Miklos Rozsa

It's Miklos Rozsa's birthday. He was born 99 years ago today in Budapest.

Rozsa was the 2nd greatest composer of the Golden Age of Hollywood (Bernard Herrmann was the greatest, duh). While his music was firmly rooted in both the European tradition and Hungarian folk music (a la Bartok) it also had an undeniably more "modern" quality than many of his European contemporaries who emigrated from Europe and found themselves working in pictures.

Rozsa had a lengthy list of both film and concert works that distinguish themselves from many of his contemporaries, was well traveled and moved in the circles of the artistic elite regardless of where he found himself. He greatly disliked many of the films he scored but still lavished great attention on most of them (there's a lesson in there I think). He was also one of the few composers in Hollywood that Bernard Herrmann openly respected, which was extremely rare. He was also a musicologist (he was awarded a PhD at the Leipzig Conservatory) and threw himself into research for such films as Quo vadis?, Ivanhoe and El Cid in order to better colour (that's for you, Tim) his scores.

I suggest his book, A Double Life, if you can get your hands on it. It's a great read.

The Playlist:

Symphony in 3 Movements (if you like Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, this is a great spin)
String Quartets 1 & 2

Julius Caesar - probably one of Rozsa's most thoughtful scores in which he makes interesting use of overdubbing and stereo separation during the lengthy final scene.

Ben-Hur - pretty much one of the greatest scores for one of the greatest films ever.

Knights of the Round Table - a dull script and wooden performance by Robert Taylor (as Lancelot) don't stand in the way of Rozsa's score being detailed and rousing.

El Cid - yet another epic role for Charlton Heston.

Throwing Out The First Pitch

I've waited six months for this day.

Opening Day.

My Cardinals will be taking on the Phillies in Philadelphia at 3:05 eastern. I'm so excited!

Cardinals/Yankees World Series, anyone?