In the 1950s, the avant-garde music scene in New York and the movie studios of Los Angeles might have seemed like opposite ends of a cultural spectrum. But they came together (and blew apart) when MGM hired Louis and Bebe Barron to write the score for the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet. It was the first all-electronic score for a Hollywood film, but not everyone was ready for the future of film music. I talk with Louis’ son David Barron, composer Dorothy Moskowitz, University of Chicago associate professor Jennifer Iverson, and broadcaster and writer John Cavanagh about how the Barrons built a Rube Goldberg-style electronic music studio long before electronic music could be generated with the push of a button -- and why it took decades for their work to be fully appreciated. Thanks to Thomas Rhea (author of Electronic Perspectives: Vintage Electronic Musical Instruments) for permission to use audio from his 1998 interview with Bebe Barron. You can learn more about the Louis and Bebe Barron archive at Forgotten Futures.
