Alf Clausen, Emmy-winning composer who wrote music for 'The Simpsons'
for 27 years, dies at 84
[May 31, 2025]
By ANDREW DALTON
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alf Clausen, the Emmy-winning composer whose music
provided essential accompaniment for the animated antics of “The
Simpsons” for 27 years, has died.
His daughter Kaarin Clausen told The Associated Press that Alf Clausen
died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles after struggling with
Parkinson's Disease for about a decade. He was 84.
Clausen, who also scored TV series including “Moonlighting” and “Alf”
("no relation," he used to joke) was nominated for 30 Emmy Awards, 21 of
them for “The Simpsons,” winning twice.
Al Jean, an early “Simpsons” writer who was one of the key creative
figures on the show in the 1990s, said in a post on X Friday that
“Clausen was an incredibly talented man who did so much for The
Simpsons."
While Danny Elfman wrote the show's theme song, Clausen joined the Fox
animated series created by Matt Groening in 1990 and provided
essentially all of its music until 2017, composing nearly 600 scores and
conducting the 35-piece orchestra that played it in the studio.
His colleagues said his music was a key component of the show's comedy,
but Clausen believed the best way to back up the gags of Homer, Marge
Bart and Lisa was by making the music as straight as possible.
“This is a dream job for a composer,” Clausen told Variety, which first
reported his death, in 1998. “Matt Groening said to me very early on,
‘We’re not a cartoon. We’re a drama where the characters are drawn. I
want you to score it like a drama.’ I score the emotions of the
characters as opposed to specific action hits on the screen.”
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Animated character Homer Simpson is projected on screen at the 71st
Primetime Emmy Awards, Sept. 22, 2019, at the Microsoft Theater in
Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
 Groening, in a 1996 interview,
called him “one of the unacknowledged treasures of the show.”
Clausen was born in Minneapolis and raised in Jamestown, North
Dakota. He graduated from the Berklee College of Music in 1966, and
moved to Los Angeles seeking a career in music.
In the 1970s he was a musical director on several TV variety shows
including “Donny & Marie.”
Clausen worked as an orchestrator for composer Lee Holdridge in his
scores for 1980s films including “Splash” and “The Beastmaster.”
It was Holdridge who first got the composing job on “Moonlighting,"
the late-80s ABC rom-com detective series starring Bruce Willis and
Cybil Shepherd, but he handed the gig off to Clausen, who would get
six Emmy nominations for his music on it.
Clausen won his Emmys for “The Simpsons” in 1997 and 1998 and also
won five Annie Awards, which honor work in animation in film and
television.
He was fired from “The Simpsons” in a cost-cutting move in 2017, to
the outrage of his collaborators and fans. He sued over his
dismissal.
Clausen is survived by his wife Sally, children Kaarin, Scott and
Kyle, stepchildren Josh and Emily, and 11 grandchildren.
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