The Composer in Hollywood by Christopher Palmer

by Christopher Palmer

Christopher Palmer discusses the life and work of eleven great Hollywood composers-Steiner, Korngold, Newman, Waxman, Tiomkin, Webb, Rozsa, Herrmann, North, Bernstein and Rosenman-analyzing the scores of many well-known or remarkable films, almost scene by scene. Each chapter is written in clear non-technical language for the general reader as well as film and music enthusiasts.

Genres: Film, Music

Hardcover

First published October 1, 1990

Reviews

[Odeliah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely informative, well written, and a great topic, too :)

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative overview of the lives and works of eleven (plus) Hollywood composers of the Golden Age (1930s to 1950s): Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newman, Franz Waxman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Roy Webb, Miklos Rozsa, Bernard Herrmann, and (grouped all together in an "End of an Era" chapter) Alex North, Elmer Bernstein, Leonard Rosenman, and Jerome Moross. The author, Christopher Palmer, admits his is not an unbiased account, as he worked with and/or knew personally several of these composers. He particularly seems to favor Tiomkin and Rozsa, which makes sense when one sees that he wrote separate books about each of them.

A couple negatives. First, that the book is a bit dated. Written between 1970 and 1988 and published in 1990, his word choices and reference points to the "future" of film music might seem antiquated. All Asian music is Oriental and exotic. Russian music is also exotic. Passing reference to a Negro chorus. European is the norm. At one point he proclaims how wonderful it is to be able to hear scores now on LP records, cassette tapes, AND CDs. Definitely pre-Internet. Second, there are quite a few typos in the second half, more than the occasional skipped word that the brain can adjust for, so it interrupts the flow of reading.

Overall, a fascinating introduction to the development of film music during this time period.

[Dave Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting insight into the world and lives of Hollywood composers in the golden era and its aftermath. My attention flagged a little in the Miklos Rozsa chapter, which felt like it went on a little too long with just descriptions of how the music worked for specific scenes of specific films, and there are a few typos in later chapters. There's a degree of music tech-talk but not too much for general non-musicologist readers like me. Palmer's personal opinions on the state of “current” film music (the book was published in 1990) are clear enough – especially in the epilogue – and reminded me somewhat of those espoused by poster artist Drew Struzan in his book - viz. “fings ain't what they used to be.”