Rest in peace Mr. Bernstein. You will be missed.

I think he was one of the American Magnificent Ten composers. His Magnificent
Seven redefined future westerns. His To Kill a Mockingbird score found the
very heart and soul of the novel and movie.

Last year his record company e mailed me to thank me for the nice comments
I had posted about him. Wow, I was touched. He sent me an autographed
picture that said, "For Joan, Elmer Bernstein." It is highly treasured.

I had so hoped to see him in concert one day, and I so wanted him to have
the Oscar for the melodic Far From Heaven. And of course, I wanted many
more new scores from him. I can't imagine not looking foreward, ahead, into
the future any more.

I was fortunate enough to meet all three of these fine gentlemen and even more lucky that it was on more than one occasion.

I remember chatting with Elmer Bernstein a little over 10 years ago at ths SPFM dinner honoring Ennio Morricone. I even wrote up that even for Film Score Monthly and had pictures. One of which was with Elmer. I remember telling him how much I loved his score for "Age of Innocence" and how I wanted him to win the Oscar for it. He laughed and said it was going to be John Williams year for "Schindler's List," but thanked me for my kind words.

He was a great composer and a true gentleman.

Such a sad year for film music.

James

(BTW Joan, Bernstein did comment on Goldsmith's passing, as you can read here).

Here are some of my favs by him:

1. all his westerns
2. Bridge at Remagen-love that march
3. See No Evil-that opening cue for main titles in awesome
4. Man with Golden Arm-always have liked this score
5. Zulu Dawn-River Crossing one of my favorite cues of all time
6. Spies LIke Us
7. Saturn 3-some of the cues in this are awesome-the robot stalking music used in end titles are fantastic
8. Kings of the Sun-looking forward to this release coming soon-a great score to a really fake film about Mayans coming to American and meeting the American Indians, LOL really bad-but the score is great
9. Rat Race-love that score

So many others. He will be greatly missed. My sympathy to the family and would like them to know how his music made so many of our lives better.

Elmer and his music will be deeply missed. But hey, sounds like he's in good company up there. Jerry probably didn't expect a colleague so soon.

Cheez, I just feel like sitting down and sobbing.

RIP...

quote:

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Originally posted by John C Winfrey:
I agree with you Joan. A tremendous composer and man. I love so many of his scores all the way from his earliest to many of these latest also.

Here are some of my favs by him:

1. all his westerns
2. Bridge at Remagen-love that march
3. See No Evil-that opening cue for main titles in awesome
4. Man with Golden Arm-always have liked this score
5. Zulu Dawn-River Crossing one of my favorite cues of all time
6. Spies LIke Us
7. Saturn 3-some of the cues in this are awesome-the robot stalking music used in end titles are fantastic
8. Kings of the Sun-looking forward to this release coming soon-a great score to a really fake film about Mayans coming to American and meeting the American Indians, LOL really bad-but the score is great
9. Rat Race-love that score

So many others. He will be greatly missed. My sympathy to the family and would like them to know how his music made so many of our lives better.

John.

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Like someone said, only Williams being a direct connection to the golden era, the golden era masters are gone.

I think I'm going to start with Wild, Wild West, only because I know To Kill a Mockingbird and Age of Innocence would just be more than I could handle right now.

What a sad, sad year. Heaven must have been jealous of us.

Oscar-Winning Film Composer Bernstein Dies

By Gregg Kilday

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Elmer Bernstein, whose eclectic film music ranged from the rousing theme of "The Magnificent Seven" to the lighthearted score for "Thoroughly Modern Millie," for which he won an Oscar, died Wednesday at his home in Ojai, Calif. He was 82.

The composer died after a lengthy illness -- the exact cause of death has not been determined -- with his wife, Eve, and his two daughters, Elizabeth and Emilie, by his side, a spokesperson said.

Bernstein worked steadily in films and television since the early '50s, writing more than 200 major film and television scores, encompassing a range of genres.

"Never has anyone reinvented themselves so many times," said Richard Kraft, Bernstein's former agent and longtime friend. "And he didn't just compose one film in each genre, he did a few. He would become the go-to guy for completely different genres, and he kept that going for 50 years. From the first Oscar (nomination) to the last is almost a five-decade span."

Most recently, Bernstein's "Fanfare for the Hollywood Bowl" was performed by conductor John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in June to celebrate the inaugural season of the Bowl's new stage.

He wrote his last major film score, a lush evocation of '50s melodrama, for Todd Hayne's 2002 drama "Far From Heaven," for which Bernstein received the last of his 14 Academy Award nominations.

"His last project was a documentary on Cecil B. DeMille for TCM (Turner Classic Movies)," said Jeff Bond, senior editor of Film Score Monthly. "It was a great score that let him revisit his 'Ten Commandments' style and adapt some early silent film scores."

A memorable film score depends on a memorable melody, Bernstein insisted, reminiscing last year at a luncheon of the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers. Calling melody "the emotional core of a film," Bernstein said "a good line will always win."

Bernstein introduced jazz elements into American film scoring with 1955's "The Man With the Golden Arm," Otto Preminger's groundbreaking drama about heroin addiction, and went further in that direction with 1957's "Sweet Smell of Success," which captured the moody tempos of Broadway by night, and 1962's "Walk on the Wild Side," scored to the rhythms of a New Orleans bordello.

But almost simultaneously, his work also ranged from sweeping epics like 1956's "The Ten Commandments," with all its biblical sound and fury, to intimate Americana like 1962's "To Kill a Mockingbird," which introduced its themes with just a piano and solo flute.

After turning out his indelible theme for 1960's "The Magnificent Seven" -- it is quoted in Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" and, inevitably, evokes a laugh of recognition from audiences -- Bernstein frequently turned to Western fare in the '60s. He scored John Wayne's last seven films, including "True Grit" and "The Shootist."

During the '70s and '80s, he was frequently sought out by a new generation of filmmakers including John Landis and Ivan Reitman who had been raised on his films and who invited him to score such comedies as "National Lampoon's Animal House," "Airplane!" "Stripes" and "Ghostbusters."

Bernstein began a long-running collaboration with director Martin Scorsese when he composed the score for Stephen Frears' 1990 feature "The Grifters," which Scorsese produced. Scorsese and Bernstein worked together on "Cape Fear," "The Age of Innocence" and "Bringing Out the Dead."

"He liked taking risks with new directors," Kraft said. "He knew what made movies work. He brought new filmmakers his expertise, but he was not stodgy in his expertise. The knowledge and experience he brought to other people and their films can never be replicated."

Bernstein was born April 4, 1922, in New York. By age 12, he had earned a scholarship in piano, given by Juilliard teacher Henriette Michelson, who guided him throughout his career as a pianist.

He was invited to demonstrate improvisations for composer Aaron Copland, who was impressed by the young musician and recommended him to Israel Citkowitz, who became his teacher. Bernstein later credited Citkowitz for his musical training.

Bernstein began his career as a concert pianist and, during World War II, arranged folk music and wrote dramatic scores for the Army Air Corps Radio Shows. In 1949, two shows that Bernstein did for United Nations Radio brought him to the attention of Sidney Buchman, then-vp of Columbia Pictures, who offered him work writing music for 1951's "Saturday's Hero" and 1952's "Boots Malone."

Even before it truly began, Bernstein's career was almost derailed by the blacklisting of the '50s. Having been sympathetic to left-wing causes, he found work hard to come by -- he considered himself "graylisted" -- and had to settle for such low-budget science-fiction films as "Cat Women of the Moon" and "Robot Monster," earning just $800 for the latter.

But DeMille's "Ten Commandments" proved a turning point in his life. Originally hired to write just the film's dance music, Bernstein was soon asked to write the score for the entire picture.

In addition to his wife and daughters, Bernstein also is survived by his sons Peter and Gregory and five grandchildren.

Memorial plans have not yet been decided.

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Another composer I need to listen to more often. The few scores of his I have are divine, but I know I'm missing so much more.

To Kill a Mockingbird is also a favorite of mine. Bernstein is very much like Goldsmith in that he helped usher in the era of modern film scoring. Time is moving on, and we are losing our legends.

Kamen, Goldsmith, Raskin, Bernstein: I've never met any of them, but I'm really going to miss all of them.

Rest in peace, maestro. And say hello to Jerry for me.

Philipp

Film music has played such a large part in my thoughts and pursuits that, like all of us, it strikes hard to have such major giants finally depart from us. Sad for them and their families, a huge loss to us fans. And it would be one thing if these guys had been retired, bedridden at home, hadn't scored anything in years, but with both Goldsmith and Bernstein, these were guys who were still very active, who'd just done major work and had upcoming projects on their plates.

Another part of the surprise is that in both cases, after they're gone, we learn that they'd both been ill for a while. Gotta love Hollywood. If word had leaked out that either Goldsmith or Bernstein had been in bad health, they could not have gotten jobs. It's not like they were hiding something from us fans, but in order to keep doing what they loved to do and which they did do up until their very last seconds, they had to appear vital and couldn't let on to anybody what they were going through.

Raksin will be remembered in the popular mind for Laura, although that's the tip of the iceberg of his service and achievements.

Goldsmith's versatility from the comic (the Flint films, The Gremlin's rag) to the modern (Twilight Zone episodes, Planet of the Apes) gave nearly every film he worked on an added boost and pleasure.

But Bernstein may have been even greater, changing the whole soundscape of films. Obits have been talking about the usual higlights, themes like The Magnificent 7 or the 10 Commandments which network TV still shows to high shares, but the Bernstein legacy goes beyond this.

Alex North may have brought jazz to dramatic film scoring in Streetcar Named Desire, but Elmer showed what really could be done with it in The Man With The Golden Arm leading to a trend that's still used today however cliche. And just to show the pretenders that the approach still had value, he came back to it with The Grifters, The Rainmaker, Twilight, and other recent films.

Another place where Bernstein made his mark was in scoring comedy films which is often harder to get right than dramatic films. Instead of going for some silly jokey sound, Bernstein using the same big orchestra, found just the right tone for Animal House, Stripes, and Ghostbusters.

There's his big sound for Westerns and Epics, but he seemed to prefer the smaller chamber sound we associate with To Kill A Mockingbird and Far From Heaven. To see it in real evidence you have to return the scores he did for obscure films like Men in War or the Eames shorts, like Tops, House, Tocatta for Toy Trains, and Powers of Ten, which not only set the pace for all documentary scoring but are mini-masterpieces all their own.

People are remembering Bernstein for his themes but I will always remember Bernstein for his rhythms, those driving, changing figures he'd come up with that so perfectly matched the action and which kept John Wayne or Steve McQueen from stopping in their tracks.

There was also something bold, expansive, and American in his sound and yet he never let it dominate or define himself the way Copland or Moross did.

I didn't always think Bernstein was the best conductor of other composer's filmmusic, but he sure tried at it and he has as many such albums under his belt as the Marco Polo bunch does and he had quite a struggle investing his own time and money to promote the form at a time when it was more obscure than it is today. He even tried it again at the end with Amber Records, but was both too ill and too busy to fulfill its promise.

I'm glad for him that in his last years he was able to find himself in the spotlight again. Far From Heaven gave him one last shot at an Oscar and it led to a number of articles and filmed interviews. TCM devoted a whole month to Bernstein films and he showed up on the TV set to let current audiences see he was still around. He had a big 50th anniversary in movies splash that again led to concerts and commissions like the Hollywood Bowl and Esquire magazine. Someone even asked him to write a string quartet and his recent Guitar concerto made it to CD. Goldsmith had a similar recent reception and I only hope it made both of these guys a little happier.

That's it. I don't have more to say. We all know we'll miss these guys.

quote:

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Originally posted by Camillu:
Our main local paper, The Times of Malta, surprisingly dedicated an entire page to his passing, complete with full colour photos. It was nice, but makes their failure to even mention Goldsmith's death earlier all the more evident.

[Message edited by Camillu on 08-20-2004]

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Too true Mark, at least Elmer got a mention in the tabloids here! (which Goldsmith didn't)

A very good obituary in todays Guardian with a great picture of a young Bernstein that I'd never seen before.

Elmer Bernstein: 1922–2004
The music of Elmer Bernstein touched the lives of millions.

If he had written only "The Magnificent Seven," "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Great Escape," it would have been enough to ensure his lasting fame.

But there was so much more: "The Man With the Golden Arm," "The Ten Commandments," "Walk on the Wild Side," "Hawaii," "True Grit," "Ghostbusters," "The Age of Innocence," "The Grifters" and "Far From Heaven." And for television, "Hollywood and the Stars" and the "National Geographic" theme.

Elmer Bernstein believed in the power of melody, and in the endless possibilities of the traditional orchestra to move us. He used his art to create emotion. And near the end of his life, as he was acclaimed for his half-century in the movies, he genuinely appreciated the adulation that he so richly deserved.

In a business that thrives on mean-spiritedness and backstabbing, he remained a man of warmth and honor. His integrity was beyond question. He took time for his family, his friends and colleagues. He enjoyed life, sailing the oceans every summer and recharging his creative batteries.

He was a composer of many facets. His Broadway scores and his concert-hall music, though not as famous as his film themes, were written with equal passion and verve.

Elmer Bernstein was unique. His musical voice was his own, identifiable and unmistakable. But he was also a caring and sympathetic leader on behalf of the composing community of Hollywood, always fighting for composers' rights and for great music to be heard.

The man will be missed. The music will endure. —Jon Burlingame

The family of Elmer Bernstein, who passed away Wednesday, August 18, 2004, has requested that, in lieu of flowers or other remembrances, a charitable donation be sent to:
Young Musicians Foundation
195 South Beverly Drive, #415
Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

A special scholarship fund will be established in Mr. Bernstein's name. Services for Mr. Bernstein are private. Plans are being made for a future public tribute.

Since 1955, YOUNG MUSICIANS FOUNDATION (YMF) has provided encouragement and recognition to gifted young musicians from around the country through financial assistance, performance opportunities, and music education programs.

Or you can go to this link to read the article and see a very attractive of Mr. Bernstein when he was younger:
http://www.elmerbernstein.com/news.html

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