MUSIC 246
Lecture 7
Thursday, February 16, 2012

Miklos Rosza (1907-1995)
- Hungarian
- Mother is a classical pianist
- Studies in Leipzig and Paris
- Successful career as composer
- At the suggestion of Arthur Honegger, Rosza goes into film scoring (1934)
- Does some film work in England, 1934-1939
- Due to World War II, travels to US in 1939 to complete The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
- Jungle Book (1942) (first soundtrack released on record in the U.S.)

Film Noir
Double Indemnity (1944)

- 1945: Spellbound and The Lost Weekend
- Both nominated for Academy Awards (SB won)
- Both films are psychological in nature, dealing with disturbed characters
- Both used the Theremin (see textbook, page 31)
- One of the first times we see the use of an electronic instrument in a film score

Rosza is also an important composer of the 1950s but he would be remembered for scoring a very different kind of picture than film Noir

David Raksin: (1912-2004)
- born in Philadelphia
- Father was a conductor for silent films
- early career as pianist and arranger for Jazz bands in NY (Benny Goodman)
- worked with Chaplin on Modern times - entry into film music 1935

Laura (1944)
Director Otto Preminger wanted "Sophisticated Lady" by Duke Ellington (about a prostitute)
- Raksin composes own theme (famous heartbreak story)

- psychological thriller (who-done-it)
- motivations and misdirection
- Monothematic - based on a single theme
- Non-European sound - based on American Jazz
- music not driving the suspense, more like the ghost or the "ideal" of Laura

