JAMESTOWN, N.D. -- One former Jamestown man has been providing the music that has kept Springfield running for decades. Springfield, of course, is home to one of TV's most beloved families -- "The Simpsons."
Alf Clausen composes the music for the most successful animated TV series of all time. Recently the show surpassed the 500-episode mark.
"We had no idea that this was going to happen," Clausen said in a recent phone interview.
When he started he was an underscore composer for the first "Treehouse of Horror" episode of "The Simpsons" in 1990. Every year a new "Treehouse of Horror" comes out around Halloween.
Clausen has provided the music ever since that episode in 1990, taking over as song composer in the third season a year later. At that time, TV producers aimed for 100 episodes, which usually guaranteed syndication and more money. Hitting 500, he said, was "pretty remarkable."
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Clausen recently was honored with a Golden Note Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
"It's an incredible cross section of working composers, and the acknowledgement I got from them was such a tremendous honor because it carries so much weight in the industry," he said.
The Jamestown High School graduate played French horn and piano and sung in the choir. He called his musical experience in Jamestown "invaluable."
"The directors had very high-class taste in music that we were expected to perform and play from memory," Clausen said.
He now writes the music, not the lyrics, for songs that almost add another character to the show.
Clausen has picked up two Emmys for writing "You're Checkin' In," for an episode featuring "Kickin' It: A Musical Journey through the Betty Ford Center," and "We Put the Spring in Springfield," which features the town's eventual rally for an ill-reputed burlesque house.
Clausen estimates he has written about 15,000 music cues over the course of the 22 seasons he's been with the show.
The process is a long and repetitive one that features collaborative sessions watching an almost-finished episode, and discussing what is needed musically. Sometimes up to 57 cues a show have been required. Then Clausen receives notes from the session documenting what is needed where, with start and end times. He composes his music to the one-hundredth of a second.
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If he needs to use any instruments that are not in his 35-piece orchestra, he hires those instrumentalists. Music editor Chris Ledesma then further breaks down what is needed where. The music is then recorded by the 35-piece orchestra and after that, the group starts over again, reviewing the following week's episode.
"We can make people smile and people cry," Clausen said. "We underscore the entire range of human emotion, and that's why my job is so thrilling and satisfying."
T/he article is from The Jamestown Sun. The Sun and the Herald are Forum Communications Co. newspapers.
