Favorite scores or composers from the Golden Age?

[Matt C 454]

I know this is primarily a JW-centered forum (with plenty of worship threads for the Maestro, Zimmer, Goldsmith, et al), but I don't hear much love for the Golden Age of film scores from the '30s through the '60s led by in-demand composers like Steiner, Tiomkin, Korngold, Herrmann, Rosza, and few others I'm sure I'm missing.

It's a film score period I'm warming up to. I think the score that got me interested was Korngold's work on The Adventures of Robin Hood. Then it was Rozsa's sublime work on Thief of Bagdad and so forth. The Golden Age is an embarrassment of riches, quality-wise, but I know it's not every score fan's cup of tea.

[MrJosh 892]

I'm also warming up to the golden age but so far I have only devoted time to Herrmann and Rozsa both of which I have grown to love, especially Rozsa. I still need to get to know Alfred Newman, Tiomkin, Waxman and others

[KK 3,307]

ooh, thats a tough one. There's just so many great gems to pick from. I think amongst tough competition, the legendary Miklos Rozsa would win as my favourite Golden Age composer. But favourite score? Tough. I'll come back with a long elaborate list once I get the chance

[Koray Savas 2,251]

North's Spartacus

Tiomkin's The Alamo

Rozsa's El Cid

[chuck 154]

Is Alfred Newman's How The West Was Won a part of the Golden Age? I like that robust Western score a lot. And of course Captain From Castile.

[publicist 4,643]

I guess i would list the following as good starting points (and some of my favourites, too) for modern score lovers (leaving out Mr. Savas, who might like another listen to HEART OF A VOLUNTEER instead)

EL CID / BEN HUR (Miklos Rozsa)

CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE / THE ROBE / DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (Alfred Newman)

THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS / TARAS BULBA / NUN'S STORY (very Williams!)

ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN (Max Steiner)

[Brónach 1,302]

I'm a big fan of some score4s of the time but I still have some important composers to explore.

Some favourites: Journey to the Center of the Earth, El Cid, Taras Bulba, Ivanhoe.

[Incanus 5,715]

Some of my favourites among Golden Age composers and scores:

Bernard Herrmann: Psycho, Citizen Kane, Devil and Daniel Webster, North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Cape Fear

Miklós Rozsa: Ben Hur, El Cid, Providence, The Thief of Bagdad, Julius Caesar, Quo Vadis, The King of Kings, The Private Live of Sherlock Holmes, Spellbound

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Seahawk, Seawolf, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Private Lives of Elisabeth and Essex, Captain Blood.

Fraz Waxman: Taras Bulba, Sunset Boulevard, The Bride of Frankenstein

[Richard Penna 3,694]

Thanks to a recent Hitchcock binge, I've heard plenty of excellent Herrmann scores - North by Northwest, Psycho, Vertigo

And I sought out the full versions of some of the 'themes' that were heard in the 2002 oscars medley - I think all of the heavyweights from that era were in there.

I also appear to have a golden age compilation; one of the prague re-recordings, mostly with the stuff Incanus mentioned above. The style of scoring is vastly different though - not entirely my thing.

[mrbellamy 6,287]

Hugo Friedhofer's The Best Years of Our Lives came to mind first. Lots of others already mentioned that I adore, as well.

[Incanus 5,715]

Now that we are asking recommendations, what scores would people recommend from Alfred Newman, the man who people so often talk as the great master of the genre. I have to admit I am far more versed in the younger generation of Newmans than their father.

[Romão 2,274]

My personal favorite of his is probably the Robe. Airport is a lot of fun

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Sea Hawk, Robin Hood, King's Row

Max Steiner: They Died With Their Boots On, Dodge City, Don Juan

Franz Waxman: Objective, Burma!

Alfred Newman: How the West Was Won

Alex North: Spartacus, 2001, Dragonslayer

[Incanus 5,715]

Max Steiner: King Kong, The Adventures of Mark Twain and The Treasure of Sierra Madre

[ShowUStheHOOK 8]

Max Steiner,, Now, Voyager, A Summer Place

Korngold... Adventures of Robin Hood

Edward Ward: Phantom of the Opera ( 1943 ), Man of a Thousand Faces

[Jilal 569]

The Sea Hawk is a wonderful score, as is King Kong, but I prefer Korngold over Steiner.

How the West Was Won has a wonderful main title and I guess the score is probably just as wonderful but I've never fully heard it.

[MSM 126]

1) Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Captain Blood, King's Row, Sea Hawk (and everything else he has written)

2) Dmitri Tiomkin - The Alamo

3) Victor Young - Around the World in 80 Days, Scaramouche

4) Max Steiner - Gone With The Wind

5) Jerome Moross - The Big Country

6) Miklos Rosza - Ivanhoe, Ben Hur

7) Bernard Herrmann - Mysterious Island

Not a big fan of Alex North and Alfred Newman (except for the 20th Century Fanfare)

[Omen II 1,235]

Hugo Friedhofer's The Best Years of Our Lives came to mind first.

Yes! A quite magnificent score, one of the finest of all time.

There are loads of good shouts already, but some of my personal favourites include:

The Robe, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Alfred Newman)

Shane, Scaramouche (Victor Young)

Scott of the Antarctic (Ralph Vaughan Williams)

Things to Come (Arthur Bliss)

The Big Country (Jerome Moross)

The House of Frankenstein (Hans Salter, Paul Dessau and others)

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Casablanca, King Kong (Max Steiner)

Odd Man Out (William Alwyn)

The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, The Constant Nymph (Erich Wolfgang Korngold)

El Cid, Ivanhoe, The Thief of Bagdad (Miklos Rozsa)

Mysterious Island, The Day the Earth Stood Still (Bernard Herrmann)

Red River, The Fall of the Roman Empire (Dimitri Tiomkin)

A Streetcar Named Desire (Alex North)

The Best Years of Our Lives (Hugo Friedhofer)

[Hlao-roo 389]

I really do enjoy the compilation of scores Elmer Bernstein recorded in the seventies. A good place to start, actually, for those new to the era.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I guess i would list the following as good starting points (and some of my favourites, too) for modern score lovers (leaving out Mr. Savas, who might like another listen to HEART OF A VOLUNTEER instead)

The great thing about me is that I listen to all music and styles.

[Hlao-roo 389]

You are indeed great, Koray. And inspired, too.

[mrbellamy 6,287]

Now that we are asking recommendations, what scores would people recommend from Alfred Newman, the man who people so often talk as the great master of the genre. I have to admit I am far more versed in the younger generation of Newmans than their father.

Surprised nobody's mentioned Wuthering Heights yet. I assume you're familiar with Cathy's Theme, at least, considering it's on Johnny's Cinema Serenade: The Golden Age album. One of the all-time great movie themes:

[Matt C 454]

I'm surprised people aren't giving more love for Korngold's Prince and the Pauper. The prince's theme is too saccharine, yes, but cues like "Duel", "Knife Fight", "Seal #1" and "Seal #2" and the theatrical trailer music is amazing stuff. Some of the more frenetic music I think upstages Korngold's later score for Adventures of Robin Hood in terms of orchestration and harmony.

[Incanus 5,715]

I'm surprised people aren't giving more love for Korngold's Prince and the Pauper. The prince's theme is too saccharine, yes, but cues like "Duel", "Knife Fight", "Seal #1" and "Seal #2" and the theatrical trailer music is amazing stuff. Some of the more frenetic music I think upstages Korngold's later score for Adventures of Robin Hood in terms of orchestration and harmony.

Sorry. I completely forgot to mention Prince and the Pauper another fine Korngold score. His entire output for film was kind of terrific, wasn't it.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

Korngold is certainly number one for me. All his swashbuckling film scores are top notch, of course, but the rest is great too, and often just as enjoyable. I only recently discovered how fantastic Anthony Adverse must be from the clip on the first Charles Gerhardt album (I'd only known the one on his second Korngold album before). This is still needs a release and/or re-recording. The operas are wortwhile, too, by the way.

Steiner is hit and miss for me. There's great stuff like the fantastic Don Juan, but also perfectly good stuff that works great in a suite, but leaves me rather indifferent as a full score. Not that keen for King Kong as a whole, for example.

I have my favourites from Rozsa, Newman & Co., but I never really got into their work as a whole. I'm not really sure I can count Herrmann among the Golden age composers (though of course the chronology fits).

And not to forget Scaramouche, which fortunately has been mentioned twice already. I still don't know any other Victor Young score (recommendations, with descriptions?), but this one is absolutely fantastic and one of my favourites in general. And the same goes for the movie.

[Moloko 0]

I really like a lot of film scores by Bronisław Kaper. Mutiny on the Bounty is probably his most popular score (It's a real masterpiece! Kaper virtually wrote two different versions for the film.) But I also like his "smaller" scores like the ones on FSM's "Kaper at MGM" Box.

[Romão 2,274]

Marco Polo (which is now Naxos Film music classics, than includes both several of Marco Polo previous recordings and new recordings of Golden Age scores), is a wonderful sampler and eye opener of often not very well known scores from this era. I tend to buy pretty much all of their releases, and that was how I got familiar with wonderful stuff as Auric's Belle et la Bete, Shostakovich's Hamlet, or Objective Burma by Waxman

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I'm not really sure I can count Herrmann among the Golden age composers (though of course the chronology fits).

Stylistically he does seem to be beating a very different drum then the others you mentioned. Herrmann for some reason sounds more timeless to me.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

He's certainly much less tied to the German Romantic than the Korngold group was. If you equate that with "outdated", Herrmann is certainly more timeless.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Scores like The Adventures Of Robin Hood, Gone With The Wind etc seem very much of a certain time and era. Citizen Kane doesn't have that as much.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

I'd agree with you about Korngold/Steiner vs Herrmann in general. But Citizen Kane, as far as I recall it (it's been years since I've heard the full score) always had a strong (deliberate) period sound to me, at least in some cues. Not in the more dramatic parts of the underscore, probably.

But then again, Herrmann could also write wonderfully Mozart-style classical music for Gulliver. But his "typical" stuff is less traditionally rooted and more on the minimalistic side.

[Faleel 5,355]

Ben-Hur

El Cid

The Ten Commandments

The Sand Pebbles (yeah I know...)

[Incanus 5,715]

I'd agree with you about Korngold/Steiner vs Herrmann in general. But Citizen Kane, as far as I recall it (it's been years since I've heard the full score) always had a strong (deliberate) period sound to me, at least in some cues. Not in the more dramatic parts of the underscore, probably.

Citizen Kane does employ a period sound in the middle section of the score with all the horn pipe polkas and prestos and scherzos for the news paper and more upbeat scenes but most of the music is really ruminative, brooding and dark, very Herrmannesque and quite individual for the period of Hollywood film making. Herrmann went deep past the apparent and into the psyhology and meaning of the tale and for example his opening music for the Xanadu is grim and unyielding almost without a hint of the typical Hollywood theatrics where even the darker mood was offset by certain sense of melodrama. And it really sounds timeless and it could have been written today without it being out of place. The re-recording of the complete score by Joel McNeely and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra was a revelation for me as I had only heard the Inquirer Polka and similar highly sprightly material from Kane before that.

EDIT: As this thread prompted me to take another listen of this score, it becomes apparent how timeless and beautifully nuanced it is. There is some extremely beautiful and psychologically sharp material here, the main theme, sadly left unnoted in many suites and presentations on compilations, running through the underscore all the time, Herrmann drawing constant commentary on the story with it. Salaambo's Aria of course is another melodramatic highlight.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

The re-recording of the complete score by Joel McNeely and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra was a revelation for me as I had only heard the Inquirer Polka and similar highly sprightly material from Kane before that.

If you don't know it, get Gerhardt's Herrmann album, which has a couple of cues from Kane, including a stupendous rendition of the aria. It's one of Gerhardt's best albums, and that's saying something.

I still need the McNeely.

[Romão 2,274]

The main theme gets one absolutely spine tingling rendition in the finale. Both versions of it sound great, but the Gerhardt blows me away.

I also love Gerhardt's recording of the aria from the fictional opera Salammbo (although there is a real opera inspired by the very same work of Flaubert, written by Mussorgsky) and I love how they actually made it to sound as good as possible (since the singer was suposed to be less than stellar in the movie)

[MSM 126]

He's certainly much less tied to the German Romantic than the Korngold group was. If you equate that with "outdated", Herrmann is certainly more timeless.

I disagree especially as to concert works. Korngold's symphonic poems are as timeless as anything written by Wagner or Richard Strauss. His film work is definitely not his best.

I really do enjoy the compilation of scores Elmer Bernstein recorded in the seventies. A good place to start, actually, for those new to the era.

I left out Elmer Berrnstein because I did not regard him part of the Golden Age.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

He's certainly much less tied to the German Romantic than the Korngold group was. If you equate that with "outdated", Herrmann is certainly more timeless.

I disagree especially as to concert works. Korngold's symphonic poems are as timeless as anything written by Wagner or Richard Strauss. His film work is definitely not his best.

Timeless is a relative term. They're mostly still clearly Romantic, as are Wagner's and most of Strauss' works. John Mauceri argues that Strauss was in fact not near the end of the Romantic period but rather in the middle, and that symphonic film music is the true heyday of Romantic music.

[MSM 126]

He's certainly much less tied to the German Romantic than the Korngold group was. If you equate that with "outdated", Herrmann is certainly more timeless.

I disagree especially as to concert works. Korngold's symphonic poems are as timeless as anything written by Wagner or Richard Strauss. His film work is definitely not his best.

Timeless is a relative term. They're mostly still clearly Romantic, as are Wagner's and most of Strauss' works. John Mauceri argues that Strauss was in fact not near the end of the Romantic period but rather in the middle, and that symphonic film music is the true heyday of Romantic music.

So are you arguing that whether music is timeless or not depends on in which period is has been written? If so, than Mozart's music would be certainly outdated? Of course Hermann is 20th century music and may sound more modern, but IMO this does not have anything to do with timelessness. Only time will tell which music is timeless in the sense of 'durable'.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

If you were to score a modern drama film entirely with Mozart cues then yes, I think the result would be something that many people would call outdated.

I'm not saying I agree with these people, though I see their point to some extent. For example, a "modern" drama would probably work with a Herrmann score, but not with a Korngold score. Nevertheless it's great music, and great for what it was written for.

[Romão 2,274]

And who knows, that kind of music may become fashionable once again

[JoeinAR 1,949]

I'm very partial to the work of Han J Salter and all his b-movie and stock scores. He along with Mancini, Waxman, Stein, composed music for the B films of the era. Salter never really got to the A-list films, yet the music is interesting and memorable.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I fear that ship has sailed Merkel.

[Brónach 1,302]

Not necesarily.

[Matt C 454]

I forgot about Prince Valiant by Franz Waxman. A terrific Golden Age score.

[Wojo 2,453]

Rozsa is probably my favorite Golden Age composer, based solely on the magnificence of El Cid and Ben Hur, but I do own a good number of his other scores. I have also bought albums by Tiomkin, Steiner, E. Bernstein, Herrmann, Waxman, Harburg, etc.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

What about Korngold then?

[MSM 126]

What about Korngold then?

I second that.

[Wojo 2,453]

I said etcetera. He's in there.

[KK 3,307]

Rozsa is probably my favorite Golden Age composer, based solely on the magnificence of El Cid and Ben Hur, but I do own a good number of his other scores. I have also bought albums by Tiomkin, Steiner, E. Bernstein, Herrmann, Waxman, Harburg, etc.

Indeed. Rozsa stands on top for me too. His works are just so incredibly immense in scope (I'm referring to stuff like Ben Hur, King of Kings, Quo Vadis, El Cid, etc). Having said that, I love many of the other Golden Age composers mentioned here, although I would have put Korngold before the etc

[Wojo 2,453]

Wow...