William Axt (April 19, 1888 – February 13, 1959) was an American composer of nearly two hundred film scores.
William Axt | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 19, 1888 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 13, 1959 (aged 70) Ukiah, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | DeWitt Clinton High School National Conservatory of Music of America |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago |
| Occupation | Composer |
Life and career
editBorn in New York City, Axt graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx and studied at the National Conservatory of Music of America.[citation needed] He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Chicago in 1922.[1] He studied in Berlin under Xaver Scharwenka.[2]
Axt made his American debut as a conductor on December 28, 1910.[2]
He served as an assistant conductor for the Hammerstein Grand Opera Company and was a musical director for the Capitol Theatre in Manhattan before joining the music department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1929.[citation needed]
Axt retired from the film industry to raise cattle and breed horses in Laytonville, California.[citation needed] He died in Ukiah, California, and had at least one son (Edward).[3]
Selected filmography
edit- Theodora (1921; with Erno Rapee)[4]
- The Prisoner of Zenda (1922)
- Greed (1924)
- The Big Parade (1925; with David Mendoza)[5]
- Ben-Hur (1925; with David Mendoza)[6]
- The Merry Widow (1925)[7]
- La Bohème (1926)[7]
- Don Juan (1926; with David Mendoza)[8][9]
- The Scarlet Letter (1926)[7]
- Camille (1927)
- The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927; with David Mendoza)[10]
- Our Dancing Daughters (1928)
- Show People (1928)[7]
- The Trail of '98 (1928)[7]
- White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)[7]
- A Woman of Affairs (1928)[7]
- The Duke Steps Out (1929)[7]
- The Flying Fleet (1929)[7]
- The Kiss (1929)[7]
- The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929)
- Madame X (1929)
- Our Modern Maidens (1929)[7]
- Where East Is East (1929)
- A Free Soul (1931)[7]
- Private Lives (1931)
- Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931)
- Faithless (1932)[7]
- Grand Hotel (1932)
- The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)[11]
- The Washington Masquerade (1932)[7]
- The Wet Parade(1932)[7]
- Broadway to Hollywood (1933)[7]
- Clear All Wires! (1933)[12]
- Dinner at Eight (1933)[13]
- Eskimo (1933)[14]
- Gabriel Over the White House (1933)[7]
- Hell Below (1933)[15]
- Penthouse (1933)[3]
- The Secret of Madame Blanche (1933)[7]
- Sons of the Desert (1933)
- Storm at Daybreak (1933)[7]
- Reunion in Vienna (1933)[3]
- Forsaking All Others (1934)[7]
- Manhattan Melodrama (1934)[7]
- Men in White (1934)
- Operator 13 (1934)[7]
- Sadie McKee (1934)[7]
- The Thin Man (1934)[7]
- Tarzan and His Mate (1934)[7]
- A Wicked Woman (1934)[7]
- You Can't Buy Everything (1934)
- Buried Loot (1935), short
- Rendezvous (1935)[3]
- David Copperfield (1935)
- Libeled Lady (1936)[7]
- Tarzan Escapes (1936)[7]
- We Went to College (1936)[16]
- Beg, Borrow or Steal (1937)[7]
- London by Night (1937)
- Parnell (1937)[3]
- Under Cover of Night (1937)[7]
- Everybody Sing (1938)[7]
- Woman Against Woman (1938)[7]
- Yellow Jack (1938)[7]
- Sergeant Madden (1939)[7]
- Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939)[7]
- Tell No Tales (1939)[7]
- Untamed (1940)
- Little Nellie Kelly (1940)
- Tarzan's Secret Treasure (1941)[7]
- Madame Curie (1943)
References
edit- ^ "Music Notes". The New York Times. October 13, 1922. p. 14. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ a b "Wm. Axt Conducts 'Naughty Marietta'". The New York Times. December 29, 1910. p. 16. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e "Film Musician William L. Axt Dies at Ukiah". The Los Angeles Times. February 14, 1959. p. 9. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ ""Theodora" Film at the Shubert". The Boston Globe. November 22, 1921. p. 7. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ May, Richard P. (2005). "Restoring "The Big Parade"". The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists. 5 (2). University of Minnesota Press: 142. doi:10.1353/mov.2005.0033. ISSN 1532-3978. JSTOR 41167213. S2CID 192076406. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ ""Ben Hur" Pictured at the Colonial". The Boston Globe. February 23, 1926. p. 18. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak "William Axt". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on December 23, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ Anderson, Gillian B. (1987). "The Presentation of Silent Films, or, Music as Anaesthesia". The Journal of Musicology. 5 (2). University of California Press: 292. doi:10.2307/763853. ISSN 0277-9269. JSTOR 763853. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ Platte, Nathan (2011). "Dream Analysis: Korngold, Mendelssohn, and Musical Adaptations in Warner Bros.' A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)". 19th-Century Music. 34 (3): 229. doi:10.1525/ncm.2011.34.3.211. ISSN 0148-2076. JSTOR 10.1525/ncm.2011.34.3.211. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ McCormick, Rick (2020). "Sex and Sophistication: Comedies and Operettas, 1923–34". Sex, Politics, and Comedy: The Transnational Cinema of Ernst Lubitsch. Indiana University Press. p. 167. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1g809c7.8. ISBN 978-0-253-04834-9. JSTOR j.ctv1g809c7.8. S2CID 243120174. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
- ^ Yang, Mina (2001). "Orientalism and the Music of Asian Immigrant Communities in California, 1924-1945". American Music. 19 (4): 408–9. doi:10.2307/3052418. ISSN 0734-4392. JSTOR 3052418. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ "[Untitled]". The Boston Globe. May 13, 1933. p. 10. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ "Film and Video Programs". MoMA. 2 (6): 19. 1999. ISSN 0893-0279. JSTOR 4420375. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
- ^ Henderson, Clara (2001). ""When Hearts Beat like Native Drums:" Music and the Sexual Dimensions of the Notions of "Savage" and "Civilized" in Tarzan and His Mate, 1934". Africa Today. 48 (4): 98. ISSN 0001-9887. JSTOR 4187456. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ "[Untitled]". The Boston Globe. March 20, 1933. p. 17. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ^ Barham, Jeremy (2011). "Recurring Dreams and Moving Images: The Cinematic Appropriation of Schumann's Op. 15, No. 7". 19th-Century Music. 34 (3): 284. doi:10.1525/ncm.2011.34.3.271. ISSN 0148-2076. JSTOR 10.1525/ncm.2011.34.3.271. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
External links
edit- William Axt at IMDb