Musical Space 2/7: Electronic Scores

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KMUW / Mark Foley

Electronic scores are pervasive in films today and the origin of this is actually a half century old as Mark Foley tells us in this week’s Musical Space.

Electronic sounds have become as pervasive as notes and rests in film scores. One of the earliest and most important examples is Disney’s 1956 feature Forbidden Planet. Like Snow White and Tron, the film itself was a showcase for technical innovations in film and the soundtrack was the first entirely electronic music score.

The word synthesizer had not yet entered the popular vernacular, although the instruments had been in production––with modest to poor sales––by the time Forbidden Planet orbited theaters. Avant garde pioneers Louis and Bebe Barron composed the music using homemade electrical circuits and by splicing, reversing, and changing the speed of magnetic tape.

The sounds they were able to create must have seemed as novel as the inclusion of a talking robot in the cast, and so were perfect for evoking a future extraterrestrial setting.

Music: “Overture” from Forbidden Planet by Louis and Bebe Barron.