Alf Clausen

Alf Clausen
Born	Minneapolis
Nationality	United States of America
Instruments	horn · bass

Not to be confused with Australian rules football player Alf Clauscen.

Alf Clausen
Birth name	Alf Heiberg Clausen
Born	(1941-03-28) March 28, 1941 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Genres	Film and television scores
Occupation(s)	Composer, songwriter, producer
Instrument(s)	French horn, piano, bass Early life, family and education Clausen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and raised in Jamestown, North Dakota. Clausen was interested in music from a young age. He counts composer Henry Mancini as one of his heroes; his book Sounds and Scores inspired him. He went on to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison to complete his master's degree, but he quit as he disliked the place, especially what he felt was an "anti-jazz" attitude. Clausen was the first French horn player to ever attend the college and took part in many ensembles; he is also featured on some Jazz in the Classroom albums. He eventually became a score writer and later the music director and conductor for Donny & Marie between 1976 and 1979. Initially, he was requested to write an emergency chart for the following day, but he was hired as a score writer and continued writing and conducting on the show, before replacing Tommy Oliver as music director. When the show moved to Utah, Clausen flew there each week from Los Angeles to record the score. He had the same role on The Mary Tyler Moore Hour in 1979. Christine Cromwell (1989) and My Life and Times (1991) as well as the television films Murder in Three Acts (1986), Double Agent (1987), Police Story: The Watch Commander (1988), My First Love (1988), She Knows Too Much (1989) and the feature film Number One with a Bullet (1987). He also conducted the orchestras and, for some, provided additional music for several films including The Beastmaster (1982), Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Splash (1984), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Dragnet (1987) and The Naked Gun (1988). The Simpsons and other work Goldmark, Daniel; Taylor, Yuval (2002). The Cartoon music book. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-55652-473-8. Wright, Rayburn; Karlin, Fred (2004). On the track: a guide to contemporary film scoring (2nd. ed.). Routledge. Small, Mark; Taylor, Andrew; Feist, Jonathan (1999). Masters of music: conversations with Berklee greats. Berklee Press. External links Alf Clausen at IMDb Alf Clausen's official site Alf Clausen Online Music Scholarship Blog by THE SIMPSONS' Music Editor Chris Ledesma about working with Alf Clausen and creating the music for the show Interview with Alf Clausen Alf Clausen on Scoring THE SIMPSONS Alf Clausen at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television