Burkhard Dallwitz and Philip Glass (The Truman Show) The Truman Show

Weir found his composer on an Australian film's soundtrack and hired him without a major credit

Peter Weir discovered Burkhard Dallwitz, a German-Australian composer based in Melbourne, through the soundtrack of an Australian film called Zone 39. Dallwitz had no major film credits — his work was primarily in television and commercial scoring in Australia and Germany. Weir heard the first cue and knew the collaboration would work.

"Christof would have been as delighted with the result as I was." — Peter Weir, Philip Glass recordings page (1998)

Dallwitz composed ten original tracks for the film. His score is primarily electronic — intimate, warm, with a synthesized coziness that matches Seahaven's artificial perfection. The electronic texture was a deliberate choice: the music is being improvised live for a television show, and Dallwitz's score sounds like the kind of carefully curated ambiance a control room would produce. (wikipedia, milan records)

Philip Glass contributed existing pieces and three new compositions

While screening dailies, Weir was searching for what he called "the elusive sound of the picture." He began testing existing Philip Glass compositions against the footage and found that the minimalist grandeur of Glass's work matched the film's more cosmic moments — particularly the finale, when Truman sails into the storm and touches the wall of the sky.

Weir incorporated four previously composed Glass works:

• "Anthem — Part 2" from Powaqqatsi (1988)
• "The Beginning" from Anima Mundi (1993)
• "Living Waters" from Anima Mundi (1993)
• "Mishima/Opening" from Mishima (1985)

Glass also composed three new pieces for the film: "Dreaming of Fiji," "Truman Sleeps," and "Raising the Sail." "Truman Sleeps" — a quiet, descending piano figure — became the score's most recognized piece, playing over Truman in moments of unconscious vulnerability when the control room watches him and the audience watches the control room. (philipglass.com)

Weir conceptualized the music as Christof's choice

Weir added a layer to the scoring by imagining that some of the music was Christof's selection for the show's broadcast, not the film's conventional underscore. This meant the score operated on two levels: sometimes it was the filmmaker scoring the drama (Weir's choice), and sometimes it was the fictional director scoring the show (Christof's choice).

"Sometimes the music is Christof's choice, sometimes it's mine!" — Peter Weir, Philip Glass recordings page (1998)

The distinction is audible. Dallwitz's electronic cues tend to accompany Seahaven's manufactured normalcy — the morning routines, the neighborhood interactions, the television-within-television moments. Glass's pieces arrive when the film pulls back to show the scale of what is being done to Truman — the dome, the storm, the wall, the exit.

The score won the Golden Globe and reached number two on the Billboard chart

Dallwitz and Glass shared the Golden Globe for Best Original Score in a Motion Picture, along with the Chicago Film Critics Award and the ASCAP Film and Television Award. The soundtrack album reached number two on the Billboard chart — an unusual commercial performance for a film score, reflecting both the film's popularity and the crossover appeal of Glass's minimalism. (wikipedia)