Alf Clausen

Last updated

Alf Clausen
Birth nameAlf Faye Heiberg Clausen
Born (1941-03-28) March 28, 1941 (age 83)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Genres Film and television scores
Occupation(s)Composer, songwriter, producer
Instrument(s)French horn, piano, bass [1]
Years active1967–present
Website www.alfclausen.com

Alf Faye Heiberg Clausen (born March 28, 1941) [2] is an American film and television composer. He is best known for his work scoring many episodes of The Simpsons , for which he was the sole composer between 1990 and 2017. Clausen has scored or orchestrated music for more than 30 films and television shows, including Moonlighting , The Naked Gun , ALF and Ferris Bueller's Day Off . Clausen received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music in 1996. [1]

Contents

Early life, family and education

Clausen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and raised in Jamestown, North Dakota. [1] [3] Clausen was interested in music from a young age. He counts composer Henry Mancini as one of his heroes; his book Sounds and Scores inspired him. [3] He began playing the French horn in the seventh grade and also learned piano; and he sang in his high school choir. [4] [5] He continued playing and learned to play the bass guitar, stopping singing because the choir met at the same time as the band. [4]

He studied mechanical engineering at North Dakota State University although, after being inspired by his pianist cousin, switched his major to musical theory. [5] Whilst there, Clausen took a correspondence course at Boston's Berklee College of Music in jazz and big band writing. [6] He went on to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison to complete his master's degree, but he quit as he disliked the place, especially what he felt was an "anti-jazz" attitude. [6] He later attended Berklee and graduated with a diploma in arranging and composition in 1966. [4] [7] Clausen was the first French horn player to ever attend the college and took part in many ensembles; he is also featured on some Jazz in the Classroom albums. [6]

Career

After college, Clausen worked for a period as a musician. [4] After earning his master's degree at Berklee, Clausen taught there for a year. [5]

Clausen moved to Los Angeles, California in 1967 in search of television work, wanting to become a full-time composer. [3] [7] For nine years he did some arrangement work for singers, ghostwriting and other composing jobs such as commercial jingles, [5] as well as working as a teacher, music copyist and a bassist. [7] He worked as a copyist on "Come On Get Happy", the theme song to The Partridge Family . [8] He eventually became a score writer and later the music director and conductor for Donny & Marie between 1976 and 1979. Initially, he was requested to write an emergency chart for the following day, but he was hired as a score writer and continued writing and conducting on the show, before replacing Tommy Oliver as music director. When the show moved to Utah, Clausen flew there each week from Los Angeles to record the score. [9] He had the same role on The Mary Tyler Moore Hour in 1979. [4] In 1981 he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement In Music Direction for Omnibus. [10]

Clausen served as the composer for the series Moonlighting from 1985 to 1989, scoring 63 of the 65 episodes. His favorite episode to score was the episode "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice", which featured two lengthy black and white dream sequences and enjoyed the episode "Atomic Shakespeare", also a fantasy episode. [4] He received an Emmy nomination for each episode in the category Outstanding Achievement In Music Composition For A Series (Dramatic Underscore) in 1986 and 1987, earning two more nominations over the next two years for the episodes "Here's Living with You, Kid" and "A Womb with a View". [10] In 1988 and 1989 he also received nominations for the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement In Music Direction. [10] He was also the composer on ALF from 1986 to 1990. [7] [11]

Other television compositions included Wizards and Warriors (1983), Fame (1984), Lime Street (1985), [5] Christine Cromwell (1989) and My Life and Times (1991) as well as the television films Murder in Three Acts (1986), Double Agent (1987), Police Story: The Watch Commander (1988), My First Love (1988), She Knows Too Much (1989) and the feature film Number One with a Bullet (1987). [1] He also conducted the orchestras and, for some, provided additional music for several films including The Beastmaster (1982), Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Splash (1984), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Dragnet (1987) and The Naked Gun (1988). [1]

The Simpsons and other work

The show provides him the opportunity to score realistic drama, overblown comedy, gritty urban jazz, Broadway-worthy show tunes, and some of the most clever and loving parodies of cheap-o television news themes, '70s action music, and feature film scores ever done. Alf delivers in spades, always bringing his trademark stylistic verve and technical precision. He has proved beyond a doubt that television scoring is not the vast wasteland it is often purported to be and that an intelligent composer can take even the most demanding shows and elevate them to new heights.
—Doug Adams of Film Score Monthly about Clausen's work on The Simpsons

Following ALF's conclusion, Clausen was unemployed for seven months. Clausen's friend suggested him to a producer from the Fox animated series The Simpsons who were looking for a new composer. Clausen "had no interest in doing animation" and "wanted to be a drama composer." However, the show's creator Matt Groening told him "we don't look upon this as being a cartoon but a drama where the characters are drawn, and we would like it scored that way." Clausen took the job. [4] Groening told Clausen that the "emotion [should be] scored first and the action scored second", unlike many other cartoons, and that "scoring the emotions of the characters" was the primary aim for The Simpsons. [12] Clausen's first episode was "Treehouse of Horror", the third episode of season two, in 1990. [11] It served as an audition and he was hired permanently after that. [4] He has since scored almost all of the music and songs which have appeared on the show, across a wide range of musical styles through the end of the 28th season. [11]

He conducted a 35-piece orchestra for the music, a rarity for television shows, and recorded the score for an episode every week. [13] Clausen wrote an episode's score during the week, recorded it on a Friday, with some variation if vocals are required. [5] The limited timeframe proved the most challenging aspect of the job for Clausen; he was once required to write 57 musical cues in one week. [4] For the show's original songs production is much longer; Clausen records the music to the writers' lyrics, over seven or eight months the scene is animated, and then Clausen can re-record the song with a full orchestra. [12] The full orchestra allows easy transition between the wide range of musical styles required for the show. Clausen noted:

The greatest composing challenge has been to try to make some kind of musical sense out of the cues when I have only a few seconds to make a musical statement. We have a joke on the scoring stage that I can make you feel five ways in thirteen seconds. We say it in jest, but the reality of the situation is that I am required to do just that quite often. [13]

Clausen intentionally opted against composing themes for each character, with some exceptions such as Mr. Burns, and instead "[gives] each story its own theme and thematic development...That approach helps to give each story its own special identification, more like individual mini-movies." [13] He supplements the orchestra with additional instruments, such as extra brass for the episode "Cape Feare", [13] for which Clausen composed Sideshow Bob's theme, which continued to be played whenever Bob gets out of prison in subsequent episodes. It is based on the score of the movie Cape Fear , composed by Bernard Herrmann. [14] The musical requests of the writers range from rerecord a specific piece of music to compose something based on this character's emotion in a scene. [4]

Clausen has received two Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on The Simpsons, winning the award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics two years in a row. The first was for "We Put The Spring In Springfield" from the 1997 episode "Bart After Dark", the second was for "You're Checkin' In" from the 1998 episode "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson"; the lyrics of each song were written by Ken Keeler. [10] [15] He has been nominated in the category a further seven times in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. [10] Clausen has also received twelve nominations for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) between 1992 and 2011 and has twice been nominated for Outstanding Music Direction, in 1997 and 1998. [10] With 30 nominations, Clausen has received more Emmy nominations than any other musician. [16]

He has won five Annie Awards for his work on The Simpsons. He won the 1997 award for Best Music in a TV Production, [17] the award for Outstanding Music in an Animated Television Production in 1998, again for "You're Checkin' In", [18] the same award in 2000 for the episode "Behind the Laughter", [19] the award for Best Music in an Animated Television Production in 2003 for "Dude, Where's My Ranch?", [20] and again in 2007 for "Yokel Chords". [21]

His work on the show has been released as part of three albums produced by Clausen: Songs in the Key of Springfield (1997), Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons (1999) and The Simpsons: Testify (2007). [1] [3] Clausen was not asked to score the film adaptation of the show, with Hans Zimmer getting the job. He noted: "sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug". [4]

Whilst working on The Simpsons, Clausen scored The Critic from 1994 to 1995 and Bette in 2000. He also scored the 1998 film Half Baked . [1] He recorded the album Swing Can Really Hang You Up The Most in 2003, comprising the arrangements he made over his career, performed by his jazz orchestra, after self-financing it. [4] [22]

In 2011, Clausen was awarded the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Golden Note Award. ASCAP President Paul Williams said his "decades of scores for The Simpsons and other TV programs and films are as endlessly inventive as the imaginations of the shows' writers and animators. It takes a lot of serious work and thought to compose, arrange and conduct such wonderfully happy music." [16] [23]

On August 30, 2017, after 27 years of scoring for The Simpsons, it was revealed that Clausen was dismissed from the show, with suggestions that the reasons behind the decision were largely financial. His last complete score was for "Dogtown". [24] [25] [26] However, following the news of Clausen's departure, the producers of the show stated that he would "continue to have an ongoing role in the show." [27] Beginning with Season 29, scoring was taken over by Bleeding Fingers Music, with Clausen credited as "Composer Emeritus." He is credited for composing the music for the episode "Whistler's Father".

On August 5, 2019, Clausen announced he was suing the Fox Network for his removal from the show, saying that he was fired due to ageism. [28] After a portion was dismissed in August 2020, Clausen would drop the suit entirely in January 2022. [29]

Personal life

Clausen's son Scott is also a composer. [30]

In April 2020, Clausen revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. [31]

Discography

Related Research Articles

Jamshied Sharifi is an American composer, conductor, musician, and record producer. Born in Topeka, Kansas to an Iranian father and an American mother, Sharifi was exposed to music at an early age, learning Jazz and Middle Eastern music through his father and European classical and church music through his mother. He began to study classical piano at age five and quickly developed a thirst for musical instruction and a desire to improvise. At age nine he began studying guitar and drums, and at age ten added flute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Silvestri</span> American composer and conductor

Alan Anthony Silvestri is an American composer and conductor of film and television scores. He has been associated with director Robert Zemeckis since 1984, composing music for nearly all of his feature films including the Back to the Future film series, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her, Forrest Gump, Cast Away, and The Polar Express. Silvestri also scored many other popular movies, including Predator, The Abyss, Father of the Bride, The Bodyguard, Eraser, The Parent Trap, Stuart Little, The Mummy Returns, Lilo & Stitch, The Wild, Night at the Museum trilogy, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, The Croods, Ready Player One, and several Marvel Cinematic Universe films, including the Avengers films.

"The President Wore Pearls" is the third episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 16, 2003. The episode was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Music And Lyrics. The episode guest stars documentary filmmaker Michael Moore as himself.

"The Old Man and the Key" is the thirteenth episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired in the United States on the Fox network on March 10, 2002. In the episode, Grampa Simpson falls in love with Zelda, an old woman who has just moved into the senior home in which Grampa lives. However, Grampa is not the only one in the home who is infatuated with Zelda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Shore</span> Composer, Songwriter, Music Producer, Music Director, Conductor

Ryan Shore is a Canadian composer, songwriter, conductor, music producer, and music director for film, television, virtual reality, records, games, concerts, and theater. He is often known from his scores for Star Wars, Scooby-Doo, Elmo, and Go! Go! Cory Carson. He is the nephew of Academy Award winning film composer Howard Shore.

Bruce Harold Broughton is an American orchestral composer of television, film, and video game scores and concert works. He has composed several highly acclaimed soundtracks over his extensive career and has contributed many pieces to music archives, including the 1994 version of the 20th Century Fox fanfare with short versions for 20th Century Fox Television and Foxstar Productions and conducting the Cinergi Pictures logo composed by Jerry Goldsmith. He has won ten Emmy Awards and has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. Broughton is currently a lecturer in composition at UCLA.

<i>The Simpsons</i> season 14 Season of television series

The fourteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons was originally broadcast on the Fox network in the United States between November 3, 2002, and May 18, 2003, and was produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. The show runner for the fourteenth production season was Al Jean, who executive produced 21 of 22 episodes. The other episode, "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation", was run by Mike Scully. The season was the first to use digital ink-and-paint for most of its episodes, though four episodes were hold-overs from season 13's production run and used traditional ink-and-paint. A fifth season 13 holdover episode, which was the first episode of season 14, used digital ink-and paint like the rest of the season. The fourteenth season has met with mostly positive reviews and won two Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Animated Program, four Annie Awards and a Writers Guild of America Award. This season contains the show's 300th episode, "Barting Over".

<i>The Simpsons</i> season 4 Season of television series

The fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons originally aired on the Fox network between September 24, 1992, and May 13, 1993, beginning with "Kamp Krusty". The showrunners for the fourth production season were Al Jean and Mike Reiss, with the season being produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. The aired season contained two episodes which were hold-over episodes from season three, which Jean and Reiss also ran. Following the end of the production of the season, Jean, Reiss and most of the original writing staff left the show. The season was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and Dan Castellaneta would win one for his performance as Homer in "Mr. Plow". The fourth season was released on DVD in Region 1 on June 15, 2004, Region 2 on August 2, 2004, and in Region 4 on August 25, 2004.

<i>The Simpsons</i> season 3 Season of television series

The third season of the American animated television series The Simpsons originally aired on the Fox network between September 19, 1991, and August 27, 1992. The showrunners for the third production season were Al Jean and Mike Reiss who executive produced 22 episodes for the season, while two other episodes were produced by James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, and Sam Simon, with it being produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. An additional episode, "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?", aired on August 27, 1992, after the official end of the third season and is included on the Season 3 DVD set. Season three won six Primetime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance" and also received a nomination for "Outstanding Animated Program" for the episode "Radio Bart". The complete season was released on DVD in Region 1 on August 26, 2003, Region 2 on October 6, 2003, and in Region 4 on October 22, 2003.

Ronald Jones is an American composer. He has composed music for various TV shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, DuckTales, American Dad!, and Family Guy. Along with the creator of The Fairly OddParents, Butch Hartman, he composed the show's theme song and music for its episodes. He currently resides in Stanwood, Washington, where he owns Sky Muse studios - a recording facility designed for music recording and post-production.

David Schwartz is an American composer, known for his scoring of the music for several television series. He composed most of the songs for Arrested Development, and he returned as the series composer for the fourth season, which debuted on Netflix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramin Djawadi</span> German score composer (born 1974)

Ramin Djawadi is a German film score composer, conductor, and record producer. He is known for his scores for the HBO series Game of Thrones, for which he was nominated for Grammy Awards in 2018 and 2020. He is also the composer for the HBO Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon (2022–present). He has scored films such as Clash of the Titans, Pacific Rim, Warcraft, A Wrinkle in Time, Iron Man and Eternals, television series including Prison Break, Person of Interest, Jack Ryan, and Westworld, and video games such as Medal of Honor, Gears of War 4, and Gears 5. He won two consecutive Emmy Awards for Game of Thrones, in 2018 for the episode "The Dragon and the Wolf" and in 2019 for "The Long Night".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Danna</span> Canadian film composer

Jeff Danna is a Canadian film composer. He has composed or co-composed scores for a wide range of films and television, including The Boondock Saints (1999), Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Silent Hill (2006), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), The Good Dinosaur (2015), Storks (2016), The Breadwinner (2017), The Addams Family (2019), Onward (2020), Guillermo Del Toro’s Tales of Arcadia (2019-2021), Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon (2022) and Julia (2022).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Zuckerman</span> American composer (born 1975)

Jeremy Zuckerman is an American composer of concert music, film and television music, music for modern dance, and experimental music. He is best known as the composer for the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel series The Legend of Korra.

William Ross is an American composer, orchestrator, arranger, conductor and music director. Ross is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, one Daytime Emmy Award, and has been nominated for one Annie Award. He has been nominated twice for the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s).

<i>The Simpsons Movie: The Music</i> 2007 film score / Soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer

The Simpsons Movie: The Music is a soundtrack album for the 2007 film The Simpsons Movie. It was composed by German film composer Hans Zimmer. The soundtrack was released on July 24, 2007, by Adrenaline Music Group and peaked at number 108 on the Billboard 200 chart. A limited edition version was released on July 31, 2007. Critics have given the album generally positive reviews.

<i>The Simpsons</i> Theme 1989 television theme song by Danny Elfman

"The Simpsons Theme", also referred to as "The Simpsons Main Title Theme" in album releases, is the theme music of the animated television series The Simpsons. It plays during the opening sequence and was composed by Danny Elfman in 1989, after series creator Matt Groening approached him requesting a theme. The piece has been noted by Elfman as the most popular of his career.

Laura Anne Karpman is an American composer, whose work has included music for film, television, video games, theater, and the concert hall. She has won five Emmy Awards for her work. Karpman was trained at the Juilliard School, where she played jazz by day and honed her skills scatting in bars at night.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivek Maddala</span> American music composer

Vivek Maddala is a four-time Emmy-winning composer who focuses on writing music for feature films, theater and dance productions, and television. He is known for composing music scores for films such as Kaboom, Highway, and the Peabody-winning American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, as well as for silent film restorations for Turner Classic Movies, including a 90-minute score for the Greta Garbo film The Mysterious Lady (2002). Additionally, Maddala writes, produces, and performs as a multi-instrumentalist with various recording artists. He is a Sundance Lab Fellow for film composition, and has had work premiere at the Cannes, Toronto, Berlin, and Sundance film festivals. Maddala has received six Emmy nominations, with four wins, in the category of "Outstanding Music Direction and Composition."

Emmanuel Fratianni is a conductor, composer and jazz pianist active in the international concert world as well as the music of film, television, video games. Born in the city of Montreux, Switzerland of Italian origin, Emmanuel retains right to work status in both the United States and European Union. Beginning in 2010 he was awarded the position of principal conductor of the internationally acclaimed concert series Video Games Live, and is also known for his compositions on the multi-award-winning score of the video game Advent Rising.

References

Footnotes
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Biography". alfclausen.com. Alf Clausen. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  2. Faillace, Adrienne (November 25, 2014). Alf Clausen Interview 1 of 4. Archive of American Television. Event occurs at 00:29. Retrieved January 1, 2024. ...Alf Faye Heiberg Clausen...I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 28, 1941.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Beal, Jim Jr. (September 23, 2007). "1,000 Words (Or Less); The road to Springfield". San Antonio Express-News . p. 03J.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Harris, Will (September 26, 2007). "Alf Clausen interview, The Simpsons". Bullz-Eye.com. Archived from the original on December 13, 2007. Retrieved November 16, 2007.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Adams, Doug (1997). "The Simpsons' Secret Weapon: Alf Clausen". Film Score Monthly . Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  6. 1 2 3 Small, Taylor & Feist 1999 , pp. 216–17
  7. 1 2 3 4 Small, Taylor & Feist 1999 , p. 215
  8. "The Partridge Family Album: All Songs" (PDF). wreckingcrewfilm.com<. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
  9. Small, Taylor & Feist 1999 , p. 218
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Primetime Emmy Awards Advanced Search". Emmys.org. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
  11. 1 2 3 Goldmark & Taylor 2002 , p. 239
  12. 1 2 Rogers, Troy (2007). "Alf Clausen - The Simpsons Testify CD Interview". UGO. Archived from the original on November 13, 2007. Retrieved September 8, 2010.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Wright & Karlin 2004, p. 645
  14. Jean, Al. (2004). Commentary for "Cape Feare", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  15. Keeler, Ken (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "Bart After Dark" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  16. 1 2 Burlingame, Jon (July 14, 2011). "Primetime Emmy Music Nominations Announced - Simpsons composer Clausen makes history with 30th nom". The Film Music Society . Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  17. "Legacy: 25th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (1997)". Annie Awards. Archived from the original on December 18, 2008. Retrieved October 16, 2007.
  18. "Legacy: 26th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (1998)". Annie Awards. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved October 16, 2007.
  19. "Legacy: 28th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (2000)". Annie Awards. Archived from the original on April 24, 2008. Retrieved October 16, 2007.
  20. "Legacy: 31st Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (2003)". Annie Awards. Archived from the original on May 12, 2008. Retrieved October 17, 2007.
  21. "Legacy: 35th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (2007)". annieawards.org. Annie Awards. Archived from the original on April 11, 2008. Retrieved February 9, 2008.
  22. "Swing Can Really Hang You Up The Most - Alf Clausen Jazz Orchestra". Alf Clausen.com. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved August 5, 2011.
  23. Marechal, AJ (June 2, 2011). "ASCAP to honor Badalamenti, Clausen". Variety . Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  24. Barsanti, Sam. "Longtime composer Alf Clausen has been fired from The Simpsons". The A.V. Club. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  25. Burlingame, Jon (August 30, 2017). "'The Simpsons' Composer Alf Clausen Fired (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  26. "'The Simpsons' Dismisses Longtime Composer Alf Clausen". EW.com. August 30, 2017. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  27. Littleton, Cynthia (August 31, 2017). "'The Simpsons' Producers Say Fired Composer Alf Clausen Will Have 'Ongoing Role' in Show". Variety. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  28. "Simpsons composer accuses Fox of ageism". BBC. August 6, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  29. Maddaus, Gene (January 25, 2022). "'Simpsons' Composer Alf Clausen Drops Wrongful Firing Suit Against Fox". Variety. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  30. Hughes, Will (April 29, 2020). "Simpsons Producers Say Their 'Creative Possibilities Were Limited' by Fired Composer Alf Clausen". The A.V. Club . Retrieved April 30, 2020.
  31. Maddaus, Gene (April 30, 2020). "'The Simpsons' Hip-Hop Episode Cued Curtains for Composer". Variety. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
Bibliography