Miklos Rozsa

Some composers have undeniably superior technical craftsmanship. Other composers simply speak to your soul. If you're lucky, you'll find a composer who does both, as Miklos Rozsa does for me. His music is stentorian, thrilling, yearning, rapturous, and truly epic (unlike many objects described with this highly overused adjective). At the same time, his music is laden with poignancy, as if the composer poured his soul directly into his music.

Born in Budapest, Rozsa immersed himself in Hungarian folk music (a permeating influence on his work) before composing a batch of well-recieved classical works. After moving to Hollywood, he scored his first major triumph, The Thief of Bagdad, his music crammed with the compositional complexity, thematic richness, and soaring exhilaration that would become his musical calling cards. Soon after, Rozsa entered his "noir" period, scoring The Killers, Double Life, Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity and The Lost Weekend, and Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, the last of which is famed for its use of the theremin (that "OOOOEEEE" instrument you hear in cheesy sci-fi movies, Mars Attacks! being the foremost modern example). Scores for period pieces like Madame Bovary, Plymouth Adventure, and Young Bess brought Rozsa back to the lush style of Thief of Bagdad. Ivanhoe, Knights of the Round Table, and The King's Thief further thrust Rozsa into the arena of the adventure film, but they were only precursors (albeit superb ones) for what was to come. The monumental scores for Quo Vadis (which actually came right after Rozsa's noir period), Ben-Hur, King of Kings, El Cid, and Sodom and Gomorrah are simply peerless, bursting with raw power, surging orchestral action, heart-rending solos, and empyrean outbursts of choral splendor. The action music for the sea battles and resplendent fanfares for the chariot race in Ben-Hur complement the achingly gorgeous love theme and the music for the Nativity scene. But it is the epilogue music for King of Kings (a glorious choral rendition of the Lord's Prayer theme) that has come the closest out of any piece of music to making me shed tears (in a good way). In truth, some scores from the Golden Age sound just a little dated to my ears, but I do not have that problem with Rozsa's music in the slightest. His transcendent music reminds me of why I listen to film music in the first place and the sublime heights it can reach if in the hands of a true master.

All the Brothers Were Valiant
The Asphalt Jungle
Beau Bremmell (with Richard Addinsell)
Ben-Hur**
Crest of the Wave
Crisis
Desert Fury
East Side West Side
El Cid**
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
Ivanhoe*
Julius Caesar
King of Kings**
The King's Thief
Knights of the Round Table*
The Light Touch
Lust for Life
Madame Bovary
The Miniver Story
Plymouth Adventure
The Power
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes*
Quo Vadis*
The Red Danube
Sodom and Gomorrah**
Something of Value
The Story of Three Loves
The Thief of Bagdad*
Tip on a Dead Jockey
The VIPs
Young Bess*