MUSIC FOR FILM, TV AND THE PERFORMING ARTS

At Mountain Vision Studio, I compose, orchestrate, perform, and record my music using the finest sampled orchestras and instruments (and one very real Mason and Hamlin grand piano), delivering music files ready for post-production.

Joseph Gold Music - Mountain Vision Studio

“I love writing music for picture, becoming deeply involved in the emotion and character of a story and helping to transform it by the alchemy of sight and sound.”

NEWS

Willow: in memory of Lyle Mays
(November 27, 1953 – February 10, 2020)

Two years ago we lost a singular voice in the musical world, pianist and composer Lyle Mays. Just like listening to a few seconds of any recording by Bill Evans , McCoy Tyner or Chick Corea, Lyle's pianistic touch and compositional style is instantly recognizable, deeply felt and intensely personal.

On August 26, 2021, I was fortunate to attend a live listening party on Zoom to celebrate the release of Lyle's final work, Eberhard, hosted by vocalist, composer, and educator Aubrey Johnson, also a featured vocalist on the recording, and Lyle’s niece. Associate producer Steve Rodby, the former bassist with the Pat Metheny Group (aka PMG) for 30 years, whose bandmate Lyle was a founding member in 1977, was also one of the panelists along with saxophonist Bob Sheppard, a long-time friend and musical associate of Lyle's. Eberhard, Lyle's final 13-minute masterpiece, begins and ends like a prayer. Listen to his opening melodic statement above the gentle marimba ostinato. You will hear the essence of who his is. I wept the first time I heard it. It is transcendant, and pure Lyle.

I have been an ardent fan since first hearing Lyle with the PMG at U. Mass. in Amherst in 1978. I have seen him countless times with the PMG and once at Carnegie Hall in a trio with singer Bobby McFerrin and drummer Jack DeJohnette.

Watching Lyle play always reminded me of a willow tree moving with the musical winds he created with the group. His thin frame, long arms and strong fingers were like branches reaching out, caressing the keyboard, and his oversized off-white shirt he wore at many performances billowed as he moved and played. His wide mane of hair — a mass of wispy straw-colored strands he wore shoulder length — were like thin, hanging branches of the willow swaying with the music.

The deep, profound loss I felt from Lyle’s untimely death two years ago inspired me to write Willow, a piece I composed and produced in memory of this unique man. This is a somewhat longer work as compared to the shorter movie genre cues I have written and posted here and on SoundCloud. The piece recalls several sounds and elements from his vast repertoire and was written for solo piano, orchestra and multi-textural synth sounds from a variety of libraries.

I hope you enjoy Willow and are inspired to go to the source and listen to his achingly beautiful compositions like Close to Home, Mirror of the Heart … and Eberhard.

—Joe

PHOTO: BETH HERZHAFT

Willow: in memory of Lyle Mays

Viva VIM!

I have another "particular set of skills," that of an ophthalmologist, having practiced in DC, NY, and here in the Berkshires. I volunteer at an eye clinic at Volunteers in Medicine (VIM), Berkshires. VIM is a non-profit organization offering a wide range of healthcare for the un- and minimally-insured population, largely composed of immigrant families. The organization's amazing medical director, Ilana Steinhauer, along with her warm, caring and highly skilled staff, have created a far-reaching program with the help of dedicated volunteer physicians, dentists and other healthcare workers. I was inspired to write Viva VIM! as a tribute to the joy and spirit of our mostly Latino community of patients we have the honor of treating as we welcome them into the close-knit VIM family.

Joyful Beats, Joyous Pulse

This piece was written for Berkshire Pulse, a fabulous dance and creative arts organization, and is a reflection of the joy I have savored over the years watching many Pulse performances. Inspired children (my own included) and adults have had the great fortune to learn, perform and grow in the positive and nurturing environment of the Pulse family. The piece is a distillation of several musical genres featured in a Pulse Spring Gala dance performance program — blending West African instruments and rhythms, hip-hop, funk, and jazz. The main theme is derived from a ballet by Delibes that captures what I heard each performer saying in motion: "This is me!"

ABOUT JOE

As a composer and arranger I write music in a wide spectrum of film styles and genres, for solo piano, large and small orchestras and mixed-instrument ensembles, synthesizers, and other electronic instruments. As featured here and on SoundCloud, genres include many dramatic styles and intensities of action-adventure, action hero, lyrical/heroic grandeur, horror, fantasy and magic, romantic/love, comedy, and sad/tragic, as well as location-specific styles using a hybrid of world and orchestral instruments.

As a classical pianist, I studied with Lester Hebbard, Hilda Banks Shapiro and Gili Melamed-Lev. As a jazz pianist, I studied with Garry Dial, Lee Shaw, Armen Donelian, Norman Gold, John Nazarenko, LeeAnn Ledgerwood and Sanford Gold. I also participated in the first Chick Corea Keyboard Workshop (2013) in Lenox, MA, with Chick, John Patitucci and Antonio Sanchez and studied jazz improvisation with Gary Burton at the Berklee College of Music.

I have been performing as a pianist for over twenty years with the Barrington Jazz Quartet and the Release the Penguins Jazz Quartet at many Berkshire venues: the Mahaiwe Theater, the Sandisfield Performing Arts Center, the Barn, Castle Street Café, the Starving Artist Café, Gedney Farm, Café Adam, the Darrow School, the former Pearl’s and Elm Court restaurants, the Monterey General Store, and with the Olga Dunn Dance Company at Simon’s Rock and the Dunn studios, the Heron Cove Summer Concert Series in Cheshire, as well as in homes for private parties and weddings, and for many charitable events including the Fairview Hospital galas, the Berkshire Baby Box, the Berkshire Diaper Project, and the “Warm Up the Winter Concerts for Fuel Assistance” at the Mahaiwe.

Earlier in my musical career, I performed as a trombonist with a variety of wind ensembles and orchestras, brass ensembles, rock, blues, gospel and jazz bands, the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, and the Williamstown Summer Theater Festival (Main Stage and Second Company).

I hold a Professional Certificate from the Berklee College of Music in Composing and Orchestrating for Film and TV.

Printable version (PDF)

“Joe writes engaging music filled with catchy melodies and evocative harmonies. He can communicate a wide range of emotions within his compositions, as well as deliver professional recordings.”

—Ben Newhouse, Composer and Music Composition Professor, Berklee College of Music

CONTACT

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+1 (413) 695-5707

“Joseph Gold has written some sensitive and effective music. He has a mature dramatic sense, and is able to add a wide variety of suitable emotional color to a film. You will enjoy what you hear.”

—Jack Freeman, Film Scoring Department, Berklee College of Music

Please respect my copyright for my music, and contact me for ways to easily license it if it will be used for anything other than personal enjoyment or evaluation.