John Barry Essay

John Barry is one of the greatest known composers from the 20th and 21st centuries. He is an English composer born November 3rd, 1933 in York, England. From a very young age he showed an interest in music. By the age of nine, Barry was playing the piano. When he was only fifteen he dropped out of school and worked at his father’s cinemas as a projector. As he would sit and watch the films, he would compose music to go along with them. He studied piano and composition of music with the master of York Minster Cathedral, Dr. Francis Jackson. In addition to playing the piano, he also learned to play the trumpet. He played the trumpet in many dance bands. Barry played with local jazz bands in his teens and got his assigned to the musical unit in the British Army when he joined service at the age of 18. While a member of the British Army, Barry preformed with the army band until 1955. While in the army band, they preformed in Egypt and Cypress. During his years of Army service, he tried arranging music and later his skills got better by taking a correspondence course

In 1962 Barry was asked to write the title song for the first movie of famous James Bond series. The title song was “Dr. No”. Out of all the music in the James Bond franchise, “Dr. No” is the most popular piece of music. Not only is Barry known for his work in the James Bond series, he’s also recognized for many other pieces of work too. He composed music for the Midnight Cowboy in 1969, The Cotton Club in 1984 and many others as well. In his career, Barry received five academy awards all for his contributions and hard work on film music. In the middle of all his film work, Barry still found time to make albums of his own music, usually featuring re-recordings of his best movie-related compositions. In 1999, he released an album of his classical instrumental-style, The Beyondness of