LOS ANGELES — Alf Clausen, the Emmy-winning composer whose music supplied important accompaniment for the animated antics of “The Simpsons” for 27 years, has died.
His daughter Kaarin Clausen informed The Related Press that Alf Clausen died Thursday at his residence in Los Angeles after battling Parkinson’s Illness for a few decade. He was 84.
Clausen, who additionally scored TV collection together with “Moonlighting” and “Alf” (“no relation,” he used to joke) was nominated for 30 Emmy Awards, 21 of them for “The Simpsons,” profitable twice.
Al Jean, an early “Simpsons” author who was one of many key artistic figures on the present within the Nineteen Nineties, mentioned in a put up on X Friday that “Clausen was an incredibly talented man who did so much for The Simpsons.”
Whereas Danny Elfman wrote the present’s theme tune, Clausen joined the Fox animated collection created by Matt Groening in 1990 and supplied primarily all of its music till 2017, composing almost 600 scores and conducting the 35-piece orchestra that performed it within the studio.
His colleagues mentioned his music was a key element of the present’s comedy, however Clausen believed one of the simplest ways to again up the gags of Homer, Marge Bart and Lisa was by making the music as straight as potential.
“This is a dream job for a composer,” Clausen informed Selection, which first reported his demise, in 1998. “Matt Groening said to me very early on, ‘We’re not a cartoon. We’re a drama where the characters are drawn. I want you to score it like a drama.’ I score the emotions of the characters as opposed to specific action hits on the screen.”
Groening, in a 1996 interview, known as him “one of the unacknowledged treasures of the show.”
Clausen was born in Minneapolis and raised in Jamestown, North Dakota. He graduated from the Berklee School of Music in 1966, and moved to Los Angeles looking for a profession in music.
Within the Seventies he was a musical director on a number of TV selection exhibits together with “Donny & Marie.”
Clausen labored as an orchestrator for composer Lee Holdridge in his scores for Eighties movies together with “Splash” and “The Beastmaster.”
It was Holdridge who first acquired the composing job on “Moonlighting,” the late-80s ABC rom-com detective collection starring Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd, however he handed the gig off to Clausen, who would get six Emmy nominations for his music on it.
Clausen received his Emmys for “The Simpsons” in 1997 and 1998 and in addition received 5 Annie Awards, which honor work in animation in movie and tv.
He was fired from “The Simpsons” in a cost-cutting transfer in 2017, to the outrage of his collaborators and followers. He sued over his dismissal.
Clausen is survived by his spouse Sally, kids Kaarin, Scott and Kyle, stepchildren Josh and Emily, and 11 grandchildren.
