Ernest Gold (composer)
| Ernest Gold | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Ernst Sigmund Goldner July 13, 1921 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | March 17, 1999 (aged 77) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Complications from a stroke |
| Occupation | Composer |
| Spouse(s) |
Marni Nixon (1950-1969) Jan Keller Gold (1975-1999; his death) |
| Children | 3 |
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.
Gold was born in Vienna in 1921. Gold came from a musical family. His father played the violin, and his mother sang. His father also studied under Richard Heuberger. Gold also came from a Jewish family; his paternal grandfather was a Jew, although his paternal grandmother was not. Gold said that he learned to read music before he had learned to read words. He started developing his musical talents at a young age. He studied the violin and the piano when he was only 6 years old and began composing music at 8. By age 13, Gold had written an entire opera. As a child, he always said he wanted to go to Hollywood and be a composer. Gold would go to the movies as a teenager to listen to the musical compositions. He admired Max Steiner. Gold attended the State Academy of Music that is located in Vienna in 1938; however, he moved to the U.S. in 1938, after the Anschluss of Austria. In the United States, Gold earned money by performing piano accompaniment and writing pop songs in New York City. He studied with Otto Cesana and Leon Barzin at the National Orchestra Association.
NBC Orchestra performed Gold's first symphony in 1939, only a year after he moved to the United State. In 1941, Gold composed a symphony that was later played at Carnegie Hall in 1945. Gold later moved to Hollywood in 1945 to work with Columbia Pictures. Gold wrote the score for an hour-long melodrama called Girl of the Limberlost (1945). After this opportunity, Gold wrote scores for other minor films. For the next ten years, he continued to work on B movies, mainly orchestrating and arranging music for western movies and melodramas.
He was asked by Stanley Kramer to orchestrate Not as a Stranger (1955). The music for the film was written by George Antheil. This production opened the door for Gold to work with other scores written by Antheil and 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.
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