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Rózsa was introduced to film music in 1934 by his friend, the Swiss composer Arthur Honegger. Following a concert which featured their respective compositions, Honegger mentioned that he supplemented his income as a composer of film scores, including the film Les Misérables (1934).
- Ben-Hur
- The Thief of Bagdad
- The Lost Weekend
- Spellbound
- A Double Life
- El CID
- The Four Feathers
- Recordings
A sweeping score for a film of epic proportions, this music is filled with Roman, Greek, and Jewish elements. Rózsa conducted the 100-piece MGM Symphony Orchestra during twelve recording sessions which stretched over 72 hours. The biblical drama unfolds with a myriad of themes and the reinforcement of a mighty pipe organ underscoring the appearance...
This magical Technicolor Arabian fantasy film vaulted Rózsa to prominence as a composer. Filled with leitmotifs, the score has been described as “foreground rather than background music.” Here is the beautiful and expansive love theme:
Miklós Rózsa’s concert music is filled with Hungarian folk elements. At moments, these sounds emerge in the score for this psychological drama, directed by Billy Wilder and starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman. (4:08 in the clip below may remind you of Bartók’s hellish The Miraculous Mandarin). When the film was previewed with a temporary soundtrack...
Rózsa’s distinctive film noir style is equally evident in the music for this psychological mystery thriller, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Rózsa once said, “Alfred Hitchcock didn’t like the music—said it got in the way of his direction. I haven’t seen him since.” (Interestingly, Hitchcock also resisted the use of music in the shower scene of Psycho...
This dark film noir drama, starring Ronald Colman, tells the story of an actor’s descent into insanity. His “double life” is a blur between reality and the imaginary roles he plays on stage. This duality is evident throughout Rózsa’s Academy Award-winning score. The bustling forward motion in this excerpt seems to anticipate the quirkiness of some ...
The lamenting beauty and far-off, exotic mystery of medieval Spain can be heard in this haunting love theme. In preparation for the score, Rózsa researched Spanish folk music and made use of the guitar and tambourine. It would be the composer’s final film score to be created under MGM contract.
This British Technicolor adventure film, directed by Zoltan Korda, is one of Rózsa’s earliest scores. Chronicling British military adventures in Africa during the reign of Queen Victoria, the story revolves around a man who is accused of cowardice after resigning on the eve of his regiment’s departure. This excerpt (Sunstroke and River Journey) beg...
Ben-Hur (complete film score), Nic Raine, The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus AmazonMiklós Rózsa: A Centenary Celebration AmazonMiklós Rózsa Conducts His Epic Film Scores AmazonA Double Life (Suite from the Film) AmazonThis is a list of compositions by Miklós Rózsa. Orchestral. Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 13 (1933, revised in 1966 as Op. 13a) Three Hungarian Sketches, Op. 14 (1938, revised in 1958 as Op. 14a) Concerto for String Orchestra, Op. 17 (1943) Hungarian Serenade, Op. 25 (1945) Kaleidoscope - six short pieces for small orchestra, Op. 19a (1957)
Miklós Rózsa’s music for Ben-Hur appeared only partially—and sporadically—on discs over the last 52 years. Its history on record began with three LPs recorded in conjunction with the film’s original release.
Rózsa left Leipzig for Paris in 1931, and two years later produced what was to become his first, major successful orchestral work, the Theme, Variations and Finale, Op. 13. While in Paris he met the Swiss composer Arthur Honegger who introduced Rózsa to the idea of writing music for films as a way of making a living.
Producer Mark Hellinger hired Rózsa to compose music for the now-classic gangster film “The Killers” (1946). One of the remarkable aspects of Rózsa’s film noir scores is that they are devoid of jazz, when jazz was so often used in the genre to characterize the seedy underworld.
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Rózsa, Mikiós(b. 18 April 1907 in Budapest, Hungary; d. 27 July 1995 in Los Angeles, California), composer whose urgently exotic music enriched the concerto literature and the soundtracks of such films as The Thief of Bagdad, Double Indemnity, Spellbound, and Ben-Hur (1959).
