Gabriel Yared facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gabriel Yared
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Yared at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival
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| Background information | |
| Born | 7 October 1949 Beirut, Lebanon |
| Occupation(s) | Composer |
Gabriel Yared is a famous Lebanese-French composer. He is well-known for creating music for many French and American movies.
Gabriel Yared was born in Beirut, Lebanon. He wrote music for French movies like Betty Blue and Camille Claudel. Later, he started working on English-language films, especially those directed by Anthony Minghella. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Score and a Grammy Award for his music in The English Patient (1996). He was also nominated for these awards for his work on The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Cold Mountain (2003).
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Gabriel Yared's Early Life and Music Journey
When Gabriel Yared was 7 years old, he started taking accordion lessons. Two years later, he switched to learning music theory and piano. Even though he wasn't the best piano player, he loved reading music.
At 14, Yared's piano teacher passed away. Yared then became the organist at Université Saint-Joseph. He used the university's library to read music by famous composers like Johann Sebastian Bach and Robert Schumann. This reading inspired him to write his very first song, a piano waltz.
Studying Music and Traveling
Gabriel Yared first earned a degree in law. He didn't formally study music at a university until 1969. That year, he traveled to France to attend the École Normale de Musique de Paris. There, he learned how to compose music from Henri Dutilleux.
In 1971, Yared visited his uncle in Brazil. While there, he was asked to write a song to represent Lebanon in the Rio de Janeiro Song Festival. The song he composed won first prize! He also performed with a small orchestra in Brazil. Yared later said that his time in Brazil greatly influenced his music.
Working with Other Artists
After returning to France, Gabriel Yared worked with many popular musicians. This included artists like Jacques Dutronc, Françoise Hardy, Charles Aznavour, and Mireille Mathieu. During this busy time, he wrote almost 3,000 pieces of music over about six years. He also created music for radio and TV shows, including news jingles for TF1.
He produced and arranged an album called Star for Françoise Hardy in 1977. He also composed two songs on that album. More recently, in 2018, Yared composed and produced an album called Indéfiniment for Yara Lapidus. One song on that album, "Encor Encor," was based on his music from the Betty Blue movie soundtrack.
Music for Movies and TV Shows
Gabriel Yared is very well-known for his work with the director Anthony Minghella. Their first movie together was The English Patient in 1996. This film was highly praised, and Yared won an Oscar for its music. He composed the music for all of Minghella's later films. He also wrote music for the TV series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which Minghella helped create.
Besides his work with Minghella, Yared has scored many other movies. Some of these include Betty Blue (1986), City of Angels (1998), Message in a Bottle (1999), and Cold Mountain (2003). He also worked with René Laloux on animated films like Gandahar.
The Troy Soundtrack Story
In 2004, Gabriel Yared composed the music for the movie Troy. However, his music was not used in the final film. This happened less than a month before the movie was released. A group of people watched the movie with Yared's music, and they didn't like it. They said his music was too "brassy and bold." Because of this, another composer, James Horner, was hired to create new music in less than four weeks.
Yared was very upset about this decision. He wrote an open letter on his website explaining that the music the test audience heard was not yet finished or properly mixed. He also said the studio didn't give him a chance to change his music based on the audience's reaction.
Warner Bros. still owns the rights to Yared's Troy music. An official recording of his original score is not available to the public. However, some film music critics believe Yared's music for Troy was much better than the one that was used in the movie.
Ballet Music
Gabriel Yared also creates music for ballets. He composed the music for the ballet Raven Girl. This ballet was choreographed for the Royal Ballet by Wayne McGregor and was based on a story by Audrey Niffenegger.
Selected Movie Music
Here are some of the movies Gabriel Yared has composed music for:
- Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980)
- La Lune dans le caniveau (1983)
- Dangerous Moves (1984)
- 37°2 le matin [Betty Blue] (1986)
- Camille Claudel (1988)
- Romero (1989)
- L'Amant [The Lover] (1992)
- Map of the Human Heart (1992)
- The English Patient (1996)
- City of Angels (1998)
- Message in a Bottle (1999)
- The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
- Autumn in New York (2000)
- Cold Mountain (2003)
- Shall We Dance? (2004)
- Troy (2004) (Music was not used in the final film)
- Das Leben der Anderen (2006)
- Azur and Asmar (2006)
- 1408 (2007)
- Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009)
- The Tourist (2010)
- In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)
- A Royal Affair (2012)
- The Prophet (2014)
- By the Sea (2015)
- Chocolat (2016)
- The Promise (2016)
- Judy (2019)
- The Life Ahead (La vita davanti a sé) (2020)
- Scarlet (L'envol) (2022)
- Just the Two of Us (2023)
Awards and Recognitions
Gabriel Yared has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score three times. He won the Oscar for The English Patient in 1996. He was also nominated for The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Cold Mountain (2003).
He has also received three Golden Globe Award nominations and three BAFTA nominations for the same films. He won both of these awards for The English Patient.
Yared has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, winning one for The English Patient.
Throughout his career, Gabriel Yared has received many special awards for his achievements in music. These include the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award (2001), the European Achievement in World Cinema Award (2010), and the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award (2019). In 2017, he was also a member of the Jury at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
See also
In Spanish: Gabriel Yared para niños
