“The fundamental things apply, As time goes by …” So goes the song written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931, made famous by its appearance in the classic film, Casabalanca. The man who composed the score for that film and others was Max Steiner. He and fellow Viennese composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold are credited with creating the sound and template for symphonic film scoring. There’d be no film score to “Star Wars” without the film score to “King’s Row” (composer and living treasure John Williams would be the first to credit Korngold). I mention these heroes of movie music because I just completed an intensive two weeks of work in Vienna. The first week was focused on the music of Steiner and Korngold in the recording studio, and the second week was focused on the flugelhorn playing of Franco Ambrosetti, accompanied by strings and rhythm section in Vienna’s famed Konzerthaus. I […]

March 2024 Issue