Initially a concerthall composer interested in twelve-tone music and friendly with French avant-garde leader Pierre Boulez, Maurice Jarre became a master of the lush, romantic Hollywood score, gaining international prominence through his work on the epic films of David Lean.

Jarre studied engineering in his native Lyons and at the Sorbonne, but transferred to the Paris Conservatory where he studied composition (with Honegger) and percussion. After service in World War II, Jarre played percussion in a number of ensembles before being named music director and resident conductor/composer at the Théâtre National Populaire in Paris. It was in 1952 that Georges Franju hired him to write the score for the film Hôtel des invalides. The movie's popularity brought attention to Jarre, and soon he was spending most of his time writing music for French films, mostly employing small instrumental ensembles in a more approachable style than he was using for such concert works as Mouvements en relief (1954) and Mobile for violin and orchestra (1961).

An even bigger break came for Jarre in 1962 when director David Lean asked him to score Lawrence of Arabia. For this epic, Jarre employed a large orchestra, broad melodies, and some North African-influenced percussion. Jarre won an Academy Award for this work, and would go on to score Lean's next three, big-scale films, most notably Doctor Zhivago, where he used balalaikas and produced a hit song, "Somewhere, My Love," a rhythmic corruption of one of the film's instrumental themes.

Jarre's success with Lawrence of Arabia took him permanently to Hollywood, where he collaborated most extensively with directors John Huston (including The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, 1972) and Peter Weir (including Witness, 1985). In the 1980s, Jarre began incorporating electronics into his scores, though not in an avant-garde manner. He also became fond of using non-Western instruments wherever appropriate. Among his other accomplishments is fathering composer Jean-Michel Jarre. © James Reel, All Music Guide

Below are works by M.Jarre that every music lover should explore: