Maurice Jarre

All Music Guide:

Film music composer Maurice Jarre attended the University of Lyons, then went to Paris, where he studied engineering at the Sorbonne before entering the Paris Conservatoire to study composition and percussion. He became musical director of the Théâtre National Populaire and composed his first film score for the short Hôtel des Invalides in 1951. He worked mostly on short films through the mid-'50s before graduating to mostly full-length features in the late '50s. By the early '60s, he had begun to attract international attention, getting assignments from British and American directors, and with that he embarked on a remarkably prolific career that found him scoring an average of over three films per year during the 40-year period 1960-1999.

Jarre's first major international success came with British director David Lean's 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia. The soundtrack album containing the composer's appropriately lush and exotic music just missed topping the American LP charts, and when the film swept the Academy Awards, Jarre received his first Oscar for best original score. The following year, he was nominated for the award for best adapted score for the French film Sundays and Cybèle. He repeated his success with Lawrence of Arabia by scoring Lean's next mammoth production, Doctor Zhivago (1965). Again, he won the best original score Oscar, and the soundtrack album, stimulated by Ray Conniff's Top Ten vocal recording of "Lara's Theme" under the title "Somewhere, My Love," topped the charts and went gold. It was one of only a handful of all-instrumental recordings of movie scores ever to hit number one.

Jarre had his third soundtrack album in the charts in March 1967 with Grand Prix, the music for director John Frankenheimer's 1966 racing film, which spent more than six months among the LP best-sellers, and though the disappointing critical response to David Lean's 1970 effort Ryan's Daughter probably robbed Jarre of another Oscar, the soundtrack album of his music did get into the charts. The motion picture academy bestowed nominations on Jarre for The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean in 1977 and Mohammad, Messenger of God in 1977, and he finally won a third Oscar for his music to David Lean's return to filmmaking and final work, A Passage to India, in 1984.

The 1980s were even busier for Jarre than the '70s had been, and he adapted himself to the expanded opportunities offered by technological innovations, composing and performing electronic music for such scores as the one for Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously (1983) and Witness (1985). The latter earned an Oscar nomination, while Jarre's music for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome produced a soundtrack album that reached the Top 40. There were further Academy Award nominations for Gorillas in the Mist in 1988 and Ghost in 1990. The composer slowed his busy pace after turning 70 in 1994, but he entered the new century still working, with I Dreamed of Africa released in 2000. (Jarre's son, Jean-Michel Jarre, is also a composer.)

Wikipedia:

Maurice-Alexis Jarre (13 September 1924 – 28 March 2009) was a French composer and conductor. His son is the electronic composer Jean Michel Jarre.

Although he composed several concert works, Jarre is best known for his film scores, particularly for his collaborations with film director David Lean. Jarre composed the scores to all of Lean's films since Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Other notable scores include The Train (1964), Mohammad, Messenger of God (1976), Witness (1985) and Ghost (1990).

Jarre was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Three of his compositions spent a total of 42 weeks on the UK singles chart chart; the biggest hit was "Somewhere My Love" (to his tune "Lara's Theme", with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster) by the Michael Sammes Singers, which reached Number 14 in 1966 and spent 38 weeks on the chart.

Jarre was a three time Academy Award winner, for Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India (1984), all of which were directed by David Lean. He was Oscar nominated a total of eight times.

Early life

Jarre was born in Lyon, France, in 1924, the son of Gabrielle Renée (née Boullu) and André Jarre, a radio technical director. 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 and harmony and chose percussion as his major instrument. He became director of the Théâtre National Populaire and recorded his first film score in France in 1951.

Film scoring

In 1961 Jarre's music career experienced a major change when British film producer Sam Spiegel asked him to write the score for the 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia, directed by David Lean. The acclaimed score won Jarre his first Academy Award and he would go on to compose the scores to all of Lean's subsequent films. 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. He worked with Alfred Hitchcock on Topaz (1969); though Hitchcock's experiences on the film were unhappy, he was satisfied with Jarre's score, telling him "I have not given you a great film, but you have given me a great score." 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 in 1976 for the director and producer Moustapha Akkad. He followed with Witness (1985) and Dead Poets Society (1989), for which he won a British Academy Award.

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. Other films for which he provided the music include 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 composers including John Williams, who stated on Jarre's death, "(He) is to be well remembered for his lasting contribution to film music...we all have been enriched by his legacy."

Jarre's television work includes the score for the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977), directed by Franco Zeffirelli, Shōgun (1980), and the theme for PBS's Great Performances.

Jarre scored his last film in 2001, a television film about the Holocaust entitled Uprising.

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.

Awards

Jarre received three Academy Awards and was nominated a total of eight times, all in the category of Best Original Score. He also won three Golden Globes and was nominated for ten.

The American Film Institute ranked Jarre's score for Lawrence of Arabia #3 on their list of the greatest film scores. His scores for the following films were also nominated for the list:

Family

Jarre was married four times, the first three marriages ending in divorce. His marriage to Francette Pejot (in the 1940s, after World War II), produced a son, Jean Michel Jarre, a French composer who is one of the pioneers in electronic music. In 1965, he married French actress Dany Saval. Together they had a daughter, Stephanie Jarre. Jarre next married American actress Laura Devon (1967–1984), resulting in him adopting her son, Kevin Jarre, a screenwriter, with credits on such films as Tombstone and Glory. From 1984 to his death he was married to Fong F. Khong (1984–2009).

Death

Maurice Jarre died on 28 March 2009 after a battle with cancer.

Filmography and awards