Film scores

An Austrian-American musician, Max Steiner has been a pioneer in introducing the Central European orchestral style to Hollywood film music, influencing many other future film music composers.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold is one of the first film music composers with a worldwide reputation.

Like his friend Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold is an Austrian-American film music composer, doubling as an idol for future film music composers.

Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold are both Austrian composers in America, whereas Alfred Newman is not, although he is still a key inspiration for future film music composers.

Unlike Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, both of whom are pioneers in bringing European orchestral music to Hollywood, Alfred Newman has an American background.

Having been deeply rooted in American music, the US-born and raised Alfred Newman developed a unique film scoring style, blending European orchestral music with American elements.

Alfred Newman developed his own eponymous system for synchronizing music with film.

In addition, Alfred Newman's work with the 20th Century-Fox orchestra also popularized the lush and emotional "Hollywood string sound" in film music.

Characterized by rich orchestration and vibrato, this Hollywood string sound in film music serves as a hallmark of the film scores by Alfred Newman and influences many other composers.

Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Alfred Newman are individuals who transform film music into full-bodied orchestral works and prove that cinematic Hollywood music is a vital art form.

In addition to his concert work, Aaron Copland is an innovative film score composer, introducing his distinctive Americana sound to Hollywood.

With his reputation as a film score composer, Aaron Copland's sound is unequivocally American; the tradition continues in modern and contemporary Hollywood film scores.

For Aaron Copland, his film scores introduce modern music styles and techniques to Hollywood; they offer a modern alternative t the traditional, often "overlush" Romantic orchestral sound.

Bernard Herrmann's film music work is noted for his experimental and dissonant style, which features harmonies, unsual instrumental compositions and a modernistic approach.

Miklos Rozsa, one of the last survivors of the Old Hollywood film composers, has sweeping and epic cinematic orchestral music, shaped by his Hungarian heritage and classical influences.

Innovations in film music by Miklos Rozsa include the theremin.

Dimitri Tiomkin is the first film music composer to write both the title theme and the score.

Hugo Friedhofer has collaborated with Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, two pivotal figures shaping the orchestral style as the quintessential and dominant film music sound for decades.

Whereas many other film scores borrowed from the late-Romantic European tradition, Aaron Copland's film scores largely reflected his distinct American approach.

For modern film composers, they fuse the film music styles by Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newman, Aaron Copland, Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rozsa and Dimitri Tiomkin.

In fact, modern film composers fuse classic Hollywood film music styles with contemporary elements.

Besides Hollywood's Golden Age composers, film composers using a pop, jazz and experimental style include Alex North, Mario Nascimbene, Ennio Morricone, John Barry and Lalo Schifrin.

For Alex North, he is one of the first film music composers to embrace modernism.

Ennio Morricone blends contemporary pop influences, including the electric guitar, with avant-garde techniques, whistling and ambient sounds.

Mario Nascimbene incorporates sounds from everyday life as part of his film scores.

John Barry has had innovations in film music, but his career has his roots in jazz, pop and rock

In his early years, John Barry worked in cinemas run by his father.

During his national service with the British Army, John Barry started his music work by playing the trumpet, working with American jazz composer Bill Russo.

After national service, John Barry arranged the orchestras formed by Ted Heath and Jack Parnell.

The John Barry Seven was a rock band; it was a backing act for pop singer Adam Faith.

For John Barry, he blends modern pop influences, like the electric guitar, the electric bass, synths and sequenced rhythm tracks, with traditional orchestral music.

Before John Barry, action/suspense music often relied on traditional European orchestral music.

John Barry simplified the melodies, but maximized the volume and attitude.

Plus, John Barry not just made drums a tool for timekeeping, but a melodic and driving force.

Lalo Schifrin is best known as a film and television composer, but his career has his roots in Western classical music, jazz and pop.

With his father (a violinist) as the concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires, Lalo Schifrin began classical training with his piano studies at age 6.

As a teenager, Lalo Schifrin discovered jazz through smuggled records, and in the mid-1950's, he met bebop legend Dizzy Gillespie.

In 1960, Lalo Schifrin moved to New York to serve as Dizzy Gillespie's music director and pianist.

Plus, Lalo Schifrin studied at the Paris Conservatoire under masters like Olivier Messiaen.

During his stay in Paris, Lalo Schifrin also developed an interest in African drumming and modern pop music.

As a film lover from a young age, Lalo Schifrin spent hours in movie theatres in Buenos Aires, but was captivated by film scores more than the stories themselves, which deepened in Paris.

Having performed with the late Astor Piazzolla in the 1950's, Lalo Schifrin even incorporated pop and Latin American elements, specifically tango.

John Williams is one of the world's most famous film music composers ever.

For John Williams, he revives and mixes the grand orchestral styles of the Golden Age composers like Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold with 20th-century Americana à la Aaron Copland.

Incidentally, John Williams is the most noted film composer to mix classic Hollywood with modern.

Known as a pioneer in incorporating modernist techniques into film music, Jerry Goldsmith serves as a precursor to the modern Hollywood film music approach.

Besides Miklos Rozsa, some of the other music composers who influence Jerry Goldsmith's film music work include Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Alban Berg and Bernard Herrmann.

Danny Elfman is also a world-famous film music composer, blending the grand orchestral styles of the Golden Age composers with digital and synth sounds derived from his rock music background.

Hans Zimmer blends classical instrumentation with electronic elements.

Prior to Max Steiner's breakthrough work on King Kong, film music was pure and simple.

During its early era, silent films in Hollywood were often accompanied by music being played live in theatres by musicians, either a pianist or a small ensemble.

With talkies, film music became integrated more smoothly, but also introduced new issues.

However, Max Steiner's breakthrough work on King Kong transformed the film music business.

King Kong is one of the first major Hollywood productions to use a fully thematic score through Max Steiner, employing leitmotifs associated with characters and events inspired by Richard Wagner.

In fact, Max Steiner's score for King Kong turned film music into large-scale orchestral works.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score for The Adventures of Robin Hood likewise changed the film music business, similar to what Max Steiner did for his King Kong work.

Using Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler as influences, Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score for The Adventures of Robin Hood took film music to a new level of sophistication.

While at 20th Century-Fox, Alfred Newman worked with Marilyn Monroe on some films.

Lionel Newman was the music director for all Marilyn Monroe films at 20th Century-Fox.

In fact, Alfred Newman led the 20th Century-Fox music department, working in collaboration with his younger brother Lionel Newman, both of whom worked with Marilyn Monroe.

Blackboard Jungle features Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets, not just in its opening sequence, but four additional times.

For Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets, its inclusion in Blackboard Jungle marked the first instance of a major Hollywood film featuring rock music.

Plus, having been used 5 times in Blackboard Jungle, notably in its opening sequence, Rock Around the Clock topped the pop charts around the world, introducing rock music to the mainstream.

Rock Around the Clock is also the name of a film, whose title track is used in its opening sequence.

Unlike Blackboard Jungle, which is a social commentary, Rock Around the Clock is a musical, the first musical film entirely dedicated to rock music.

For the film Rock Around the Clock, it capitalizes on Bill Haley's fame and the song's global success.

Crazy Man, Crazy successfully made the pop charts, marking the initial national breakthrough for Bill Haley & His Comets and proving that rock music could exist on the mainstream pop charts.

But Rock Around the Clock was the true catalyst for rock music's global dominance.

Prior to Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets, pop music had a conservative feel.

Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets, however, opened the floodgates for rock music's dominance on a global, mainstream pop music level.

Glenn Ford suggested his younger son Peter (who was interested in both the rhythm & blues and rock music genres) to choose Rock Around the Clock as the theme tune for Blackboard Jungle.

Former Disney musician Charles Wolcott adapted the music for Blackboard Jungle (which introduced rhythm & blues-rooted rock music to mainstream pop music).

Alex North's film score for A Streetcar Named Desire is the first major film score based on jazz.

From the 1930's to the 1950's, Muir Mathieson worked with the London Symphony Orchestra.

In the late-1960's or before 1969, four-time Academy Award winner André Previn came to the London Symphony Orchestra as its principal conductor.

Both Muir Mathieson and André Previn put the London Symphony Orchestra on the film music map.

Alfred Newman's iconic and world-famous fanfare for 20th Century-Fox was created in 1933; its own expansion in 1954 was done to include the soaring strings for CinemaScope films.

George Lucas, an Old Hollywood admirer, insisted that the extended 1954 version of Alfred Newman's iconic and world-famous 20th Century-Fox fanfare be used to begin the first Star Wars film.

John Williams is the composer of the iconic and world-famous Star Wars theme tune in the same B-flat major key as the 20th Century-Fox fanfare by his friend and mentor Alfred Newman.

The London Symphony Orchestra performed the score for the first two Star Wars film series from 1977 until 2005 overall.

What launched this long tenure of the London Symphony Orchestra as the performer of the score of the first six Star Wars films is the connection that both André Previn and Lionel Newman facilitated.

Lionel Newman, who is Alfred Newman's slightly younger brother, suggested the usage of the London Symphony Orchestra, once led by André Previn, to John Williams.

Recorded at Anvil Studio in Denham, under the performance of the London Symphony Orchestra, the score for the first Star Wars film by John Williams was recorded by Eric Tomlinson.

For John Williams, his work on the Star Wars franchise marked a revival of the symphonic film music tradition, departing from the pop, jazz and experimental-infused film scores of the time.

Meco's disco version of the Star Wars theme, composed by John Williams, is also a successful tune.

Elmer Bernstein's work for The Magnificent Seven incorporates Americana elements, notably drawing inspiration from Aaron Copland's works.

Dave Smith's 1981 invention of the MIDI protocol became a method for film scores in digital.

Plus, the Synclavier and the Fairlight CMI have both pioneered digital sampling, but it was the earliest models from E-mu and Akai that first caught on and became studio staples.

Hans Zimmer co-founded Media Ventures/Remote Control Productions in March 1989 with his partner Jay Rifkin.

Starting in the 1990's, companies began selling conpact discs full of royalty-free material; towards the conclusion of the 1990's decade, composers shifted towards a work based on computers.

Hollywood in Vienna is an annual film music gala honouring music composers whose work has left a lasting mark on film music, held at the Vienna Concert Hall.

Since its inception, Hollywood in Vienna has honoured many composers, including Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Arnold Schoenberg and others.

Plus, the Hollywood in Vienna gala commemorates composers who emigrated from Vienna in the 20th century to establish the classic Hollywood sound.

The Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award is given at the annual Hollywood in Vienna gala.

John Barry earned the first Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award in 2009, while Howard Shore earned the second Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award in 2010.

Alan Silvestri earned the third Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award and Lalo Schifrin won the fourth Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award, both in the early-2010's period.

James Horner, Randy Newman, James Newton Howard and Alexandre Desplat respectively earned the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Awards in the mid-2010's period.

Plus, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer and Gabriel Yared respectively earned the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Awards in the late-2010's.

The most recent Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award, originally to be presented in 2020, but delayed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, went to Alan Menken. 

Incidentally, Randy Newman won the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award in 2014, with his cousin and fellow film music composer David Newman as conductor.

David Newman's father Alfred Newman was Max Steiner's colleague.

Plus, the Newmans come from Eastern Europe (specifically Russia), which makes Austria a gateway to this region.

De Wolfe Music (or Music De Wolfe) has been a stock music pioneer since its 1909 inception.

In the late-1920's, with sound entering cinema, De Wolfe Music used sound-on-disc and sound-on-film technology to create the world's first commercial recorded music library.

Meyer De Wolfe, who was born and rooted in the Netherlands, arrived in the United Kingdom after the turn of the 20th century.

In the UK, Meyer De Wolfe founded his own company in 1909.

James De Wolfe is Meyer De Wolfe's younger son, who assumed his father's music label after WWII.

Over the years since he took the label from his father after WWII, James De Wolfe expanded his label's beyond British borders.

Alfonso Corelli and Fred Jacobs, both filmmakers, forged a partnership with James De Wolfe, who was Meyer De Wolfe's younger son, to bring his music label to the United States.

During the mid-1950's era, Associated-Rediffusion acquired Keith Prowse Music Publishing and Peter Maurice Music, forming Keith-Prowse-Maurice (KPM).

With commercial television having arrived through both ITV and Associated-Rediffusion, stock music became an integral and a crucial component of television music.

In 1966, in response to pop music changes (being catalyzed by the British Invasion, Motown and Stax movements), KPM pioneered a modern sound in stock music with its 1000 Series.

Robin Phillips is the mastermind of the KPM 1000 Series.

Adrian Kerridge, a veteran engineer in the pop and rock music scenes, is also an engineer of the KPM 1000 Series, under whom it has a crisp sound.

For the KPM 1000 Series, co-created by Robin Phillips and Adrian Kerridge, it juxtaposes classic and traditional orchestration with modern and upbeat pop instrumentation.

KPM also shifted from 10-inch 78 rpm shellac discs into 12-inch 33 rpm LPs with its 1000 Series.

78 rpm shellac discs use faster playback speed, whereas 33 rpm LPs have slower speed and finer, more densely packed microgrooves, giving music a more storage space.

Both Robin Phillips and Adrian Kerridge enlisted musicians and composers from pop, jazz and rock to create a fresh, dynamic sound for film and television for the KPM 1000 Series.

Green is the main colour of the album covers of the KPM 1000 Series, which both Robin Phillips and Adrian Kerridge have envisioned.

Nicknamed Greensleeves, the KPM 1000 Series forever changed stock music (and music overall).

Since the 1960's, stock music labels have used a modern and contemporary sound, pioneered by both Robin Phillips and Adrian Kerridge.

KPM/EMI and De Wolfe are noted labels with the modern Robin Phillips/Adrian Kerridge sound.

With apologies to Cinderella, just before the KPM 1000 Series, which both Robin Phillips and Adrian Kerridge have envisioned, the stock music scene was a banished and isolated servant.

However, the KPM 1000 Series, which both Robin Phillips and Adrian Kerridge have made, is a Fairy Godmother that turned stock music into a princess in a hi-fi and crisp modern pop sound.

Besides, with apologies to Cinderella, the KPM 1000 Series is a glass slipper being fitted by this stock music princess wearing a ball gown to marry the charming pop/rock/jazz music princes. 

Plus, with apologies to the Cinderella fairy tale, the KPM 1000 Series transformed stock music from a vintage pumpkin into a modern-sounding carriage.

Likewise, with apologies to Cinderella, the stroke of midnight marked the magical demise of this staid stock music sound, with new ones coming in.

Wardour Street had been De Wolfe's longtime headquarters until its relocation to Shropshire House on Capper Street in the late-1990's.

Denmark Street, located near Wardour Street where De Wolfe was located, had also been the longtime headquarters for KPM/EMI until its move to Charing Cross the late-1980's.

Soho bridges both Wardour Street and Denmark Street, where De Wolfe and KPM/EMI were based.

Until its relocation to Queens House at Tottenham Court Road in the late-2010's, De Wolfe's primary location was Shropshire House on Capper Street.

The longtime main headquarters of Corelli-Jacobs Recording, which distributed De Wolfe Music in the United States, was based at West 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.

Prior to moving to its iconic West 45th headquaters, Corelli-Jacobs, distributing De Wolfe Music in the United States, was at Madison Avenue, Broadway and 7th Avenue.

Sonoton is a company that brings stock music to Germany.

Gerhard Narholz, an Austrian film and television composer and a pop songwriter, is the driving force behind Sonoton and its innovations.

In 1969, Sonoton struck a deal with Berry Music, exposing its catalogue to a global audience.

With Berry Music being purchased in 1973 by KPM/EMI, which was led by Robin Phillips, Sonoton underwent its further worldwide expansion, also marking the birth of its own record label.

The underscore is one of the stock music trends created by Sonoton.

NFL Films is the film and television production company of the National Football League.

Initially known as Blair Motion Pictures, NFL Films has revolutionized the sports filming world.

Ed Sabol and his son Steve Sabol are the NFL Films figureheads, both of whom make this company a success story.

John Facenda, who first earned recognition as the primary news anchor for WCAU-TV from 1948 until 1973, is also the first and most iconic narrator for NFL Films until his September 1984 death.

Sam Spence is the primary music composer for NFL Films from 1966 to 1990.

Cinematic Hollywood orchestral music is the basis for Sam Spence's music work for NFL Films.

Phillip Spieller is the former music director for NFL Films from the late-1960's era to 1984; during his NFL Films work, he mixed and curated music for its sports documentaries.

Together, Ed Sabol, Steve Sabol, John Facenda, Sam Spence and Phillip Spieller create the NFL Films hallmarks.

Munich, Germany is the adopted base for Sam Spence and his music work with NFL Films.

During the era prior to both NFL Films and Sam Spence, sports television music frequently sounded ceremonial, specifically fanfares and marches.

Under Sam Spence's influence, NFL Films used cinematic Hollywood-like orchestral music.

In his NFL Films music work, Sam Spence's influence derives from many world-famous Hollywood music composers, like Miklos Rozsa and Dimitri Tiomkin.

Phillip Spieller creates a process in which he combines music cues composed by NFL Films' in-house composers, like Sam Spence, with prerecorded tracks from stock music labels.

Due to Phillip Spieller's process, NFL Films uses its cinematic Hollywood-like orchestral sound.

Network Music, FirstCom and Killer Tracks are stock music labels from radio jingle makers.

The Network Music/FirstCom/Killer Tracks trio revolutionized the stock music scene by adapting the dynamic and high-energy sensibilities being created by radio jingles.

KPM/EMI (and the Robin Phillips/Adrian Kerridge duo) pioneered a modern sound, but the Network Music/FirstCom/Killer Tracks trio (rooted in radio jingles) changed stock music.

For this Network Music/FirstCom/Killer Tracks trio, their innovations in the stock music business are being rooted in business models, technology and production standards.

Craig Palmer is the principal composer of the Network Music Ensemble, indeed its catalogue.

For Network Music, it pioneered the buyout music format, but also elements, like alt-mixes, stings and 30/60-second cutdowns.

Meanwhile, FirstCom is one of the first stock music labels to release albums on CDs.

Likewise, Killer Tracks pushed stock music into the digital CD era.

All in all, the commercial model by the Network Music/FirstCom/Killer Tracks trio was such a success that it laid the groundwork for massive consolidation by major record labels.

Stock music largely used traditional music, notably orchestral and jazz, before the KPM 1000 Series.

From the mid-1960's to the early-1980's, some of the typical styles being used in the stock music scene included top forty fare à la funk, laid-back fare à la Henry Mancini and electronica.

In addition to specially-composed tunes, stock music composers also made soundalikes of the top forty songs à la funk and Hollywood-like film scores used in low-budget films and television.