Maurice Jarré, "Lawrence of Arabia" - soundtrack

The French composer Maurice Jarre was far from being a child prodigy as his interest in music came to him a little late. Shortly before turning 20, he discovered that he did like music and that he could pursue a career on it. And like any self-respecting composer, child prodigy or not, he had to face and overcome the opposition of his family to enter the Paris Conservatory, where he studied composition, harmony and percussion after abandoning engineering studies at La Sorbonne.

He made his debut as a musician at 22 in the company of the composer and conductor Pierre Boulez. 
Pierre was at the piano and Maurice on the "Martenot waves", an electronic instrument invented in 1928 by the French composer and engineer Maurice Martenot. Five years later, he was asked by film director Georges Franju to compose the soundtrack for a 23-minute documentary, Hotel des Invalides. The work did not launch him to fame but helped him to forge a name as a composer of film music. It will be followed by two more films in communion with Franju, the last one in 1960 for his most memorable film, Les yeux sans visage (Eyes without a face).

Maurice Jarre (1924 - 2009)

The next year, Maurice's career would take a spectacular turn. The Polish producer Sam Spiegel engaged him to compose the soundtrack for a David Lean film that turned out to be nothing more and nothing less than Lawrence of Arabia, an epic film telling the story of a quirky English hero, Thomas Edward Lawrence, who from his position as an intelligence officer, led the Arab revolt against the Turks during the First World War. Maurice Jarre (1924 - 2009)

His involvement in the movie earned him an Oscar. Then a second job with Lean emerged, Doctor Zhivago. From then on, Maurice would compose the soundtrack for all David Lean films, being awarded two more Oscar.

Until his death in 2009, Maurice Jarre collaborated as a soundtrack composer in countless films, among which, to name a few, stand out The Collector, by William Wilder, Jesus of Nazareth, by Zefirelli, and The Tin Drum. In the eighties, using electronic means he wrote the complete score for the movie The Year of Living Dangerously.

In the opinion of the American composer Aaron Copland, music composed for films constitutes a new musical medium capable of exerting a fascination of its own. It is not opposed to concert, symphonic or chamber music, but rather constitutes a new form of dramatic music, as traditionally was, and still is, that written for opera, ballet or theater. Copland closes the corresponding chapter of his remarkable outreach work "What to listen for in music" with this striking suggestion to the reader:

"Next time you go to the movies, don't stop siding with the composer."

An abstract of the complete Lawrence of Arabia soundtrack is presented here (don't forget the film lasts almost four hours) in the rendition of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of its author, Maurice Jarré.