Franz Waxman: Between Film Music and the Concert Hall by Zechner, Ingeborg;

Short description:

Ingeborg Zechner explores Waxman’s musical career as being situated ‘between film music and the concert hall’ by examining his biography his activities as musical director of the Los Angeles Music Festival, his international career as a conductor, and the film music that Waxman adapted for different contemporary media.

Long description:

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Franz Waxman (1906–1967) was a jazz musician, orchestrator, film composer, concert organizer, conductor, and a composer of concert and opera works. It was only after his emigration to the USA in the early 1930s that Waxman built himself a career in the concert hall – before this point he was exclusively working for the film and entertainment industries. Ingeborg Zechner explores Waxman’s musical career as being situated ""between film music and the concert hall,"" highlighting the various intersections between these two areas by examining his biography – including his migration – his activities as musical director of the Los Angeles Music Festival, his international career as a conductor, and the film music that Waxman adapted for different contemporary media. Zechner shows that Hollywood composers, such as Waxman, perceived film music’s intermediality in the 1940s to 1960s as being crucial for the aesthetic identity of the film musical work, and, therefore, provides insights into not only Waxman’s career but also the historical and cultural context of American and international musical life.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Part 1: Biographical and Historical Contexts

1. Franz Waxman: Another émigré who made it in Hollywood? 2. Migration mechanisms in international film industry networks 3. The Los Angeles Music Festival (1947–1966) in contemporary institutional, aesthetic, and political context 4. Franz Waxman, the Los Angeles Music Festival, and Cold War cultural politics

Part 2: Discourse and Reception

5. The reception of Franz Waxman between film music and the concert hall: Methodological considerations 6. The reception of Hollywood film music from the 1930s to the 1960s 7. Franz Waxman as composer-conductor 8. Franz Waxman’s “double life” between film music and the concert hall 9. The contemporary reception of mediality between film music and the concert hall

Part 3: Media Transfers

10. Intermediality and making the case for film music as a work of art 11. The Paradine Case: The ambiguous relationship between film music and concert practices 12. The music of A Place in the Sun as a media hybrid 13. The intermedial construction of film music as a work of art through Franz Waxman’s soundtrack albums in the 1950s and 1960s

Conclusion

Appendices