Most Of Film Study Stuff

Dimitri Tiomkin

(1894-1979): from Soviet Union, won 4 Academy Awards, self-promoter/publicity hound, 1st composer in Hollywood to hire a publicist & campaigned for Oscars, never signed a contract & felt like an outsider,classically edu in Russia, 1917 Bolshevik Rev brought in Lenin, classical pianist who aided his wife's ballet troupe in the US, got work as a composer in the 30s, specialized on Westerns like those he became famous for, moved to London in '68, shot film about Tchaikovsky in Russia then stopped composing

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

(1897-1957): Austrian, 1st composer w/concert hall credentials to take film seriously (not from Broadway), child prodigy, his operas were being performed by the time he was 18, most popular opera came out when he was 23, scored 16 films from 1935-1946 (mostly period dramas), Leonard Slacken-narrated doc talks about Warner Bros & Korngold, music used as underscore since 1933's King Kong (stopped wonder "where the music was coming from", Max Reinhardt staged Midsummer's Night Dream & asked Korngold for help, paid lots of $ for writing 3 scores every 2 years, didn't use a click track, old-fashioned romantic writing, wanted to go home in '46 once the war ended, wrote a concerto in '47, went back to Vienna in '49 where he was considered ARCHAIC, returned to LA where he wrote a symphony in '54 that was posthumously recorded, RCA made a collection of his hits in '72 to revive his music—which was successful!

Victor Young

(1900-1956): one of the best known conductors of a band on radio/records, signed w/Paramount mid-30s Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

Alfred Newman

(1900-1970): his brothers & descendants followed him into the business ("Newman Dynasty"), worked to support family of 11 after his father left, got into the industry by networking & playing piano, started conducting @ 20 for Broadway, left stage in 1930 to work in Hollywood (United Artists), worked w/Darryl F. Zanuck (head of production) since 1939, became head of music, Zanuck fired a troublesome director who questioned Alfred, wrote 20th Century Fox theme, arguably greatest in Hollywood, was nominated for 45 Oscars & won 9 (used to hold the record; most were for directing musicals), re-recorded some songs for record album purchase

Franz Waxman

(1906-1967): German, edu in Classical & jazz, started composing in Germany in early 30s, beaten up by Nazi thugs in '34 so he went to Hollywood, did "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), chameleon (could sound like anyone for anything)

Miklos Rozsa

(1907-1995): Hungarian, did many MGM historical/relig epics, studied in Hungary & Germany, learned about film music in Paris in the 30s from his friend who was a film composer, composed for over a hundred films, worked in London for Hungarian filmmakers, came from classical background which earned him respect, freelanced til '49, great w/love themes, research for historical film music accuracy, , retired after 1981, sound was considered outdated

Alex North

(1910-1991): classically trained, studied in Russia & Mexico, young American, recruited by Elia Kazan for ASND & Viva Zapata, when Kazan put names on "Hollywood Blacklist" to eliminate Communists they stopped speaking, worked for John Houston's "The Misfits', loved exotic percussion, innovative, 1st to win honorary Academy Award,

Bernard Hermann

(1911-1975): American, NYU & Juilliard, job @ CBS Radio out of college conducting/writing live original music for radio (1934), met Orson Welles there, returned to NYC to compose, temperamental, did his own orchestration (writing down all the notes), creative solutions to common dramatic problems, Hitchcock fired him in the middle of recording for "Torn Curtain", moved to London for the rest of his life

Jerome Moross

(1913-1983): American, orchestrated for Copeland, innovative, rooted in folk, mostly did film in 50s & 60s then did musical theatre, focused on rhythm The Big Country (1958): his score for this changed how country music was done, uses plain old cowboy songs, "more authentically American" Western music

Elmer Bernstein

(1922-2004): New Yorker, classically trained pianist that was about to go pro after WWII til he started writing music for radio dramas, 1st did music for his friend's novel-turned-into-a-book, , reinvented himself every decade, "played well w/others", had Communist friends, due to HUAC testimony (couldn't work for major studios) so he had to do shitty films for a while, got 1 Oscar but deserved 5, did jazz —> Westerns —> dramas —> comedies

Henry Mancini

(1924-1994): 4 Oscars, big band jazz, popular songs, had family in LA by '50s, Universal (known for B movies) wanted to focus on jazz musicians bc of jazz craze so they hired him, Mancini learned to write quickly bc of how Universal worked back then, lost his job when Touch of Evil failed but met Blake Edwards on the lot & did music for Peter Gunn, incorporated more contemporary music meant popularity w/audiences, 1st film composer to go out & do concert tours for months at a time, 1st composer to become a household name Concertizing: do concert tours of his compositions • Publishing (ownership): Mancini got $ from owning his own music

Leonard Roseman

(1924-2008): classically trained avant-garde, young American (NY), brought in by Elia Kazan bc he was James Dean's friend, scores that weren't record soundtracks but went w/mood, 12-time score (used math to make music)

Jerry Goldsmith

(1929-2004): , died of cancer, did 170 films starting in '59, , born in LA & went to USC, teen pianist, inspired to do composition after seeing Spellbound (movie w/theramin), found film studios closed to young composers, for live TV ( Zone, , went on to do Playhouse & Twilight ,,, so he was recommended for LATB scores known for being original/creative/appropriate/good even if films sucked famous in '60s ) in '55 which taught him to adapt & dramatic problem-solve started doing indie films for Universal in '58, impressed Alfred Newman in '61 while doing creepy show among the most respected composers

John Barry

(1933-2011): 5 Oscars, British rock n' roll, father ran theatres in England & John was part of the business, had a band, got his 1st job scoring bc his band backed a singer who got a part in a movie (Beat Girl), did 11 Bond films, invented spy music (pop/jazz/orchestral), music goes from jazz/rock to symphonic by the 80s

John Barry Movies

Beat Girl (1960): about juvenile delinquents ◦Dr. No (1962): based on an Ian Fleming novel (Bond), called to record new main title bc he had film/music exp, won the 1st Grammy for Record of the Year wasn't really given credit for it (lawsuits) ◦Thunderball (1965): Bond theme variation, source music is a bongo band, music builds w/emotion ◦Born Free (1966): won 2 Academy Awards, ◦The Lion in Water (1964): wants an annulment , Original Score ◦Body Heat (1986): suspense drama, sultry jazz lounge music ◦Out of Africa (1985): MERYL STREEP, dreamy soundtrack stuff

Movies by EWK

Captain Blood (1935): pirate film ◦Adventures of Robin Hood (1938): won him his 2nd Academy Award ◦Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex (1939): about Queen Elizabeth & her lover, soaring light love theme ◦The Sea Hawk (1940): about war btwn Spanish & English (Romeo/Juliet type love), loud fanfare (throne room scene; "operas w/out singing") ◦The Sea Wolf (1941): mysterious tune ◦Kings Row (1942): small-town drama, Ronald Reagan's only good performance, inspired the Star Wars theme written by John Williams for Spielberg ◦Deception (1946): Korngold wrote the music before film was shot, love triangle btwn love thought dead & woman & conductor

Leonard Roseman movies

East of Eden (1935): theme is hummed throughout, dramatic yet unconventional ◦The Cobweb (1955) ◦Rebel Without A Cause (1955): confrontational "West Side Story" type song ◦Fantastic Voyage (1966): shrunken scientists go into someone's bloodstream, spacey music

Jerry Goldsmith Movies

Lonely Are the Brave (1962): about unemployed cowboy, uses castanets & bluesy trumpets to go from sad to hopeful, starts w/small instrumental group to seem "lonely", some Bernstein Western, 1st major film & Oscar nomination ◦The Sand Pebbles (1966): 3rd Oscar nomination, Steve McQueen, '20s China civil war, captures tension of film by going from quiet/tense to loud/grandiose/dark ◦Planet of the Apes (1968): xylophone & bongos for tribal suspense feel, 1st great avant-garde score in American history, applies 12 tone in a way to create dramatic mood, given creative freedom by his director, unconventional score as red herring for setting ◦Patton (1970): about WWII general, organ (religious man) + echoing trumpets (reincarnation) + marching (loud band) ◦Chinatown (1974): about a '30s private eye & LA water crime, Jack Nicholson & Faye Dunaway, director fought w/writer & fired initial composer, trumpet music gets darker as the conversation/mood gets darker, 4 harps/4 keyboards, didn't feel that score needed to reflect the era (modernist score) ◦The Omen (1976): won Oscar, had choir & piano in score/main title, 2 versions for last dramatic scene ◦Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979): ok movie w/great score, ended up doing 5 Star Trek movies ◦Poltergeist (1982): lullaby inspired by little girl for main theme

Dimitri Tiomkin's Movies

Lost Horizon (1937): director Frank Capra (who Tiomkin befriended), about a guy whose plane crashes in the Himalayas & finds Shangri-La, adopted from the novel, choir & harp during Shangri-La intro scene, ruler's funeral has steady drumbeat & loud exotic chorus, got Tiomkin his 1st Oscar nomination ◦Red River (1948): tune from old cowboy song used for main Western theme ◦High Noon (1952): marshal in a small town must confront an ex-con who is coming to kill him, weird ballad w/ drums that featured Tex Ritter (major country singer) & was used as a narrative device, monothematic score (film w/only 1 theme & songs based off of main score), record became free publicity ◦The High & The Mighty (1954): airplane tragedy drama, creepy female choir, John Wayne whistling main theme, Tiomkin's song was cut out BUT HE PUT IT ON THE RADIO ◦The Alamo (1960): directed & ft. John Wayne, uses version of "Home on the Range" & "Green Leaves of Summer", Tiomkin was nominated for 2 awards

Elmer Bernstien Movies

Man With the Golden Arm (1955): about drummer who serves time due to drug addiction & later has trouble finding work, lead is Frank Sinatra, director Otto Preminger liked impactful/statement movies & innovative music AND hiring blacklisted people, soundtrack mostly by big jazz band that followed mood of scenes, 1st movie to go against Hollywood censors & get released ◦The Ten Commandments (1956): directed by Cecil Bi DeMille (right wing guy), needed source music, original scorer was Victor Young who got sick & died, biggest grossing movie of '56, Bernstein regained his rep ◦ (1960): based off of samurai, takes cues from Moross' The Big Country, had 3 sequels ◦ (1962): opening tune shows the innocence/imagination/simplicity of the kids using bell-like sounds, no music in the courtroom scenes ◦The Great Escape (1963): set during WWII in a German POW camp for U.S. soldiers, mocking U.S. march tune for rebellious attitude of leader played by Steve McQueen ◦Hawaii (1966): about missionaries coming to convert the natives ◦Animal House (1978): National Lampoon, directed by Bernstein's son's friend who wanted dramatic music ◦The Grifters (1990): Scorsese film, electronic music in main title, about trio of con artists in SoCal ◦Far From Heaven (2002): intimate drama, only time he watched clips w/temp track, about troubled marriage in the '50s, won him his last Oscar nomination, sad piano then orchestra ‣ Temp track: editor & director use it while editing to keep time til "real" music is composed

Movies by Franz Waxman

Rebecca (1940): Hitchcock film, 2nd young wife intimidated by head maid who liked the 1st wife, scene where 2nd wife enters the bedroom of the 1st wife (suspense crescendo of strings, then dreamy harp theme associated w/1st wife), used novachord (electronic organ) for creepy sound ◦Sunset Blvd. (1950): OSCAR, crazy/murderous lady ex-silent film star lives in a broken down house & falls for young guy, her Butler was her director, tango plays ◦A Place in the Sun (1951): OSCAR ◦Rear Window (1954): Hitchcock music, whole soundtrack is source music, last tune is finished

Movies of Alfred Newman

Street Scene (1931): based off of the play, homage to "Rhapsody in Blue" by New Yorker Gershwin, short interlude to play a song NY people would know to help the setting, 1st Fox widescreen stereo mive ◦Wuthering Heights (1939): dramatic mood shift like those used by Max Steiner, love theme ◦How Green Was My Valley (1941): about life in a Welsh mining town, old English folktale's vol competes w/the dialogue ◦Song of Bernadette (1943): about how Lourdes (little girl) thought she saw a Jesús, won Al an Academy Award for Best Dramatic Score, used a choir in its soundtrack, focuses on Bernadette's theme rather than quickly changing moods ◦Captain From Castile (1947): setting is Spain/US to recount Cortes' conquest, love theme, "Conquest" song is commonly played by the Trojan Marching Band in the 50s ◦All About Eve (1950) ◦The Robe (1953): movie based off of popular novel, operatic choir & orchestra, soundtrack used to add emotion to distract from crappy acting, subtle changes in mood w/music ◦How to Marry a Millionaire (1953): CinemaScope (stereo) for widescreen ◦How the West Was Won (1962): Cinerama (super widescreen w/3 simultaneous projections & surround sound),fictional story about the Wild West, released by MGM after Newman started freelancing, Americana sound, used "source music" (music that could be in the scene) ◦Airport (1970): 1st of the 70s disaster movies, upbeat theme for boring view

Hugo Friedhofer

The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946): airman/soldier/salesman guys, positively go after their half-crazy friend & bring him home.

Younger Composers going from NY - LA.....

had influences of 20th century composers, less emotional music, more dangerous topics than in earlier decades (movies & soundtracks were advancing)

Henry Mancini Movies

touch of Evil (1958): by Orson Welles, mimicking ticking of bomb in Cuba w/Latin bongos & added jazz ◦Peter Gunn (TV, 1958): indie that had original music every week, title track was in Lion King, heavy piano jazz, The Magnificent Seven worked from 50s to 2002 greylisted in 1952 To Kill a Mockingbird music got so much fanmail that it encouraged a record that ◦Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961): also by Blake Edwards, about a nightlife gir Award, started w/a harmonica to foreshadow main char's country roots, ◦Hatari (1962): John Wayne movie, Mancini encouraged elephant scene & used upbeat tune to make it interesting ("Baby Elephant Song") Academy ◦The Pink Panther (1964): also Blake Edwards, 7 sequels

Movies by Alex North

◦A Streetcar Named Desire (1951): , 1st instance of jazz being used in a major motion pic soundtrack (bc movie is in New Orleans), Warner Bros had to modify "carnal/suggestive" music & scene to please Catholic Legion Of Decency —> changed it to something more conventional ◦Viva Zapata (1952): tried for "authentic Mexican sound", # instruments increases as # people increased to create triumphant "call to action" for the peasant uprising ◦Spartacus (1960): story of slave revolt against Roman Emp, produced/starred by Kirk Douglas, dissonant horns (shows that Hollywood music/soundtracks are starting to change), music is chaotic ◦The Misfits (1961): last film of many famous people, Western, music goes from fast-paced to tragic, modernist ◦Cleopatra (1963): Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton's 1st movie/affair, filmed on-location in Rome, used to be an overture to lead into the main title

Bernard Hermann's Music

◦Citizen Kane (1941): studio RKO brought on Welles who brought Herrmann, dark intro foreshadows the end, then the lively 1890s 'Kane can afford anything' song, marriage duration scene w/mood changes, Herrmann wrote the aria for Kane's 2nd wife ◦Day the Earth Stood Still (1951): Herrmann intro'd the theremin to sci-fi & was one of the 1st to design orchestra for specific needs of drama (electrified string instruments), movie was made under Alfred Newman (forward- thinking 20th Century Fox guy) ◦On Dangerous Ground (1951): cop tries to find a killer w/in mts of CA, used 9 French horns ◦7th Voyage Of Sinbad (1958): 1st of many colorful stop-motion films by Ray Harryhousen ◦Hitchcock Era 1955-1965 ◦Vertigo (1958): love scene w/rich music & no dialogue ◦North by Northwest (1959): suspense film, intro has Spanish influence & busy call-response ◦Psycho (1960): suspenseful fast theme using only strings to create a "black & white" sound (low budget) ◦Taxi Driver (1975): dedicated to Herrmann, who died the night he finished recording the score

Movies by Miklos Rozsz

◦Thief of Baghdad (1940): finished in US during the war, brought Rozsa here, music in the "Silver Toy Woman" scene gets more complex/dramatic as the mechanical movements do, ◦Double Indemnity (1944): about manipulative woman who's trying to have her husband murdered, during the murder scene the camera focuses on her face, murder/serious theme ◦Spellbound (1945): OSCAR, Hitchcock movie, used the theremin instrument (hands hover above metal thing) to create the "paranoia theme" ◦Ben-Hur (1959): OSCAR, 1st MGM movie, won 11 Oscars, scene depicting Ben-Hur losing/gaining hope & Jesus had 3 parts (miserable-low organ-upbeat orchestra/theme) ◦El Cid (1961): 11th century Spain legendary hero epic, hero is exiled early on, Spanish guitar & sad oboe