music.wikisort.org - Composer

John Charles (born November 4, 1940, in Wellington) is an New Zealand film composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He created a number of musical works for the New Zealand cinema of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including compositions for films such as Goodbye Pork Pie, Utu, The Quiet Earth, A Soldier's Tale or Spooked.[1]

This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (October 2022)

John Charles
Born	(1940-11-04) November 4, 1940 (age 82)
Origin	Wellington, New Zealand
Genres	film scores
Occupation(s)	Composer, conductor, pianist
Instrument(s)	Piano
Years active	1979–2004

Life and career

John Charles studied art at the Victoria University of Wellington. At the same time, he played jazz music in the university club. During his studies he worked as a newspaper journalist and as a programmer for the NZ Broadcasting Service. With a Bachelor of Music degree, he returned to NZBC and worked as a producer and director. With experience directing a television play in 1973 and directing two episodes of a comedy series, he moved to Australia in 1974 and composed the music for his first television film, The God Boy.

The director with whom John Charles worked most often in his career was jazz trumpeter and filmmaker Geoff Murphy. Their acquaintance dates back to 1966 and Murphy's first film, the unfinished children's musical The Magic Hammer. The two starred together as part of the '70s touring group Blerta and on the Murphy-directed TV show of the same name. Together they turned to the realization of several New Zealand cinema projects in the late 1979s and early 1980s. While Murphy was directing, John Charles composed the soundtracks to the films Goodbye Pork Pie, for which Charles wrote a jazz score, the Maori drama Utu, which has a predominantly symphonic score, and the dystopian, award-winning science Fiction drama The Quiet Earth, in which he also processed avant-garde and experimental sounds in addition to symphonic ones. Director Murphy and leading actor Bruno Lawrence received several awards for the film The Quiet Earth, including the New Zealand Film and TV Award. Finally, in 2004, the mystery drama Spooked starring Cliff Curtis was created, the last joint work by John Charles and Geoff Murphy.[1]

In 1996, John Charles joined the Australian Film and Broadcasting School as Composer in Residence, where he taught composition for more than a decade.

Select filmography

• 1979: Jack Winter's Dream
• 1980: Goodbye Pork Pie
• 1983: Utu
• 1984: Constance
• 1985: The Quiet Earth
• 1988: Zombie Brigade
• 1989: A Soldier's Tale
• 1993: Bread & Roses
• 1994: The Last Tattoo
• 2004: Spooked

References

External links

• John Charles at IMDb

На других языках

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[de] John Charles (Komponist)

John Charles (* 4. November 1940 in Wellington) ist ein neuseeländischer Komponist. Er schuf einige musikalische Werke für das neuseeländische Kino der 1980er, 1990er und 2000er Jahre, darunter Kompositionen für Filme wie Mach’s gut, Pork Pie, Utu – Die letzte Schlacht der Maoris, Quiet Earth – Das letzte Experiment, Der unsichtbare Tod oder Spooked.[1]

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- [en] John Charles (composer)

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