Miklos Rosza

[Nautilus]

This afternoon, I watched "Eye of the Needle" with Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan.  Almost as soon as the film began, I knew the composer of the soundtrack: Miklos Rosza.  In my shop, I have Turner Classic Movies playing all day and in the past ten years or so, I have "guessed" the composer was Miklos Rosza at least 50-75 times...and I've NEVER been wrong. How? Simple.  Every soundtrack he ever composed sounds like Ben Hur...every one.  I've often wondered how he was able to sustain such a lengthly career composing "the same" music every time.

[scsu1975]

Welcome to the boards.

Rosza used many of the same motifs in his scores. A few days ago, I was listening to a local classical music station and I was 99% certain that one of his symphonic pieces was playing. I had never heard it before, and it turned out I was correct.

Dimitri Tiomkin is another composer whose "style" is very recognizable.

[Princess of Tap]

2 hours ago, Nautilus said:

This afternoon, I watched "Eye of the Needle" with Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan.  Almost as soon as the film began, I knew the composer of the soundtrack: Miklos Rosza.  In my shop, I have Turner Classic Movies playing all day and in the past ten years or so, I have "guessed" the composer was Miklos Rosza at least 50-75 times...and I've NEVER been wrong. How? Simple.  Every soundtrack he ever composed sounds like Ben Hur...every one.  I've often wondered how he was able to sustain such a lengthly career composing "the same" music every 

I listen to a classical music station when I have the free time in the daytime.

And if I don't hear the introduction, I always play the game as to who wrote it.

I'm usually right with Beethoven though sometimes I mistake him for Brahms.

If Beethoven has such similarities, I suppose it's a compliment to say that anyone else does too. LOL

Whenever I look at a Renoir painting, I know for sure that it's Renoir or an awfully good imitation.

Genius is just like that.. I've heard some of the classical works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold on the radio.

 He was so prominent for his film scores at Warner Brothers like "Robin Hood". I immediately recognized that it was his work, but that doesn't mean he's a one-trick pony. It just means that he has a style, and continuity in his work.

My favorite Rosza score is "Spellbound". If you haven't already heard it, listen to it and see what you think.

 

[scsu1975]

In the film Time After Time, which Rozsa scored, he composed a very lovely waltz which can be barely heard in a restaurant scene. I have the soundtrack which contains the entire piece. It is quite un-Rozsa-like.

[TomJH]

I have to say that I take a certain pride in the fact that I can usually recognize the style of the musical composer involved when I watch a lot of the films from the Golden Age period (say up to 1960 or so).

I might, for example, watch a film I'd never seen before and think of the music, for example, "That reminds me of Spartacus" and then tell myself it must be Alex North. I can recognize the signature sounds of Steiner, Rozsa, Tiomkin, Korngold, Victor Young compositions most of the time, among others. I can be wrong, on occasion, but I'm right more often than not.

[Sepiatone]

I'd include BERNARD HERRMANN in that "easy to recognize" group too.  

And after STAR WARS, JOHN WILLIAMS got into a repetitious rut for a while. 

As for Miklos...Can't forget BEN-HUR('59)  or KING OF KINGS('61) 

Sepiatone

[Dargo]

Can believe nobody as yet has even mentioned MY favorite Rozsa (btw, it's 'z' before 's' here folks) score.

(...Ivanhoe)

[Forty-One]

On 6/26/2019 at 7:24 PM, scsu1975 said:

Welcome to the boards.

Rosza used many of the same motifs in his scores. A few days ago, I was listening to a local classical music station and I was 99% certain that one of his symphonic pieces was playing. I had never heard it before, and it turned out I was correct.

Dimitri Tiomkin is another composer whose "style" is very recognizable.

I agree completely! "Dial M for Murder", "The Fall of the Roman Empire", "The Guns of Navarone", just to name a few Tiomkin scores, all have the same theme and, also, he favours certains instruments in his compositions.

[Forty-One]

Miklos Rosza is one of my favourite film composers. it is true that his scores are easily recognizable, especially those resembling Ben Hur, such as "Quo Vadis" and "El Cid"