Jerry Goldsmith, Academy Award-winning film composer died yesterday of cancer at the age of 75. Here's a tribute from Filmtracks:

Jerry Goldsmith has been an awesome inspiration for two generations, scoring masterpieces that range from the early 60's to the present. His scores have been essential in promoting the fine art of film music composition. A vast knowledge of music history and structure has enabled him to create a wide variety of moods in the films he has scored. Conducting in his jeans, brightly colored shirts and ties, with his sleeves rolled up and ready for action, Goldsmith is known in the industry as a great and admirable personality.

The last two decades of Goldsmith's career have proven to be the most diverse years in Goldsmith's impressive career. After mastering the technique of combining orchestra and electronics in the two previous decades, his experience has made him one of the most versatile composers in the world. At the same time, though, he has been criticized by film music experts for the lack of epic, thematically influential scores in the latter stages of his career. Goldsmith's willingness to take on such projects as Mom and Dad Save the World and Dennis the Menace alienated many of those who were his closest fans in the days of The Wind and the Lion and Chinatown, but enlightened an entirely new generation of film music fans. Goldsmith's quest for new challenges, leading to this new range of quirky, smaller films, has produced such wonderful efforts as Gremlins and The 'Burbs.

So popular is Goldsmith's career that nearly every work he has produced has been pressed onto a CD album. Those few that don't exist on album are the frightful cases in which the master tapes of Goldsmith's recordings are likely lost. In the 1990's there were two collectible CDs that expertly capture the essense of Jerry Goldsmith: in 1993, The Society for the Preservation of Film Music gave 500+ CD's to those who attended the annual dinner (which that year honored Jerry Goldsmith). Now, at an estimated price of $500+, it is one of the most collectible soundtrack-related CDs of all time. All of the music it contains was unreleased at the time. The other great Goldsmith compilation CD is a collection of suites and themes released by the Master Film Music series in 1988 and has the live music most often heard on Goldsmith's concert tours. Originally valued at about $100-$125, this album's recording has since been offered on other CD releases and is no longer a collectible.

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