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John Barry is 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 lives and works in Oyster Bay, New York. When in England he operates
from an apartment in Cadogan Square, London.
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