Remembering Mark Snow – the Iconic composer
By Matthew Anthony Allair
This week I am without words, I don’t know where to begin to
express the sentiment, and it’s one of those difficult weeks. Composer Mark
Snow of The X-Files and Millennium has passed on at 78, from an undisclosed
short-term illness. I had a personal connection to Mark as we had traded many
messages in private due to my website, and we had conducted interviews with
Mark for The X-Files Lexicon, he was always generous to me and helpful in
connecting me to the good people at La La Land records when they released their
X-Files box sets of the classic series.
We never discussed his personal life, nor his family, it was
always relevant to the topic about discussing the iconic series or the
soundtrack releases or reissues. But he was always a pleasure to speak with.
His last work was the series Blue Bloods, he also worked on Ghost
Whisperers, Smallville, the early 2000s Twilight Zone, and prior to The
X-Files, Dark Justice, and Falcon Crest. When Mark had the pleasure
of working on orchestral scores like with The X-Files: Fight The Future
in 1998 and The X-Files: I Want To Believe in 2008, it was a delight to
hear him work with such a big canvas.
Then again, he always worked on a big canvas even with the
more intimate setting of a small studio, his use of piano, percussion and
various synthesizers to find the correct moment, the best mood for a scene on The
X-Files or Millennium, and let us not forget his scoring work for
the brief series The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm. He could muster
up dark concertos, aggressive stabs, or the most lovely of etudes to satisfy
the needs of the writers and producers whom he worked for. He even contributed
a score to one of the staff of X-Files News on one of their graduate films. His
generosity ran pretty deep. A person is often measured by the friends they
leave behind when they are no longer with his. He made many friends and will he
be held in high esteem for decades to come.
Which brings us to the final point, if people inspire you,
and you have the ability to create or the means, do so. The greatest compliment
you can pay those who inspired you is to
pay it forward, to contribute to the creative circle of life by adding to it.
The point is Mark Snow was no one until he did great things, you just have to
have the persistence to create, and yes, you may have impostor syndrome, but
keep going. Years ago, I wrote a piece with a friend that is on Soundcloud, and
it seemed pretty apt to share that link as far as tonally fitting. Mark didn’t
inspire this, but I am sharing as a tribute. But getting back to the point
about honoring others through creative means, Regardless of if that is playing
a piano or guitar, writing a story, or a script, shooting a film, painting an
image, building a sculpture or designing a building – it does not matter. Our
heroes always pass on the torch to the next generation. I don’t know if that is
much consolation, aside from listening to his music, which he would have
wanted, just think about what you can add to the pantheon to life or
creativity.
