Double Life

The late great Miklos Rozsa was arguably one of the greatest if not THE greatest film composer of the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood. This autobiography title is also a double entendre - Rozsa was not only a superb film composer (his "public" music) but also made sure that he had the available time to pursue his career as a meaningful concert composer (his "private" music). He also won an Oscar (his second of three) for his music to the movie A DOUBLE LIFE whose title was symbolic of his life's work. But, unlike what happened to the main character in that film, Rozsa remained true to both. A listing of his total oeuvre is found at the end of this book; and one might well wonder how could one individual have created so much quantitatively and qualitatively and with so muchvariation. From the time his parents met in pre-World War I Hungary and his birth in 1907, MW covers 74 years of his life. His last film was DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID in 1981 with Steve Martin. He passed away in 1995 at the age of 88.Miklos Rozsa was a true "Renaissance Man" - highly cultured, knowledgeable in the visual and aural arts, well educated, fluent in a number of languages, held in high esteem by his colleagues, friends, family, and the general public, and a most gracious gentleman. But he also had a delicious sense of humor; and his description of particular individuals and circumstances involving his professionalexperiences is worth reading this book for that alone. In the end, one comes to realize that Hollywood was still a business, counting every penny quite literally. It has been left to later generations to appreciate its creative side and the wondrous accomplishments of its almost limitless talents.From KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOUR to DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID with such notable films as THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD,DOUBLE INDEMNITY, SPELLBOUND, THE LOST WEEKEND, QUO VADIS, IVANHOE, JULIUS CAESAR, KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, VALLEY OF THE KINGS, BEN HUR, KING OF KINGS, EL CID, PROVIDENCE, and TIME AFTER TIME in between, here was a giant among giants of a tradition the likes of which we will never hear again.

I was doing some research on the composer, Miklos Rozsa. He is known for his film work on epics like Ben Hur, Quo Vadis, El Cid to name a few of the movies he scored, and he also was a serious concert composer. He came to America before WWII with the Korda brothers and became one of the great Hollywood movie composers. His book, "Double Life" is a great account of his career in film & and the concert hall. A very enjoyable read for me. Besides biblical or epic, historical pictures, he also scored some American film noir movies in the 40's. He also wrote a great score for the remake by Korda of "The Thief of Bagdad." His life story added to my knowledge of 20th century music. He was familar with the great composers & conductors of his time. He also left us some great film scores that are timeless.

A well written book, enjoyable, clear, and with a touch of "Hungarian" English, adding that bit of extra, natural colour. Most interesting about the life of perhaps The Greatest Motion Picture Composer, ever, so far. His genius shows through,but never, is it in any way, pushed or used, a most clean narrative, without any of the poor quality bad language, which seems to pervade, so called personality books.

Pretty good bio of a great composer of movie music and serious classical compositions. Too bad so much of his music is not available on CD's. The book was easy to read and worthy for Rozsa fans.

I learned a lot about Miklos Rozsa's film music career that I did not know before. I'm referring to the initial stages of his life in film music, to achieving the highest in this field. It shows Dr Rozsa as a humble person, though resolute in his beliefs. There is a bit of humour in this book too, also thanks to Dr Rozsa, who I suppose makes him even more a down to earth person.I have once written to Dr Rozsa back in 1970, and to my surpise I received a reply back, very quickly, in his own handwriting. I am of course very proud of being one of the people that actually received correspondence from the Supremo himself.All in all, a wonderful book, which I could not stop reading. Showed me how such a famous man, perhaps the most famous of film music composers, can be also humble and have a sense of homour.Of course there is another side of Dr Rozsa, that of his symphonic works (reason of Double Life book title). I am not familiar with the works of this other side of his life, though I am sure it is very important.Thank you.

The used prices for this book on Amazon are absurd - however, I purchased it from Amazon months ago and for a price under $10. So keep checking back. Also you may be able to find it in local used bookstores, as I have seen it for $15 or so. An excellent book and a great read.

It is a funny thing that composers of film music seem to have a rather lesser opinion of their film work than of any concert pieces they have written.Oscars are mentioned merely in passing.This is certainly the case with Miklos rosza,who is among the top composers of film music in the 20th century.He was naturally enough introduced to the film world by his fellow Hungarian émigré Alexander Korda.He went on from strength to strength.His autobiography is well written and contains many amusing anecdotes.I like the story of his arrival in London in the thirties when he saw a newspaper headline "England In Danger".Worried that he might be about to be plunged into war he found that,as per The Lady Vanishes,this referred to the English cricket team.This is a very good read