Franz Waxman

The New Groves lists him as Franz [Wachsmann] Waxman, indicating that 'Wachsmann' was his birth-name, given that he was born in 1906 in Königshütte, Upper Silesia -then in Germany, now called Chorzów in Poland. He studied at the Berlin Conservatory, paying his way by playing piano in cafés, where he met the likes of Bruno Walter. Curiously, Wikipedia has him studying at the Dresden Music Academy, but New Groves begs to differ! Other sources mention that he was initially earning a living as a bank teller, before moving first to Dresden, and then to Berlin …so it's possible both reports are true!

As with all German Jews, by the time the 1930s rolled around, with their attendant Nazis, things got awkward for him in his native country really fast. He accordingly moved first to Paris and then to Hollywood, USA… where he swiftly set about becoming a filmscore composer par excellence: his first assignment was writing the score to Bride of Frankenstein in 1935, the success of which led him to be appointed Head of Music for Universal Studios. In 1943, he jumped ship to Warner Bros., and in 1947 he left them in turn to become freelance. His most notable scores are, perhaps, those for Rebecca and Sunset Boulevard. He won Oscars for his scores for the latter and for A Place in the Sun.

His output is very largely for films: his idiom has been described as being influenced by Prokofiev and Richard Strauss, with rich textures, vivid orchestral colour, a strong contrapuntal impulse, with some fine fugal passages. However, he certainly wanted to write more 'serious' music, and in the late 1950s and early 1960s produced impressive scores for the oratorio Joshua and The Song of Terezín, a choral work based on poetry produced by children imprisoned in the eponymous concentration camp. Both scores are intensely Jewish in inspiration, with eloquent Hebraic severity expressed with astringent lyricality.

Franz Waxman died from cancer in February 1967, two months after his sixtieth birthday.