Smallville and Blue Bloods composer Mark Snow dies at 78: 15 times Emmy-nominated wrote iconic X-Files theme

Mark Snow, the composer who is known for his work in countless hit TV shows, died at the age of 78.

Snow died in his house on Friday Connecticutaccording to Variety.

His cause of death has not yet been reported.

Snow is best known for composing the theme song for The X-FilesWho had a surprisingly large footprint after it became a hit on the charts throughout Europe in 1996.

He also lent his talents to score popular shows, including the Superman Prequel Smallville and the Police Drama Blue Bloods.

He was also an important part of shows, including Starsky & Hutch, Hart to Hart, TJ Hooker and The Ghost Whisperer.

Snow earned an impressive 15 Emmy nominations during a television career that reached until the mid-1970s.

The composer, who was born in Brooklyn, started his formal music education when he attended the High School of Music & Art of New York City, the precursor of the contemporary Fiorella H. Laguardia High School of Art and Performing Arts.

Later he went to the Juilliard school, where he became friends with the deceased composer Michael Kamen, who died in 2003.

The two were roommates and started with rock bands.

Snow was born Martin Fulterman, and he initially started a career as a record producer, but after he had moved to LA and started writing TV scores, he took over the pseudonym Mark Snow to prevent legal threats from his former employer.

The name eventually continued to hold and he consistently used it as his professional name that starts in the mid -1970s.

Snow was part of a first wave of film and television composers who left expensive orchestras in favor of composing mainly for synthesizers and other electronic instruments

Variety notes that he worked exclusively on the devices in the late 1980s, which he used to put together the creepy music for the X files.

The long-term conspiracy-tinted Science Fiction Thriller series played Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny as FBI agents who tasked to investigate paranormal things that other members of the agency had tried to wipe under the carpet.

The show was more demanding on its composers than similar dramas, because it had an extensive use of music, which meant that it sometimes filled 40 minutes of screen time with his compositions. (X-Files episodes were usually 42 to 45 minutes before the commercials were added.)

The composer Sean Callery, known for scoring 24, gushes to Variety about Snow’s’ unlimited talent and boundless creativity ‘, of which he said it was’ only matched by the generosity he donated to other composers who sought his guidance.

“He would give the most inspiring and intelligent feedback when listening to the work of other young artists (including myself),” Callery continued. ‘He combined his decades of experience with the encouragement that composers cultivate: trust in himself, embrace their own unique voice and learn to trust their own instincts. And he did this with a humor and self -contempt that made his wisdom all the more sustainable. ‘

He added that Snow’s compositions tell a completely new language of musical stories to television. ‘

The most identifiable music from Snow from the show was the theme song, which he originally wrote for the Pilot episode.

It was remixed and released as a single in 1996, which became a surprise graph success in the VK, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Hungary and even Australia.

In an interview in 1997 playing for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Snow made jokes about the piece: ‘Nothing reality happens in the song. It remains in D-Minor, there are no singing, drums or guitars, and it was a hit. That’s pretty wild. ‘

Snow developed a strong relationship with X-Files maker Chris Carter, and he then scored his other shows, including Millennium, the spin-off The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm.

After his start in the 1970s scoring for shows, including Starsky & Hutch, Vega $ and The Love Boat, he became even more productive in the 1980s with his work on Dynasty, Cagney & Lacey, TJ Hooker and Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.

The 90s turned out to be a less productive decade, but mainly 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, for which he wrote music until last year.

Snow also wrote the scores for various films, including Ernest Saves Christmas, both X-Files films and the new mutants.

In a deviation from the populist rate in which he was often involved, Snow also wrote the scores for the legendary French filmmaker Alain Resnais’s last four films before his death in 2014.