Alf Clausen

Early life, family and education Clausen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 28, 1941. He was raised in Jamestown, North Dakota. Clausen was interested in music from a young age. He counted composer Henry Mancini as one of his heroes; his book Sounds and Scores inspired him. He went on to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison to complete his master's degree, but he quit, as he disliked the place, especially what he felt was an "anti-jazz" attitude. Clausen was the first French horn player to ever attend the college and took part in many ensembles; he is also featured on some Jazz in the Classroom albums. He eventually became a score writer and later the music director and conductor for Donny & Marie between 1976 and 1979. Initially, he was requested to write an emergency chart for the following day, but he was hired as a score writer and continued writing and conducting on the show, before replacing Tommy Oliver as music director. When the show moved to Utah, Clausen flew there each week from Los Angeles to record the score. He had the same role on The Mary Tyler Moore Hour in 1979. Christine Cromwell (1989), and My Life and Times (1991) as well as the television films Murder in Three Acts (1986), Double Agent (1987), Police Story: The Watch Commander (1988), My First Love (1988), She Knows Too Much (1989), and the feature film Number One with a Bullet (1987). Clausen's first episode was "Treehouse of Horror", the third episode of season two, in 1990. It served as an audition and he was hired permanently after that. 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." The musical requests of the writers range from rerecording a specific piece of music to composing something based on a character's emotion in a scene. He was nominated in the category a further seven times in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.

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

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).

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.

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."

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". 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." Beginning with Season 29, scoring was taken over by Bleeding Fingers Music, with Clausen credited as "Composer Emeritus." His last credit is for composing the music for the episode "Whistler's Father".

On August 5, 2019, Clausen announced he was suing the Fox Network for his removal from the show, saying that he was fired due to ageism and disability discrimination, though the producers claimed that Clausen was fired for an inability to work with more modern music styles. After a portion was dismissed in August 2020, Clausen dropped the suit entirely in January 2022.

Personal life and death In April 2020, Clausen revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, though it was subsequently reported that his illness was progressive supranuclear palsy, which is often initially misdiagnosed as Parkinson's. Clausen died at his home in Los Angeles, on May 29, 2025, at the age of 84.

Discography

Songs in the Key of Springfield Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons Testify Swing Can Really Hang You Up The Most – Alf Clausen Jazz Orchestra (ArtistShare) Orchestral arrangements on John Denver's Higher Ground "'Round Midnight" — Buddy Greco "The Misfit" — Erick Nelson and Michele Pillar "Pearls" — The John (Terry) Tirabasso Orchestra "Secret Fantasy" — Mike Campbell