The Italian born song-writer and record producer Giorgio Moroder had a significant impact on film music, particularly during the 80s when he was at the height of his phenomenal career. His music and songs are typically characterised by their pulsating beat and use of synthesisers and other electronic effects, e.g. the Donna Summer song "I Feel Love". In this field Moroder was certainly something of a pioneer and he has had many imitators, though as a score composer he has also created some dark and suspenseful moments for films like "Cat People" and "Midnight Express". On the latter movie Moroder worked with Harold Faltermeyer, and the two composers were associated once more on the Axel-F sequel "Beverly Hills Cop 2".
As far as we are aware, Moroder is no longer actively writing though he is in his 70s and deserves a little time off. Nevertheless his songs and remixes of these have always been popular and they still make frequent appearances on films. In total Moroder has won 3 Oscars for his film music: Best Score for Midnight Express, Best Song for "Flashdance: What a Feeling" and then sharing the Best Song oscar with Tom Whitlock for "Take My Breath Away" in Top Gun. On YouTube here is Giorgio Moroder giving a lesson in using a vocoder, which was quite a new synth effect back in 1979 when this film was made to promote his E=MC² album. The composer's official website is at www.moroder.net.
You'll find keyboard arrangements of some of Moroder's songs in various collections of famous film music, and the following are among the albums available:
The following album cover has been signed by Klaus Doldinger, Moroder's co-composer on "The Neverending Story". Our thanks to Petr Kocanda for permission to use his collection of autographed CDs. Click the thumbnail below to see the image full size in a separate window.
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