Jorge Arriagada (20 August 1943 â 8 October 2024) was a French-Chilean composer residing in France. Specializing in film music, he is best known for his longstanding collaboration with director Raúl Ruiz.
Arriagada studied composition and orchestral conducting at the National Conservatory of Music in Santiago. Later, he received a four-year scholarship from the French government, allowing him to study in Paris with Max Deutsch, a student and friend of the Austrian composer and theorist Arnold Schönberg. He also studied with Pierre Schaeffer, Olivier Messiaen, and Pierre Boulez.
In 1972, the Guggenheim Foundation in New York awarded Arriagada a scholarship for his contributions to the field of electronic music at Stanford University in California, USA. During the same period, he served as a professor of music composition for French government scholarship recipients.
From 1977, he worked primarily in the film industry, composing music for over 160 films for about thirty directors, including Olivier Assayas, Patricio Guzmán, Benoît Jacquot, Orson Welles, and Barbet Schroeder, as well as 46 films directed by Ruiz.
His film scores often encompass symphonic music, as well as chamber music pieces. He even provided his interpretation of the fictional Vinteuil Sonata for Ruiz's film adaptation of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time in 1999. The genres he has explored include classical, contemporary, electroacoustic, and jazz music.
In 2013, a CD titled "Les Musiques de Jorge Arriagada pour les Films de Philippe Le Guay" was released by Disques Cinémusique, featuring Arriagada's original compositions for Philippe Le Guay's films, including Les Femmes du 6e étage (2010), and Alceste àbicyclette (2013).
Arriagada served as a jury member at various film festivals, including Cannes, San Sebastián, São Paulo, Valencia, Buenos Aires, Valladolid, among others.
In 2020, he was awarded the Grand Prix Sacem de la Musique pour l'image in France.
Arriagada died on 8 October 2024, at the age of 81.
Three original soundtracks composed by Arriagada can be found on the CD compilation Les Musiques de Jorge Arriagada pour les films de Philippe Le Guay, released by Canadian label Disques Cinémusique, in 2013 : Alceste àBicyclette, Les Femmes du 6e étage and Les Deux Fragonard. French and English liner notes. More information here.
The same label also released the same year Arriagada's complete original soundtrack from Les Lignes de Wellington. More information here.