TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

In 1956, Louis and Bebe Barron composed, solely from electronic sources, the music and sound effects for Fred McLeod Wilcox’s film Forbidden Planet.^[1] In 1979, an original soundtrack composed with synthesizers by Giorgio Moroder for Alan Parker’s film Midnight Express won an Academy Award for best music. At the same time, symphonic orchestral music was enjoying a renewal in film music, thanks in particular to the work of John Williams with his scores for Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) and George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977), two of the first blockbusters in film history. These two developments led composers to closely combine symphonic orchestras and electronic music.