MOVIE MUSIC UK

Composer Maurice Jarre died on March 29, 2009, at his home in Malibu, California, after a battle with cancer. He was 84.

Maurice Alexis Jarre was born in Lyon, France, in September 1924, and originally studied engineering at the Sorbonne before turning to music at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied composition, percussion, and conducting. His early career included work in French theatre, notably as musical director for Jean-Louis Barrault’s Théâtre National Populaire.

Jarre’s began scoring films in France in the 1950s, notably for acclaimed director Georges Franju, and came to international prominence in 1962 for his epic, percussive, sweeping masterpiece score for director David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia. The film’s stirring main theme, performed by a full orchestra and augmented with Middle Eastern instruments, became one of the most recognizable in cinema and won Jarre his first Oscar. He capitalized on the success again in 1965 with another David Lean film, Doctor Zhivago, where his romantic and melancholic “Lara’s Theme” became a popular standard.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s Jarre worked consistently in both American and European cinema, earning significant critical acclaim and commercial success. His other notable credits include The Train (1964), Grand Prix (1966), Is Paris Burning? (1966), Alfred Hitchcock’s Topaz (1969), David Lean’s Ryan’s Daughter (1970), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1973), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Message (1976), the mini-series Jesus of Nazareth (1977), and A Passage to India (1984), for which he won his third Oscar.

From the mid-1980s onwards Jarre embraced the use of synthesizers and electronic textures alongside his orchestral music much more prominently, and he scored numerous films using this hybrid style. He received additional Oscar nominations for Witness (1985), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), and Ghost (1990), and scored box office hits and critical successes such as Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Fatal Attraction (1987), and Dead Poets Society (1989). Jarre scored his last project in 2001, a television mini-series about the Holocaust titled Uprising.

In addition to his Academy Award nominations, Jatte received four Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA. He was named a Commander of the Legion of Honour in his native France. Jarre was married four times and is survived by his sons, including Jean-Michel Jarre, a pioneering figure in electronic music, and Kevin, a screenwriter/director.