Brooklyn-born composer and Academy Award winner Elliot Goldenthal lives to surprise people. While his scores greatly enhance the visual ambience of the various film projects, when removed from the film element, his music takes on another life.
Experimenting with every genre, culture, scale, and instrument he can get his hands on, Goldenthal creates behemoth musical landscapes for films ranging from ALIEN 3 and INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE to DRUGSTORE COWBOY and FRIDA. His latest venture, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST, is no exception. Each track is a firestorm of sound, sometimes menacing, and sometimes tranquil, but always keeping the listener on his toes.
Read on, as we spend some time with Mr. Elliot Goldenthal.
I would like to begin by talking a little bit about the track “Hell Is Empty.” It is easily my favorite cue on THE TEMPEST soundtrack, because it is so jarring and creates its own sense of form outside of what is traditionally accepted as music.
Yeah, it definitely is jarring. I was wondering about that one, actually. I think when people hear it, they are either going to love it or really hate it.
I think what drew me to it is that, stylistically, it is not too far removed from the Bill Frisell/John Zorn style of progressive jazz.
I see. I wasn’t thinking about that, but maybe because it is guitar-based, it bears some reminiscence to that world. It was for a storm scene, which had a lot of wind, people screaming, and waves crashing at the same time. It was very chaotic and loud!
You are one of the few composers working on high-profile film projects who, either actively or subconsciously, seems to evolve as a musician as you go along.
My job, as a collaborator, is mainly a reactive one. Other than the songs that I composed for THE TEMPEST under the direction of Shakespeare’s lyrics, I reacted as though in a relay race with a baton; I’m responding to the acting, the directing, the editing, the environment… I’m basically a counter-puncher, so to speak. I’m not initiating the action, and I like that position, actually.
How did you come to decide on utilizing a synthesizer and a guitar as the central elements of theming for THE TEMPEST? Did the visuals simply speak to you through those instruments?
Well, the keyboard isn’t simply a keyboard; it’s homemade samples that are processed and manipulated in a musical way. So it is actually many, many sounds that I mainly performed myself, which gave me an intimate connection to the movie.
As far as the guitar is concerned, in Western African countries like Senegal and environments like that, there is an instrument called a kora. All of the philosophical, cultural, and love songs are performed by griots, which are the William Shakespeares of that culture. And if you move north to England in the 16th Century, you will find a similar stringed instrument called the lute that many of the great poets and composers of the time, including the most notable John Dowland, expressed the same complexity above these plucked instruments.
And then, in the United States in the 1960s, Bob Dylan was the griot of America! He was expressing poetry, love songs and all sorts of things on simple, plucked strings. So, I brought all of that in to THE TEMPEST. As sound, amplified guitar is very versatile; almost an infinite number of sonaric combinations. And this was my major thing – the amplified guitar in many tunings and many shapes and sizes, with a symphony orchestra.
Many of your scores branch beyond what most people would see as a traditional film score. Is it easier to express your creative visions with Julie Taymor [director], or do you have to struggle to go in your own direction?
I think when I worked on HEAT with Michael Mann, I actually had a lot of freedom. I did five movies with Neil Jordan, and at least 50% had a lot of freedom. And even on DRUGSTORE COWBOY, with Gus Van Sant, I had a lot of freedom. It’s a controlled freedom, in a sense, where you are trying to collaborate as one part of a whole. I think, when they are going to hire someone like me, who is slightly uncorked to begin with, they expect something a little left of center. They don’t really want something safe.
What led you to the ensemble of musicians culled for THE TEMPEST recordings; guys like Mark Stewart, Jamey Haddad, T-Bone Wolk, and the other folks?
Yes, and Page Hamilton [from Helmet] and Benjamin Curtis [from Secret Machines]. Well, I was working collectively with those musicians for approximately 15 years. Many of those musicians, when they’re not touring, I catch between gigs and we have extended studio sessions and create music together. It’s like our own ensemble, and it creates a lot of shorthand between us – a musical understanding where they know my next move, so to speak.
And that was something that really resonated on the soundtrack, beyond the actual songs. It felt like there was a band-styled aesthetic on even the more atmospheric cues.
Absolutely! Ben Curtis and Page Hamilton were on the rock scene for a long, long time, listening to each other. Mark Stewart is a wizard on the guitar, as well as an inventor of instruments. Everyone is very, very different, but the wide appreciation for music in general is right there.
Check out THE TEMPEST soundtrack at Amazon and Amazon Digital.
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