Maximilian Raoul Steiner (May 10, 1888 – December 28, 1971) was an Austrian composer and conductor who moved to America and became one of Hollywood’s most famous musical composers.

Steiner was a gifted child who conducted his first musical play at age twelve. By fifteen, he was working full-time as a professional, skilled in composing, arranging, and conducting music. During World War I, he was threatened with being forced to stay in a camp in England, so he fled to Broadway. In 1929, he moved to Hollywood, where he became one of the first composers to create music for films. He is often called “the father of film music” because he helped start the tradition of writing music for movies, along with other composers such as Dimitri Tiomkin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz Waxman, Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann, and Miklós Rózsa.

Steiner composed music for more than 300 films with RKO Pictures and Warner Bros. He was nominated for 24 Academy Awards and won three: The Informer (1935), Now, Voyager (1942), and Since You Went Away (1944). Some of his well-known works include King Kong (1933), Little Women (1933), Jezebel (1938), and Casablanca (1942). He did not compose the love theme “As Time Goes By” from Casablanca. Other films he scored include The Searchers (1956), A Summer Place (1959), and Gone with the Wind (1939), which was ranked second on the AFI’s list of best American film scores and is the film for which he is most famous.

He was the first person to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, which he received for his work on Life with Father. Steiner often worked with famous film directors such as Michael Curtiz, John Ford, and William Wyler. He also composed music for films starring Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, and Fred Astaire. Many of his film scores are available as separate recordings.

Biography

Max Steiner was born on May 10, 1888, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He was the only child in a wealthy family with a background in business and theater. His father, Gábor Steiner, was a Hungarian-Jewish man who worked as an impresario, carnival manager, and inventor. He helped build the Wiener Riesenrad, a famous Ferris wheel in Vienna. His mother, Marie Josefine, was a dancer in her youth and later worked in the restaurant business. Max was named after his paternal grandfather, Maximilian Steiner, who was known for encouraging Johann Strauss II to write music for the theater and for managing Vienna’s Theater an der Wien. His father supported Max’s musical talent and let him conduct an operetta called The Belle of New York when he was 12 years old. This performance helped Max gain early recognition from the operetta’s author, Gustave Kerker.

Max’s mother, Marie, was also involved in the theater, but she later focused on running a restaurant. Richard Strauss, a famous composer, influenced Max’s future work. Max often said his family inspired his early musical abilities. At age six, he took piano lessons from Johannes Brahms, but he found the lessons boring and preferred to improvise on his own. His father encouraged him to write down his music. Max later said his early improvisation influenced his interest in the music of Claude Debussy, which was considered “avant-garde” (advanced and unusual) at the time. As a teenager, he began composing marches for military bands and writing songs for shows his father produced.

Max’s parents sent him to the Vienna University of Technology, but he was not interested in school subjects. In 1904, he enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Music. Because of his musical talent and private lessons with teachers like Robert Fuchs and Gustav Mahler, he finished a four-year program in just one year. At 15, he won a gold medal from the academy. He studied many instruments, including the violin, double bass, organ, and trumpet, but his favorite was the piano. He also took classes in harmony, counterpoint, and composition. His teachers included Felix Weingartner and Edmund Eysler.

Edmund Eysler’s music influenced Max’s early work, though Eysler’s operettas were criticized for having simple styles and relying too much on the Viennese waltz. When Max started writing for the theater, he tried to write libretti (scripts for operettas) like Eysler but had little success. However, many of his later film scores, such as Dark Victory (1939) and Now, Voyager (1942), included waltz melodies inspired by Eysler. Max may also have been influenced by Felix Weingartner, who conducted the Vienna Opera from 1908 to 1911. As a young boy, Max dreamed of becoming a great conductor.

Between 1907 and 1914, Max traveled to Britain and Europe to work on theater productions. At 15, he wrote and conducted an operetta called The Beautiful Greek Girl, but his father refused to stage it, saying it was not good enough. Max then gave the piece to another producer, Carl Tuschl, who staged it at the Orpheum Theatre for a year. This success led to opportunities to conduct shows in cities like Moscow and Hamburg. When Max returned to Vienna, his father was in financial trouble. Struggling to find work, Max moved to London to follow an English showgirl he had met in Vienna. In London, he conducted The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár and worked at theaters like Daly’s Theatre and the Adelphi for eight years. He married Beatrice Tilt on September 12, 1912, though the date of their divorce is unknown.

In England, Max wrote and conducted operettas and symphonies. However, when World War I began in 1914, he was interned as an enemy alien. A friend, the Duke of Westminster, helped him leave for America, though his money was taken. Arriving in New York City in December 1914 with only $32, Max worked as a copyist for Harms Music Publishing and later orchestrated stage musicals.

In New York, Max worked for 15 years as a musical director, arranger, and conductor for Broadway productions. He collaborated with composers like Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, and George Gershwin. His credits include George White’s Scandals (1922) and Lady, Be Good (1924). In 1915, at age 27, he became Fox Film’s musical director. He suggested creating an original score for The Bondman (1916), and Fox agreed to use a 110-piece orchestra for the film. In 1927, Max married Audree van Lieu, but they divorced in 1933. That same year, he orchestrated Rio Rita for Harry Tierney, who later hired him to work at RKO Pictures in Hollywood.

At RKO, Max’s first job was to compose music for film titles and occasional scenes. Filmmakers at the time often saw music as a “necessary evil” that slowed production. His first film was Dixiana, but RKO let him go after a while. His agent found him a job as a musical director in Atlantic City. Before leaving RKO, they offered him a month-to-month contract as head of the music department, promising more work. Because few composers were available, Max composed the score for Cimarron, which was well received and helped the film’s success. He turned down teaching offers in Moscow and Peking to stay in Hollywood. In 1932, David O. Selznick, a producer at RKO, asked Max to add music to Symphony of Six Million. Max composed a short segment, which Selznick liked so much that he asked Max to compose more.

Methods of composing

In the early days of sound films, producers avoided playing music behind dialogue because they thought the audience would wonder where the music came from. As a result, Steiner said, "They began to add small amounts of music to support love scenes or silent parts of the film." However, in scenes where music was expected, like a nightclub or theater, the orchestra fit in naturally and was used often. To justify adding music in unexpected scenes, it was often introduced through characters or made more noticeable. For example, a shepherd boy might play a flute while the orchestra played in the background, or a violinist might follow a couple during a love scene. However, because half of the music was recorded on the set, Steiner said this caused many problems and costs when scenes were edited later, as the music often became unusable. As recording technology improved, Steiner could record music that matched the film's timing and change the score after editing. Steiner explained his method of scoring:

Steiner often used his own ideas and reasoning when creating film scores. For example, when he ignored Selznick's instruction to use classical music for Gone with the Wind. Steiner said, "Using classical music could sometimes hurt a film, especially if the music was too familiar and distracted the audience." Films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Sting, and Manhattan used recognizable tunes, but Steiner believed original scores were better for each film.

Steiner said the hardest part of scoring was knowing when to start and stop the music, because incorrect timing could change the pace of a scene. He said, "Knowing the difference is what makes a film composer." He also noted that some composers let the music overpower the film, unlike his own method.

Although some scholars say Steiner invented the click track technique, he may have used it with Roy Webb first. Earlier, Carl W. Stalling and Scott Bradley used it in cartoon music. A click track helps composers match music to the film more precisely. The technique involves making holes in the film based on metronome speed. As the holes pass through a projector, the orchestra and conductor hear a clicking sound through headphones, allowing them to record music exactly in time with the film. This method let conductors and orchestras match the music perfectly to the film, avoiding the need to stop or cut music during recording. Steiner used this technique to "catch the action," creating sounds for small details on screen. In fact, Steiner said he spent more time matching music to actions than composing melodies, as creating music came easily to him.

Steiner's musical training in Europe focused on operas and stage music, which influenced his work in Hollywood. Although he is called "the man who invented modern film music," he said the idea came from Richard Wagner, who created the leitmotif technique. Steiner used leitmotifs in his music, which are short musical themes that represent characters or ideas. He also used recognizable melodies, like national anthems, in his scores. Steiner was often criticized for using "Mickey Mousing," a technique where music exactly matches on-screen actions. For example, in Of Human Bondage, he used music to show a character's limp when walking.

One of Steiner's rules was that every character should have a musical theme. He said, "Steiner creates a musical picture that tells us all we need to know about the character." He matched music, story actions, and leitmotifs to build his compositions. His leitmotifs were more direct than those of his competitors, like Erich Korngold or Ernst Toch. Steiner also used a large team to help with orchestration, letting him produce more music.

A good example of Steiner's work is his score for The Glass Menagerie (1950):
– For the physically disabled heroine, Laura, Steiner used "glassy" sounds from instruments like the vibraphone and celesta to show her escape into a fantasy world.
– For Laura's brother, Tom, Steiner used a "big-city blues" theme to reflect his kind nature.
– For Jim, Laura's love interest, Steiner used a simple, friendly melody that appeared in the dance music at a party, showing his positive qualities.

Another example is The Fountainhead (1949), where Steiner created a theme for the main character, an idealist architect.

Steiner also used music to express emotions in scenes that lacked them. For example:
– In King Kong (1933), the music showed Kong's feelings toward his victim, helping the audience understand his emotions.
– In The Letter (1940), the music created a tense, violent atmosphere, matching the film's themes.
– In The Big Sleep (1946), the music became darker to match the film's mood, using high and low strings to create a claustrophobic feeling.
– In The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), the music showed the suffering of characters digging in the sun, using a funeral march to emphasize their pain. The music also highlighted the theme of greed and later showed the goodness of a character when he saved someone.

Influence

Max Steiner won the Academy Award for Best Original Score three times for his work on The Informer (1935), Now, Voyager (1942), and Since You Went Away (1944). He received a certificate for The Informer. At first, he got plaques for Now, Voyager and Since You Went Away, but these were later changed to Academy Award statuettes in 1946. Steiner was nominated for 20 Academy Awards in total and won two. Before 1939, the Academy honored a studio’s music department instead of individual composers with nominations in the scoring category. During this time, five of Steiner’s scores, including The Lost Patrol and The Charge of the Light Brigade, were nominated, but the Academy does not count these as Steiner’s personal achievements. Even though The Informer won an Academy Award in 1936, the Academy does not officially list Steiner as the individual winner because he accepted the award on behalf of RKO’s music department, of which he was the head. Steiner’s 20 nominations make him the third most nominated individual in the history of the scoring categories, after John Williams and Alfred Newman.

In 1999, the United States Postal Service released "American Music Series" stamps to honor Hollywood composers, including Steiner. After his death, Charles Gerhardt conducted the National Philharmonic Orchestra in an RCA Victor album of highlights from Steiner’s career, titled Now Voyager. He also won a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for Life with Father (1947). Other RCA albums featuring Steiner’s scores were released in the 1970s. These recordings were later remastered for Dolby surround sound and released on CD. In 1975, Steiner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1551 Vine Street for his work in motion pictures. In 1995, he was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. A memorial plaque was unveiled in 1988 at his birthplace, the Hotel Nordbahn (now Austria Classic Hotel Wien) on Praterstraße 72, to celebrate his 100th birthday. In 1990, Steiner was among the first to be recognized for Lifetime Achievement by an online awards site.

Kurt London wrote in Film Music that American film music was generally less original than European film music, but he noted Steiner’s work as an exception. Steiner, along with Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Alfred Newman, helped shape the style of film music during their time. Roy Webb, a contemporary of Steiner and a friend until Steiner’s death, composed music for Mighty Joe Young that resembled Steiner’s style. John Barry, the composer of James Bond films, said Steiner influenced his work. James Newton Howard, who composed the 2005 King Kong remake, stated that Steiner’s music inspired his score, particularly the theme that plays when Kong first appears. In the 2005 version, the music during the tribal sacrifice scene is taken directly from Steiner’s 1933 King Kong score. John Williams, the composer of Star Wars, cited Steiner and other European composers from the 1930s and 1940s as influences. George Lucas wanted Williams to use Steiner and Korngold’s scores as inspiration for Star Wars, even though grandiose music and recurring themes were uncommon in the 1970s.

Steiner was often compared to Erich Wolfgang Korngold, his rival and friend at Warner Bros. Some critics considered Korngold’s music superior, but others noted that Steiner created more consistently good scores than any other composer. Despite this, his influence was significant. Steiner helped reintroduce music into films after the invention of talking pictures. His score for King Kong demonstrated how to add background music to movies. Some of his contemporaries, like Miklós Rózsa, criticized Steiner’s use of music that closely matched on-screen actions, but Rózsa acknowledged Steiner’s success and strong melodic sense.

Known as the "father of film music" or the "dean of film music," Steiner wrote or arranged music for over 300 films by the end of his career. George Korngold, son of Erich Korngold, produced albums in the Classic Film Score Series that included Steiner’s music. Albert K. Bender founded the Max Steiner Music Society, which published journals, newsletters, and audio recordings. When the Steiner collection was donated to Brigham Young University in 1981, the society dissolved. The Max Steiner Memorial Society in the United Kingdom continued the society’s work.

Filmography

The American Film Institute ranked Steiner's score for Gone with the Wind (1939) as #2 and King Kong (1933) as #13 on their list of the 25 greatest film scores. His scores for these films were also nominated for the list:

• The Informer (1935)
• Jezebel (1938)
• Dark Victory (1939)
• Casablanca (1942)
• Now, Voyager (1942)
• Adventures of Don Juan (1948)
• Johnny Belinda (1948)
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
• A Summer Place (1959)