Mark Snow, the composer known for his work on numerous hit television shows, has died at age 78.
Snow died on Friday at his home in Connecticut, according to Variety.
His cause of death has not yet been reported.
Snow is best known for composing the theme song for The X-Files, which had a surprisingly large footprint after it became a hit on the charts throughout Europe in 1996.
He also lent his talents to scoring popular shows including the Superman prequel Smallville and the police drama Blue Bloods.
He was also a key component of shows including Starsky & Hutch, Hart To Hart, T.J. Hooker and The Ghost Whisperer.
Mark Snow, the composer known for his work on numerous hit television shows, has died at age 78. Snow died on Friday at his home in Connecticut, according to Variety; pictured in 2019 in Beverly Hills
Snow was the composer for multiple hit shows, including Smallville (pictured), The Ghost Whisperer and Blue Bloods
He’s best known for composing the theme song for The X-Files, which had a surprisingly large footprint after it became a hit on the charts throughout Europe in 1996; Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny pictured on The X-Files
Snow earned an impressive 15 Emmy nominations over a television composing career that reached back to the mid-1970s.
The composer, who was born in Brooklyn, began his formal music education early when he attended New York City’s High School of Music & Art, the precursor to today’s Fiorella H. LaGuardia High School of Art and Performing Arts.
He later attended the Juilliard School, where he befriended the late composer Michael Kamen, who died in 2003.
The two were roommates and went on to start rocks bands together.
Snow was born Martin Fulterman, and he initially began a career as a record producer, but after he moved to LA and began writing TV scores he adopted the pseudonym Mark Snow to avoid legal threats from his former employer.
The name eventually stuck, and he used it consistently as his professional name beginning in the mid-’70s.
Snow was part of a first wave of film and television composers who abandoned expensive orchestras in favor of composing primarily for synthesizers and other electronic instruments
Variety notes that by the late 1980s he was working exclusively on the devices, which he used to composing the eerie music for The X-Files.
Snow earned an impressive 15 Emmy nominations over a television composing career that reached back to the mid-1970s
He not only wrote the theme song for The X-Files but also scored the entire series and it’s two movies. He sometimes had to write as much as 40 minutes of music for 45-minute episodes; Duchovny and Anderson seen on The X-Files revival in 2018
The long-running conspiracy-tinged science fiction thriller series starred Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny as FBI agents tasked with examining paranormal cases that other members of the bureau had tried to sweep under the rug.
The show was more demanding on its composers than similar dramas, as it featured an extensive use of music, which sometimes required him to fill of 40 minutes of screen time with his compositions. (X-Files episodes tended to be 42 to 45 minutes long before commercials were added in.)
The composer Sean Callery, known for scoring 24, gush to Variety about Snow’s ‘limitless talent and boundless creativity,’ which he said was ‘matched only by the generosity he bestowed upon other composers who sought his guidance.
‘He would give the most inspiring and intelligent feedback when listening to the work of other young artists (myself included),’ Callery continued. ‘He combined his decades of experience with the encouragement that composers cultivate: to trust in themselves, embrace their own unique voice, and learn to rely on their own instincts. And he did so with a humor and self-deprecation that made his wisdom all the more enduring.’
He added that Snow’s compositions ‘brought an entirely new language of musical storytelling to television.’
Snow’s most identifiable music from the show was its theme song, which he originally wrote for the pilot episode.
It was remixed and released as a single in 1996, which became a surprise chart success in the UK, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Hungary and even Australia.
In an 1997 interview with Playback for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Snow joked of the piece: ‘Nothing really big happens in the song. It stays in D-minor, there’s no singing, drums or guitars, and it was a smash hit. That’s pretty wild.’
Snow developed a strong relationship with X-Files creator Chris Carter, and he went on to score his other shows, including Millennium, the spinoff The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm; Snow (L) pictured with Carter (center) and X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz (R) in 2008 in LA
Other shows he wrote music for included Starsky & Hutch, Hart To Hart, T.J. Hooker; Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers pictured on Hart To Hart
Later, he scored Smallville, One Tree Hill, Ghost Whisperer and Blue Bloods (pictured), which he wrote music for until last year
Snow developed a strong relationship with X-Files creator Chris Carter, and he went on to score his other shows, including Millennium, the spinoff The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm.
After getting his start in the ’70s scoring for shows including Starsky & Hutch, Vega$ and The Love Boat, he became even more prolific in the ’80s with his work on Dynasty, Cagney & Lacey, T.J. Hooker and Pee-wee’s Playhouse.
The ’90s proved to be a less-prolific decade, but primarily because he was so busy writing music for Carter’s projects, including The X-Files and Millennium.
Later, he scored Smallville, One Tree Hill, Ghost Whisperer and Blue Bloods, which he wrote music for until last year.
Snow also wrote the scores for several films, including Ernest Saves Christmas, both X-Files films and The New Mutants.
In a departure from the populist fare that he tended to be involved with, Snow also wrote the scores for the legendary French filmmaker Alain Resnais’s final four films before his death in 2014.
