Films need serious composers, and they are going to need them even more in the future. …I have always felt that the duty of the serious artist is not primarily to please the public; the primary obligation is to speak the truth. That is the function of the artist, and although the public may not at first like what they hear or see, they may eventually change their minds.
Jerry Fielding, 1979
Jerry Fielding (1922-1980)
After hearing the breathtakingly-good music to the extended, thrilling opening sequence for Michael Winner’s film The Mechanic (1972), I have discovered the music of Jerry Fielding (born Joshua Feldman).
He uses dissonant harmonies and the most wonderfully original orchestral colours. Listen also to his scores for Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (1971) which was influenced by Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat, Don Siegel’s Escape from Alcatraz (1979) and Otto Preminger’s Advise & Consent (1962). Fielding also composed much of the exciting, otherworldly music for the original 60s’ Star Trek TV series.
As has been said, along with Alex North, Jerry Goldsmith and Leonard Rosenmann – Jerry Fielding extended the vocabulary of film music to fresh harmonic, melodic and rhythmic expression.
