Franz Waxman

 

[1906 - 1967] One of the founders of the composition for films in American cinema. A name as important in the 30s as were Max Steiner, Alfred Newman and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, german composer Franz Waxman – born Franz Wachsmann – had slightly different formation of his generation companions: studied classical music, but worked as a pianist in a jazz band, the Weintraub Syncopators, a group that recorded the soundtrack of The Blue Angel (1930), starring Marlene Dietrich. The talent of Waxman was enough to highlight him in recording sessions and he was immediately cast as arranger. His first original score was composed for Liliom (1933) directed by Fritz Lang. With the rise of Nazism, Waxman moved to Paris and then to America, where he worked in adapting to the screens of Music in the Air (1934), over music by Jerome Kern. With the music composed for The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) made a great impression and settled in Hollywood. More horror films came next: The Devil Doll (1936), The Invisible Ray (1936) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1940). His style, melodious and deeply dramatic, made him one of the most important talents in film music in his formative years and development. The sequence of classics for what Waxman made the music for is remarkable: Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Woman of the Year (1942), Stalag 17 (1953), Rear Window (1954), The Silver Chalice (1954), and Peyton Place (1957). In 1950 received an Oscar for soundtrack Sunset Boulevard directed by Billy Wilder and in the following year, again receive the award for the music of George Steven´s A Place in the Sun. In 1947 he founded the Los Angeles International Music Festival, and conducted the American premiere of works by composers such as William Walton, Vaughan Williams, Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg.