Description

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For more than a century, original music has been composed for the cinema. From the early days when live music accompanied silent films to the present in which a composer can draw upon a full orchestra or a lone synthesizer to embody a composition, music has been an integral element of most films. By the late 1930s, movie studios had established music departments, and some of the greatest names in film music emerged during Hollywood's Golden Age, including Alfred Newman, Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin, and Bernard Herrmann. Over the decades, other creators of screen music offered additional memorable scores, and some composers-such as Henry Mancini, Randy Newman, and John Williams-have become household names. The Encyclopedia of Film Composers features entries on more than 250 movie composers from around the world. It not only provides facts about these artists but also explains what makes each composer notable and discusses his or her music in detail. Each entry includes -Biographical material -Important dates -Career highlights -Analysis of the composer's musical style -Complete list of movie credits This book brings recognition to the many men and women who have written music for movies over the past one hundred years. In addition to composers from the United States and Great Britain, artists from dozens of other countries are also represented. A rich resource of movie music history, The Encyclopedia of Film Composers will be of interest to fans of cinema in general as well as those who want to learn more about the many talented individuals who have created memorable scores.

About the Author

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Thomas S. Hischak is an internationally recognized author and teacher in the performing arts and one of the foremost authorities on American musical theatre. He is the author of more than twenty books about theatre, film, and popular music, including The Oxford Companion to the American Musical, The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia, and several books for Scarecrow Press, including Theatre as Human Action (2006), Off-Broadway Musicals since 1919 (2011), and The Disney Song Encyclopedia (2009). Hischak is professor of theatre at the State University of New York College at Cortland.