Franz Waxman (December 24, 1906 – February 24, 1967) was a German American … Read Full Bio ↴Franz Waxman (December 24, 1906 – February 24, 1967) was a German American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films like the "Bride of Frankenstein" from 1935.
Waxman was born Franz Wachsmann in Königshütte (Chorzów) in the Prussian province of Silesia. He orchestrated Frederick Hollander's score for the 1930 film Blue Angel (1930) and wrote original scores for several German films in the early 1930s. With the Nazis in power from 1933, he worked briefly in France, composing the music for Fritz Lang's French version of Liliom, but arrived in the United States by 1935. He received 12 Academy Award nominations, winning in consecutive years for Sunset Boulevard and A Place in the Sun.
In addition to his film scores, Waxman composed concert works and, in 1947, founded the Los Angeles International Music Festival. Waxman headed this festival for twenty years. During the twenty years of his tenure, the festival served as the venue for world and American premieres of 80 major works by composers such as Igor Stravinsky, William Walton, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dmitri Shostakovich and Arnold Schönberg.
According to the autobiography of fellow composer Miklós Rózsa, Waxman conducted a performance of the Stravinsky composition Greeting Prelude (based on the song Happy Birthday). The performance lasted exactly sixty seconds. In this book, A Double Life, Rózsa stated that Stravinsky gave precise instructions that a performance of this piece should last exactly sixty seconds. Consequently, Stravinsky was very happy with Waxman's conducting of the work.
Waxman died of cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 60.
Waxman was born Franz Wachsmann in Königshütte (Chorzów) in the Prussian province of Silesia. He orchestrated Frederick Hollander's score for the 1930 film Blue Angel (1930) and wrote original scores for several German films in the early 1930s. With the Nazis in power from 1933, he worked briefly in France, composing the music for Fritz Lang's French version of Liliom, but arrived in the United States by 1935. He received 12 Academy Award nominations, winning in consecutive years for Sunset Boulevard and A Place in the Sun.
In addition to his film scores, Waxman composed concert works and, in 1947, founded the Los Angeles International Music Festival. Waxman headed this festival for twenty years. During the twenty years of his tenure, the festival served as the venue for world and American premieres of 80 major works by composers such as Igor Stravinsky, William Walton, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dmitri Shostakovich and Arnold Schönberg.
According to the autobiography of fellow composer Miklós Rózsa, Waxman conducted a performance of the Stravinsky composition Greeting Prelude (based on the song Happy Birthday). The performance lasted exactly sixty seconds. In this book, A Double Life, Rózsa stated that Stravinsky gave precise instructions that a performance of this piece should last exactly sixty seconds. Consequently, Stravinsky was very happy with Waxman's conducting of the work.
Waxman died of cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 60.
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"The Invisible Ray" Suite
Franz Waxman Lyrics
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The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
@georgekirazian5591
Thanks very much, FM, for responding so quickly to my request. Such a fine film and score. I'm really enjoying it. (Lots of Liszt....). Best, George.
@fishman3786
You're welcome George. It was a good suggestion. For some reason those old 30s film scores seem to respond to my mono to stereo conversion app better than later films film scores do.
PS: if you liked my video please click the thumbs up button. Thanks.
@georgekirazian5591
FM, any chance of finding out the title of the beautiful music/song that's played under the opening credits for the noir classic "Ride the Pink Horse"? It's a Frank Skinner score, and I've tried to track down the title (if it's a song). If it's part of Skinner's score, then my years' long admiration for his work only continues to grow. Thanks very much.
@fishman3786
@George Kirazian Sorry George but I just don't have the time to do that kind of research. You will need to provide a link to any movie that you would like me to extract the music from. Thanks.
@georgekirazian5591
FM, That's fine. I understand. Thanks again.
@kali3665
This one was cool - another Franz Waxman classic. Thank you so much for posting!
Did you also do the original Karloff/Lugosi Black Cat?
@fishman3786
You're very welcome Kali.
Somebody else has already uploaded the full soundtrack to the 1934 version of The Black Cat. Here is the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EhgGjHcLDg