The Barrons quickly learned that the
avant-garde scene did not reap many financial rewards. They turned to
Hollywood, which had already been using electronic instruments such as the
theremin in film soundtracks for several years. In the early 50s, the Barrons collaborated with various celebrated filmmakers to provide music and
sound effects for
art films and
experimental cinema. The Barrons scored three of
Ian Hugo's short experimental films based on the writings of his wife
Anaïs Nin. The most notable of these three films were
Bells of Atlantis (1952) and
Jazz of Lights (1954). The Barrons assisted
Maya Deren in the audio production of the
soundtrack for
The Very Eye of Night (1959), which featured music by
Teiji Ito.
Bridges-Go-Round (1958) by
Shirley Clarke featured two alternative soundtracks, one by the Barrons and one by jazz musician
Teo Macero. The film's two versions showed the same four-minute film of New York City bridges. Showing the two versions back-to-back showed how different soundtracks affected the viewer's perception of the film. In 1956 the Barrons composed the very first electronic score for a commercial film —
Forbidden Planet, released by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The Barrons approached
Dore Schary (MGM's executive producer) at an exhibit of Schary's wife's paintings in 1955. He hired them soon after, when the film was in post-production. ==
Forbidden Planet== The soundtrack for
Forbidden Planet (1956) is today recognized as the first entirely electronic score for a film. Eerie and sinister, the soundtrack was unlike anything that audiences had heard before. Music historians have often noted how groundbreaking the soundtrack was in the development of
electronic music. On the album sleeve notes of the
Forbidden Planet soundtrack, Louis and Bebe explain: We design and construct electronic circuits [that] function electronically in a manner remarkably similar to the way that lower life-forms function psychologically. [. . .]. In scoring
Forbidden Planet – as in all of our work – we created individual cybernetics circuits for particular themes and leit motifs, rather than using standard sound generators. Actually, each circuit has a characteristic activity pattern as well as a "voice". [. . .]. We were delighted to hear people tell us that the tonalities in
Forbidden Planet remind them of what their dreams sound like. The producers of the film had originally wanted to hire
Harry Partch to do the music score. The Barrons were brought in to do only about twenty minutes of
sound effects. After the producers heard the initial sample score, the Barrons were assigned an hour and ten minutes of the rest of the film. The studio wanted to move the couple to
Hollywood where most of the film scores were produced at the time. But the couple would not budge, and took the work back to their New York studio. The music and the sound effects stunned the audience. During the preview of the movie when the sounds of the spaceship landing on
Altair IV filled the theater, the audience broke out in spontaneous applause. Later, the Barrons turned over their audio creation to GNP Crescendo records for distribution. GNP had previously demonstrated its expertise in producing and marketing science fiction film soundtracks and executive album producer Neil Norman had proclaimed the film (and the soundtrack) his favorites. Not everyone was happy with the score. Louis and Bebe did not belong to the
Musicians' Union. The original screen credit for the film, which was supposed to read "Electronic Music by Louis and Bebe Barron", was changed at the last moment by a contract lawyer from the
American Federation of Musicians. In order not to upset the union, the association with the word
music had to be removed. The Barrons were credited with "Electronic Tonalities". Because of their non-membership in the union, the film was not considered for an
Oscar in the soundtrack category. ==Later works==