Simpsons series fires its composer
mainThe cartoon franchise is looking terribly threadbare after 27 years. So the execs decided the way to revive it was to fire its one and only composer, Alf Clausen.
Clausen told Variety that he was told the bosses wanted ‘a different kind of music’.
The probably also want to cut the 35-piece orchestra he has been using.
That’s bad. Clausen was – and is – terrific and in many ways makes the show what it is.
That’s a crying shame. Alf Clausen, his music and The Simpsons are indissolubly linked. I sat in on a taping back in 1998 for the Halloween show where the composer and his musicians recorded about fifty minutes of music in one hour, an incredible achievement. The Simpsons was, I think, the only show in Hollywood to have its own orchestra. That’ll probably belong to the past very soon, and the city will be the poorer for it.
Just more of a dumb trend in TV land. Many shows ditched theme songs and real soundtracks for pop songs and rock bands years ago. Clausen gave the Simpsons a unique identity. Too bad. Family Guy still has a brilliant score and is much funnier than Simpsons, too.
The embedded video is absolutely not representative of Clausen’s art, if it even is his. His soundtracks are very witty, especially when he pokes fun at different genres. Try:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOziWm_MJ9k
Music starts after 30 sec