Steiner, Max(imilian Raoul Walter)

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Steiner, Max(imilian Raoul Walter)

Steiner, Max(imilian Raoul Walter), Austrian-born American composer;. Vienna, May 10, 1888; d. Los Angeles, Dec. 28, 1971. He studied at the Vienna Cons. with Fuchs and Gradener, and also had some advice from Mahler. At the age of 14, he wrote an operetta. In 1904 he went to England; in 1911 he proceeded to Paris. In 1914 he settled in the U.S.; after conducting musical shows in N.Y., he moved in 1929 to Hollywood, where he became one of the most successful film composers. His music offers a fulsome blend of lush harmonies artfully derived from both Tchaikovsky and Wagner, arranged in a manner marvelously suitable for the portrayal of psychological drama on the screen. Among his film scores, of which he wrote more than 200, are King Kong (1933), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), Gone with the Wind (1939), and The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948).

Bibliography

G. Lazarou, M. S. and Film Music: An Essay (Athens, 1971).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire