Maximilian Raoul Steiner (May 10, 1888 – December 28, 1971) was an Austrian-born American music composer for theatre and films, as well as a conductor.
Many of his film scores are available as separate soundtrack recordings. ==Biography== ===Early years (1888–1907)=== Max Steiner was born on May 10, 1888, in Austria-Hungary, as the only child in a wealthy business and theatrical family of Jewish heritage.
He enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Music in 1904, where, due to his precocious musical talents and private tutoring by Robert Fuchs, and Gustav Mahler, he completed a four-year course in only one year, winning himself a gold medal from the academy at the age of fifteen.
Steiner paid tribute to Lehár through an operetta modeled after Lehár's Die lustige Witwe which Steiner staged in 1907 in Vienna.
Although he took composition classes from Weingartner, as a young boy, Steiner always wanted to be a great conductor. Between 1907 and 1914, Steiner traveled between Britain and Europe to work on theatrical productions.
According to author of Max Steiner's "Now, Voyager" Kate Daubney, Steiner may also have been influenced by Felix Weingartner who conducted the Vienna Opera from 1908 to 1911.
According to author of Max Steiner's "Now, Voyager" Kate Daubney, Steiner may also have been influenced by Felix Weingartner who conducted the Vienna Opera from 1908 to 1911.
Steiner married Beatrice Tilt on September 12, 1912.
Although he took composition classes from Weingartner, as a young boy, Steiner always wanted to be a great conductor. Between 1907 and 1914, Steiner traveled between Britain and Europe to work on theatrical productions.
But the beginning of World War I in 1914 led him to be interned as an enemy alien.
He arrived in New York City in December 1914, with only $32.
At twenty-seven years old, Steiner became Fox Film's musical director in 1915.
During his time working on Broadway, he married Audree van Lieu on April 27, 1927.
In 1927, Steiner orchestrated and conducted Harry Tierney's Rio Rita.
He was a child prodigy who conducted his first operetta when he was twelve and became a full-time professional, either composing, arranging, or conducting, when he was fifteen. Steiner worked in England, then Broadway, and in 1929, he moved to Hollywood, where he became one of the first composers to write music scores for films.
Steiner's final production on Broadway was Sons O' Guns in 1929. ===Scoring for RKO (1929–1937)=== By request of Harry Tierney, RKO hired Max Steiner as an orchestrator and his first film job consisted of composing music for the main and end titles and occasional "on screen" music.
Composer of the Star Wars film score, John Williams cited Steiner as well as other European emigrant composers in the 1930s and 1940s "Golden Age" of film music as influences of his work.
In 1932, Steiner was asked by David O.
Steiner was criticized for this technique as the awareness of the film music can ruin the narrative illusion of the film; however, Steiner understood the importance of letting the film take the spotlight, making the music, "subordinate..to the picture," stating that, "if it gets too decorative, it loses its emotional appeal." Before 1932, producers of sound films tried to avoid the use of background music, because viewers would wonder where the music was coming from.
They divorced on December 14, 1933.
In fact, during the tribal sacrifice scene of the 2005 version, the music playing is from Steiner's score of the same scene in the 1933 version.
He continued as RKO's music director for two more years, until 1936.
Max married Louise Klos, a harpist, in 1936.
Selznick set up his own production company in 1936 and recruited Steiner to write the scores for his next three films. === Composing for Warner Bros.
Consequently, even though Steiner's score for The Informer won the Academy Award in 1936, the Academy does not officially consider Steiner as the individual winner of the award, as Steiner accepted the award on behalf of RKO's music department of which he was the department head.
Some writers have erroneously referred to the cue as featuring Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria". In 1937, Steiner was hired by Frank Capra to conduct Dimitri Tiomkin's score for Lost Horizon (1937) as a safeguard in case Steiner needed to rewrite the score by an inexperienced Tiomkin; however, according to Hugo Friedhofer, Tiomkin specifically asked for Steiner, preferring him over the film studio's then music director.
(1937–1953) === In April 1937, Steiner left RKO and signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros.; he would, however, continue to work for Selznick.
In 1938, Steiner wrote and arranged the first "composed for film" piece, Symphony Moderne which a character plays on the piano and later plays as a theme in Four Daughters (1938) and is performed by a full orchestra in Four Wives (1939). In 1939, Steiner was borrowed from Warner Bros.
In 1938, Steiner wrote and arranged the first "composed for film" piece, Symphony Moderne which a character plays on the piano and later plays as a theme in Four Daughters (1938) and is performed by a full orchestra in Four Wives (1939). In 1939, Steiner was borrowed from Warner Bros.
Steiner was given only three months to complete the score, despite composing twelve more film scores in 1939, more than he would in any other year of his career.
Prior to 1939, the Academy recognized a studio's music department, rather than the individual composer, with a nomination in the scoring category.
The Big Sleep, Mildred Pierce, and The Letter were his best film noir scores of the 1940s.
Composer of the Star Wars film score, John Williams cited Steiner as well as other European emigrant composers in the 1930s and 1940s "Golden Age" of film music as influences of his work.
Steiner's score for The Letter was nominated for the 1941 Academy Award for Best Original Score, losing to Walt Disney's Pinocchio.
Steiner received his third and final Oscar in 1944 for Since You Went Away (1944).
They had a son, Ron, together and they divorced in 1946.
He originally received plaques for Now, Voyager and Since You Went Away, but those plaques were replaced with Academy Award statuettes in 1946.
In 1947, Max married Leonette Blair. Steiner also found success with the film noir genre.
Steiner uses the contrast of high strings and low strings and brass to emphasize Philip's feelings for Vivian opposed with the brutality of the criminal world.In 1947, Steiner scored a film noir Western, Pursued. Steiner had more success with the Western genre of film, writing the scores for over twenty large-scale Westerns, most with epic-inspiring scores "about empire building and progress," like Dodge City (1939), The Oklahoma Kid (1939), and Virginia City (1940).
The Searchers (1956) is, today, considered his greatest Western. ===Later works (1953–1965)=== Although his contract ended in 1953, Steiner returned to Warner Bros.
In 1954, RCA Victor asked Steiner to prepare and conduct an orchestral suite of music from Gone with the Wind for a special LP, which was later issued on CD.
in 1958 and scored several films such as Band of Angels, Marjorie Morningstar, and John Paul Jones, and later ventured into television.
Steiner wrote into his seventies, ailing and near blind, but his compositions "revealed a freshness and fertility of invention." A theme for A Summer Place in 1959, written when Steiner was 71, became one of Warner Brothers' biggest hit-tunes for years and a re-recorded pop standard.
This memorable instrumental theme spent nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1960 (in an instrumental cover version by Percy Faith).
Steiner continued to score films produced by Warner until the mid-sixties. In 1963, Steiner began writing his autobiography.
Steiner scored his last piece in 1965; however, he claimed he would have scored more films had he been offered the opportunity.
Additional selections of Steiner scores were included on other RCA classic film albums during the early 1970s.
In fact, George Lucas wanted Williams to use the scores of Steiner and Korngold as influences for the music for Star Wars, despite the rarity of grandiose film music and the lack of use of leitmotifs and full orchestrations during the 1970s. Often compared to his contemporary Erich Wolfgang Korngold, his rival and friend at Warner Bros., the music of Steiner was often seen by critics as inferior to Korngold.
Maximilian Raoul Steiner (May 10, 1888 – December 28, 1971) was an Austrian-born American music composer for theatre and films, as well as a conductor.
In 1975, Steiner was honored with a star located at 1551 Vine Street on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to motion pictures.
When the Steiner collection went to Brigham Young University in 1981, the organization disbanded.
In commemoration of Steiner's 100th birthday, a memorial plaque was unveiled by Helmut Zilk, then mayor of Vienna, in 1988 at Steiner's birthplace, the Hotel Nordbahn (now Austria Classic Hotel Wien) on Praterstraße 72.
In 1990, Steiner was one of the first to be recognized for Lifetime Achievement by an online awards site. ===Legacy among composers=== In Kurt London's Film Music, London expressed the opinion that American film music was inferior to European film music because it lacked originality of composition; he cited the music of Steiner as an exception to the rule.
In 1995, Steiner was inducted posthumously into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Steiner's 20 nominations make him the third most nominated individual in the history of the scoring categories, behind John Williams and Alfred Newman. The United States Postal Service issued its "American Music Series" stamps on September 16, 1999, to pay tribute to renowned Hollywood composers, including Steiner.
For example, films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Sting, and Manhattan, had scores with recognizable tunes instead of having a preferred "subliminal" effect.
James Newton Howard, who composed the score for the 2005 remake of King Kong, stated that he was influenced by Steiner's score; his descending theme when Kong first appears is reminiscent of Steiner's score.
In fact, during the tribal sacrifice scene of the 2005 version, the music playing is from Steiner's score of the same scene in the 1933 version.
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