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Franz Waxman (24 December 1906 – 24 February 1967) was a Jewish German American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films.

Life

Waxman was born Franz Wachsmann in Königshütte (Chorzów) in the German Empire's Prussian Province of Silesia (now in Poland). At the age of three Waxman suffered a serious eye injury involving boiling water tipped from a stove, which permanently impaired his vision.

Waxman orchestrated Frederick Hollander's score for the 1930 film Blue Angel and then wrote original scores for several German films. With the Nazis in power from 1933, he worked briefly in France, composing the music for Fritz Lang's French version of Liliom, but arrived in the United States by 1935. He was commissioned to write the score for Bride of Frankenstein, his first American film, by director James Whale who had admired his score for Liliom. During his career, Waxman received 12 Academy Award nominations, winning in consecutive years for Sunset Boulevard and A Place in the Sun.

In addition to his film scores, Waxman composed concert works and, in 1947, founded the Los Angeles International Music Festival, which he headed for twenty years. During his tenure, the festival served as the venue for world and American premieres of 80 major works by composers such as Igor Stravinsky, William Walton, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dmitri Shostakovich and Arnold Schoenberg.

According to the autobiography of fellow composer Miklós Rózsa, Waxman conducted a performance of Stravinsky's work Greeting Prelude (based on the song Happy Birthday). The performance lasted exactly sixty seconds. In this book, A Double Life, Rózsa stated that Stravinsky gave precise instructions that a performance of this piece should last exactly sixty seconds. Consequently, Stravinsky was very happy with Waxman's conducting of the work.

Franz Waxman worked with the director Alfred Hitchcock in four films, including Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), The Paradine Case (1947), and Rear Window (1954). Bernard Herrmann, Franz Waxman, Louis Levy, and Dmitri Tiomkin are the only composers who often worked with Alfred Hitchcock. Although Miklos Rozsa wrote most of the music for Spellbound (1945), some of Franz Waxman's music was also also used, especially the scene the where Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman are skiing. Franz Waxman had two Oscar Nominations for his scores with Alfred Hitchcock - Rebecca and Suspicion

Waxman died of cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 60.

Legacy

Some of Waxman's music has been featured on commercial recordings, both on LP and CD. Charles Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic Orchestra played highlights from various Waxman scores for an RCA Victor recording in the early 1970s that utilized Dolby surround sound.

Selected filmography

• Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
• Fury (1936)
• Captains Courageous (1937)
• A Christmas Carol (1938)
• The Young in Heart (1938) (2 Academy Award nominations)
• Rebecca (1940) (Academy Award nomination)
• The Philadelphia Story (1940)
• Suspicion (1941) (Academy Award nomination)
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) (Academy Award nomination)
• Her Cardboard Lover (1942)
• Objective, Burma! (1945) (Academy Award nomination)
• Humoresque (1946) (Academy Award nomination)
• Dark City (1950)
• The Furies (1950)
• Sunset Boulevard (1950) (Academy Award)
• He Ran All the Way (1951)
• Anne of the Indies (1951)
• A Place in the Sun (1951) (Academy Award)
• Phone Call from a Stranger (1952)
• Stalag 17 (1953)
• Rear Window (1954)
• The Silver Chalice (1954) (Academy Award nomination)
• Mister Roberts (1955)
• Peyton Place (1957)
• The Nun's Story (1959) (Academy Award nomination)
• "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" (1959) (episode of The Twilight Zone)
• Return to Peyton Place (1961)
• Taras Bulba (1962) (Academy Award nomination)

Selected concert works

• Carmen Fantasie, violin and orchestra
• Tristan and Isolde Fantasy, violin and orchestra

External links

• Franz Waxman at the Internet Movie Database
• Franz Waxman: extensive list of works
• Article by fellow composer David Raksin on Franz Waxman
• Official site on Franz Waxman, which provides comprehensive information on Waxman's life and works, and includes a discography
• Brief biography and list of compositions at www.musicuk.us
• Biographical overview of Waxman and listing of his works - in German
• Guide to Waxman's papers at Syracuse University Library

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 5 January 2009, at 19:24.

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