MAURICE JARRE

Two nights ago I was leafing through my book on David Lean ("David Lean", written by historian Kevin Brownlow) and read a passage on composer Maurice Jarre. Mr. Jarre wrote very memorable and classic scores for the director, including Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago. "Lara's Theme" from the latter film became a huge international hit.

It was bound to happen. You think or read about someone and within hours or a few days you hear they have just died.

Maurice Jarre was not as consistent as some, so he was not reintroduced to the public the way someone like John Williams is (although this is more due to repetition and Spielberg therefore duplication). But, as Jarre said, there are not the filmmakers today who understand film scoring like those of yesteryear: David Lean and the composer enjoyed a fruitful relationship because the director allowed Jarre to breathe, often bringing him in earlier in the production to work on the score. Very often it's about who you team up with, what the particular project is, and what the mood in film scoring happens to be at the time.

I also understand that trackies* tend to not like Maurice Jarre as a lot of his scores don't constantly smack you over the head when you are just listening to them on their own, away from the movie (picture).

Mr. Jarre was also a prolific composer for the concert hall.


(* Trackies: Those who listen to film scores somewhat obsessively away from the film with little or no interest to how the music relates to the visual element.)

Toronto Star obit...
http://www.thestar.com/Entertainment/article/610434