Mark Snow, the mind-bogglingly prolific composer behind scores for Blue Bloods, Smallville, and the X-Files has died at age 78. From TV to film to games, Snow’s take on electronic music scoring has left a mark on many of us. Here he is talking about his take on music, and some reflections on that unforgettable X-Files score.
Okay, for some of us, for everything we’ve ever done with electronic music, it’s impossible not to have Mark Snow pop into your head now and then when you reach for the pitch bend wheel/paddle. Right? (There’s just something about listening to a thick string pad chord slide slowly up. Maybe it’s me.) Mark Snow’s ability to create music that was atmospheric, emotional, unforgettable but also that could sit underneath action without being distracting–it’s just hard to sit at a keyboard and watch a screen without flashing back to memories of X-Files and other scores. It was part of what managed to make X-Files spooky and sexy at once.
All that being said, some of Snow’s music is even better than you remember. This just sounds so fresh to me now:
Snow’s career went far beyond X-Files, with a huge array of scores plus a friendship with fellow composer (and actor) Michael Kamen, with whom Snow co-founded the New York Rock’n’Roll ensemble after they both graduated from Art and Music High School. Mark was also great at talking about the music and process, so let’s get lost in some interviews.
In a lesson for all of us, that idea for The X-Files theme was not the first go. It was even a kind of accident. Yes, embrace that, folks; you could make history. It was patch 126(?) on an E-mu Proteus. And actual whistling. If you lived through 90s synths, you didn’t need me to tell you that. What you might not know is that’s his wife whistling
The movie had its issues, but Snow’s lush orchestral score kept all the character of the original. (I’d argue he made the big screen transition better than the rest of the production! Sorry, Mr. Carter!) Here he is talking about it in 1998:
And last one, though it’s tough not to tear up a little on this one. Keep supporting artists while they’re alive, please – with or without TV and film contracts or media coverage (even from me). None of us is here forever. I mean, unless… well, that’d make a good X-Files episode.
