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Erich Wolfgang Korngold was the son of a well-known music critic. A child prodigy, he accompanied his father in playing four-handed piano arrangements by the age of five. By the age of eleven he drew his first plaudits from enthusiastic Viennese audiences (including the emperor Franz Josef) with his ballet-pantomime "Der Schneeman" (The Snow Man). Two years later, he wrote a piano sonata which was performed by Artur Schnabel. Korngold composed his first orchestral piece at 14 and attracted the attention of Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and many other prominent composers and conductors. In 1920, he conducted the Hamburg Opera performing his seminal work "Die tote Stadt" which became a huge international success. Thus embarked upon a promising career as a serious composer, Korngold was invited to the United States by Max Reinhardt to score A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) -- and decided to stay. He was certainly grateful for the chance to escape Adolf Hitler's annexation of Austria. In 1943, Korngold became an American citizen.

Korngold was the first composer of international renown to be signed by Hollywood despite having no prior experience with film music. His approach to the medium was predominantly theatrical and operatic (he once described Tosca as "the best film score ever written"). A master of technique, credited with "inventing" the syntax of orchestral film music, he composed at the piano with projectionists running reels at his behest. Often, he worked in conjunction with the orchestra of Hugo Friedhofer who became his closest collaborator. Under contract to Warner Brothers from 1935 to 1947, Korngold picked up Academy Awards for Anthony Adverse (1936) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). His stirring and string-laden scores were ideally suited for such high-octane Errol Flynn swashbucklers as Captain Blood (1935) and The Sea Hawk (1940). In the final analysis, other notable film composers, including even the great Max Steiner, admitted to being influenced by Korngold's work. His 1937 violin concerto which used various elements from his film music became one of the most prolifically performed classical concerts of the 20th century.

Korngold would have longed to resume his career as a serious composer. However, after the war ended, he found that the world of serious music had passed him by. In 1949, he returned to Vienna with his wife but found the city in ruins and much changed. A year later, disillusioned, he moved back to his home in the Toluca Lake district in North Hollywood. During the final ten years of his life he composed almost exclusively for concert halls. In 1956, he suffered a stroke which left him partially paralysed and he died a year later at the age of 60 from a heart attack.

[on the death of his father in 1945 and the expiration of his Warner contract in 1946] I will be fifty next May. I feel it is a turning point... Fifty is very old for a child prodigy. I feel I have to make a decision now, if I don&#39;t want to be a Hollywood composer the rest of my life.

[on his work on &quot;Magic Fire&quot;] I made a three minute montage of &quot;The Ring&#39;s&quot; sixteen hours of music. But when the picture had to be shortened , we cut the montage to two and-a-half minutes. That was too short!

[when encountering Bette Davis on the Warner lot after scoring the remake of &quot;Of Human Bondage&quot;] After twelve years some of the scenes in the old version seem a little ridiculous, but we, with our new version, are ten years ahead of time because we are ridiculous already.

[on his tenure at Warners] I feel very happy as an artist here. No one tells me what to do. I do not feel part of a factory. I take part in story conferences, suggest changes in the editing when it is dramatically necessary to coincide with a musical structure. It is entirely up to me to decide where in the picture to put music. But I always consult thoroughly with the music-chief... I also keep the producer well-informed and always secure his consent for my musical intentions first. But in none of my pictures have I &#39;played&#39; my music first to either the music-chief, the director, or the producer. And the studio heads never make the acquaintance of my music until the day of the sneak preview. As for my working habits, I like the idea of perfection. If a thing is not right, it is done over and over again.

Form may change, the manner of writing may vary, but the composer needs to make no concessions whatever to what he conceives to be his own musical ideology.

Music is music whether it is for the stage, rostrum, or cinema.

Quotes

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

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