Out of Africa – music by John Barry (piano solo)

Out of Africa – music by John Barry (piano solo arrangement) with sheet music.

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John Barry

John Barry Prendergast, OBE (3 November 1933 – 30 January 2011) was an English composer and conductor of film music and films.

He composed the scores for eleven of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1987, and also arranged and performed the “James Bond Theme” to the first film in the series, 1962’s Dr. No. He wrote the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning scores to the films Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa, as well as The Scarlet Letter, The Cotton Club, The Tamarind Seed, Mary, Queen of Scots, Game of Death, and the theme for the British television cult series The Persuaders!, in a career spanning over 50 years. In 1999, he was appointed with an OBE for services to music.

Born in York, Barry spent his early years working in cinemas owned by his father. During his national service with the British Army in Cyprus, Barry began performing as a musician after learning to play the trumpet. Upon completing his national service, he formed his own band in 1957, the John Barry Seven.

He later developed an interest in composing and arranging music, making his début for television in 1958. He came to the notice of the makers of the first James Bond film Dr. No, who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman. Noel Rogers the head of music at United Artists approached Barry. This started a successful association between Barry and Bond series that lasted for 25 years.

He received many awards for his work, including five Academy Awards; two for Born Free, and one each for The Lion in Winter (for which he also won the first BAFTA Award for Best Film Music), Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa (both of which also won him Grammy Awards). He also received ten Golden Globe Award nominations, winning once for Best Original Score for Out of Africa in 1986.

Barry completed his last film score, Enigma, in 2001 and recorded the successful album Eternal Echoes the same year. He then concentrated chiefly on live performances and co-wrote the music to the musical Brighton Rock in 2004 alongside Don Black.

In 2001, Barry became a Fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and, in 2005, he was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Barry was married four times and had four children. He moved to the United States in 1975 and lived there until his death in 2011.

Awards and nominations

In 1999 Barry was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to music. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in 2005. In 2005, the American Film Institute ranked Barry’s score for Out of Africa No. 15 on their list of the greatest film scores. His scores for the following films were nominated:

• Goldfinger (1964)
• Born Free (1966)
• The Lion in Winter (1968)
• Somewhere in Time (1980)
• Body Heat (1981)
• Out of Africa (1986)
• Dances with Wolves (1990)

Grammy Award

• 1969 Best Instrumental Theme for Midnight Cowboy
• 1985 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band for The Cotton Club
• 1985 Best Instrumental Composition for Out of Africa
• 1991 Best Instrumental Composition for Dances with Wolves

Emmy Award nominations

• 1964 Outstanding Achievement in Composing Original Music for Television for Elizabeth Taylor in London (a 1963 television special)
• 1977 Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Special (Dramatic Underscore) for Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years^[50]

Golden Raspberry Award

• 1981 Worst Musical Score for The Legend of the Lone Ranger

Max Steiner Lifetime Achievement Award (presented by the City of Vienna)

• 2009

Lifetime Achievement Award from World Soundtrack Academy (presented at the Ghent Film Festival)

• 2010

In 2011, he received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.

Barry was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1998.