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David Shire

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

David Shire was born in 1937 in Buffalo and studied at Yale. At first he wrote mainly musicals, together with the lyricist Richard Maltby Jr. In the 1970s he became one of the composers of New Hollywood. For Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974) he wrote a score for solo piano, lonely and jazzy, like the eavesdropper in the film. In the same year, for The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, he made a funky score with brass and electric bass, built on twelve-tone rows. All the President's Men (1976), by contrast, has very little music. Later he won an Oscar for the song 'It Goes Like It Goes' from Norma Rae (1979). David Fincher asked him for Zodiac (2007).

Listening

Listening tip. In Pelham, notice the angular, dissonant brass lines above a funky bass line: twelve-tone technique sounds here like urban crime funk.

Discography

Studio albums

Other work

In School of Rock

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Categories: ArtistsNew Hollywood