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Alf Clausenthe long -time composer of The Simpsonswhich has set up countless iconic moments of the cartoon series, died at the age of 84.
Emmy winner dies after a long illness
The Emmy price-crowned composer died on Thursday in his house in Los Angeles after eight years of fight against progressive supranuclear paralysis (PSP), like Clausen’s daughter The Hollywood Reporter announced.
Clausen has been working as a composer for “Die Simpsons” since the second episode of “Treehouse of Horror”) since season 28 in 2017. Whereupon he – to the dismay of the fans of the series – In a controversial cost savings measure was released. However, Clausen kept the honorary title “Composer Emeritus” in the following seasons.
“Our secret weapon” – homage to Alf Clausen
“Alf was the ‘man of a thousand pieces of music’ – probably even more than 10,000 – during his decades of work The Simpsons“, Creator Matt Groening told Variety. “He was tireless. Inspired. And always ready for the musical challenges we gave him. I called him our secret weapon.”
First big projects with “Moonlighting”
The Clausen, born in Minneapolis, who grew up in North Dakota and trained at Berklee College of Music, began his career in film and television in the mid -1970s. Where he from the music copist and arranger to the orchestrator (among other things for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) to the conductor and finally worked up to the composer. With the television series “Moonlighting” his first big and long -term job in this function. Clausen received six of his unprecedented 30 Emmy nominations for his work on “Moonlighting”.
After a time as a composer (suitable for his name) for ‘Alf’, Clausen was hired during the second season of the Fox series “The Simpsons”. While the famous title song of the Danny Elfman series was composed (Clausen arranged it from the third season), Clausen created hundreds of unforgettable moments in Springfield in the course of almost 600 episodes, according to reported a 35-person orchestra for each episode.
“I said: ‘No'” – Clausen about his first impression
“And I was asked: ‘Do you want to compose the music for a cartoon series?’ And I said: ‘No’, ”said Clausen 2015 the Website “The Interviews” of the Television Academy Foundation. “I said, ‘I’ve just had four years Moonlighting Behind me. And really would like to be a composer for dramas. I am more interested in long feature films. ‘”
However, Groening managed to convince Clausen to accept the order. “”[Groening] said he didn’t want typical Warner-Bros.-Cartoon music. He also didn’t want a typical Disney cartoon music, “added Clausen.” He wanted something else. “
Clausen’s work for “The Simpsons” was summarized in three albums with his compositions. 1997 “Songs in the Key of Springfield”, 1999 “Go Simpsonic with the Simpsons” and 2007 “The Simpsons: testify”. Clausen was nominated for over 20 prime time Emmys for his work on “The Simpsons”. And won two awards for “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics”. 1998 for “We put the Spring in Springfield” and the following year for “You’re Checkin ‘in”.
Humor until the end
After Clausen’s release from “The Simpsons”, the series won the music production company Bleeding Finger Music on board, which was founded by Hans Zimmer, Russell Emanuel and Steve Kofsky. Among other things, rooms composed the music for “The Simpsons Movie”, whereupon the scorned clausen joked: “Sometimes you are the windshield. Sometimes you are the fly.”
Clausen later reached a lawsuit against Fox and the producers of “The Simpsons”. He claimed that his dismissal was due to age discrimination. The majority of the lawsuit was rejected by a judge. Clausen finally agreed on a comparison in 2022.