Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Part of the 20th Century Composers series.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) is an extraordinary figure who bridged the worlds of series music, operetta and film scores, from Mahler to Errol Flynn.

The son of Vienna's most powerful turn-of-the-century music critic, he achieved legendary status as a child-prodigy composer with the operas "Violanta" and "Die tote Stadt". But later fiascos and the pressures of adult life steered him into arranging the operattas of Johann Strauss and his contemporaries, and thence Hollywood. Here he spent the war years, becoming a high regarded composer of incidental music for films such as "The Sea Hawk" and "The Adventures of Robin Hood". While ignoring the changing tides of musical fashion, Korngold continued to write in his own lush, romantic idiom, creating scores which ironically establish him - within the film-music genre - as one of the century's most influential composers.

Now, as his concert and stage music is also enjoying a great revival of interest, this study offers a reappraisal of Korngold's life and work, revealing a great sense of personal integrity and conviction for musical ideals which are the hallmarks of a true artist.

Includes black-and-white illustrations.