"WHAT HE SAID"
Quotations BY Erich Wolfgang Korngold
"My musical creed may be called the inspired idea.
With what displeasure one hears this concept nowadays! And
nevertheless: how could the artificial contruction, the most exact musical
mathematics, triumph over the moving principle of the inspired idea!"
(Interview, May 1926)
"I feel certain that this picture (Give Us This Night)
starts the transition period. Producers have realized that public
taste in music has risen, and we are now conducting a test which will eventually
lead to the writing of entire modern operas for the screen. When
that day comes, composers will accept the motion picture as a musical form
equal to the opera or the symphony."
(Interview, 1934)
"When there are sequences when the eye, and not the
ear, is the primary object, then the composer has his fling in the writing
of incidental background music. In this branch of musical writing
there have been some of the finest examples of orchestral music which our
age has produced."
(Commenting on the composition of film music, 1936)
"Music is music whether it is for the stage, rostrum
or cinema. Form may change, the manner of writing may vary,
but the composer needs to make no concessions whatever to what he conceives
to be his own musical ideology... Fine symphonic scores for
motion pictures cannot help but influence mass acceptance of finer music.
The cinema is a direct avenue to the ears and hearts of the great public
and all musicians should see the screen as a musical opportunity."
(Interview, 1946)
"I believe that my newly completed symphony will show
the world that atonality and ugly dissonance at the price of giving up
inspiration, form, expression, melody and beauty will result in ultimate
disaster for the art of music."
(Letter, 1952)
"No one tells me what to do. I do not feel part
of a factory. I take part in story conferences, suggest changes
in the editing when it is dramatically necessary to coincide with a musical
structure. It is entirely up to me to decide where in the picture
to put music. But I always consult thoroughly with the music-chief... I
also keep the producer well informed and always secure his consent for
my musical intentions first. But in none of my pictures have
I ever 'played' my music first to either the music-chief, the director
or the producer. And the studio heads never make the acquaintance
of my music until the day of the sneak preview. As for my working
habits, I like the idea of perfection. If a thing is not right
it is done over and over again."
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