Sunday 11 December 2022

ANGELO D. BADALAMENTI, CINEMA & OLYMPIC GAMES

Today, The Grandma has received sad news. Angelo Badalamenti, the American composer, has passed away. 

The Grandma wants to remember him talking about his career and his unforgettable music themes.

Angelo Daniel Badalamenti (March 22, 1937-December 11, 2022) was an American composer, best known for his work scoring films for director David Lynch, notably Blue Velvet, the Twin Peaks saga (1990–1992, 2017), The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive.

Badalamenti received the 1990 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for his Twin Peaks Theme.

Badalamenti also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Soundtrack Awards's Academy in 2008, and the Henry Mancini Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 2011.

More information: Angelo Badalamenti

Angelo Daniel Badalamenti was born on March 22, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York, the second of four children born to John and Leonora (née Ferrari) Badalamenti. His father, who was of Sicilian descent from the town Cinisi, was a fish market owner.

He began taking piano lessons at age eight. By the time Badalamenti was a teenager, his aptitude at the piano earned him a summer job accompanying singers at resorts in the Catskill Mountains. His elder brother was a jazz trumpet player who used to improvise with other musicians. He also went to Latin American dance clubs.

He attended Lafayette High School, where he wrote the processional march for his high school graduation. After graduating, he enrolled at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, but after two years he transferred to the Manhattan School of Music, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1958 and a master's degree in 1959. He began composing music pieces in Kurt Weill's style.

Badalamenti scored films such as Gordon's War, and Law and Disorder, but his break came when he was brought in to be Isabella Rossellini's singing coach for the song Blue Velvet in David Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet. Inspired by This Mortal Coil's recent cover of Tim Buckley's Song to the Siren, Lynch had wanted Rossellini to sing her own version, but was unable to secure the rights. In its place, Badalamenti and Lynch collaborated to write Mysteries of Love using lyrics Lynch wrote and Badalamenti's music.

Other Lynch projects he worked on include the movies Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive, and Rabbits as well as the television shows On the Air and Hotel Room.

Other projects he has worked in include the television film Witch Hunt, and the films Naked in New York, The City of Lost Children, A Very Long Engagement, The Wicker Man, Dark Water and Secretary. He has also worked on the soundtrack for the video game Fahrenheit. He was composer for director Paul Schrader on such films as Auto Focus, The Comfort of Strangers and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.

Badalamenti composed the opening theme for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

The 2017 revival of the Twin Peaks television series marked the continuation of Badalamenti's work with David Lynch. Its score features new compositions by Badalamenti, as well as material from the original score.

More information: The Guardian


My musical world is a little bit dark...
a little bit off-center.
I think of it as tragically beautiful.
That is how I would describe
what I love best: tragically beautiful.

Angelo Badalamenti

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