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Author Smith, Steven C., author.

Title Music by Max Steiner : the epic life of Hollywood's most influential composer / Steven C. Smith.

Publication Info. New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]
©2020

Item Status

Location Call No. Status OPAC Message Public Note Gift Note
 Talbott: Circulating Collection  ML410 .S843 S65 2020    Available  ---
Description xvi, 480 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.
Gender group: gdr Men
Occupational/field of activity group: occ Journalists
Occupational/field of activity group: occ Motion picture producers
Series Oxford cultural biographies
Oxford cultural biographies.
Summary "During a seven-decade career that spanned from 19th century Vienna to 1920s Broadway to the golden age of Hollywood, three-time Academy Award winner Max Steiner did more than any other composer to introduce and establish the language of film music. Indeed, revered contemporary film composers like John Williams and Danny Elfman use the same techniques that Steiner himself perfected in his iconic work for such classics as Casablanca, King Kong, Gone with the Wind, The Searchers, Now, Voyager, the Astaire-Rogers musicals, and over 200 other titles. And Steiner's private life was a drama all its own. Born into a legendary Austrian theatrical dynasty, he became one of Hollywood's top-paid composers. But he was also constantly in debt--the inevitable result of gambling, financial mismanagement, four marriages, and the actions of his emotionally troubled son. Throughout his chaotic life, Steiner was buoyed by an innate optimism, a quick wit, and an instinctive gift for melody, all of which would come to the fore as he met and worked with luminaries like Richard Strauss, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, the Warner Bros., David O. Selznick, Bette Davis, Frank Sinatra, and Frank Capra. In Music by Max Steiner, the first full biography of Steiner, author Steven C. Smith interweaves the dramatic incidents of Steiner's personal life with an accessible exploration of his composing methods and experiences, bringing to life the previously untold story of a musical pioneer and master dramatist who helped create a vital new art with some of the greatest film scores in cinema history"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 457-461) and index.
Contents Foreword / by Gary Giddins -- Prologue -- Part one: Little prince. Elegant revolutions ; Heir apparent -- Part two: Wanderer. Come over here ; Stairway to paradise ; Roaring in the twenties -- Part three: Apprentice. Where does the music come from? ; Revolution ; Startling, unusual sensation ; Orchids in the moonlight ; Working night and day -- Part four: Emperor. Monarch of sound ; Exodus ; Battles won and lost ; Right place to be ; Fighting for Steiner ; South is dead ; Breaking point ; Voyage into fog ; Yours, Herman Hupfeld ; Sucker ; Au revoir and bonjour ; Indian summer ; Falling star -- Part five: Twilight of the gods. A Jewish aloha ; Götterdämmerung ; Coda.
Subject Steiner, Max, 1888-1971.
Steiner, Max, 1888-1971.
Film composers -- United States -- Biography.
Film composers.
United States.
Genre/Form Biographies.
Biographies.
Other Form: Online version: Smith, Steven C, Music by Max Steiner New York City : Oxford University Press, 2020. 9780190623289 (DLC) 2019058682
ISBN 9780190623272 (hardcover)
0190623276 (hardcover)
9780190623289 (electronic book)
9780190623296 (electronic publication)
9780190623302 (electronic book)