Miklós Rózsa

Miklós Rózsa (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈmikloːʃ ˈroːʒɒ]) or Miklos Rozsa (18 April 1907 – 27 July 1995) was a Hungarian-born composer and conductor, best known for his numerous film scores. Along with such composers as Bernard Herrmann, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newman, Max Steiner and Franz Waxman, Rózsa is considered to be one of the "founding fathers of film music. Miklós Rózsa studied the violin from the age of five. In 1926, he began studying at the Leipzig Conservatory. In 1929, his violin concerto was performed there. While living in Paris from 1931, Rózsa had his 'Variations on a Hungarian Peasant Song' and his 'Symphony and Serenade for Small Orchestra' performed. After settling in London in 1935, he composed the ballet, 'Hungaria'. Luckily he met fellow Hungarian, Alexander Korda, who commissioned him to write an opulent score for Knight Without Armour (1937). While composing the score for The Thief of Bagdad (1940), Rózsa moved to California, where he remained. His film music, though often in the foreground, was seldom intrusive, most often amplifying the image. During the 40s, his eerie mood music enhanced many a film noir. The Dragnet "dum de dum dum" theme was previously used by Rózsa in his score for "The Killers" (1946). It can be prominently found in the resturant shootout scene toward the end of the film. His Violin Concerto No. 2, written in 1956 for Jascha Heifetz and recorded that year for RCA Victor, was used as source material for the 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes His address in the 1990s was 2936 Montcalm Avenue, Los Angeles, California. His Violin Concerto No. 2, written in 1956 for Jascha Heifetz and recorded that year for RCA Victor, was used as source material for the film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970). Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 532-534. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Rózsa considered his score for Spellbound (1945) one of his best, but "Alfred Hitchcock didn't like the music - said it got in the way of his direction. I never saw him since." Rózsa never spoke an ungrateful word about the climate for composing in Hollywood, but he "never went near the studio except when it was absolutely necessary". Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.