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Alf Clausen
Birth nameAlf Clausen
GenresFilm and television scores
Occupation(s)Composer, songwriter, producer
Instrument(s)French horn, bass[1]
Years active1967-present
WebsiteOfficial site

Alf Clausen (born March 28, 1941) is an American film and television composer. He is best known for his work scoring many episodes of The Simpsons, of which he has been the sole composer since 1990. 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.

Early life

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Clausen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in Jamestown, North Dakota.[1][2] 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.[2] He sang in his high school choir and began playing the French horn in the seventh grade and also learnt piano.[3][4] He continued playing and also learnt to play the bass guitar, stopping singing because the choir met at the same time as the band.[3] He studied mechanical engineering at North Dakota State University although, after being inspired by his pianist cousin, switched his major to musical theory.[4] He went on to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison,[1][2] before working for a period as a musician. He later attended Boston's Berklee College of Music and graduated with a diploma in arranging and composition.[3] Clausen then taught at Berklee for a year after graduation.[4]

Career

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Clausen moved to Los Angeles, California in search of television work, wanting to became a full-time composer.[2] He did some arrangment work for singers and other small composing jobs such commerical jingles,[4] before becomming the music director for Donny & Marie from 1976 to 1979. He had the same role on The Mary Tyler Moore Hour in 1979.[3]

In 1981 he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement In Music Direction for Omnibus.[5]

Clausen served as the composer for the series Moonlighting from 1985–1988, 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.[3] 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".[5] In 1988 and 1989 he also received nominations for the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement In Music Direction.[5]

He was also the composer on ALF (1986–1990).[6]

Other television compositions included Wizards and Warriors (1983), Fame (1984), Lime Street (1985),[4] 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

Following ALF's conclusion, Clausen was unemployed for a period. 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.[3] Clausen's first episode was "Treehouse of Horror", the third episode of season two, in 1990.[6] It served as an audition and he was hired permanently after that.[3] He has since scored almost all of the music and songs which have appeared on the show, across a wide range of musical styles.[6] He conducts a 35 piece orchestra for the music, a rarity for television shows, and records the score for an episode every week.[7] The limited timeframe proves the most challenging aspect of the job for Clausen; he was once required to write 57 musical cues in one week.[3] 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."[7] Clausen intentionally opted against composing themes for each character, which 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."[7] He supplements the orchestra with additional instruments, such as extra brass for the episode "Cape Feare",[7] 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.[8]

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.[3] Go over a few songs, ie Monorail, Cape Feare, Spring etc. with book... Music, original songs, parody songs.

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.[5][9] He has been nominated in the category a further seven times in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.[5] Clausen has also received eleven nominations for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) between 1992 and 2009 and has twice been nominated for Outstanding Music Direction, in 1997 and 1998.[5] He has won five Annie Awards for his work on The Simpsons. He won the 1997 award for Best Music in a TV Production,[10] the award for Outstanding Music in an Animated Television Production in 1998, again for "You're Checkin' In",[11] the same award in 2000 for the episode "Behind the Laughter",[12] the award for Best Music in an Animated Television Production in 2003 for "Dude, Where's My Ranch?",[13] and again in 2007 for "Yokel Chords".[14] His work on the show has been released as part of three albums: Songs in the Key of Springfield (1997), Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons (1999) and The Simpsons: Testify (2007).[1][2]

Clausen was not asked to score the film adaptation of the show, The Simpsons Movie, with Hans Zimmer getting the job. He noted: "sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug".[3]

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 arrangments he made over his career, performed by his jazz orchestra, after self-financing it.[3][15]

Discography

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  • Songs in the Key of Springfield
  • Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons
  • Testify
  • Swing Can Really Hang You Up The Most

References

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Footnotes
  1. ^ a b c d e f g http://www.alfclausen.com/bio.aspx
  2. ^ a b c d e Beal Jr., Jim (2007-09-23). "1,000 Words (Or Less); The road to Springfield". San Antonio Express-News. p. 03J.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Will Harris (2007-09-26). "Alf Clausen interview, The Simpsons". Bullz-Eye.com. Retrieved 2007-11-16.
  4. ^ a b c d e Adams, Doug (1997). "The Simpsons' Secret Weapon: Alf Clausen". Film Score Monthly. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Primetime Emmy Awards Advanced Search". Emmys.org. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
  6. ^ a b c Goldmark 2002, p. 239
  7. ^ a b c d Wright 2004, p. 645
  8. ^ Jean, Al. (2004). Commentary for "Cape Feare", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  9. ^ Keeler, Ken (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "Bart After Dark" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  10. ^ "Legacy: 25th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (1997)". Annie Awards. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  11. ^ "Legacy: 26th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (1998)". Annie Awards. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  12. ^ "Legacy: 28th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (2000)". Annie Awards. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  13. ^ "Legacy: 31st Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (2003)". Annie Awards. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
  14. ^ "Legacy: 35th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (2007)". Annie Awards. Retrieved 2008-02-09.
  15. ^ http://www.alfclausen.com/album_details.aspx?albumID=284
Bibliography
  • Goldmark, Daniel (2002). The Cartoon music book. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 9781556524738. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Wright, Rayburn (2004). On the track: a guide to contemporary film scoring (2nd. ed.). Routledge. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Small, Mark (1999). Masters of music: conversations with Berklee greats. Berklee Press. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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