Maurice Jarre

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Maurice Jarre (13 September 1924 – 28 March 2009)^[1][2][3][4] was a French composer and conductor. Although he composed several concert works, he is best known for his film scores for motion pictures, particularly those directed by David Lean: Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India (1984). All three of these scores won Academy Awards. Other notable scores of his include The Message (1976), Dead Poets Society (1989) and Ghost (1990). Jarre was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[5]. His U.K. singles chart record so far reads as thus. Three hits and forty two weeks on the chart with the biggest being 'Somewhere My Love' by the Michael Sammes Singers with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster reaching number fourteen in 1966 and spending thirty eight weeks on the chart.^[6]

[edit] Early life

Maurice-Alexis Jarre was born in Lyon, France, in 1924. He began to study music at a later age than many musicians. He first enrolled in the engineering school at the Sorbonne, but decided to pursue music courses instead. He left the Sorbonne, against his father's will, and enrolled at the Conservatoire de Paris to study composition, harmony and chose percussion as his major instrument.^[3] He became director of the Théâtre National Populaire and recorded his first movie score in France in 1951.^[7]

[edit] Film scoring

In 1961 Jarre's music career experienced a major change when the movie producer Sam Spiegel asked him to write the score of Lawrence of Arabia^[8], which won Jarre his first Academy Award.^[5] He followed with The Train (1964) and Grand Prix (1966), the iconic racing film for director John Frankenheimer, and in between had another great success in Doctor Zhivago, which included the lyricless tune "Lara's Theme" (later the tune for the song "Somewhere My Love"), and which earned him his second Oscar. His score for David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1970), set in Ireland, completely eschews traditional Irish music styles, owing to Lean's preferences. The song "It was a Good Time," from Ryan's Daughter went on to be recorded by musical stars such as Liza Minnelli who used it in her critically acclaimed television special Liza with a Z as well as by others during the 1970s. He contributed the music for Luchino Visconti's The Damned (1969) and John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King (1975).

He was again nominated for an Academy award for scoring The Message (aka Mohammad, Messenger of God) in 1976 for the director and producer Moustapha Akkad. He followed with Top Secret! (1984), Julia and Julia (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989)—for which he won a British Academy Award—and Jacob's Ladder (1990).

In the 1970s and 1980s, Jarre turned his hand to science fiction, with scores for The Island at the Top of the World (1974), Enemy Mine (1985) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). The latter is written for full orchestra, augmented by a chorus, four grand pianos, a pipe organ, digeridoo, fujara, a battery of exotic percussion and three ondes Martenot (which feature in several of Jarre's other scores, including Lawrence of Arabia, Jesus of Nazareth, The Bride) and Prancer (1989).

In 1990 Jarre was again nominated for an Academy Award scoring the supernatural love story / thriller Ghost. His music for the final scene of the film is based on "Unchained Melody" composed by fellow film composer Alex North.^[3] Other films for which he provided the music include Witness (1985), his passionate love theme from Fatal Attraction (1987), and the moody electronic soundscapes of After Dark, My Sweet (1990). He was well-respected by other Academy Award-winning composers including John Williams, who stated on Jarre's passing, "(He) is to be well remembered for his lasting contribution to film music...we all have been enriched by his legacy."^[9]

His television work includes the score for the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977), directed by Franco Zeffirelli, Shogun (1980), and the theme for PBS's Great Performances.^[3]

Jarre scored his last film in 2001, a TV movie about the Holocaust entitled Uprising.^[3]

[edit] Music style

Jarre wrote mainly for orchestras, but began to favour synthesized music in the 1980s. Jarre pointed out that his electronic score for Witness was actually more laborious, time-consuming and expensive to produce than an orchestral score. Jarre's electronic scores from the 80s also include Fatal Attraction, The Year of Living Dangerously, Firefox and No Way Out. A number of his scores from that era also feature electronic/acoustic blends, such as Gorillas in the Mist, Dead Poets Society, The Mosquito Coast and Jacob's Ladder.

[edit] Family

Jarre was the father of Jean Michel Jarre, a French composer who is one of the pioneers in the electronic music field.

His youngest son, Kevin Jarre, is a screenwriter, with credits on such movies as Tombstone and Glory.

Jarre was married four times:

• to Francette Pejot (in the 1940s, after World War II), who is Jean Michel Jarre's mother.
• to French actress Dany Saval (1965-1967), who is Stephanie Jarre's mother.
• to American actress Laura Devon (1967-1984), who is Kevin Jarre's mother.
• to Fong F. Khong (1984-2009).

[edit] Filmography and awards

[edit] See also

• In the Tracks of Maurice Jarre, a documentary about Jarre.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Maurice Jarre at the Internet Movie Database
• NYTimes filmography
• Filmography, soundtrack reviews, capsule biography
• Obituary by the Associated Press on Legacy.com
• Hollywood’s top music composer Jarre dies
• O'Connor, Patrick (31 March 2009). "Obituary". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/mar/31/maurice-jarre-obituary.