Composer Mark Snow Passed Away Aged 78

Mark Snow, the composer best known for behing behind the theme for ‘The X-Files’ died on July 4, aged 78.

During his lifetime the composer was nominated 15 times for an Emmy award, and has scored several productions, including over 200 episodes of Chris Carter’s Fox series ‘The X-Files’, but also for other series like ‘Hart to Hart’, ‘Smallville’, ‘T.J. Hooker’, and ‘Blue Bloods’.

Six of the 15 Emmy award nominations were for his work on ‘The X-Files’, but others included “Children of the Dust’, ‘Something About Amelia’ and ‘Helter Skelter’.

Born as Martin Fulterman August 26, 1946, he adopted the pseudonym Mark Snow.

His career started in the 1970s writing for full orchestras, but during the full electronic melieu in the late 1980s he made the transition to work alone in his home studio.

His biggest hit was the theme to ‘The X-Files’, which was created on Snow’s synthesizers, samplers, and other music making machines.

Fellow composer Sean Callery spoke to Variety about Snow’s death. “His limitless talent and boundless creativity 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).”

Speaking about ‘The X-Files’, Callery added “Nothing really big happens in the song. It stays in A-minor, there’s no singing, drums or guitars, and it was a smash hit. That’s pretty wild,” and that it brought an entirely new language of musical storytelling. 

The theme became a top ten hit in England, Ireland, and mainland Europe in 1996.

He scored many other films and TV shows, including ‘Ernest Saves Christmas’, ‘Down the Long Hills’, ‘Murder Ordained’ ‘Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure’, “The Lost Capone’, ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’, ‘Cold Dog Soup’, ‘Crazy in Alabama’, ‘The New Mutants’ and the two ‘X-Files’ films, ‘The X-Files’ and ‘The X-Files: I Want to Believe’.

Snow is survived by his wife Glynnis, three daughters and grandchildren.