Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was the son of a well-known music critic. A child Prodigy, he accompanied his father in playing four-handed piano arrangements by the age of five. By the age of eleven he drew his first plaudits from enthusiastic Viennese audiences (including the Emperor Franz Josef) with his ballet-pantomime "Der Schneeman" (The Snow Man). Two years later, he wrote a piano sonata which was performed by Artur Schnabel. Korngold composed his first orchestral piece at 14 and attracted the attention of Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and many other prominent composers and conductors. In 1920, he conducted the Hamburg Opera performing his seminal work "Die tote Stadt" which became a huge international success.

Thus embarked upon a promising career as a serious composer, Korngold was invited to the United States by Max Reinhardt to score A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) -- and decided to stay. He was certainly grateful for the chance to escape Adolf Hitler's annexation of Austria.

Under contract to Warner Brothers from 1935 to 1947, Korngold picked up Academy Awards for Anthony Adverse (1936) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).

His stirring and string-laden scores were ideally suited for such high-octane Errol Flynn swashbucklers as Captain Blood (1935) and The Sea Hawk (1940). In the final analysis, other notable film composers, including even the great Max Steiner, admitted to being influenced by Korngold's work.

His 1937 violin concerto which used various elements from his film music became one of the most prolifically performed classical concerts of the 20th century. Korngold would have longed to resume his career as a serious composer. However, after the war ended, he found that the world of serious music had passed him by.

He is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery just a few steps away from another film composer, Walter Jurmann (famous for writing the song "San Francisco"). Korngold is also known for his swashbuckling scores, such as The Sea Hawk (1940) that starred Errol Flynn, and is buried only a a short walk away from another two great romantic leading men, Tyrone Power and Rudolph Valentino.

In 1943, Korngold became an American citizen. Korngold was the first composer of international renown to be signed by Hollywood despite having no prior experience with film music. His approach to the medium was predominantly theatrical and operatic (he once described Tosca as "the best film score ever written"). A master of technique, credited with "inventing" the syntax of orchestral film music, he composed at the piano with projectionists running reels at his behest. Often, he worked in conjunction with the orchestra of Hugo Friedhofer who became his closest collaborator.

He disdained the thought of being regarded merely as a film composer. After leaving Warners in 1947, he returned to 'serious music'. Ironically, his popular Violin Concerto in D and a symphonic serenade with strings are among several later works made up almost entirely of movie themes.

Was assigned to score Adventures of Don Juan (1948) when shooting began in 1945 and even sketched some themes. When production was postponed until 1947 (due to Errol Flynn's illness and other problems), Max Steiner replaced Korngold because, by then, he had announced his retirement from motion pictures. In October 1947 he suffered a heart attack and, in spite of pleas from Leo F. Forbstein, Music Chief at Warners, Korngold refused to return to the studio.

In 1949, he returned to Vienna with his wife but found the city in ruins and much changed. A year later, disillusioned, he moved back to his home in the Toluca Lake district in North Hollywood. During the final ten years of his life he composed almost exclusively for concert halls.

Pictured on one of six 33¢ USA commemorative postage stamps in the Legends of American Music series, honoring Hollywood Composers, issued 21 September 1999. Issued in panes of 20 stamps. Others honored in the set were Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin, Bernard Herrmann, Franz Waxman, and Alfred Newman.