Miklos Rozsa Favorite Biblical Score? (1 Viewer)

[RobertMG]

Miklos Rozsa ranks up there near the top of the list for his film scores I first found his work for the 1940 classic The Thief Of Bagdad and his two lovely songs from the film. He really made his mark on epics and adventure film like Ivanhoe and Plymouth Adventure which feature lush and sweeping scores. But his work on MGM's trilogy of Biblical epics really stand out QUO VADIS, BEN-HUR and KING OF KINGS, Interestingly you can hear similarities in QV and Ben Hur but King of Kings can stand alone - King Of Kings is my favorite of them all --- what say you? And how about his films like The Lost Weekend?

 

[farnsbarns]

Haven't listened to much of his work although The Power (1968) is possibly my favorite soundtrack of all time. George Pal coaxed fellow Hungarian, Miklós Rózsa, out of retirement for the project.
The cimbalom (or hammer dulcimer) lends a unique sound and atmosphere.

FSM: The Power (Miklós Rózsa)

The long thought lost complete soundtrack was discovered in time to be included on the 15 disc,
Miklós Rózsa Treasury (1949-1968) from Film Score Monthly, which includes music from some, though not all of the titles you mention. OOP now, btw, but still a good reference page. I need to give some of his other scores a listen.

Film Score Monthly CD: Miklós Rózsa Treasury

 

[richardburton84]

Of the Biblical Epics, I would have to go with Ben-Hur, though the other three Biblical scores (Sodom and Gomorrah being the third) are also great. Outside of the Biblical films, it’s really hard to pick a favorite as he wrote so many great scores. That said, I adore his score for El Cid and I’m quite fond of Ivanhoe (which was the first Rózsa score I really noticed).

 

[RICK BOND]

He has too many Great Film Scores ! Ben-Hur is my Favorite. King of Kings, El Cid, Quo Vadis, and Ivanhoe are some others I Love.

 

[70 Millman]

Here are my MIDI reconstructions of music from three of Rozsa's film scores. I made them to study his orchestration skills and further develop my own.

 

[RobertMG]

Of the Biblical Epics, I would have to go with Ben-Hur, though the other three Biblical scores (Sodom and Gomorrah being the third) are also great. Outside of the Biblical films, it’s really hard to pick a favorite as he wrote so many great scores. That said, I adore his score for El Cid and I’m quite fond of Ivanhoe (which was the first Rózsa score I really noticed).

Thank you for mentioning his wonderful score for Sodom and Gomorrah I should not have left that off my post. Interesting on King of Kings i think I read somewhere he was not really interested at first in doing the score because he thought he had already mined that territory with Quo Vadis and Ben-Hur -- thankfully he did because King Of Kings is a spectacular work of art.

 

[David_B_K]

Rozsa wrote so many scores it is hard to pick one as the best. While we think of Rozsa for epic scores, he really did all kinds of music. A few days ago I was watching The Asphalt Jungle, and there was a Rozsa score. He excelled at film noir music. There is a sort of turgid string writing that he does for all his films during tense scenes that sounds the same no matter the style of movie. This enabled me to spot Rozsa as the film composer if I missed the credits of a movie.

Of the biblical epics, I think I like Quo Vadis the best. Unfortunately, his score is not as loud as it should be and is often overshadowed by the sound of the action on screen. I really like the Ave Caesar cue at Marcus' triumph. The heroic theme of that scene is used for Marcus in general, as when Ligia is thinking of him when she is alone. The Song of the Vestals that precedes the triumph is also exciting. It would be great if the sound of Quo Vadis had been mixed in modern style with Rozsa's score thundering in stereo.

The scores of King of Kings and Ben-Hur are definitely thunderous onscreen. I am not as find of King of Kings because so much of the music is taken up with hosannah-ing. However, there is a lovely theme for Mary played on the oboe. In Ben-Hur, I love the Parade of the Charioteers, the love theme and the music for the galley slave sequence.

My favorite Rozsa score is probably El Cid. The lovely and tragic main theme is sort of a re-working of the main theme from Knights of the Round Table. He takes the Knights main theme, slows it down and adds a Spanish style to it. The baseline in the theme is great. The love theme is beautiful, and there is a stirring march that occurs several times. The music for the final scene when the doors open and the main theme is played on the organ gives me chills every time I watch that scene.

His scores for the 50's epics- Ivanhoe & Knights of the Round Table really elevate those films. Ivanhoe is close to being a great film, with its cast and locations. The main theme is great, as are the Hebraic themes for Isaac and Rebecca. Knights of the Round Table benefits even more from the Rozsa touch because it is such a lesser film than Ivanhoe. Besides the heroic main theme (later reworked into the El Cid theme), there is a noble love theme representing the love of Lancelot and Guinevere. The music for the falconry scene is exciting, but loveliest of all is the theme on the oboe for doomed Lady Elaine.

 

[RobertMG]

Rozsa wrote so many scores it is hard to pick one as the best. While we think of Rozsa for epic scores, he really did all kinds of music. A few days ago I was watching The Asphalt Jungle, and there was a Rozsa score. He excelled at film noir music. There is a sort of turgid string writing that he does for all his films during tense scenes that sounds the same no matter the style of movie. This enabled me to spot Rozsa as the film composer if I missed the credits of a movie.

Of the biblical epics, I think I like Quo Vadis the best. Unfortunately, his score is not as loud as it should be and is often overshadowed by the sound of the action on screen. I really like the Ave Caesar cue at Marcus' triumph. The heroic theme of that scene is used for Marcus in general, as when Ligia is thinking of him when she is alone. The Song of the Vestals that precedes the triumph is also exciting. It would be great if the sound of Quo Vadis had been mixed in modern style with Rozsa's score thundering in stereo.

The scores of King of Kings and Ben-Hur are definitely thunderous onscreen. I am not as find of King of Kings because so much of the music is taken up with hosannah-ing. However, there is a lovely theme for Mary played on the oboe. In Ben-Hur, I love the Parade of the Charioteers, the love theme and the music for the galley slave sequence.

My favorite Rozsa score is probably El Cid. The lovely and tragic main theme is sort of a re-working of the main theme from Knights of the Round Table. He takes the Knights main theme, slows it down and adds a Spanish style to it. The baseline in the theme is great. The love theme is beautiful, and there is a stirring march that occurs several times. The music for the final scene when the doors open and the main theme is played on the organ gives me chills every time I watch that scene.

His scores for the 50's epics- Ivanhoe & Knights of the Round Table really elevate those films. Ivanhoe is close to being a great film, with its cast and locations. The main theme is great, as are the Hebraic themes for Isaac and Rebecca. Knights of the Round Table benefits even more from the Rozsa touch because it is such a lesser film than Ivanhoe. Besides the heroic main theme (later reworked into the El Cid theme), there is a noble love theme representing the love of Lancelot and Guinevere. The music for the falconry scene is exciting, but loveliest of all is the theme on the oboe for doomed Lady Elaine.

He was a remarkable composer, I really love the connection between Quo Vadis and Ben-Hur you can hear the connection between the two scores. I love the sweeping majesty of Plymouth Adventure, Ivanhoe is regal and rousing. I have to check out The Asphalt Jungle again. He definitely set the standard for Biblical epics - the only other Composer that came close on a Biblical epic was Lionel Newman on The Robe. I would have loved to see Mr. Rozsa get a crack at "Superman" because his score for Thief Of Bagdad is jubilant and exciting.

 

[richardburton84]

I can’t say I’ve delved as deeply into his Noir period as I ought to, but yes, he wrote some really great Noir music like his brief score for the aforementioned Asphalt Jungle (Rózsa only wrote the main and end titles for that film, both of which can be found on the fabulous Rózsa Treasury set Farnsbarns mentioned earlier). Of the scores of his I’ve heard from that period, my favorite is probably The Red House, available in a splendid re-recording by Intrada Records.

 

[richardburton84]

He was a remarkable composer, I really love the connection between Quo Vadis and Ben-Hur you can hear the connection between the two scores. I love the sweeping majesty of Plymouth Adventure, Ivanhoe is regal and rousing. I have to check out The Asphalt Jungle again. He definitely set the standard for Biblical epics - the only other Composer that came close on a Biblical epic was Lionel Newman on The Robe. I would have loved to see Mr. Rozsa get a crack at "Superman" because his score for Thief Of Bagdad is jubilant and exciting.

The Robe was actually written by Alfred Newman, not Lionel. But yes, he’s the one other composer who really excelled in the Biblical/Religious score with other works like The Song of Bernadette, David and Bathsheba, The Egyptian (co-written by Bernard Herrmann), and The Greatest Story Ever Told. Franz Waxman could have also been a great composer in that genre had he been given more opportunities for those films and better-written films (Silver Chalice being the absolute worst of the three Biblical films he scored, wonderful as his score is).

 

[RobertMG]

I can’t say I’ve delved as deeply into his Noir period as I ought to, but yes, he wrote some really great Noir music like his brief score for the aforementioned Asphalt Jungle (Rózsa only wrote the main and end titles for that film, both of which can be found on the fabulous Rózsa Treasury set Farnsbarns mentioned earlier). Of the scores of his I’ve heard from that period, my favorite is probably The Red House, available in a splendid re-recording by Intrada Records.

The reviewer from The NY Times nailed it on Ivanhoe with this "As Ivanhoe, Robert Taylor does a good, sturdy, manly job and George Sanders is intriguingly fluid as the emotionally torn De Bois-Guilbert. Finlay Currie, as the elderly Cedric; Guy Rolfe, as the dastardly Prince John, and Joan Fontaine, as the beautiful Rowena, stand out in a generally fine cast. Production of this picture in England endowed it with a rich, distinctive air. It is a grand picture, told in what Sir Walter himself called his "big bow-wow style."

 

[RobertMG]

The Robe was actually written by Alfred Newman, not Lionel. But yes, he’s the one other composer who really excelled in the Biblical/Religious score with other works like The Song of Bernadette, David and Bathsheba, The Egyptian (co-written by Bernard Herrmann), and The Greatest Story Ever Told. Franz Waxman could have also been a great composer in that genre had he been given more opportunities for those films and better-written films (Silver Chalice being the absolute worst of the three Biblical films he scored, wonderful as his score is).

My apologies to Mr. Newman! Who did the score for Demetrius and The Gladiators? Wasn't it Waxman?

 

[richardburton84]

My apologies to Mr. Newman! Who did the score for Demetrius and The Gladiators? Wasn't it Waxman?

Yes, Waxman scored Demetrius and the Gladiators, making ample use of Newman’s music from The Robe to the point that he actually insisted that Newman be credited for the thematic material (Waxman actually resigned from the Academy when they failed to nominate The Robe’s score for an Oscar). Waxman’s third Biblical score was his haunting The Story of Ruth score.

 

[RobertMG]

Yes, Waxman scored Demetrius and the Gladiators, making ample use of Newman’s music from The Robe to the point that he actually insisted that Newman be credited for the thematic material (Waxman actually resigned from the Academy when they failed to nominate The Robe’s score for an Oscar). Waxman’s third Biblical score was his haunting The Story of Ruth score.

Is that a good film The Story Of Ruth?

 

[richardburton84]

Is that a good film The Story Of Ruth?

It’s a pretty good take on the Book of Ruth with a great supporting turn from Peggy Wood as Naomi, but Waxman’s score is really the main draw.

 

[RobertMG]

It’s a pretty good take on the Book of Ruth with a great supporting turn from Peggy Wood as Naomi, but Waxman’s score is really the main draw.

A friend of my Mom who we miss so much actually worked for the Mary Roberts Rinehart family who wrote The Spiral Staircase (different than the film from RKO) as a chef etc had many dinner parties to do and Peggy Wood was a frequent guest - she according to our friend was one great person. Knowing she was in the film I must now grab a copy!

 

[richardburton84]

Very interesting. Her role in Ruth is in a way sort of like a non-singing rehearsal for her role as the Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music with the same dignity she displays in that classic.

 

[RICK BOND]

Here are some of my Vinyl and CD Epic Scores !

 

[RobertMG]

Here are some of my Vinyl and CD Epic Scores ! View attachment 116142 View attachment 116143

Great collection

 

[Santee7]

Rozsa was actually my first introduction to music scores and the importance of soundtracks. I was six and My parents had that famous Jungle Book score, which was part score part talking record telling the story. The theme for Shere Khan always stuck in my mind. And I'd play that record again and again.
As an oldster my favorite theme were from THE KILLERS and BRUTE FORCE. The gravitas and power he brought to a score is always exhilarating to listen to.