LEGENDS OF
LIGHT MUSIC
John Barry
John Barry was
arguably Britain's best-known
composer of film music. He
emerged at a time when the score
of a movie was seldom recorded
for the album market, and when
the musical arranger, for all his
importance to the end product,
was a comparatively anonymous
part of the film-making process.
Barry's career has spanned the
years in which there has been
this increasing awareness of the
importance of this role.
The expansion of
the record industry in the 1960s;
the growing recognition of the
impact of a memorable main theme
on box office receipts; a wider
acceptance of film music as a
serious art form; all have helped
ensure that securing the services
of a 'name' composer is now
almost as important as hiring the
star actors. Musicians from all
walks of life have entered the
fray, but only the most talented
have survived.
One has only to
glance through the sketchiest
John Barry discography to
appreciate the remarkable
diversity and quality of his
output. Stretching over a career
now spanning forty years, Barry's
musical canon takes many
different forms and so means
different things to different
listeners, depending on how they
first heard his work. Film
enthusiasts will no doubt home in
on his Oscar-winning scores for
Born Free, The Lion In Winter,
Out Of Africa and Dances With
Wolves as his major creative
achievements. Chart aficionados,
on the other hand, are likely to
point to his commercial successes
with 'Hit And Miss' (adopted as
the theme for BBC TV's Juke Box
Jury) and 'The Persuaders' (the
theme from the ITV series of the
same name). Rock 'n' rollers are
likely to consider the John Barry
Seven as one of the most
innovative pioneers of the
pre--Beatles British music scene,
while pop historians would
probably highlight his
distinctive pizzicato string
arrangements for Adam Faith's
phenomenally successful records
as the definitive John Barry
sound. Whichever way you look at
it, Barry's back catalogue is
impressively eclectic, while
being stamped throughout with a
highly individual personal touch.
John Barry lived
and works in Oyster Bay, New
York. When in England he operated
from an apartment in Cadogan
Square, London. He died in Oyster
Bay on January 30, 2011.
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