Max Steiner

Known as the father of film music, Max Steiner set the precedent for what Hollywood scores sounded like and many of the methods, both artistic and technical, by which they were written and recorded. Steiner was born in Austria-Hungary and wrote his first operetta at age 15. After moving to America, he had a stint on Broadway but found his true calling when he moved to Hollywood in 1929. The film Symphony for Six Million was the first prominent Hollywood film that featured underscore that played under a majority of the picture. The next year, he scored the monumental King King, incorporating identifiable themes and motifs in a score with a surprising amount of musical complexity and sophistication, especially for a score written so early in Hollywood's history. Steiner became a Warner Brothers mainstay, finding incredible success with his score to Gone with the Wind and its immortal Tara's theme. Steiner ended up scoring over 300 films, many of them deftly incorporating snippets of popular tunes or classical works. Other notable works include Casablanca, Now Voyager, The Big Sleep, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, They Died with Their Boots On, and John Ford's The Searchers. One of Steiner's themes from A Summer Place has become the epitome of pop easy-listening; Tim Burton used the tune in both Batman and Dark Shadows. However, the score also contains a more lush, heartfelt love theme that displays Steiner's range just within a single genre. Steiner was a true pioneer of the film score, providing a foundation that the best film composers built on.

Helen of Troy
A Summer Place