Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an influential composer born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, who emerged as a child prodigy in music. He composed his first ballet at the age of eleven and gained acclaim for his Sinfonietta in B Major, completed in 1913. Korngold’s career was marked by his service as a musical director during World War I and his eventual migration to the United States in the 1930s, driven by the rise of the Nazis in Europe. In Hollywood, he became a prominent film composer, winning two Academy Awards for his scores, including the renowned music for *The Adventures of Robin Hood*. Despite his success in film, Korngold struggled to return to concert music post-World War II, as his richly chromatic style fell out of favor. He composed significant works such as the opera *Die tote Stadt* and the Piano Concerto in C-sharp for the one-handed pianist Paul Wittgenstein. Korngold passed away in Hollywood in 1957, and while initially overlooked, his contributions to music have since been reassessed, positioning him as a key figure in late Romantic music.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Composer
- Born: May 29, 1897
- Birthplace: Brünn, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Brno, Czech Republic)
- Died: November 29, 1957
- Place of death: Hollywood, California
Austro-American classical composer
Korngold composed in a late Romantic style, with rich harmonies and soaring melodies. His well-respected film scores earned him two Academy Awards.
The Life
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (EH-rihk VOHLF-gahng KORN-gohld) grew up in the Austro-Hungarian capital city of Vienna. A child prodigy and the son of a prominent music critic, he composed his first ballet when he was eleven. His Sinfonietta in B Major (1913) cemented his reputation as one of Europe’s rising composers. Called up for military service during World War I, Korngold served out the war as his regiment’s musical director. He met Luise von Sonnenthal in 1917, and the couple married in 1924.
Korngold was invited to Hollywood, California, in 1934 to work on the motion picture A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), adapting incidental music that Felix Mendelssohn had written for William Shakespeare’s play. For a time Korngold struggled to compose on both sides of the Atlantic, but with the rise of the Nazis in Germany and Austria, followed by the onset of World War II, he settled in the United States, becoming an American citizen in 1943. He eventually composed scores to some two dozen motion pictures.
Korngold returned to Vienna in 1949, determined to resume composing for the concert stage. However, his richly chromatic musical language was no longer in fashion. He returned to the United States after two years and revisited Europe for the premiere of his last major work, the Symphony in F-sharp Major. Korngold died in Hollywood in 1957, seemingly forgotten by the musical world.
The Music
Korngold’s musical language and outlook remained largely consistent throughout his life. From the beginning he showed himself master of the rich harmonies that distinguished the works of older colleagues such as Richard Strauss. To this ability Korngold added a taste for fantasy and an almost boundless optimism that he expressed through soaring, buoyant melodies. He produced his first ballet, Der Schneemann, with the help of his father and his teacher, Alexander von Zemlinsky, but the work’s character and spirit were entirely his own.
Sinfonietta in B Major.Korngold’s first major work, completed in 1913, is in fact a full-scale symphony for a large orchestra in four movements, running to about three-fourths of an hour in performance. Its diminutive title is simply a reference to its joyous mood. The Sinfonietta in B Major marks Korngold’s first use of what he called the “Motto of the Cheerful Heart,” a rising motif that would appear in one form or another throughout his oeuvre. Besides its rich chromaticism, the work features one of Korngold’s most arresting openings and triumphant conclusions.
The Dead City.Korngold based his third opera on a novel by Belgian writer Georges Rodenbach entitled Bruges la Morte: Die tote Stadt (1920; The Dead City, 1920-1921). The opera is set in Bruges, Belgium, and revolves around Paul’s obsession with his late wife, Marie. When he meets a singer—Marietta—who strongly resembles Marie, he is thrown into confusion and ultimately strangles her with a braid of Marie’s hair. In a departure from Rodenbach’s novel, Korngold places Paul’s crime in a demented vision, allowing Marie to survive and Paul to surmount his obsession. To emphasize the opera’s opulent sound, Korngold employed what was for him an unusually large orchestra, and he included parts for such unusual instruments as a wind machine and a bass trumpet. The opera was given simultaneous premieres in the German cities of Hamburg and Cologne in 1920 to nearly rapturous reviews, but it was banned when the Nazis came to power.
Piano Concerto in C-Sharp.Korngold composed his only piano concerto for Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right hand in World War I. Written during 1923 in one long movement of four sections, the concerto is unusually dissonant for Korngold, perhaps a psychological reflection of the physical trauma that Wittgenstein had undergone. The solo part is so complex that it is difficult for most listeners to appreciate that only one hand is involved. The work invites comparison with the better known Concerto for the Left Hand (1930) by Maurice Ravel, written for the same performer.
The Adventures of Robin Hood.Korngold had returned for a time to Europe when he received an offer to write the music for the film The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), which was to star Errol Flynn. Although most of the music that Korngold produced was original, he utilized a theme from his 1920 orchestral overture Sursum Corda. Korngold had already won an Academy Award for his music for the film Anthony Adverse (1936), and this rousing new score—regarded as his best work in the genre—brought him a second Oscar.
Symphony in F-sharp Major.Korngold began work on a new symphony in 1947, although numerous obligations interrupted his progress. He finished the score in 1952 and traveled to Vienna to hear its premiere. The performance was undistinguished, however, and the work languished. For Korngold the symphony is unusually moody. Its opening movement is disturbingly discordant and its third somber, but its finale transforms themes from earlier movements into a lighthearted, almost jaunty conclusion. Korngold dedicated the symphony to the memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, late president of the country that had given him a new life during the crisis that had destroyed his old one.
Musical Legacy
For years most listeners knew Korngold’s music only through his film scores, and even then few would have recognized his name. Yet the composer had begun his career in Eastern Europe as one of the most remarkable prodigies in the history of music, stunning both audiences and critics. His sumptuous sounds and beguiling melodies made him an ideal composer for the romantic films that Hollywood began turning out in the 1930’s, and he quickly established himself as a leading figure in the field.
After World War II critics revised their estimation of Korngold, concluding that the very elements that had once made him so popular now dated him in a musical world dominated by neoclassicism and serialism. With a series of new recordings in the 1980’s and 1990’s, however, Korngold’s true stature became obvious. Along with Strauss and British composer Arnold Bax, he is now regarded as one of the foremost figures in late Romantic music.
Principal Works
chamber works: Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 1, 1910; Sonata in G Major, Op. 6, 1916 (for violin and piano); String Sextet in D Major, Op. 10, 1917; Much Ado About Nothing, Op. 11, 1920 (suite for violin and piano; incidental music for William Shakespeare’s play); Quintet in E Major, Op. 15, 1923 (for piano and strings); String Quartet No. 1 in A Major, Op. 16, 1924; Suite, Op. 23, 1930 (for two violins, cello, and piano left hand); String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 26, 1934; String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 34, 1946; Romance Impromptu, 1948 (for cello and piano).
choral work:Tomorrow, Op. 33, 1944 (symphonic poem for mezzo-soprano, female chorus, and orchestra).
film scores:Captain Blood, 1935; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1935; Anthony Adverse, 1936; The Prince and the Pauper, 1937; The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938; Of Human Bondage, 1946.
operas:Der Ring des Polykrates, Op. 7, 1916 (libretto by Julius Korngold and Leo Feld; based on Heinrich Teweles’s play); Violanta, Op. 8, 1916 (libretto by Hans Müller); Die tote Stadt, Op. 12, 1920 (The Dead City; libretto with Julius Korngold; based on Georges Rodenbach’s novel Bruges la morte); Das Wunder der Heliane, Op. 20, 1927 (libretto by Müller; based on Hans Kaltneker’s play Die Heilige); Die Kathrin, Op. 28, 1939 (libretto by Ernst Décsey).
orchestral works:Der Schneemann, 1910 (pantomime; libretto by Walter Jens); Schauspiel Ouvertüre, Op. 4, 1911 (Overture to a Play); Sinfonietta in B Major, Op. 5, 1913; Sursum Corda, Op. 13, 1920; Piano Concerto in C-Sharp, Op. 17, 1924; Baby Serenade, Op. 24, 1932; Cello Concerto in C Major, Op. 37, 1946; Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35, 1947; Symphonic Serenade in B-flat Major, Op. 39, 1950 (for string orchestra); Die stumme Serenade, Op. 36, 1951 (The Silent Serenade); Symphony in F-sharp Major, Op. 40, 1954; Theme and Variations, Op. 42, 1953.
piano works: Piano Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, 1908; Don Quixote, 1909 (six character pieces); Piano Sonata No. 2 in E Major, Op. 2, 1911; Sieben Märchenbilder, Op. 3, 1912 (Seven Fairy-Tale Pictures); Vier kleine Karikaturen für Kinder, Op. 19, 1926 (Four Little Caricatures for Children); Geschichten von Strauss, Op. 21, 1927 (Tales of Strauss; for solo piano); Piano Sonata No. 3 in C Major, Op. 25, 1932.
vocal works:Einfache Lieder, Op. 9, Nos. 1-6, 1913 (Simple Songs; for voice and piano); Abschiedslieder, Op. 14, Nos. 1-4, 1921 (Songs of Farewell; for voice and piano or orchestra); Narrenlieder, Op. 29, 1941 (Songs of the Clown; based on William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night); Fünf Lieder, Op. 38, 1950 (Five Songs; for voice and piano); Sonett für Wien, Op. 41, 1954 (Sonnet for Vienna; for voice and piano).
Bibliography
Brown, Royal S. “Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Sea Hawk (1940).” In Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. Extended analysis of Korngold’s score and its relationship to the action of the film.
Carroll, Brendan G. The Last Prodigy: A Biography of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Portland, Oreg.: Amadeus Press, 1997. Standard biography by the president of the International Korngold Society, comprehensive but readable. Illustrations, complete list of works, selected bibliography, discography for the period 1914-1996.
Duchen, Jessica. Erich Wolfgang Korngold. London: Phaidon, 1996. Short critical biography by a noted music critic. Numerous illustrations, classified list of works, brief bibliography, selective discography.
Wallace, David. “Film Music: Sergei Rachmaninoff and Erich Korngold.” In Exiles in Hollywood. Pompton Plains, N.J.: Limelight Editions, 2006. Surveys Korngold’s contribution to the Hollywood motion picture.
Winters, Ben. Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood”: A Film Score Guide. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2007. Detailed analysis of Korngold’s best-known film score. Illustrations, musical examples.