when those issues started to affect his work. My guess would be after "Hollow Man" and possibly during or before "Along Came a Spider." It seems like by the time of "The Sum of All Fears" he was seriously ill.
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Posted: |
Feb 19, 2017 - 8:00 PM
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By: |
mastadge
(Member)
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Please elaborate re "productivity declined."
He had 3 features in '95, 5 in '96, 4 in '97, 5 in '98, 3 in 1999, 1 in 2000, 2 in '01, 2 in '02, 1 in '03. It's a decline:
EDIT: crap, I typed 1997 twice and I'm too lazy to re-upload the image. Doesn't change the trendline though.
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I don't find this thread "tasteless". Jerry Goldsmith became ill, he had cancer, and ultimately he died from it. That was sad, but I don't think wondering about it or discussing it per se is in "bad taste". Illness and death are a regular, normal part of the human experience, and I don't see that the original question had ill intent.
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I found some posts from the era over on the JG Online forum. There definitely was more speculation about what was going on with his health than I remember, but there wasn't a whole lot that connected stuff like his inability to finish Looney Tunes and the rejection of the Timeline score to his health. I think his last public appearance was the TCM interview on Youtube? He seems kind of unwell in the video, though it's hard to say for sure.
I remember being a poor grad student and "Along Came a Spider" was the first Jerry score I had skipped buying for over a decade, but I did buy "The Last Castle" and without knowing what was going on, it just seemed like something was missing. I had loved "The 13th Warrior" of course and I thought "Hollow Man" had some really complex, amazing writing. To me, there's a certain exuberance and complexity that really started dropping out of his work starting with "Along Came a Spider." The question for me is whether "Along Came a Spider" is in the category of works that were really affected by his health.
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It was probably a matter of delivering what the director wanted for that score. Jerry may not have been able to finish Looney Tunes: Back in Action, but "exuberance and complexity" describes it perfectly, and that was the last thing he wrote that we know of. Its energy level is around that of the young John Powell, so how about we all just keep that in mind before referring to the "decline" of a 75 year old individual with cancer. Hell, much as I love them, John Barry and Basil Poledouris experienced much more of a career decline towards the end. Basil was quite younger than Jerry, and Barry wrote his last film score at age 67, a whole ten years before he passed away! If the subdued The Last Castle was Jerry's final score, that might lend credence to your theory that he was winding down. But Looney Tunes is/was just remarkable.
Yavar
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Didn't mean to have a discussion about the relative merits of the last few Goldsmith scores. I've found a lot to like in them over the past few years on reflection. I agree that Looney Tunes is a great score and certainly a lot busier than "The Last Castle." But in terms of complexity and exuberance, I think I was subconsciously referring to a genius article that Lukas (and maybe also Jeff) wrote back in the mid 90s, complaining about how Goldsmith's writing had simplified after the advent of MIDI, somewhere around Twilight Zone. Of course, given what has happened to film music since, it seems quaint to debate the merits of First Blood's complexity versus First Blood Part II.
But in any event, I think I've looked at Goldsmith's music through the lens that Lukas provided in that article, because I think it's largely true that MIDI and advancing recording technologies changed his music. What I was trying to get at in this thread was that I think his illness got thrown into the mix along with those other things at the end to propel his music to a different place.
Also added to that equation is Goldsmith's apparent interest in SACD technology. I have the SACDs of Timeline and Nemesis, and the music is just so clean and almost sterile sounding, I think it seems sparser than it would have seemed had it been performed by the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, if you know what I mean.
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Posted: |
Feb 20, 2017 - 10:41 AM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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Jerry may not have been able to finish Looney Tunes: Back in Action, but "exuberance and complexity" describes it perfectly, and that was the last thing he wrote that we know of. Its energy level is around that of the young John Powell, so how about we all just keep that in mind before referring to the "decline" of a 75 year old individual with cancer.
I'm not objecting to anything you're saying here, but I'm also not sure what the point you're making is, exactly. Composing is not the same as performing. A frail person can write down notes of a scherzo as easily as he can write down notes of a dirge. To put it another way, there's no reason a paraplegic artist can't paint a child skipping down the street. Or, for that matter, no reason a twenty year old composer can't compose an elegy. The body and the mind are distinct, and while yes, an artist whose body is failing him can easily fall into a despair that's reflected in his work, and the ravages of chemotherapy or radiation treatments can exhaust him, but don't confuse physical frailty with mental weakness. A good friend of mine is going through terrible chemotherapy right now, and she's too weak to drive or shop, but she's every bit as sharp-witted as ever.
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Posted: |
Feb 20, 2017 - 11:19 AM
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By: |
Jeff Bond
(Member)
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Sure,, illness may not impact the mind and creativity, but film composing is done on a schedule with deadlines and composers generally have (or had) to write two or two and a half minutes of music per day in order to meet their deadlines, and if you don't have the energy to work 12 hours a day, or if pain is affecting your ability to concentrate, I would think that would be a factor in how much music you write or its complexity. I don't think the changes in Goldsmith's style over the years were due to any one thing--when I asked him about it he said, "The movies changed." Tastes changed, the way he worked (due to technology) probably changed, an Goldsmith got older and eventually got sick.
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Posted: |
Feb 20, 2017 - 12:01 PM
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By: |
CK
(Member)
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A couple of friends and I went to his 2004 Concert at the Barbican in London. Up to a few days before, JG was said to be there; alas, he couldn't make it, so Dirk Brosse conducted for him. It was a wonderful concert, of course, but it would've been even better had Jerry been able to be there. In retrospect, with his death only five months later, it probably would have been his final concert, too.
But the good thing about music and memories is that they have a way of staying alive. 
Thanks, Jerry, for putting this particular kid onto the wonders of film music with ST:TMP in August of 1994!
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