Double Life (Hardcover)

~ Miklos Rozsa (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like all classical composers, the young Rozsa faced the problem of how to make a living writing serious music. At the suggestion of famed French composer Arthur Honegger, he turned to film music, and thus began a "double life." Well-known for his movie scores, including Spellbound , The Lost Weekend , The Thief of Baghdad and Ben-Hur , Rozsa has also written numerous classical works that have been performed by major orchestras the world over. In this serviceable, straightforward autobiography he chronicles his rise to success, from his childhood in a small Hungarian town to the film studios of Hollywood. He tells an uncomplicated tale of a life of accomplishment, filled with reminiscences of his friendships with the rich and famous. Now in his 80s, Rozsa looks back with justifiable satisfaction on a career in which he has composed in two styles without compromising either. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

In this brief, dry, civilized, rather impersonal memoir, Hungarian-born composer Rozsa reviews "the two parallel lines" of his career - as a leading film-music writer, as an active (if sporadic) "composer for myself." Born in 1907, Rozsa showed early musical talent, with enthusiasm (then unpopular) for Bartok and Kodaly, but his training was spotty till college days in Leipzig - when he divided his rime between chemistry and music. First compositions followed; "I longed for the crystal clarity of Hungarian folksong as a basis for my music"; moving to Paris, he met Monteux and Munch, had his work performed. But a living could not be made as a serious composer. And so Rozsa turned to more profitable work, first (as "Nic Tomay") writing tunes for movie-intermissions, then (following the surprising example of composer-friend Arthur Honegger) seeking work as a film-scorer - an ambition which quickly took him to the shrewdly sketched Kordas in London. Learning "how to write music with a stopwatch" by trial and errer, Rozsa's early successes included Four Feathers and Thief of Baghdad. Then on to Hollywood, where studio Music Directors winced over Rozsa's dissonances but directors like Billy Wilder prevailed: Rozsa became first the leader in the psychopathology department (Double Indemnity, Spellbound), next the Roman-epic specialist - researching ancient instruments for Quo Vadis, struggling to find simple, carol-like music for the Ben Hur Nativity scene. And, through the decades, "I never lest sight of my real profession: that of composer, not of music to order but simply of the music that was in me to write." With a few sharp anecdotes about movie-studio-mentality (the memos of David O. Selznick) and affectionate anecdotes about colleagues from both music worlds: essential reading for those interested in movie-music, but only intermittently engaging rare for the wider Hollywood-memoir audience. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wynwood Pr (October 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0922066175
• ISBN-13: 978-0922066179
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #968,863 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Double Life, Singular Talent, May 19, 2001

By	Avram Hern (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Double Life: The Autobiography of Miklos Rozsa (Hardcover)

Miklos Rozsa, Hungarian-born composer (1907-1995), confesses in these pages that he never much liked the cinema, though somehow, he almost effortlessly managed to enrich it with an endless flow of melodies, at turns romantic, spine-chilling, or thrilling. All his music derived from the Magyar folk songs he sought and catalogued in his youth, and this grounding enabled him to do something which few of his contemporaries understood -- and which almost none of the current crop of "film composers" understand: how to tell a dramatic story in music, a third level beyond the images and words we typically think of as being the sum of the "talking motion picture." Rozsa's first love was his so-called "absolute music," that written for the concert hall (which includes his Violin Concerto in D, Op. 24, one of the 20th Century's most ravishingly beautiful compositions); his work for Hollywood's major film studios merely paid the bills, so he claimed, allowing him the luxury of writing personal music without having to starve for the privilege, as have many talented composers and artists before and since. Though Rozsa remained resolutely Old World, with Hungarian his first language, his is an engaging memoir of the long-gone feudal kingdoms, princes and foot-soldiers of Hollywood's Golden Age, whose walls he entered and paths he crossed, inluding producers Alexander Korda and David O. Selznick, actors Burt Lancaster and Elizabeth Taylor, and directors Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder and William Wyler...as well as memorable names -- some infamous -- outside the worlds of music and film, such as Aldous Huxley, Pope Pius XII, and even Adolf Hitler. "A Double Life" is, in all, a valuable document of a thoughtful man's life and the fascinating world he inhabited.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-have, January 3, 2007

By	Sensei (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Double Life: The Autobiography of Miklos Rozsa (Hardcover)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr Rozsa's Film Music, September 16, 2009

By	Carmelo Galea "Rozsa fan" (Victoria, Australia) - See all my reviews

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.