Frederic Talgorn
レジデンス: France
ファンサイト: Unofficial Website

バイオグラフィー (バイオグラフィーは英語でのみ利用可能) (更新しました 2009-03-06)

Frederic Talgorn is born in Toulouse on July 2, 1961, a city of the southwest of France where he spends his childhood marked by a passion for the music, which quickly becomes omnipresent. He attends his first courses of music to the academy of the city. He moves permanently to Paris in 1969 with his family and attends the courses of Sabine Lacoaret and Yvonne Loriot at the Academy of the Capital. The experiment goes short since Frederic wish to follow a more personal route: that is devoting himself more and more to writing, studying the harmony, the counterpoint and the fugue, while being followed regularly by composers (Jean Jacques Werner, in particular). Mr Werner conducts for the first time a piece by Frederic Talgorn, in Switzerland. This work for horns and trumpets is performed by 96 musicians.

The following years, Frederic completes his training. Some of his works are performed, but not without difficulties. Then he decides - like many composers - to turn to cinema music so that his work can 'be heard'; his first TV series - Trakal for FR3 - leads to nothing concrete. He composes the music of some advertisements such as 'Crunch', 'Atlas', 'Philip Morris', 'Mont Blanc' and 'Giacomo Perfume.' Then, after a first contact with Los Angeles in 1985 and still waiting for assignments from the French cinema, he decides to move to California in 1987. Oddly enough, a few months after his arrival in Los Angeles, he receives a call from director Gerard Kikoine, looking for a composer for his film EDGE OF SANITY. Frederic jumps onto the occasion and composes a symphonic score which remains - still to date - one of his the best:

'I put in the music all the exaltation of writing my first film score and I believe that you can clearly feel it. There is obviously an enormous difference between the music and the film. There was not a lot satisfaction from a cinematic point of view. I devoted myself more to the music in itself instead of its relationship to the image, which is an error and what one should not make. I believe that I wanted to do the best than I could. The music remains from pure musical point of view, one of my favorites.' (1)

He also composes the music of the trailer of the film TRUST ME (scored by Elmer Bernstein). At one point during the post-production there was talks about Frederic rewriting the score. Thanks to the assistant editor of TRUST ME, Frederic is signed to score ROBOTJOX by Stuart Gordon:

'When I saw the film for the first time, it was obviously a Science Fiction movie. I spoke with Stuart Gordon, the director. He saw it like a western in the future. We spoke about musics that he liked and wanted in the film. He refered to THE WILD BUNCH, where he liked the percussions, as well as Aaron Copland (...) He wanted something very conventional: many brasses and percussions.'

Curiously the film scores from these first two films (EDGE OF SANITY and ROBOTJOX) are recorded in... Paris with the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra at the Studios de la Grande Armée. BURIED ALIVE follows. He composes only ten minutes of music for synthesizer (the remainder of the score being a temp track of his music from EDGE OF SANITY). An experience to forget.

This disappointment is quickly forgotten. Frederic is engaged by Cannon Films for DELTA FORCE 2. He writes 75 minutes of score, mainly for synthesizer, due to the lack of funds of the production. By chance, a CD, the first of his career with regard to film music, is published by the german label Alhambra. The music is (of course...!) recorded in Paris:

'I wanted an orchestral score and I was not given the means of making it. I had to finish the score with synthesizers. It was a mistake and something which I do not assert.' (3)

Frederic benefits from the recording sessions of DELTA FORCE 2 to record two themes for his new assignement, LE BRASIER, he submits them to Eric Barbier, the director. The score for LE BRASIER is recorded in November 1990 in Paris. One of the biggest french production at the time, produced by Jean François Le Petit (Three Men and a Baby), the film is a box-office bomb, in spite of some qualities. It was the beginning the first Gulf War, consequently it was not helped by the circumstances:

'For LE BRASIER I did have a freedom of expression that I didn't have in other films (...) LE BRASIER was a film which had problems (...) the film is not very good, but contains elements which allowed me to express a romantic side, which helped me for the writing.' (4)

The failure of LE BRASIER did not slow down his career, quite to the contrary. Frederic is, in the months which follow, committed to the music of the show following the Course of the Olympic Torch for the Winter Games of Albertville. He composes the music in September and October 1991. A 200 copy CD is published for the press:

'The music was made up before the show was completed. I hadn't seen anything with the exception of drawings, a synopsis, story-boards. I had no musical indications.' (5)

In 1992, Frederic teams again with Stuart Gordon for FORTRESS. A film with Christophe Lambert who enjoys a fair success (in France and Australia in particular). The music is recorded in Salt Lake City:

'I used an orchestra which was far from being satisfactory, I am not very satisfied with the performance. FORTRESS was a very interesting project, very conventional and I worked for the second time with Stuart Gordon, which is always a true pleasure... ' (6)

A little later he is signed to compose the music of two episodes from the INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES. Nearly 50 minutes of music must be written in 12 days. The two episodes, SOMME and ALLEMAGNE-1917 are recorded in Munich. He also composes the music of a third episode, PARIS 1908, which is not used:

'Joel McNeely was originally committed to do it. He made the spotting session with George Lucas. At one point, Laurence Rosenthal and Joel McNeely realized that they would not have enough time to make all the episodes and they asked me to finish the three episodes, including PARIS 1908. They did not want to do a new spotting session with me for PARIS 1908. The spotting was done and I wrote the music from the notes of Joel McNeely, which is a thing that I will never do again, because they is very dangerous. The proof is that the result was not what they wanted.'

At the end of 1992, Frederic composes the score for THE TEMP, a film who - once again - encounters problems of post-production:

'I recorded the first 45 minutes of the score without knowing how the film was going to finish, knowing that it is a thriller, it is very annoying (...) the end of this film was changed five times and at the time of the mixing it was not possible to divide the music written for the scenes.' (8)

Part of his music is not used, identical cues are used several times, the mixing does not make honor to his work at all. However, Varèse Sarabande publishes the music on CD as originally conceived by Frederic.

1993 is marked by the scoring of the opening of the attraction CIRCLE VISION in Disneyland Paris, the remainder of the year is devoted to the commission for the festival of St Vincent in Dijon planned for January 1994. VINUM AND SANGUINEM, an ode to St Vincent, is a 67 minute religious work. The world premiere takes place on January 30, 1994.

The same year he scores Legends In Light: The Photography of George Hurell, a TV movie produced by Turner Pictures, and narrated by Sharon Stone. 1995 and 1996 mark a withdrawal - so to speak - from film and television production (nevertheless, Frederic composes the music of ACROSS CHINA WITH THE YELLOW RIVER and MEETING OF MINDS in 1996).

He is signed by the DeWolfe label to record, on a regular basis, albums of music intended to be used by the media (eight are available to date). Written for full orchestra, they mark the beginning of a profitable collaboration with Philharmonia Orchestra of London. 1997 marks also his return to the film and TV projects with the scores for MONTY SPINNERRATZ and ANGELS IN THE ENDZONE. The first film is a US-German production (RAT' S TALE in the USA) and is a splendid symphonic score, the second is the TV sequel of ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD, a film hit from 1994.

In 1999, he composes the music of the TV movie DEVIL' S ARITHMETIC, which depicts the life of the children in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. This production is extremely well-received by critics and stars Kirsten Dunst. He is also associated with television for THE WRONG GIRL and the following year for COMMON GROUND, film made up of three distinct stories evoking homosexuality ('Friends of Dorothy', 'Mr. Roberts', 'Amos and Andy').

The label Varèse Sarabande calls upon his services for four albums, recorded with Royal Scottish Opera Orchestra. He re-records, with great success and professionalism, the music of John Barry for BORN FREE, Franz Waxman for PEYTON PLACE, and excerpts of two sci-fi albums : THE PHANTOM MENACE and ULTIMATE STAR TREK. In 2000, he write one of best scores of the year for HEAVY METAL 2000. The music is recorded in August in Munich.

Between 2001 and 2002 his main activity is the recording of albums for the DeWolfe label but, in 2003, Frederic makes his return on the french screens with the film of Chantal Lauby: LEAVE YOUR HANDS ON MY HIPS. It proves to be a fruitful collaboration which leads without surprise to another production (this time for Chantal Lauby friend's Alain Chabat) called RRRrrrr!!! Modest results at the box-office follows. Frederic Talgorn is nevertheless back at the front of the cinematographic scene in France. His most recent score is ANTHONY ZIMMER, a french thriller starring Yvan Attal and Sophie Marceau. He has also scored in 2005 the IMAX-3D film ROBOTS OF MARS.