Tristan and Isolde Fantasia
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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Tristan and Isolde Fantasia
Franz Waxman Lyrics
No lyrics text found for this track.
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
Max Merry
Korngold, Steiner and Waxman are, for me, the Big Three composers from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Yes, there were other greats from that time as well but, in my opinion, the strong link to European Romanticism is more obviously forged by those first three. Best of the trio? Impossible and unnecessary for me to decide but I do admit to having a particularly soft spot for Franz Waxman's music.
Johan Herrenberg
To be perfectly blunt: this piece sounds like both a 'whirlwind tour' of Tristan and the nightmares you get after listening to it too much... I like Waxman the film composer, but this really is disjointed mush. Sorry to be so uncharitable.
Interesting musical experience, though.
Johan Herrenberg
@Kenneth Dower Thanks!
Kenneth Dower
@Johan Herrenberg You've obviously never seen "Humoresque", it's really quite trashy; the music is perfect for it. Cheers
Johan Herrenberg
@Max Merry Interesting explanation. Still, there are so many pieces drawn from ballet and opera, which are perfectly satisfying on their own. I'll stick to Wagner's Vorspiel and Liebestod...
Max Merry
Perhaps a "whirlwind tour" and subsequent "nightmares" were intended in the context of the psychological melodrama, Humoresque, for which the arrangement was made?
Matthew Zisi
This piece is a great example of a way to study composing. Much of Waxman's compositional effort was creating a violin part that could sing above the orchestra and be a great concert piece for a violinist. However, in writing it, he had to study Wagner's orchestration. By the time he'd finished, he'd not only created a great new violin/orchestra piece for the repertoire, but he better appreciated how another great composer made an orchestra work. Of course, Waxman himself was a phenomenal composer, and I'd much rather watch one of his movies than sit through a Wagner opera.