Miklos Rozsa

Born: April 18, 1907

Died: July 27, 1995

Miklos Rozsa was born in Budapest and began studying music (including the viola and piano) at a very young age. He studied composition at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany and left with a profound appreciation for the German musical tradition. Rozsa was introduced to the idea of film music in 1934 by his friend and fellow composer Arthur Honegger. When the latter mentioned that he was earning extra money by writing film scores, Rozsa went to see one of these films and was impressed by the new medium of film. After moving to London in the mid 1930s, Rozsa wrote his first film score for Knight Without Armour (1937).

Rozsa is probably best remembered for his scores for the epic Biblical films that became popular in the 1950s and early 60s. He composed the well-remembered scores for: Quo Vadis (1951), Ben-Hur (1959) and King of Kings (1961). The score for Ben-Hur gave Rozsa an Oscar (the third and final of his career).

Biography of Miklos Rozsa- Wikipedia

Considered to be the last composer of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Rozsa died in July of 1995.

New York Times Obituary
The Miklos Rozsa Society                   
Miklos Rozsa on IMDb


Notable Films
Ben-Hur- Wikipedia

Based on the bestselling novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ, and itself a remake of an earlier silent film of the same name, this 1959 epic film told in bright Technicolor the story of Judah Ben-Hur and his life from a wealthy prince to a galley slave, to a humbled man who witnesses the crucifixion of Jesus. Several tracks of note from this film are the "Overture," "Rowing of the Galley Slaves," and "Parade of the Charioteers." On an interesting note, a good portion of the music heard in Ben-Hur was actually written for the 1951 film Quo Vadis. When Star Wars was being put together in 1977, the sound editors used the music from Ben-Hur as a temporary soundtrack to give John Williams an idea of how the movie should sound.

Quo Vadis- Wikipedia


As with Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis is also based on a novel and tells the story of Marcus, a Roman tribune, who falls in love with Lygia, the adopted daughter of a Roman couple, who also belongs to a new sect known as "Christians." Their love plays out against the larger story of the Emperor Nero, who is convinced that he is a god upon earth. For the film adaptation, Rozsa was determined to be as historically accurate as possible with how the Roman music being played onscreen sounded. To that end, he conducted extensive research, studying sculptures of instruments and reading texts on what little was known about ancient music. The Emperor Nero's song (performed to great effect by Peter Ustinov) was actually based on the only surviving piece of ancient Greek music known to exist, the so-called "Song of Seikilos." Rozsa also oversaw the making of the instruments seen on screen. None of them could actually be played, but they looked authentic nonetheless.

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
Spellbound
The Thief of Bagdad
Lust for Life
El Cid