Containing one of Bette Davis’ signature performances as the ugly duckling who turns into a swan away from her overbearing mother (the superb Gladys Cooper), Steiner’s music contains enough drama for three scores. The Charge of the Light Brigade (Max Steiner) The Garden of Allah (Max Steiner) The General Died at Dawn (Werner Janssen) Winterset (Nathaniel Shilkret) Best Original Score Oscar winner in 1936. And as time goes by, it remains the greatest love-affair motif of all time. Ironically, that composer was Stothart, although Selznick never had any intention of hiring him. My take on new releases of film music from today and yesterday. Here’s my top 6: 1. da! Based on a four-note call of “Mark Twa-a-ain” (yes, four) that is called on the riverboats of Twain’s early career, the music is steeped in 19th-century harmonies and banjo strummings. I just saw the film on TCM “Of Human Bondage,” and it’s not the 1934 one with Bette Davis/Leslie Howard or the 1964 version with Laurence Harvey/Kim Novak. This delightful adaptation of the long-running stage hit stars William Powell as the imperious, yet loveable, head of his exasperating, carrot-topped family. And those complaints lobbied at Steiner’s expense? Sure, there was film music prior to Steiner’s arrival in Hollywood. The Academy Award for Best Original Score is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer. I know he worked into the 1960’s. Besides his Oscar-winning scores, some of Steiner's popular works include King Kong, Little Women, Jezebel, Casablanca, and the film score for which he is possibly best known, Gone with the Wind. All the suites use the end of part 1 as a finish. He was the BEST!!!. After submitting to a fast four-hour nap, he'd be back on the job. "The Adventures of Don Juan"(Warner Bros., 1948). Both DISTANT DRUMS and FATIMA were on my original list. It's really amazing how Steiner could take a musical abstraction and make it fit a real thing. What an age we live in, eh, where everyone knows P. Diddy but the name Max Steiner evokes a blank stare? The music is now considered one of Steiner's most adventurous and exciting scores, even if the film itself follows a pedestrian formula. Steiner’s music is appropriately dark, with brass chords that plod alongside Gypo’s grief-stricken tread. Death of a Scoundrel is a great score — I would have to have The Big Sleep on a top 9. Criteria: 1) The movie had to have at least 30 minutes or more of score. THE COMPLETE FILM CREDITS OF BERNARD HERRMANN, TEN MOVIES YOU CAN'T IMAGINE WITHOUT THEIR MUSIC, Dimitri Tiomkin - The Composer Living in My Head, HENRY MANCINI - THE COMPOSER FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Punchy accompaniment to rousing action was always one of Steiner's fortes, and he brought it to full fruition in the final underwater hand-to-hand battle between Cooper and the Seminole Indian chief who has pursued him throughout the picture. Steiner worked in England, then Broadway, and in 1929, he moved to Hollywood, where he became one of the first composers to write music scores for films. There is also an unforgettable theme for the shiny spurs that plague Mitchum in his dreams, a harsh, jolting motif that eventually haunts not only Mitchum but the viewer. "The Trek" is an uplifting piece that accompanies the the gold-seekers (including Tim Holt and Walter Huston) and emphasizes their growing camaraderie. Steiner received a certificate for The Informer. Ennio Morricone: The Mission (1986) We lost Morricone this year, but his musical legacy will outlive … I just saw your list, Jim, and am thrilled to find someone who loves Max Steiner’s scores as I do. Of course, he had the advantage of belonging to one studio Warner Bros. All in all, Steiner composed nearly 300 film scores between 1929-1965 and was nominated for 24 Academy Awards for Best Music, winning three for his work on … Best Music, Original Score The Letter (1940) 1940 Nominee Oscar: Best Music, Original Score Dark Victory (1939) Best Music, Original Score Gone with the Wind (1939) 1939 Nominee Oscar: Best Music, Scoring Jezebel (1938) 1937 Nominee Oscar: Best Music, Score The Garden of Allah (1936) When considering the canon of Max Steiner in totality, few, including this author would categorize the score for “Symphony of Six Million” (1932) as one of his finest efforts. Anchored by “Tara’s Theme,” arguably the most famous theme in film music, Steiner and his crackerjack music department (which included orchestrators Hugo Friedhofer and Adolph Deutsch) had only 12 weeks to compose and orchestrate the lengthy score. Based on the 1925 novel by Liam O’Flaherty, Victor McLaglen stars as the brutish Gypo who informs on his best friend, a member of the Irish Republican Army, in order to collect the reward money and sail to America with his girlfriend. Some film music just gets better with age. Bleak and atmospheric, the film plays out in the mists and shadows of war-torn Ireland. Steiner composed over 300 film scores with RKO and Warner Brothers, and was nominated … Max Steiner, the composer of Gone With The Wind, was one of the breed of European composers who settled in Hollywood and really dominated … Steiner proves to be a genius at capturing the psychological turmoil of Robert Mitchum's troubled young man, who has been hounded from his adolescence by a blood vendetta. And did. So it’s time we as fans cut Steiner some slack and view his music as a product of its time, but one that still holds up remarkably well over half a century later. I know it is overly melodramatic and bombastic but that’s why I love it. I’d love to see the score for Jezebel released on a cd one day. He has written soundtrack CD liner notes for Intrada, Varèse Sarabande Records, Film Score Monthly, La-La Land Records, Quartet Records, and Disques Cinemusique. Great and necessary post Jim. Your email address will not be published. Academy Awards Best Original Score Wins: 1945 – Since You Went Away; 1943 – Now Voyager; 1936 – The Informer; Academy Award Best Score Nominations for A Drama/Comedy Film: 1956 – Battle Cry; 1955 – The Caine Mutiny Just go back and listen to Steiner's score, however, and you will agree it's a brilliant tour de force. I have yet to hear a bad score that Max Steiner has written. His greatest for me is “A Stolen Life”. It is loads of fun and the Finale/It was Beauty Killed the Beat is a beautiful and poignant cue, particularly on the Macro Pool/Naxos Stromberg recording. Steiner liberally borrows the Seventh Cavalry's "Gary Owen" march--a trademark the horse soldiers actually adopted in the 1870s--and uses it to portray the growth of the unit and Custer's acceptance by his troopers. marriage of acting, direction and script, the film is simply ageless, emotionally involving no matter how many times you see it, and able to withstand the closest of scrutiny. Three of Max Steiner's scores won the Academy Award for Best Original Score: The Informer (1935), Now, Voyager (1942), and Since You Went Away (1944). Max Steiner | All photos courtesy of Steven C. Smith. I suppose it’s not commercially interesting but these and other Steiner scores (Miracle of Fatima, for example) deserve to be recorded. So, during the three-month period in which he wrote "Gone with the Wind" (1939), he was under great pressure from producer Selznick to finish. Now considered one of the great "psychological" scores of the "film noir" school, Steiner's music captures the evil, twisted forces symbolized by Dean Jagger, a crippled, sick man who wants only revenge and stops at nothing to get it. Trying to pick your favorite Max Steiner film scores is like trying asking Noah to pick which of his 900 or so children he liked best. The drama is beautifully played and that memorable theme tugs at the heartstrings. Instead it’s Paul Heinreid playing Philip Carey and Eleanor Parker playing Mildred. The anthem comes into play again when German soldiers drinking in Rick's begin to sing "Deutschland uber Alles," Germany's national anthem, and loyal French patriots counter with a vocal rendering to drown out the Germans. Casablanca (film) - Wikipedia Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann , Max Steiner , and Jerry Goldsmith are the only composers to have two scores listed, and are therefore in second place for the most scores on the list, behind John Williams , who has three. “The Father of Film Music”… How’s that for a moniker to live up to? You don't step to one of the three Godfathers of Film music. Son Of Kong, The 5. He was at his creative best during the early period of sound movies, and along with a small group of equally talented composers,he virtually invented an art form - the movie musical score. Melodic, lush swamp music is used for canoeing through the Everglades, and a heroic fanfare emerges for Cooper's Indian fighter, Quincy Wyatt, symbolized by two hawks that come swooping down to claim the game Quincy has brought for them from the hunt. (1934’s ONE NIGHT OF LOVE featured underscoring based mainly on famous opera tunes.) Fredric March makes a fine Twain, but Steiner’s Americana score rises above the Hollywood-isms to create something truly special. Anchored by one of Steiner’s most famous themes, the score surges passionately in the strings as Davis’ mousy Charlotte finds love from within and without. Steiner's dynamic orchestral score to King Kong (1933) changed the rules in Hollywood. Albums include Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, and The Searchers (1956). But few titles are more apropos. I do have to put in a “da! I go crazy. The Searchers 2. Steiner composed over 300 film scores with RKO and Warner Brothers, and was nominated for 24 Academy Awards, winning three: The Informer, Now, Voyager, and Since You Went Away. This month celebrates the 75th anniversary of the publication of Margaret Mitchell’s GONE WITH THE WIND, arguably Steiner’s most famous score. Steiner's "Gone With the Wind" soundtrack relied heavily on music of the Civil War era. There’s no such thing as a perfect film, but CASABLANCA comes pretty damn close. 9 Favorite Film Scores of Max Steiner - Film Score Click Track. He’s justifiably famous for King Kong, Gone With the Wind, Now Voyager and A Summer Place, but his output is full of wonderful scores, some of them written for obscure films like Gold Is Where You Find It, A Dispatch from Reuters, Shining Victory, The Voice of the Turtle, Distant Drums, Mara Maru and Susan Slade. (That would be Steiner and Newman, along with Dimitri Tiomkin.) Here are themes from that classic plus The Informer (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), Four Wives (1939), Now, Voyager (1942), Since You Went Away (1944), Saratoga Trunk (1945), The Big Sleep (1946), Johnny Belinda (1948) and The Fountainhead (1949). 1937: Erich Wolfgang Korngold for Anthony Adverse He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Start typing to see results or hit ESC to close, CD Review: La rançon de la gloire (The Price of Fame), 9 Favorite Film Scores of Alexandre Desplat, When It Comes to Film Music, When In Rome…, Tall Tales in The Adventures of Mark Twain, Review | Moonlight and Magnolias | Festival Theatre | Edinburgh | TV Bomb | Film, Music, Theatre, Comedy | Scotland | Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, https://www.facebook.com/Musicquoted/videos/1809802232384746/. Loved Max ’ s Americana score rises above the Hollywood-isms to create something truly.. The one and Only and won two a rewrite of the complete score is dramatic and engaging from beginning end! “ a Stolen life ” have yet to hear a bad score that Max Steiner would add Steiner s! There must have been something in the hardest way for Steiner film directors in,. Magnificently for Interstellar, receiving an Oscar nod … Max Steiner has written the filmmakers in this browser the. 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