Alf Clausen

The show provides him the opportunity to score realistic drama, overblown comedy, gritty urban jazz, Broadway-worthy show tunes, and some of the most clever and loving parodies of cheap-o television news themes, '70s action music, and feature film scores ever done. Alf delivers in spades, always bringing his trademark stylistic verve and technical precision. He has proved beyond a doubt that television scoring is not the vast wasteland it is often purported to be and that an intelligent composer can take even the most demanding shows and elevate them to new heights.
—Doug Adams of Film Score Monthly about Clausen's work on The Simpsons

Following ALF's conclusion, Clausen was unemployed for seven months. Clausen's friend suggested him to a producer from the Fox animated series The Simpsons who were looking for a new composer. Clausen "had no interest in doing animation" and "wanted to be a drama composer." However, the show's creator Matt Groening told him "we don't look upon this as being a cartoon but a drama where the characters are drawn, and we would like it scored that way." Clausen took the job.[5] Groening told Clausen that the "emotion [should be] scored first and the action scored second", unlike many other cartoons, and that "scoring the emotions of the characters" was the primary aim for The Simpsons.[14] Clausen's first episode was "Treehouse of Horror", the third episode of season two, in 1990.[13] It served as an audition and he was hired permanently after that.[5] He has since scored almost all of the music and songs which have appeared on the show, across a wide range of musical styles through the end of the 28th season.[13] He conducted a 35 piece orchestra for the music, a rarity for television shows, and recorded the score for an episode every week.[15] Clausen wrote an episode's score during the week, recorded it on a Friday, with some variation if vocals are required.[6] The limited timeframe proved the most challenging aspect of the job for Clausen; he was once required to write 57 musical cues in one week.[5] For the show's original songs production is much longer; Clausen records the music to the writers' lyrics, over seven or eight months the scene is animated, and then Clausen can re-record the song with a full orchestra.[14] The full orchestra allows easy transition between the wide range of musical styles required for the show. Clausen noted:

The greatest composing challenge has been to try to make some kind of musical sense out of the cues when I have only a few seconds to make a musical statement. We have a joke on the scoring stage that I can make you feel five ways in thirteen seconds. We say it in jest, but the reality of the situation is that I am required to do just that quite often.[15]

Clausen intentionally opted against composing themes for each character, with some exceptions such as Mr. Burns, and instead "[gives] each story its own theme and thematic development...That approach helps to give each story its own special identification, more like individual mini-movies."[15] He supplements the orchestra with additional instruments, such as extra brass for the episode "Cape Feare",[15] for which Clausen composed Sideshow Bob's theme, which continued to be played whenever Bob gets out of prison in subsequent episodes. It is based on the score of the movie Cape Fear, composed by Bernard Herrmann.[16] The musical requests of the writers range from rerecord a specific piece of music to compose something based on this character's emotion in a scene.[5]

Clausen has received two Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on The Simpsons, winning the award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics two years in a row. The first was for "We Put The Spring In Springfield" from the 1997 episode "Bart After Dark", the second was for "You're Checkin' In" from the 1998 episode "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson"; the lyrics of each song were written by Ken Keeler.[12][17] He has been nominated in the category a further seven times in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.[12] Clausen has also received twelve nominations for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) between 1992 and 2011 and has twice been nominated for Outstanding Music Direction, in 1997 and 1998.[12] With 30 nominations, Clausen has received more Emmy nominations than any other musician.[18]

He has won five Annie Awards for his work on The Simpsons. He won the 1997 award for Best Music in a TV Production,[19] the award for Outstanding Music in an Animated Television Production in 1998, again for "You're Checkin' In",[20] the same award in 2000 for the episode "Behind the Laughter",[21] the award for Best Music in an Animated Television Production in 2003 for "Dude, Where's My Ranch?",[22] and again in 2007 for "Yokel Chords".[23]

His work on the show has been released as part of three albums produced by Clausen: Songs in the Key of Springfield (1997), Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons (1999) and The Simpsons: Testify (2007).[2][4] Clausen was not asked to score the film adaptation of the show, The Simpsons Movie, with Hans Zimmer getting the job. He noted: "sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug".[5]

Whilst working on The Simpsons, Clausen scored The Critic from 1994 to 1995 and Bette in 2000. He also scored the 1998 film Half Baked.[2] He recorded the album Swing Can Really Hang You Up The Most in 2003, comprising the arrangements he made over his career, performed by his jazz orchestra, after self-financing it.[5][24]

In 2011, Clausen was awarded the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Golden Note Award. ASCAP President Paul Williams said his "decades of scores for The Simpsons and other TV programs and films are as endlessly inventive as the imaginations of the shows' writers and animators. It takes a lot of serious work and thought to compose, arrange and conduct such wonderfully happy music."[18][25]

On August 30, 2017, after 27 years of scoring for The Simpsons, it was revealed that Clausen was dismissed from the show, with suggestions that the reasons behind the decision were largely financial. His last complete score was for "Dogtown".[26][27][28] However, following the news of Clausen's departure, the producers of the show stated that he would "continue to have an ongoing role in the show."[29] Beginning with Season 29, scoring was taken over by Bleeding Fingers Music, with Clausen credited as "Composer Emeritus." He is credited for composing the music for the episode "Whistler's Father".

On August 5, 2019, Clausen announced he is suing the Fox Network for his removal from the show, saying that he was fired due to old age.[30]