Elliot Goldenthal

Composer Elliot Goldenthal has forged a unique soundtrack language that he has applied to both mainstream and more experimental films. He has also written opera and other theatrical music, sometimes collaborating with his long-term partner, theater director Julie Taymor. The range of the kinds of films he has scored is great -- from <a href="spotify:artist:0xZ9fVp0OnYjYPeX9Z3c8x">Shakespeare</a> adaptations to horror. His music is well represented on recordings, and in 2024, conductor <a href="spotify:artist:34bKiLjmHfp1mAX5Tq3d2y">Dirk Brossé</a> led the Brussels Philharmonic in the anthology album Elliot Goldenthal: Music for Film.

Goldenthal was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 2, 1954. Of Romanian Jewish background, he was the son of a housepainter father and a seamstress mother. He soaked up the multicultural background of his Brooklyn neighborhood and became interested in music early on; at 14 he had a ballet performed by his high school orchestra. In the '70s, he performed in rock bands and studied at the Manhattan School of Music with composer <a href="spotify:artist:0aHSAeZ39EVErXuOjm2XDR">John Corigliano</a>; he also had lessons from American symphonic giant <a href="spotify:artist:0nJvyjVTb8sAULPYyA1bqU">Aaron Copland</a>. Another composer whose music influenced Goldenthal's eclectic and often atonal style was Japan's <a href="spotify:artist:5p6TCmGe9IygOnvamIaZpA">Toru Takemitsu</a>. In 1979 and 1980, Goldenthal scored two films for experimental German director Ulli Lommel, Cocaine Cowboys and Blank Generation; on the latter score, he collaborated with the punk band Richard Hell & the Voidoids. In 1984, he wrote a song, "Dream Baby," that was included on the New Wave pop group <a href="spotify:artist:3sc7iUG1Wwpwx7bHeZolgx">Bananarama</a>'s self-titled album of that year. In 1988, his theatrical-vocal work Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass, on which he collaborated with Taymor, won an Obie Award. Goldenthal's breakthrough came in 1989 with two films, one mainstream, the <a href="spotify:artist:6cXlNJGEwzOrgajIqpUUcg">Stephen King</a> adaptation Pet Sematary, and one independent, director <a href="spotify:artist:1iokknnSrYMMhGHYgZDUMB">Gus Van Sant</a>'s crime drama Drugstore Cowboy starring Matt Dillon.

Goldenthal continued to write theatrical and orchestral music, including Shadow Play Scherzo (1990), written in commemoration of conductor and composer <a href="spotify:artist:2LmyJyCF5V1eQyvHgJNbTn">Leonard Bernstein</a>'s 70th birthday. But he remains best known for film music, with major Hollywood and British productions such as Alien 3 (1992), Interview with the Vampire (1995), and Frida (2002) bearing his imprint. The latter score earned an Academy Award for Best Original Score. Goldenthal has scored two <a href="spotify:artist:0xZ9fVp0OnYjYPeX9Z3c8x">Shakespeare</a> films directed by Taymor, Titus (1999) and The Tempest (2010). He also wrote music for a three-act ballet based on <a href="spotify:artist:0xZ9fVp0OnYjYPeX9Z3c8x">Shakespeare</a>'s Othello, adapting that music into an Othello Symphony that was recorded in 2014 by the <a href="spotify:artist:0TtzLRGl6mjf5x0Y4Kls9s">AUKSO Orchestra</a>. Goldenthal's pace in scoring films slowed somewhat in the 2010s and 2020s, but he returned with a score for Taymor's The Glorias in 2021. Among Goldenthal's champions has been Belgian conductor <a href="spotify:artist:34bKiLjmHfp1mAX5Tq3d2y">Dirk Brossé</a>, who led the Brussels Philharmonic on the 2024 anthology album Elliot Goldenthal: Music for Film, released on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Silva+Screen%22">Silva Screen</a> label. ~ James Manheim, Rovi