THE BOOK
JERRY GOLDSMITH: A Musical Chameleon presumably is the most complete work published in the world around the career of a fundamental composer in the evolution of film music in the second half of the 20 th century. This monograph focuses its analysis on the vast cinematographic work —more than one hundred and sixty scores— of Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004), who cultivated all kinds of genres for very different proposals. Freud (1962), Planet of the Apes (1968), The Boys from Brazil (1978), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Alien (1979), Gremlins (1984) and Basic Instinct (1992) are some of the many titles in which the Californian composer appears in the credits. Almost twenty years after his death, his musical legacy is one of the most impressive, in terms of quality and quantity, recorded in the last century. Both within and outside the artistic discipline that gave him the greatest international projection. The analysis of his scores for television, the list of rejected soundtracks, his concert works, as well as a detailed discography and an introductory section by Jaume Carreras, who offers an overview from a historiographical perspective, are other sections of interest in this monograph.
THE AUTHOR
CHRISTIAN AGUILERA was born on 18 December 1967 in Barcelona. Graduate in Biological Sciences. He is the author of a number of books on film: Stanley Kubrick: A Creative Odyssey (1999); Film Directors of the 20th Century (1999); The Television Generation: The Liberal Conscience of American Cinema (2000); The Oscar Actors 1927-2003 (2003); Milos Forman: The Filmmaker of Nonconformism (2006); Joseph L. Mankiewicz: A Renaissance in Hollywood (2009); The World of Science: 50 Essential Films (2017); Barbara Stanwyck: A Grand Dame of Hollywood (2015); Fred Zinnemann (2020); Robert Altman: The Other Side of Hollywood (2020); John Frankenheimer: A Sniper in Hollywood (2021) and Peter Weir: A Hidden World (2021). He co-wrote A History of British Cinema (2013) with other authors. It is worth mentioning that he created a web page called www.cinearchivo.com (later renamed www.cinearchivo.net) in 2001. His first novel is called The Haldane Enigma (2011). He has also authored several volumes on top-notch film scorers (Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann, John Williams and John Scott) and rock luminaires (Neil Young). The diptych History of Symphonic Rock and History of Progressive Neo-rock (1982-2016) also has his signature. Jerry Goldsmith: A Musical Chameleon (2022) Is his first book published in english.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Foreword of Robert Townson.
NUMBER OF PAGES: 500.
DATE OF PUBLISHING (First Edition): july 2022.
DATE OF PUBLISHING (Third Edition): february 2023.
ISBN: 978-84-09-40963-1.
BOOK SIZE: 6,69 inch (wide) x 9,25 inch (high)
WEIGHT: 1,2 kg.
TRANSLATOR: Eduardo Martin.
REVISION OF THE THIRD EDITION: Jason Needs.
Paperbook with front flap and back flap.
Included 123 photos in color and 40 photos in black and white.
Included onomastic and films index.
CRITICAL REVIEWS
«Without exception, this has to be most important lavish and most comprenhesive ever written on jerry Goldsmith and certainly among the top three film music books of the past ten years (the others been the Morricone biography and Jon Burlingame’s the music of James Bond) (…) Christian Aguilera’s impressive 500 with background storie, analysses, colour pictures and discographies is a gorgeousand heart beating experience, and you find yourself exclaming goobs and wows repeatedly while turning the pages with great appetite. Christian Aguilera’s book is a labour of love with chapter’s full of insight, speaking both to the musician film built, the soundtrack collector and the entusiast».
Kenneth Jensen, member of the Danish Film Music Society
«Christian book is the most thorough and insightful retrospective of Jerry Goldsmith that I’ve ever read. Abook any fan of this composer and his music must have!»
Scott Thompson, great fan of Jerry Goldsmith since several decades
«We highly recomend to you a new book «bible» in the genre of literature on film music. It’s an english language book, when in more 500 pages (!) you will find a comprehensive analysis and discussion of maestro Jerry Goldsmith’s entire oueuvre».
Andrew Kryzinski, webmaster of polish site www.soundtracks.pl
«Jerry Goldsmith: A Musical Chameleon by Christian Aguilera is a highly revealing look into the life and work of one of the 20th century’s greatest composers. This expertly-researched book’s primary focus is on «the relationship between music and meaning, the importance of the cadence of human language expressed in music to evoke feelings.» Read this book if you want to understand what exactly was the spark that fired Jerry’s immense talent.»
Timothy Rodier,
