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.
Early life and education Goldenthal 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. Goldenthal lived in a multi-cultural part of town, and this is reflected in his works. 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.
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.Dan Goldwasser "The Sweet Revenge of Elliot Goldenthal". SoundtrackNet Interview (January 21, 2000).
Career Goldenthal 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, Obie Award, 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; the Symphony in G-sharp Minor (2014), premiered by the Pacific Symphony under Carl St. Clair, and Symphony No. 3, "Sadowska Poems" (2021), inspired by the writing of Polish poet Barbara Sadowska. His chamber music includes the acclaimed String Quartet No. 1, "The Stone Cutters" (2013), while his opera Grendel, created with director Julie Taymor premiered at the Los Angeles Opera and was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Music. 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 and the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. Widely praised for dramatic power and richly orchestrated score, Othello later served as the basis for his Symphony No. 2, "Othello Symphony."
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."Elliot Goldenthal" (March 2003) Sound on Sound
Personal life He lives in New York City "happily unmarried", as he once put it, 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.
Style Elliot 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. 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. 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. 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".
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. According to Martinez, "a lot of composers want to focus on writing their music, and that's what [his] team allows Elliot to do." 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.
List of works
Film and television works
Feature films Year Title Director(s) Studio(s)Publisher Notes 1979Cocaine CowboysUlli Lommel International Harmony1980Blank GenerationComposed with Richard Hell and the Voidoids1989Drugstore CowboyGus Van Sant Avenue PicturesArtisan EntertainmentNovus Nominated- Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best MusicPet SemataryMary LambertParamount PicturesVarèse Sarabande1992Alien 3David FincherBrandywine Productions20th Century FoxMCAExpanded soundtrack released by La-La Land Records. 1993Demolition ManMarco BrambillaSilver PicturesWarner Bros.Varèse Sarabande1994Golden GateJohn MaddenThe Samuel Goldwyn CompanyInterview with the VampireNeil JordanGeffen PicturesWarner Bros.Geffen Records Nominated- Academy Award for Best Original ScoreNominated- Golden Globe Award for Best Original ScoreNominated- Saturn Award for Best MusicCobbRon SheltonRegency EnterprisesWarner Bros.Sony Classical1995Batman ForeverJoel SchumacherPolyGram Filmed EntertainmentWarner Bros.AtlanticExpanded soundtrack released by La-La Land Records. Nominated- Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual MediaVoices From a Locked RoomMalcolm ClarkeSony Pictures ClassicsHeatMichael MannRegency EnterprisesWarner Bros.Warner Bros. Records Nominated- Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score1996Michael CollinsNeil JordanGeffen PicturesWarner Bros.Atlantic Nominated- Academy Award for Best Original ScoreNominated- Golden Globe Award for Best Original ScoreNominated- Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original ScoreNominated- Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best MusicSatellite Award for Best Original ScoreA Time to KillJoel SchumacherRegency EnterprisesWarner Bros. Nominated- Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media1997The Butcher BoyNeil JordanGeffen PicturesWarner Bros.Cinerama RecordsLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best MusicNominated- Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original ScoreBatman & RobinJoel SchumacherPolyGram Filmed EntertainmentWarner Bros.Score never commercially released. 1998SphereBarry LevinsonBaltimore PicturesWarner Bros.Varèse Sarabande Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande.1999In DreamsNeil JordanAmblin EntertainmentDreamWorks Pictures Performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra.Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande.TitusJulie Taymor OverSeas FilmgroupClear Blue Sky ProductionsFox Searchlight PicturesSony Classical Performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra. 2001Final Fantasy: The Spirits WithinHironobu SakaguchiSquare PicturesColumbia Pictures Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.2002FridaJulie TaymorVentanarosaLions Gate FilmsMiramax FilmsUniversal MusicAcademy Award for Best Original ScoreGolden Globe Award for Best Original ScoreSatellite Award for Best Original ScoreNominated- Academy Award for Best Original SongThe Good ThiefNeil JordanAlliance AtlantisFox Searchlight PicturesIsland Records Performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra & the Irish Film Orchestra. 2003S.W.A.T.Clark JohnsonOriginal FilmColumbia PicturesVarèse Sarabande 2007Across the UniverseJulie TaymorRevolution StudiosColumbia Pictures Score never commercially released. Nominated- Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media 2009Public EnemiesMichael MannRelativity MediaUniversal PicturesDecca Records Nominated- Satellite Award for Best Original Score 2010The TempestJulie TaymorTouchstone PicturesMiramax FilmsZarathustra Music 2017Our Souls at NightRitesh BatraNetflix 2020The Glorias Julie TaymorJune Pictures
Television programs Year Title Director(s) Network(s) Notes1989Criminal Justice Andy WolkHome Box OfficeTelevision film1991Grand IsleMary LambertTurner Network Television1992Behind the ScenesEllen HovdeMuffie MeyerPublic Broadcasting Service10-episode miniseries.Fool's FireJulie TaymorTelevision film1994RoswellJeremy KaganShowtime1996The WestStephen IvesPublic Broadcasting ServiceEpisode: "The Geography of Hope"2000Por un besoAlfredo GurrolaTelevisaEpisode: "Pilot"2003Great Performances: Dance in AmericaJulie TaymorPublic Broadcasting ServiceEpisode: "Lar Lubovitch's 'Othello'"
Concert music works Year Title Notes1974Three Pieces for Piano1977Requiem MassUn-premiered1979Sonata for Double Bass and PianoRecorded by Tim Cobb & Stephen GoslingLos Heraldos Negros – a song cycle for singer and percussionUn-premieredBrass Quintet No. 1Jabberwocky for Woodwind QuartetSet to the poem by Lewis Carroll
Also arranged for two bassoons and winds1980Brass Quintet No. 2Recorded by the Extension ensemble1988Pastime Variations – A Memorial for Ebbets Field1990Shadow Play Scherzo for Orchestra1996Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam OratorioRecorded by Pacific Symphony Orchestra, featuring Yo Yo Ma2013String Quartet No. 1 "The Stone Cutters"Premiered by the FLUX Quartet in 2015Adagietto Doloroso for orchestraPremiered at the Ghent Film Music Festival conducted by Dirk Brossé2014Symphony in G♯ MinorGrand Gothic Suite2015Lyric Suite: The Floods of Avon for String Orchestra and Piano2017Waltz & Agitato "Pravda" for OrchestraFor Trumpet & Strings (First Movement of "Trumpet Concerto")Conducted by Dirk Brossé with trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth2018Trumpet ConcertoConducted by Dirk Brossé with trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth2019OCTOBER LIGHT: Adagio for OrchestraPremiered with Pacific Symphony under Carl. St. by Clair December 2019 2021SYMPHONY NO.3 for Soprano and Orchestra