h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Good article - also some interesting flak produced as a result!

I first heard the music in about 1950, as a kid in post war Germany.
It was haunting then, and still sends a shiver up my spine.

I believe that the zither player improvised much of the music, in the same way that cinema pianists used to improvise an acccompaniment to silent moovies.

I don't know if Anton Karas - the composer - really improvised his music, but he certainly wasn't a professional composer. Carol Reed heard him play in a Viennese wine tavern once, and hired him on the spot.
Karas became rich with this score, giving concerts all around the world. He then opened his own wine tavern - called The Third Man.