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For his unprecedented success over
the past twenty years
as one of
the most versatile and
popular composers in television
and film
What
could be more appropriate at
the twentieth annual ASCAP Film & Television
Music Awards than to celebrate
a composer who has been honored
at this event every year? Mark
Snow, one of TV’s most prolific
and in-demand composers, is the
recipient of the ASCAP Golden Note
Award tonight. The creator of the
instantly recognizable theme for
the wildly popular television series, The X-Files,
has been a force in film & TV themes and underscore
for more than three decades. His
resumé includes Starsky & Hutch,
T.J. Hooker, Cagney & Lacey,
Smallville, One Tree Hill, the
new Kojak series, and countless
television films and mini-series.
A Brooklyn
native and former major label rock
artist, Snow is also
a Juilliard-trained oboist. Millions
of TV viewers have heard and enjoyed
the sound of his music for many
years. Excited about receiving
an honor that has already been
bestowed on such diverse music
creators as André Previn,
Sean “P.Diddy” Combs,
Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder and Garth
Brooks, Mark Snow recently spoke
with ASCAP about his life in music
from his home scoring studio in
Connecticut.
You grew up in Brooklyn
in a musical family.
Yes, my father was a drummer who
played with Broadway shows and
went on the road.
What was your musical education
like?
I began with piano lessons and
then moved on to the oboe. I was
accepted into the High School of
Music and Art, and then went to
Juilliard, where I was an oboe
player.
Had you yet contemplated writing
music?
No, I was
going to be in an orchestra somewhere.
What happened was that
my roommate, the late Michael Kamen,
and I put a band together called
the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble.
We were signed to Atlantic in 1968
and began a five-year run of touring
and recording.
With the oboes and the classical
influence, your band was unusual.
Definitely.
Most of the kids didn’t
know what to make of it, but they
thought it was different, so that
was good enough for them.
You had married young, so I imagine
that after the band broke up you
needed to find a way to earn a
living. Is that how you ended up
in California?
Yes, my
wife’s family was
out there. My wife said I should
try to make a go of it – we
had two kids and no money. It was
scary, but I looked around for
work, and six months later, I got
something, which led to something
else, and so on.
Like
a lot of people who’ve
enjoyed success in music, I am
sure you can point to mentors.
There are
musical mentors and career mentors.
Musically, the first person
I met in California was Bruce Broughton.
He was very generous and gracious
to meet with me. He came down to
my first session to see what I
was doing. I learned a lot from
him. Also, the late Earle Hagen – the
composer for Make Room for Daddy,
The Andy Griffith Show and Mod
Squad, and much more – was
the person, in my opinion, who
made TV music legit and important.
He had a class in scoring at his
home in Calabasas. Because he was
very well off, his fee was a dozen
Titleist golf balls. He would let
you stay until five in the morning
and answer any questions you might
have. Lee Holdridge was very kind
to me, too. Those three are the
standouts. My
first gig was with Aaron Spelling,
back when he was in partnership
with Leonard Goldberg. I went on
to do a lot of stuff for them.
I led kind of a cyclical existence.
I’d work with producers or
directors who’d think I was
the greatest. After several projects,
they’d say, “Time to
try someone else.” Then they’d
go with other people and come back
to me. I thought to myself that
this was a great formula for success.
If you have enough of these people
who appreciate your work, they
will eventually come back to me.
There have been some real standout
guys who ask for me all the time
like John Gray, with whom I did Helter Skelter last
year and with whom I’m doing
a pilot now. Chris Carter of The X-Files has
invited me to score every show
he’s ever done. The same
goes for David Nutter of Smallville.
How do you keep track of so much
work?
Sometimes
it really seems that it’s all going to crash and
be this unbelievable train wreck,
but it always works out. When I
started, I was incredibly disciplined – I
knew I had “x” amount
of music to write in a certain
amount of time. I knew I had to
allot myself time each day to do
the music so I didn’t get
backed up, while also being able
to be with my family and have a
life. I think that’s really
a big part of my success handling
all these shows.
So time management is crucial for
a TV composer.
Absolutely.
There are composers who are brilliant
and very artistic.
Until the spirit moves them, they’re
in a cloud, and then bang, they
haven’t much time to do the
music. I can’t work like
that.
So, as a one-man army of sorts,
you must have a staff to assist
you.
No.
I would do everything myself. After
a while, if there’d
be a crunch, I’d have one
person to help me for a while.
But I’m not like those composers
who have an office full of people. The
mid-80’s was the advent
of the home studio. If you didn’t
have one, you would be out. I recognized
that and most of the work I do
now is from the home studio. With
the sophistication of technology,
you can do some amazing things.
For the first third of my career
I did many “live dates” with
orchestras for TV scoring. I can
do a lot more now through samplers
and the home studio. And have a
finished master score.
With feature films, do you work
the same way?
No. With the feature version of
The X-Files, I did it
in my home studio so that the producers
could
hear it, and then I fleshed it
out for the orchestra and conducted.
That’s how I started out.
But The X-Files show was perfect
for synthesizers.
You’re more closely associated
with The X-Files than any other
project – in a way it’s
your Andy Griffith Show.
Yes, in a way it is my secret homage
to my dear friend, Earle Hagen.
In fact, my wife did the whistling
on X-Files theme. It’s different
subject matter than Earle’s Andy Griffith Show.
What
do you enjoy more – TV
or feature films?
Most of
the time I like working for people
I love to work with – even
if it is a not-so-great project.
At this point in my life, it’s
more fun to work with great people.
In terms of the projects themselves,
whether they are features or television,
I prefer the more unusual, where
there’s more room to do different
things. In a TV series I did called Pasadena,
which was too good to last, I was
really encouraged to
get out there. In the theme, I
had a really cool combination of
vocal, harpsichord, bells and percussion
and the meter of the piece was
very fast, so it almost sounded
like a crazy Greek dance. The melody
was suggestive of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade. It was pretty eclectic.
You are scoring the new cable version
of Kojak.
Yes, though
I didn’t write
the theme. It’s a very good
show. You’ve seen these kinds
of stories on other cop shows,
but the star, Ving Rhames, is startlingly
appealing with an abstract “it” factor.
That quality must be inspirational
for a composer.
It is – you feel like you’re
in “featureland” when
you’re watching him.
Is
there a particular favorite project,
aside from
The X-Files,
that you’d like to mention?
Yes, there was another show done
by Chris Carter called Millennium,
which was one of the best TV programs
I ever worked on. For the theme,
I came up with something that had
a Celtic violin, a choral sounding
and a big percussion part. The
solo violin, which had a modal,
almost folk quality, became the
signature sound of the program.
What would be your advice to aspiring
composers?
The most
important thing is: When you’re in meetings or interviews
and you are interacting with directors,
you’ve got to leave your
ego outside the door; grab the
ego back when you’re doing
the music – that’s
when you can be a complete egomaniac.
You have to create an environment
with production people where they
can feel comfortable – that’s
a big part of success in this business,
mine or anyone’s. You must
make them feel, even if they know
nothing about the specifics of
music.
-Jim Steinblatt
FILMOGRAPHY
TV
FILM SCORES
2005
Odd Girl Out
2004
Helter Skelter ¥
She’s Too Young
Paradise
2003
D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear
Critical Assembly
2001
For Love of Olivia
The Seventh Stream
2000
Sole Survivor
Dirty Pictures
A Story to Die For
Another Woman’s Husband
Code Name Phoenix
In the Name of the People
1999
The Dancing Cow
A Touch of Hope
A Memory in My Heart
Crazy in Alabama
Stranger in My House
1998
Mr. Murder
Disturbing Behavior
The Day Lincoln Was Shot
1997
Cloned
The Price of Heaven
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Perfect Mother
Payback
1996
A Loss of Innocence
Summer of Fear
Special Report: Journey to Mars
Forgotten Sins
Sweet Temptation
Project: ALF
Smoke Jumpers
Conundrum
1995
Mixed Blessings
The Unspoken Truth
Down, Out & Dangerous
Seduced and Betrayed
The Other Mother: A Moment of Truth Movie
A Stranger in Town
Children of the Dust ¥
Texas Justice
In the Line of Duty: Hunt for Justice
Trial by Fire
1994
Caught in the Crossfire
The Substitute Wife
Heart of a Child
Cradle of Conspiracy
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All ¥
A Place for Annie
Witness to the Execution
In the Line of Duty: The Price of Vengeance
Murder Between Friends
Following Her Heart
1993
Scattered Dreams
Precious Victims
In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco
Born Too Soon
Father & Son
The Man with Three Wives
The Disappearance of Nora
Telling Secrets
1992
Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, the Last Chapter
An American Story ¥
The Danger of Love
A Taste for Killing
In the Line of Duty: Street Wars
Deliver Them from Evil: The Taking of Alta View
Highway Heartbreaker
A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story
Battling for Baby
The Last P.O.W.: The Bobby Garwood Story
1991
Dead and Alive: The Race for Gus Farace
Wife, Mother, Murderer
The Rape of Doctor Willis
Living a Lie
In the Line of Duty: Manhunt in the Dakotas
Aftermath: A Test of Love
The Marla Hanson Story
White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd
Dark Justice
1990
In the Line of Duty: A Cop for the Killing
Crash: The Mystery of Flight 1501
Opposites Attract
The Lost Capone ¥
Dead Reckoning
Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again
Follow Your Heart
The Girl Who Came Between Them
Miracle Landing
The Little Kidnappers £
1989
Settle the Score
Stuck with Each Other
Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure
Those She Left Behind
When He’s Not a Stranger
1988
Disaster at Silo 7
Ladykillers
Scandal in a Small Town
Bluegrass
The Return of Ben Casey
Alone in the Neon Jungle
Aaron’s Way: The Harvest
Goodbye Miss Fourth of July
1987
Vietnam War Stories
Roman Holiday
The Father Clements Story
A Hobo’s Christmas
Kids Like These
The Saint in Manhattan
Cracked Up
Still Crazy Like a Fox
Murder by the Book
Pals
Warm Hearts, Cold Feet
Murder Ordained
1986
Louis L’Amour’s Down the Long Hills
Jake Speed
News at Eleven
Acceptable Risk
Blood & Orchids
The Girl Who Spelled Freedom
One Terrific Guy
One Police Plaza
1985
I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later
Beverly Hills Cowgirl Blues
International Airport
The Lady from Yesterday
Challenge of a Lifetime
Not My Kid
1984
I Married a Centerfold
Pigs Vs. Freaks
Something About Amelia ¥
A Good Sport
Secrets of a Married Man
1983
The Winter of Our Discontent
Two Kinds of Love
Malibu
Packin’ It In
1982
Games Mother Never Taught You
1980
Angel City
Casino
1979
Return of the Mod Squad
1978
Overboard
1977
Flush
1976
The Boy in the Plastic Bubble |
TV THEMES/SERIES
2005
Kojak
2003
One Tree Hill
2002
Haunted
The Twilight Zone
Birds of Prey
Hack (Pilot)
2001
Smallville +
Pasadena
The Guardian +
Special Unit 2
The Lone Gunmen
Wolf Lake
2000
Bull
Dark Realm
1999
Harsh Realm
1997
Night Sins
La Femme Nikita
1996
Millennium
Dark Skies
1995
Nowhere Man ¥
1993
The X Files ¥ +
1988
Aaron’s Way
1984
Paper Dolls
1982
T.J. Hooker
1981
Falcon Crest
Strike Force
Cagney & Lacey
Dynasty
1979
Hart to Hart
Flatbrush
Brothers and Sisters
1977
The Love Boat
1976
Gemini Man
Family
Starsky and Hutch
FILM
2002
White Like the Moon (Short)
2001
Pearl Harbor II: Pearlmageddon (Short)
1998
The X Files +
1995
Born to Be Wild
Dead Badge
1994
Playmaker
Caroline at Midnight
1992
Dolly Dearest
1990
Cold Dog Soup
1988
Ernest Saves Christmas
The In Crowd
1981
High Risk
1979
Something Short of Paradise
1978
Skateboard |
AWARDS
KEY
¥ – Emmy Nomination
£ – Gemini Award
+ – ASCAP Award
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