Angelo Badalamenti Obituary, Death – Angelo Badalamenti, an American composer died at his home in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, on December 11, 2022, at the age of 85. Blue Velvet, the Twin Peaks serial (1990-1992, 2017), The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive were among his most significant works for director David Lynch. In 1990, Badalamenti received a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for his “Twin Peaks Theme,” as well as a World Soundtrack Awards Lifetime Achievement Award and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers’ Henry Mancini Award. Badalamenti was born in Brooklyn, New York, to an Italian-American family; his father was a Sicilian fish market owner from the village Cinisi. When he was eight years old, he began taking piano lessons.
Badalamenti’s aptitude at the piano had gained him a summer job accompanying vocalists at Catskill Mountain resorts by the time he was a teenager. He attended Lafayette High School. He subsequently enrolled in the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, but after two years transferred to the Manhattan School of Music, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1958 and a master’s degree in 1959. His credits include War and Law and Disorder, but his big break came when he was hired as Isabella Rossellini’s voice coach for the song “Blue Velvet” in David Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet. After hearing This Mortal Coil’s recent cover, Lynch asked Rossellini to perform her own version of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren.” Instead, Badalamenti and Lynch collaborated to write “Mysteries of Love,” which featured Lynch’s words and Badalamenti’s music.
Julee Cruise provided the song’s vocals, and she later worked on other projects with Lynch and Badalamenti. Badalamenti composed the score and served as music supervisor for the picture. Lynch instructed the composer to construct a score “like Shostakovich, very Russian, but make it the most beautiful thing yet sad and a little bit frightening.” Badalamenti plays the piano in the bar where Rossellini’s character performs in Blue Velvet. This was the first film produced as part of a multi-year cooperation spanning television and film. Badalamenti reteamed with Lynch to make the legendary television show Twin Peaks, which starred Julee Cruise on vocals, after scoring a number of commercial films, including A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Twin Peaks’ soundtrack became his most well-known, helping to define the show’s entire aesthetic and tone.
Many of the motifs in the music are inspired by specific characters in the show, such as “Audrey’s Dance,” a “abstract jazzy” tune that plays whenever Audrey Horne (played by Sherilyn Fenn) appears on-screen. Many of the series’ tracks were included on Cruise’s CD Floating into the Night. He earned a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the soundtrack to the television series’ “Twin Peaks Theme.” The RIAA also presented it with a gold plaque. Lynch has also appeared in the films Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive (in which he plays a gangster with an espresso addiction), and Rabbits, as well as the television shows On the Air and Hotel Room.
He has appeared in the films Naked in New York, The City of Lost Children, A Very Long Engagement, The Wicker Man, Dark Water, and Secretary, as well as the television series Witch Hunt, in addition to Naked in New York, The City of Lost Children, A Very Long Engagement, The Wicker Man, Dark Water, and Secretary. He also helped to create the soundtrack for the video game Fahrenheit (known as Indigo Prophecy in North America). He composed music for Paul Schrader’s films Auto Focus, The Comfort of Strangers, and Dominion: The Exorcist Prequel. Badalamenti and artist David Bowie worked on “A Foggy Day (in London Town)” in 1998 for the Red Hot Organization’s compilation CD Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin that raised donations for numerous AIDS organizations. In 2005, he composed the music for Normand Corbeil’s film Napola (Before the Fall).
He directed the music for The Edge of Love in 2008, which included Siouxsie, Patrick Wolf, and Beth Rowley on vocals. Badalamenti received the World Soundtrack Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. Badalamenti received the Henry Mancini Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers on July 23, 2011, in appreciation of his contributions to film and television music. Badalamenti’s collaboration with David Lynch was renewed in 2017 with the relaunch of the Twin Peaks television series. Its soundtrack contains both new Badalamenti compositions and tracks from the original soundtrack.
