Max Steiner (May 10, 1888 – December 28, 1971) was an Austrian composer of music for theatre productions and films. He later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Trained by the great classical music composers Brahms and Mahler, he was one of the first composers who primarily wrote music for motion pictures, and as such is often referred to as "the father of film music". Along with such composers as Franz Waxman, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newmam and Miklos Rozsa, Steiner played a major part in creating the tradition of writing music for films.
Steiner composed hundreds of film scores, including The Informer (1935), Now, Voyager (1942), and Since You Went Away (1944), which won him Academy Awards. He was nominated for the Academy Award a total of twenty six times, a record surpassed only by Alfred Newman and John Williams for the most nominations received by a composer. Three of his scores were also nominated at a time when composers were not eligible to be nominated in the Original Score category.
Steiner was one of the best-known composers in Hollywood, and is widely regarded today as one of the greatest film score composers in the history of cinema. He was a frequent collaborator with some of the most famous film directors in history, including John Ford and William Wyler. Besides his Oscar-winning scores, some of Steiner's popular works include King Kong (1933), :Little Women (1933), Jezabel (1938), Casablanca (1942). and the film score for which he is possibly best known, Gone with the Wind (1939). Despite being one of the most popular film soundtracks ever written, Gone with the Wind failed to win an Oscar for him.
Early Life
Steiner was born as Maximilian Raoul Steiner in Austria-Hungary, in the Hotel Nordbahn (since 2008 Austria Classic Hotel Wien) on Praterstraße 72, in Vienna's Leopoldstadt. Steiner later claimed that he was given, and rejected, the name Walter, but there is no evidence of this in his birth register, held at the Jewish community of Vienna. Later in life he purportedly discovered a half-brother named James Owen, with whom he co-wrote the song “Theme from a Summer Place.” His paternal grandfather was Maximilian Steiner (1830–1880), the influential manager of Vienna's Theater an der Wien; his father was Gabor Steiner (1858–1944), Viennese impresario and carnival and exposition manager, responsible for the Ferris wheel in the Prater that would become the setting for a key scene of the film The Third Man (1949); his godfather was the composer Richard Strauss.
A child prodigy in composing, Steiner received piano instruction from Johannes Brahms and, at the age of sixteen, enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Music (now known as the University of Music and Performing Arts), where he was taught by Gustav Mahler among others. His musical aptitudes enabled him to complete the school's four-year program in only two. At the age of 16, Steiner wrote and conducted the operetta The Beautiful Greek Girl. At the start of World War I, he was working in London and was classified as an enemy alien but was befriended by the Duke of Westminster and given exit papers. He arrived in New York City in December 1914 with $32 to his name.
Steiner worked in New York for eleven years as a musical director, arranger, orchestrator, and conductor of Broadway operettas and musicals written by Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, and George Gershwin, among others. Steiner's credits include: George White's Scandals (1922), Lady, Be Good (1924), and Rosalie (1928).
In 1929, Steiner went to Hollywood to orchestrate the European film version of the Florenz Ziegfeld show Rio Rita for RKO. The score for King Kong (1933) made Steiner's reputation; it was one of the first American films to have an extensive musical score. He conducted the scores for several Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals, including Top Hat (1935) and Roberta (1935).
Steiner scored several films produced by RKO, the final of which was Follow the Fleet. He left RKO in 1936 and soon became the musical director of Selznick International Pictures.
In April 1937, he signed a long-term contract with Warner Brothers, and the same year composed the famous fanfare which introduced pictures produced by the studio, although this is no longer in use (curiously, this was never used for the studio's television productions).
In 1939, Steiner was borrowed from Warner Bros. By David O. Selznick to compose the score to Gone with the Wind. He was given only three months to compose a large amount of music for the film, whilst at the same time scoring We Are Not Alone, Dark Victory, and Four Wives for Warner. Gone with the Wind and Dark Victory both earned him Academy Award nominations, however, he lost to the score of The Wizard of Oz by Herbert Stothart. Along with Clark Gable, Steiner was one of the few nominees for Gone with the Wind that did not win. Many feel that Steiner deserved the award. The score was ranked by the AFI as the second greatest American film score of all time.
Steiner received his next Oscar nomination for the 1940 film The Letter, his first of several collaborations with legendary director William Wyler. A further nomination followed the next year for Sergeant York. In 1942, Steiner won his second Oscar for Now, Voyager, and was also nominated for Casablanca, which remains one of his most famous scores. He received his third and final Oscar in 1944 for Since You Went Away.
Steiner's pace slowed significantly in the mid-fifties, and he began freelancing. In 1954, RCA Victor asked Steiner to prepare and conduct an orchestral suite of music from Gone with the Wind for a special LP, which was later issued on CD. There are also acetates of Steiner conducting the Warner Brothers studio orchestra in music from some of his film scores.
Steiner reunited with John Ford in 1956 to score The Searchers, widely considered the greatest western ever made. [Cimarron is the only western to win Best Picture Oscar]. He returned to Warner-Bros in 1958 (although his contract ended in 1953) and scored several films, in addition to a rare venture into television composing a library of music for the fourth season of Hawaiian Eye. He continued to score films produced by Warner until the mid sixties.
Steiner's final original score was for the 1965 film Two on a Guillotine. He worked on over 300 films, sometimes as a composer, sometimes as an arranger/conductor, and often as both.
In 1963, Steiner began writing his autobiography, which, although completed, was never published, and is the source of a few biographical errors concerning this composer. A copy of the manuscript resides with the rest of the Max Steiner Collection at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
A child prodigy in composing, Steiner received piano instruction from Johannes Brahms and, at the age of sixteen, enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Music (now known as the University of Music and Performing Arts), where he was taught by Gustav Mahler among others. His musical aptitudes enabled him to complete the school's four-year program in only two. At the age of 16, Steiner wrote and conducted the operetta The Beautiful Greek Girl. At the start of World War I, he was working in London and was classified as an enemy alien but was befriended by the Duke of Westminster and given exit papers. He arrived in New York City in December 1914 with $32 to his name.
Steiner worked in New York for eleven years as a musical director, arranger, orchestrator, and conductor of Broadway operettas and musicals written by Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, and George Gershwin, among others. Steiner's credits include: George White's Scandals (1922), Lady, Be Good (1924), and Rosalie (1928).
In 1929, Steiner went to Hollywood to orchestrate the European film version of the Florenz Ziegfeld show Rio Rita for RKO. The score for King Kong (1933) made Steiner's reputation; it was one of the first American films to have an extensive musical score. He conducted the scores for several Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals, including Top Hat (1935) and Roberta (1935).
Movie career
Steiner's first screen credit was an as orchestrator for the score of the 1930 film Dixiana. His first credit as a composer came the following year, for Cimarron. He received his first two Oscar nominations for John Ford's 1934 film The Lost Patrol, and the same year for The Gay Divorcee. He won his first Oscar the following year the Ford's The Informer. At the time, the Oscar was awarded to the head of the studio music department, not the composer, although in this case that was Steiner anyway (the next year, Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score to "Anthony Adverse" won the Oscar, but studio music head Leo F. Forbstein was the actual recipient, as per the rules). It was not until 1938 that the composer of the score was eligible for the nomination (coincidentally, that was Korngold, who won for his score from "The Adventures of Robin Hood").Steiner scored several films produced by RKO, the final of which was Follow the Fleet. He left RKO in 1936 and soon became the musical director of Selznick International Pictures.
In April 1937, he signed a long-term contract with Warner Brothers, and the same year composed the famous fanfare which introduced pictures produced by the studio, although this is no longer in use (curiously, this was never used for the studio's television productions).
In 1939, Steiner was borrowed from Warner Bros. By David O. Selznick to compose the score to Gone with the Wind. He was given only three months to compose a large amount of music for the film, whilst at the same time scoring We Are Not Alone, Dark Victory, and Four Wives for Warner. Gone with the Wind and Dark Victory both earned him Academy Award nominations, however, he lost to the score of The Wizard of Oz by Herbert Stothart. Along with Clark Gable, Steiner was one of the few nominees for Gone with the Wind that did not win. Many feel that Steiner deserved the award. The score was ranked by the AFI as the second greatest American film score of all time.
Steiner received his next Oscar nomination for the 1940 film The Letter, his first of several collaborations with legendary director William Wyler. A further nomination followed the next year for Sergeant York. In 1942, Steiner won his second Oscar for Now, Voyager, and was also nominated for Casablanca, which remains one of his most famous scores. He received his third and final Oscar in 1944 for Since You Went Away.
Steiner's pace slowed significantly in the mid-fifties, and he began freelancing. In 1954, RCA Victor asked Steiner to prepare and conduct an orchestral suite of music from Gone with the Wind for a special LP, which was later issued on CD. There are also acetates of Steiner conducting the Warner Brothers studio orchestra in music from some of his film scores.
Steiner reunited with John Ford in 1956 to score The Searchers, widely considered the greatest western ever made. [Cimarron is the only western to win Best Picture Oscar]. He returned to Warner-Bros in 1958 (although his contract ended in 1953) and scored several films, in addition to a rare venture into television composing a library of music for the fourth season of Hawaiian Eye. He continued to score films produced by Warner until the mid sixties.
Steiner's final original score was for the 1965 film Two on a Guillotine. He worked on over 300 films, sometimes as a composer, sometimes as an arranger/conductor, and often as both.
In 1963, Steiner began writing his autobiography, which, although completed, was never published, and is the source of a few biographical errors concerning this composer. A copy of the manuscript resides with the rest of the Max Steiner Collection at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Death
Steiner died of congestive heart failure in Hollywood, aged 83. He is entombed in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Steiner
The Music for the 1959 Film, A Summer Place
The movie became popular after its release, but had a mixed critical reception, and received some negative reviews through the years. The 1960 hit "Theme from A Summer Place" (composed by Maxc Steiner and recorded by Percy Faith and His Orchestra) enriched and improved on a secondary musical theme of the film; it remains a classic of its era. An early instrumental version of the song was recorded by the group "Los Nómadas" but only gained 'Top 40' recognition in Mexico, despite Zane Ashton's (also known as Bill Aken) distinctly 'teen-pop' flavored arrangement. A vocal version, with lyrics by Mack Discant, was a hit for The Lettermen in 1965. Singer Dean Torrence referenced the song's melody in Jan and Dean's "Like a Summer Rain" in 1966. The melody has also been used in the 2011 Toyota Avalon "Plane" commercial.
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Summer_Place_(film)
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Summer_Place_(film)
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Further Notes on A Summer Place (by the blog author)
The score to A Summer Place was written by Max Steiner. Hugo Winterhalter and his orchestra actually performed the recording used in the film (the soundtrack is finally available on a CD). Scenes between Troy Donahue's character and Sandra Dee's character were called “the young lovers' theme.' This was the music adapted and arranged by Percy Faith in 1960 as “Theme from A Summer Place,”the number one selling instrumental of the 1960s, a single that received radio air time for decades and is still available. This hit Percy Faith version gave Max Steiner the money to make his alimony payments and live for the last ten years of his life.
But Percy Faith's pop arrangement was not the original young lovers' theme, which was itself a languid but distinct rock-and-roll instrumental. It was this theme that was used in the trailer for the 1959 movie. The slow, innocent but distinctly sensual theme was perfect for the seashore and the clips used to introduce the motion picture. This proper, original theme has been reconstructed and recorded by Erich Kunzel with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra as part of Hollywood's Greatest Hits, Volume I, and is available as a MP3 file at http://www.amazon.com/Hollywoods-Greatest-Hits-Vol-1/dp/B000003CUW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1301031936&sr=1-2
The young lovers' theme sounds something like Melanie's Theme from Gone with the Wind. Melanie goes to the sock hop! Yet, I want to state something emphatically and unequivocally here. Many composers, including Irving Berlin and Hoagy Carmichael, tried very hard and failed very miserably, to transition to rock-and-roll in the 1950s. Max Steiner was 71 years old in 1959, yet he successfully wrote an instrumental rock piece that became a pop arrangement standard for many years. Thus there is a direct connection between the late romantics (Brahms and Mahler, who were Max Steiner's teachers) and rock- and-roll music, which took the world by storm in the 1950s as the most successful form of jazz.
Max Steiner was a thematic and melodic mood mimic, imitator and synthesizer. You can hear this with his use of Irish songs and the Civil War melodies in Gone with the Wind. You can hear it in the use of Latin themes and American standards in Casablanca. Surely Steiner wasn't an admirer or follower of rock-and-roll. But he didn't have to be. He took the 4/4 timing and the boogie-woogie dance beat and put a Melanie-like melody to it. Thus the young lovers' theme, itself the soundtrack for the trailer for A Summer Place, represents an ingenious accomplishment that has not been appreciated by academics nor critics in the music business for half a century.
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