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Dramatic Music Complements Humor In 'The Simpsons'

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Curtis Ross

Published: September 21, 2007

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TAMPA Alf Clausen is responsible for what's usually the least humorous element of "The Simpsons," but it makes the show that much funnier.

"A friend of mine told me long ago, 'You can't vaudeville vaudeville,'" says Clausen, the series' composer since 1990.

"What that means is you can't play a silly situation with silly music," he explains.

Television's favorite animated family, headed by the impulsive and intelligence-challenged Homer, often find themselves in some form of cartoon danger, and it's Clausen's job to play up the tension.

"When we have a situation that's really absurd, it's more effective to play the situation seriously, as if it's happening in real life. It helps pull the audience into the reality of it, so when the joke happens, the joke is that much more funny," Clausen says by telephone from Los Angeles.

Besides, "as far as [the characters are] concerned, they're in real danger," Clausen says.

"The Simpsons," with Clausen's music providing the soundtrack, begins its 19th season at 8 tonight on Fox. In addition, a collection of songs from previous seasons — "Testify!" — was released Tuesday on the Shout! Factory label.

Clausen, 66, studied composition and arranging at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He was musical director for "Donny and Marie [Osmond]" in the '70s before scoring series such as "Moonlighting" and "Alf" ("No relation," he says with a laugh) in the '80s.

No Interest At First

The notion of composing for a cartoon wasn't appealing initially, he says.

A "Simpsons" producer contacted Clausen, who at the time had never seen the show.

"I'm not interested in doing animation," Clausen told him "I wanted to be involved in dramas."

The producer persisted, so Clausen went in for an interview.

"[Series creator] Matt Groening was there, as well as a couple of the other producers," Clausen recalls. "I asked Matt what he envisioned for the show musically. He said, 'We look at our show as a drama where the characters are drawn, and we'd like it scored that way.'

"Right away the light bulb went off," Clausen says. "That's what I do: I write for drama. They gave me my trial episode, which was 'Treehouse of Horror.' They loved what I did, and they kept me."

Clausen began writing songs for the show as well, following the departure of producer Jeff Martin, who wrote "Capitol City" (sung by Tony Bennett), "The Monorail Song" and "Oh, Streetcar!" a musical parody of "A Streetcar Named Desire."

"We started with humble beginnings, and along the way, the songs got more and more elaborate and developed into production numbers," Clausen says.

One of his favorites, "We Put the Spring in Springfield," featured 17 characters. Another, "Señor Burns," allowed Clausen to write for and record with the late bandleader and Latin jazz great Tito Puente.

He also worked with U2 on "The Garbageman," a spoof of the sugary Sammy Davis Jr. hit "The Candyman."

"That was a treat," Clausen says.

Multiple Music Decision-Makers

Music is such an integral part of "The Simpsons" that the shows' writers and producers are very involved in the musical decisions.

"It's a big collaborative process, I'm happy to say," Clausen explains.

"I do a music-spotting session with my executive producer, Al Jean, where we look at an episode and decide what spots will contain music," Clausen says.

Directions from the show's staff "can go all over the map," he adds.

"They can be very specific. For instance, in the episode where Maggie tried to escape from day care, the producers licensed the music from 'The Great Escape' and asked me to re-record it for the scene," Clausen says.

Other times, "They will say, 'This is a parody of such and such scene from such and such film, and we'd like the music to be reminiscent.' Other times I'll get strictly emotional directives, such as writing music to convey Homer's anger," he says.

And then the clock starts ticking.

Clausen sees a new episode on Friday and then has a week to compose and orchestrate between 30 and 35 musical cues per episode. He records them with a 35-piece orchestra the following Friday; the show is mixed on Monday and Tuesday and airs on Sunday.

"Oh, it's tight," Clausen says.

He obviously works well under pressure.

"I don't have any choice!" he says with a laugh. "I've learned that desperation is the mother of invention."

Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com

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