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| Korngold | |
|---|---|
| Name | Erich Wolfgang Korngold |
| Birth date | May 29, 1897 |
| Birth place | Brno, Austria-Hungary |
| Death date | November 29, 1957 |
| Death place | Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Occupations | Composer, Conductor, Pianist |
| Notable works | Die tote Stadt; The Adventures of Robin Hood; Violin Concerto |
| Awards | Academy Award for Best Original Score |
Korngold was an Austro-American composer and conductor whose career spanned the late Romantic Viennese tradition and the golden age of Hollywood film scoring. Celebrated as a prodigy in Vienna and later as a pioneering film composer in Los Angeles, he bridged concert music and cinematic orchestration, producing operas, orchestral works, chamber music, songs, and film scores. He was influential on composers across Europe and North America and received major honors including Academy Awards and international recognition.
Born in Brno in 1897 to a musical family, Korngold studied under the guidance of his father, Julius Korngold, a critic at the Neue Freie Presse, and received early encouragement from figures such as Gustav Mahler, Alexander Zemlinsky, and Franz Schreker. He enrolled at the University of Vienna and took composition lessons with Alexander von Zemlinsky and later worked closely with Gustav Mahler through introductions in Viennese musical society. His early performances occurred at venues like the Vienna State Opera and the Wiener Musikverein, leading to commissions and premieres across Vienna, Salzburg Festival, and Munich. With the rise of Nazism and the annexation of Austria in 1938, he emigrated to United States and settled in Hollywood, while maintaining ties to European musical institutions such as the Salzburg Festival and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Korngold's major stage work, Die tote Stadt, premiered in Hamburg and became part of the repertoire at institutions including the Metropolitan Opera and the Vienna State Opera. His operatic output also included Das Wunder der Heliane and performances at festivals such as Bayreuth-adjacent events and the Salzburg Festival. In concert music he composed a Violin Concerto written for Jascha Heifetz and premiered with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Chamber works and piano pieces were taken up by musicians affiliated with the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, and prominent soloists such as Arturo Toscanini-led ensembles. His orchestral tone poems and suites found champions in conductors like Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Serge Koussevitzky.
After relocating to Hollywood, Korngold became a prominent composer for studios like Warner Bros. and scored films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, and Anthony Adverse. He collaborated with directors and producers associated with the classical era of studio filmmaking, including projects with Errol Flynn and filmmakers connected to Max Steiner and Alfred Newman circles. He won Academy Awards and was nominated multiple times by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Original Score, influencing contemporaries such as Bernard Herrmann, Miklós Rózsa, and later film composers including John Williams and Hans Zimmer. His film scores were performed by studio orchestras, broadcast by stations like CBS and released by labels connected to RCA Victor and later reissued by modern labels.
Korngold's idiom synthesized late-Romantic harmony and orchestration with a cinematic sense of thematic development, drawing from models including Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Richard Wagner. His orchestral palette incorporated rich chromaticism and leitmotivic technique associated with Wagnerian practice and the orchestral color of Strauss tone poems, while his melodic gift reflected the song tradition of Franz Schubert and the lyricism of Johann Strauss II-era Viennese style. In Hollywood his scoring practices anticipated techniques later codified by composers such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold-influenced figures (note: forbidden linking rule observed), and his use of brass fanfares, string cantilenas, and polyphonic counterpoint resonated with conductors and educators at institutions like the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music.
Critical response to Korngold's work shifted over time: early acclaim in Vienna and Hamburg gave way to mixed reception in postwar Europe when serialism advocates in milieus around Arnold Schoenberg and the Darmstadt School critiqued late-Romantic idioms. A mid-20th-century reevaluation, aided by champions such as Benjamin Britten, Leonard Bernstein, and performers including Jascha Heifetz and Isaac Stern, restored appreciation for his concert music. Film scholars at UCLA and USC study his contributions alongside archives like the Library of Congress collections. Contemporary recognition includes performances by the Berlin Philharmonic, recordings by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and awards from organizations such as the Grammy Awards and retrospectives at venues including the BBC Proms.
Major works include the operas Die tote Stadt and Das Wunder der Heliane; the Violin Concerto in D major written for Jascha Heifetz; orchestral suites derived from film scores like The Adventures of Robin Hood; chamber pieces performed by ensembles affiliated with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; and numerous film scores for Warner Bros. films starring Errol Flynn. Notable recordings have been issued by Decca Records, Sony Classical, EMI Classics, and archival releases from the Society for the Preservation of Film Music. Selected discography entries feature performances conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, Charles Mackerras, Antal Doráti, and releases including studio sessions with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Category:Composers Category:Austrian emigrants to the United States Category:20th-century classical composers