{"id":834,"date":"2022-05-20T01:09:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T01:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=834"},"modified":"2025-09-28T00:56:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:56:20","slug":"vangelis-composer-of-chariots-of-fire-and-blade-runner-soundtracks-dies-aged-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=834","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Vangelis, composer of Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner soundtracks, dies aged 79&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"asset-img-link\" href=\"https:\/\/tomfaranda.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834525a2f69e202942fab9c82200c-pi\" style=\"float: right;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Vangelis\" class=\"asset  asset-image at-xid-6a00d834525a2f69e202942fab9c82200c img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/tomfaranda.typepad.com\/.a\/6a00d834525a2f69e202942fab9c82200c-200wi\" style=\"width: 180px; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;\" title=\"Vangelis\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Chariots of Fire, one of my all time favorite movies. He won the Academy Award for the music.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2022\/may\/19\/vangelis-greek-composer-chariots-of-fire-blade-runner-dies?utm_term=6287124706d7766bd83fa1537462c770&amp;utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&amp;utm_source=esp&amp;utm_medium=Email&amp;CMP=GTUK_email\">Born Ev\u00e1ngelos Odyss\u00e9as Papathanass\u00edou in 1943, Vangelis won an Oscar for his 1981 Chariots of Fire soundtrack. Its uplifting piano motif became world-renowned, and reached No 1 in the US charts, as did the accompanying soundtrack album.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-139bh9t\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Mostly self-taught in music, Vangelis grew up in Athens and formed his first band in 1963, called the Forminx, playing the pop music of the time: uptempo rock\u2019n\u2019roll, sweeping ballads and Beatles cover versions, with Vangelis supplying organ lines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-139bh9t\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">They split in 1966, and Vangelis became a writer and producer for hire, working for other musicians and contributing scores for Greek films. Two years later, he struck out for Paris to further his career, where he formed the prog rock quartet Aphrodite\u2019s Child with Greek expats including Demis Roussos. Their single Rain and Tears was a hit across <a data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/europe-news\">Europe<\/a>, topping the French, Belgian and Italian charts and reaching the UK Top 30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-139bh9t\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">**********************<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-139bh9t\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Vangelis had continued his film score work throughout the 1970s, but it was in the 1980s that this reached its commercial heights. Chariots of Fire became inextricable from Vangelis\u2019s timeless theme, and the music became synonymous with slow-motion sporting montages. \u201cMy music does not try to evoke emotions like joy, love, or pain from the audience. It just goes with the image, because I work in the moment,\u201d he later explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-139bh9t\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">******************<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-139bh9t\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Continually celebrated for his evocative Chariots of Fire theme, Vangelis was also commissioned by sporting bodies to soundtrack major events, including the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, and the 2004 Olympics in Athens. He also wrote ballet scores and music for stage productions of Medea, The Tempest and other plays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chariots of Fire, one of my all time favorite movies. He won the Academy Award for the music. Born Ev\u00e1ngelos Odyss\u00e9as Papathanass\u00edou in 1943, Vangelis won an Oscar for his 1981 Chariots of Fire soundtrack. Its uplifting piano motif became world-renowned, and reached No 1 in the US charts, as did the accompanying soundtrack album. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5119,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834\/revisions\/5119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}