First let me say that this is not a thread about film music. It's the Vienna Symphonic Library that drew us all here, so let's talk about the Symphony, a composer from Vienna and a score I recently rented from a Library.
Erich Korngold was recognized as being a musical genius by no less than Bruno Walter when he was just a young boy. Walter was Mahler's assistant conductor and went on to become perhaps the greatest practitioner of the art in the last century. The only other composers known to be child prodigies on the level of Korngold are Mozart and Mendelsohn.
Hollywood lured Korngold for what was to be a temporary stay. By this time he was already a well established composer (at a time of Schoenberg and Stravinsky.) When the new evil regime began to take hold in Germany, he was forced to stay in the states and went on to his legendary career in Hollywood. To not love and admire his work in film is to not love early Hollywood movies (Betty Davis, Errol Flynn etc.) One could argue that that the films are not high artistic achievements, but the artistry of the music has never been questioned. Korngold has always been considered a great film composer by anyone familiar with the medium.
My point here however, is his music for another stage: the opera. Die Todt Stadt (the score I am perusing) is a work of incomprehensible genius which dwarfs anything he ever did for Hollywood categorically. I have an extensive score collection which I have been building for a quarter of a century. I have never seen anything like this man's work. The closest to him musically are Strauss and Mahler but he's totally different from both. There is a straight forwardness to Strauss's music no matter how brilliantly orchestrated. Mahler's genius as well, is apprehendable though he is far more innovative and modern than Korngold and a more important composer historically.
Korngold's flow of ideas, are so uniquely executed, so woven into a complex tapestry and so inexhaustible as to stagger the mind. I've never read a score where practically every measure is a unique musical statement in one or more of it's elements. Neither have I seen such a profusion of rhythmically complex musical lines making up a whole that doesn't seem to need such intricacies, yet wouldn't be the same without them. This goes on for the length of an entire opera!
In my opinion Erich Korngold should properly be placed in the pantheon of great composers and no longer seen as film composer only. One thing for sure: there hasn't been a film composer that I've heard who remotely displayed this kind of musical genius, and I'm familiar with them all. I say this because there hasn't been more than a few composers ever in history who displayed this level of command and insight into music.
Do yourself a big favor and listen to Die Todt Stadt. You won't understand what I'm talking about if you consider only his film music. It's also doubtful one could fully appreciate his mastery without the score.
Dave Connor
Erich Korngold was recognized as being a musical genius by no less than Bruno Walter when he was just a young boy. Walter was Mahler's assistant conductor and went on to become perhaps the greatest practitioner of the art in the last century. The only other composers known to be child prodigies on the level of Korngold are Mozart and Mendelsohn.
Hollywood lured Korngold for what was to be a temporary stay. By this time he was already a well established composer (at a time of Schoenberg and Stravinsky.) When the new evil regime began to take hold in Germany, he was forced to stay in the states and went on to his legendary career in Hollywood. To not love and admire his work in film is to not love early Hollywood movies (Betty Davis, Errol Flynn etc.) One could argue that that the films are not high artistic achievements, but the artistry of the music has never been questioned. Korngold has always been considered a great film composer by anyone familiar with the medium.
My point here however, is his music for another stage: the opera. Die Todt Stadt (the score I am perusing) is a work of incomprehensible genius which dwarfs anything he ever did for Hollywood categorically. I have an extensive score collection which I have been building for a quarter of a century. I have never seen anything like this man's work. The closest to him musically are Strauss and Mahler but he's totally different from both. There is a straight forwardness to Strauss's music no matter how brilliantly orchestrated. Mahler's genius as well, is apprehendable though he is far more innovative and modern than Korngold and a more important composer historically.
Korngold's flow of ideas, are so uniquely executed, so woven into a complex tapestry and so inexhaustible as to stagger the mind. I've never read a score where practically every measure is a unique musical statement in one or more of it's elements. Neither have I seen such a profusion of rhythmically complex musical lines making up a whole that doesn't seem to need such intricacies, yet wouldn't be the same without them. This goes on for the length of an entire opera!
In my opinion Erich Korngold should properly be placed in the pantheon of great composers and no longer seen as film composer only. One thing for sure: there hasn't been a film composer that I've heard who remotely displayed this kind of musical genius, and I'm familiar with them all. I say this because there hasn't been more than a few composers ever in history who displayed this level of command and insight into music.
Do yourself a big favor and listen to Die Todt Stadt. You won't understand what I'm talking about if you consider only his film music. It's also doubtful one could fully appreciate his mastery without the score.
Dave Connor
