Ernest Gold

{{short description|20th century Austrian-American composer (1921–99)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Ernest Gold

| birth_name = Ernst Sigmund Goldner

| birth_date = {{birth date|1921|7|13}}

| birth_place = Vienna, Austria

| death_date = {{death date and age|1999|3|17|1921|7|13}}

| death_place = Santa Monica, California, U.S.

| occupation = Composer

| spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Marni Nixon|1950|1969|end=div}}
{{marriage|Jan Keller|1975}}

}}

| children = 3, including Andrew Gold

}}

Ernst Sigmund Goldner (July 13, 1921 – March 17, 1999), known professionally as Ernest Gold, was an Austrian-born American composer. He is most noted for his work on the film Exodus produced in 1960.

Early life

Gold was born in 1921 in Vienna, the son of Elisabeth (Stransky) and Gustav Goldner.

Gold's father's mother (Jaiteles) had ancestry from Szeged, Hungary{{cite web | url=https://www.geni.com/people/Alice-Goldner/6000000005088331489 | title=Alice Goldner | date=8 September 1865 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.geni.com/people/Heinrich-Spitzer/6000000010338368440 | title=Heinrich Spitzer | date=15 September 1830 }} and mother's mother (Therese Sprung) from

Temesvár{{cite web | url=https://www.geni.com/people/Therese-Spitzer/6000000104883853912 | title=Therese Spitzer | date=16 February 1840 }} and Budapest (Spitzer).{{cite web|url=http://www.orpheustrust.at/musikereinzeln.php?l=e&muid=20000828174235|title=Orpheus Trust - Verein zur Erforschung und Veröffentlichung vertriebener und vergessener Kunst|first=Orpheus Trust, Dr. Primavera|last=Gruber|website=www.orpheustrust.at}} Gold came from a musical family. His father played the violin, and his mother sang.{{cite web|last1=Eder|first1=Bruce|title=Artist Biography|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ernest-gold-mn0000200992|website=All Music|access-date=21 June 2016}} His father also studied under Richard Heuberger.{{cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=Tony|title=Film Score|date=March 1992|pages=47–55|publisher=Riverwood Press|isbn=9781880756010}} Gold said he learned to read music before he learned to read words. He studied violin and piano when he was six and began composing music at eight. By 13, he had written an entire opera. As a child, he said he wanted to go to Hollywood and be a composer.{{cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=Tony|title=Music for the Movies|date=October 1997|publisher=Silman-James Pr|isbn=9781879505377}}{{rp|24}} Gold would go to movie theaters as a teenager, not only to watch the films but to listen to the musical score. Among prominent film composers of the time, he admired Max Steiner.

In 1938, Gold attended the Viennese Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst, but he and his family moved to the U.S. after the Nazi Anschluss in Austria, because his family was Jewish.{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-ernest-gold-1083951.html| title=Obituary: Ernest Gold | work=The Independent | date=1999-03-30| access-date=2013-12-17}} In New York City, Gold earned money by working as an accompanist and writing popular songs. He also studied with Otto Cesana and Léon Barzin at the National Orchestra Association.

Career

NBC Orchestra performed Gold's first symphony in 1939, only a year after he moved to the United States. In 1941, he composed a symphony that was later played at Carnegie Hall in 1945. Gold moved to Hollywood in the same year to work with Columbia Pictures, his first significant role being the score for the melodrama Girl of the Limberlost (1945). After this, Gold wrote scores for other minor films. For the next ten years, he worked on B movies, mainly orchestrating and arranging music for western movies and melodramas.

In 1955, Stanley Kramer asked Gold to orchestrate Not as a Stranger for which George Antheil had composed the music. This production opened the door for Gold to work with other scores by Antheil and to orchestrate more of Kramer's films. Gold worked on almost every film Kramer made, including A Child Is Waiting and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Gold produced his first original film score in 1958 for Too Much, Too Soon. His big break came in 1959, when he was asked to score On the Beach after Antheil became ill and recommended Gold for the job.

Gold is most widely recognized for composing the score of Exodus (1960). He was contracted by Otto Preminger and, atypically, was able to watch the movie being filmed. Gold spent time in Israel while writing the score.{{rp|26}}

In 1968, Gold wrote a Broadway musical called I'm Solomon.{{cite web|title=I'm Solomon|url=http://www.playbill.com/show/detail/5801/im-solomon|website=Playbill|access-date=21 June 2016}} He also wrote music for television. In his later life, Gold was musical director of the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra and founded the Los Angeles Senior Citizens Orchestra. His concert works include a piano concerto, a string quartet, and a piano sonata. Moby sampled Gold's "Fight for Survival" from Exodus for his song "Porcelain".{{cite web|title=Moby's 'Porcelain' - Discover the Sample Source|url=http://www.whosampled.com/sample/25539/Moby-Porcelain-Ernest-Gold-Fight-for-Survival/|website=WhoSampled|access-date=18 July 2017}}

Awards

Gold's contributions were recognized with Academy Award nominations and Golden Globe nominations.

1960: Golden Globe for Best Original Score for 1959's On the Beach. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.
1960: Exodus was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Original Score category.{{cite web|title=Biography|url=http://www.hollywood.com/celebrities/ernest-gold-57305021/|website=Ernest Gold|publisher=Hollywood.com|access-date=21 June 2016}} The film also won an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and a Grammy for Best Soundtrack Album or Recording of Music Score from Motion Picture or Television.{{cite web|title=Exodus (1960) Awards|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053804/awards|website=IMDb|access-date=21 June 2016}}
For his contributions, Gold had his name engraved in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was the first composer to receive this honor.{{cite web|title=Gold, Ernest|url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/48450?|website=Oxford Music Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=21 June 2016}}

Personal life

Gold was married to singer and actress Marni Nixon from 1950 to 1969. They had three children: musician Andrew Gold (composer of "Lonely Boy" and "Thank You for Being a Friend"), Martha Carr, and Melani Gold.

{{cite web|last1=Cross|first1=Lucy|title=Marni Nixon|url=http://www.masterworksbroadway.com/artist/marni-nixon/|website=Masterworks Broadway|access-date=21 June 2016}}

{{cite book|last1=Nixon|first1=Marni|title=I Could Have Sung All Night: My Story|date=Sep 2006|publisher=Billboard Books|isbn=9780823083657|url=https://archive.org/details/icouldhavesungal00nixo|url-access=registration|quote=divorce.|access-date=21 June 2016}} Gold was married to Jan Keller Gold from 1975 until his death.{{cite web|title=Ernest Gold|url=http://www.mmmrecordings.com/Composers/Gold/gold.html|website=Monstrous Movie Music|access-date=21 June 2016}}

Ernest Gold died March 17, 1999, in Santa Monica, California, at 77 from complications following a stroke.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/21/nyregion/ernest-gold-77-oscar-winning-composer.html | title=Ernest Gold, 77, Oscar-Winning Composer | newspaper=The New York Times | date=1999-03-21 | access-date=2013-12-17}}

Selected filmography

{{columns-list|colwidth=240px|

Smooth as Silk (1946)
Lighthouse (1947)
Wyoming (1947)
Man Crazy (1953)
The Other Woman (1954)
Not as a Stranger (1955)
Fury (1955-1960)
Affair in Havana (1957)
The Screaming Skull (1958)
Too Much, Too Soon (1958)
The Defiant Ones (1958)
Tarzan's Fight for Life (1958)
Battle of the Coral Sea (1958)
The Young Philadelphians (1959)
On the Beach (1959)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Exodus (1960)
A Fever in the Blood (1961)
The Last Sunset (1961)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Pressure Point (1962)
A Child Is Waiting (1963)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Ship of Fools (1965)
The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969)
Betrayal (1974)
The Wild McCullochs (1975)
Cross of Iron (1977)
Fun with Dick and Jane (1977)
Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff (1979)
The Runner Stumbles (1979)
Tom Horn (1980)
Safari 3000 (1982)
Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (1985)
Dreams of Gold: The Mel Fisher Story (1986)

}}

References

External links

{{IMDb name|6104}}
{{IBDB name}}
[http://archives.lib.byu.edu/repositories/14/resources/11292 Ernest Gold papers, MSS 2196] at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University

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Category:1921 births

Category:1999 deaths

Category:20th-century American composers

Category:20th-century American male musicians

Category:20th-century classical composers

Category:American classical composers

Category:American film score composers

Category:American male classical composers