Max Steiner’s Musical Pictures: “If you get too decorative, you lose your appeal to the emotions”

Abstract

By devising a “geography of the soundscape” (Stilwell), Max Steiner used the scores he composed and directed to generate maximum effect and affect. Balancing the dynamic relation between music and image, he was one of the first Hollywood composers to use sections of the score as mnemonic devices.

Keywords

• Max Steiner
• music
• soundscape
• score
• mnemonic devices
• King Kong