Composer: Louis And Bebe Barron
Tracklist
1. Main Titles - Overture 02:21
2. Deceleration 00:55
3. Once Around Altair 01:10
4. The Landing 00:50
5. Flurry Of Dust - A Robot Approaches 01:10
6. A Shangri-La In The Desert / Garden With Cuddly Tiger 01:33
7. Graveyard-A Night With Two Moons 01:16
8. "Robby, Make Me A Gown" 01:18
9. An Invisible Monster Approaches 00:48
10. Robby Arranges Flowers, Zaps Monkey 01:18
11. Love At The Swimming Hole 03:12
12. Morbius' Study 00:38
13. Ancient Krell Music 01:48
14. The Mind Booster - Creation Of Matter 00:58
15. Krell Shuttle Ride And Power Station 02:34
16. Giant Footprints In The Sand 00:45
17. "Nothing Like This Claw Found In Nature!" 01:26
18. Robby, The Cook, And 60 Gallons Of Booze 01:07
19. Battle With Invisible Monster 02:55
20. "Come Back To Earth With Me" 01:19
21. The Monster Pursues - Morbius Is Overcome 05:49
22. The Homecoming 01:59
23. Overture - Reprise 02:15
Bebe Barron (June 16, 1925 – April 20, 2008) and Louis Barron (April 23, 1920 – November 1, 1989)
were two American pioneers in the field of electronic music.
They are credited with writing the first electronic music for magnetic tape,
and the first entirely electronic film score for the MGM movie Forbidden Planet (1956).
The couple married in 1947 and moved to New York City.
The first electronic music for magnetic tape composed in America
was completed by Louis and Bebe in 1950 and was titled Heavenly Menagerie.
MGM producer Dore Schary discovered the couple and hired them on the spot
to compose the musical score for Forbidden Planet.
The Barrons' electronic composition is credited with being the first completely electronic film score,
preceding the invention of the Moog synthesizer by eight years (1964).
Using ideas from the book Cybernetics: Or Control And Communication In The Animal And The Machine (1948)
by the mathematician and electrical engineer Norbert Wiener,
Louis Barron constructed his own electronic circuits that he used to generate the score's "bleeps, hums and screeches". Most of these sounds were generated using an electronic circuit called a "ring modulator".
After recording the basic sounds, the Barrons further manipulated the sounds by adding other effects,
such as reverberation and delay, and reversing or changing the speeds of certain sounds.
Since Bebe and Louis Barron did not belong to the Musicians Union,
their work could not be considered for an Academy Award, in either the "soundtrack" or the "sound effects" categories.
MGM declined to publish a soundtrack album at the time that Forbidden Planet was released.
However, film composer and conductor David Rose later published a 7" single of his original main title theme
that he had recorded at the MGM Studios in Culver City during March 1956.
His main title theme had been discarded when Rose, who had originally been hired to compose the musical score in 1955, was discharged from the project by Dore Schary.
The Barrons finally released their soundtrack in 1976 as an LP album for the film's 20th anniversary,
on their own Planet Records label (later changed to Small Planet Records and distributed by GNP Crescendo Records).
The LP was premiered at MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention, held in Kansas City,
as part of a 20th Anniversary celebration of Forbidden Planet.
The Barrons were there promoting their album's first release, signing all the copies sold at the convention.
A decade later, in 1986, their soundtrack was released on a music CD for the film's 30th Anniversary,
with a six-page color booklet containing images from Forbidden Planet,
plus liner notes from the composers, Bebe and Louis Barron, and Bill Malone.
