Talk:Max Steiner

Untitled
Considered the father of film scores in Hollywood. He began the practice of including music throughout movies in Hollywood talkies, not just at the credits or during the dance numbers.

Unreferenced
If someone wants to work on referencing (and possibly expanding) the article, some of the biographical facts could be documented from Geoffrey O'Brien, "Interrupted Symphony: A Recollection of Movie Music from Max Steiner to Marvin Gaye", p. 90–102 in Eric Weisbard, ed., This is Pop, Harvard University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-674-01321-2 (cloth), ISBN 0-674-01344-1 (paper). There's about three pages on Steiner there. - Jmabel | Talk 23:35, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

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Removed Quotes
I removed quote from the section Beginning Music Career section, Broadway career, symphony of six million...and early life. Wikipedia articles should be for information that readers can glean at a glance. It does not depend on the exact wording of Max Steiner. I paraphrased the quotes in order to be more concise and only provide vital information. Encyclopedias don't necessarily need a lot of quotes. Amgisseman(BYU) (talk) 18:23, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

Youtube external links
All the links to youtube are not in compliance with the external link guidelines (WP:EL). They're convenient and it was obviously a lot of trouble to put them there, so I'm reluctant to delete them. thoughts? Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 18:02, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

composers he influenced
I tried to find a source that mentioned anything about other film composers Steiner influenced, since I noticed that a user keeps trying to add that unsourced information. I didn't have any luck with the Encyclopedia of Film composers or the notes to his collection we have here at BYU. Undoubtedly he influenced other composers, so please add that information if you can find a source. Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 16:17, 24 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Hi - I couldn't find a source either, which is why I reverted the addition. I thought that might prompt the ip editor to include their source.  Onel 5969  TT me 16:32, 24 October 2016 (UTC)
 * makes sense to me! Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 17:03, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

interned in the UK, not in Germany
Please correct the introduction. The introduction wrongly says that Max Steiner was "threatened with internment in Germany during World War I" and "he fled to England" (paragraph 2, sentence 2). But the "Biography" section says that "Upon returning to Vienna [...] Having difficulties finding work, he moved to London [...] He stayed in London for eight years [...] But the beginning of World War I in 1914 led him to be interned as an enemy alien" (under the subheading "Beginning music career (1907-1914)" paragraph 2 sentences 7, 8, 10, and paragraph 3 sentence 2). And that makes sense, because Steiner was Austrian, so that he was a national of the Axis and not a national of the Allies. keenuck (talk) 09:49, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi keenuck, thanks for pointing that out. I was able to access a newer biography of Steiner and it said that he was never interned (but you are correct that he would have been interned in England). I think that I corrected the information. Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 18:44, 13 February 2023 (UTC)

Hi, Rachel, thanks for doing some work on this. Do you think the second paragraph also needs to be changed? It says 'Threatened with internment in Germany ...'. That is the paragraph that begins 'Steiner was a child prodigy ...' near the beginning of the whole article. keenuck (talk) 08:27, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

I have changed it to 'England' in the second paragraph. keenuck (talk) 14:10, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
 * oops, I missed that mention, thanks. Incidentally, I think the 2020 Steiner biography looks really good and could probably replace some of the harder-to-find sources we used on this page (my student expanded it in 2018). I've put it on our worklist. Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 17:51, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

Excellent, Rachel, looking forward to see that new info about Steiner keenuck (talk) 11:06, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

What does this even mean?
"After the underscoring of Symphony of Six Million, a third to half of the success of most films was 'attributed to the extensive use of music.'"

I know it has a citation, but how can you measure the success of "most films" in fractions? This is truly a meaningless statement, even if someone really said it. 2601:643:8D00:970:4901:BF0C:C666:A5D1 (talk) 05:24, 11 September 2023 (UTC)
 * I agree that it doesn't really make sense. Here is the quote in Google Books. It's from a selection written by Steiner himself. I tried to change the body to have a little more accurate context of what Steiner was saying--does it make sense now? Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 15:36, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Eighty piece orchestra
"Steiner took advantage of this offer and used an eighty-piece orchestra, explaining the film 'was made for music.'"

It's doubtful the orchestra was that large. First of all, most sources say 46 musicians played on the soundtrack. Secondly, since recording techniques were primitive, many instruments we expect in an orchestra today were missing, as they could not effectively be recorded—double basses, for example. The violin section sounds small, and is probably not more than 20 musicians. And an 80 piece orchestra would have been larger than the epic orchestras used today for the symphonies and concertos of even Brahms! The London Symphony Orchestra that recorded Star Wars only had eight-odd regular musicians, and for some of the battle music added percussion and some freelancers to bring the count up to nearly 100. But it's doubtful an 80 piece orchestra could even have been successfully recorded with early 1930s technology. Classical recordings (of even Mahler) in those days used reduced forces by necessity. 2601:643:8D00:970:4901:BF0C:C666:A5D1 (talk) 05:28, 11 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Hi, I was able to verify that it was an 80-piece orchestra with the snippet from the cited book on Google books. The new Steiner biography, Music By Max Steiner confirms that Cooper gave Steiner a blank check to make the score as impressive as possible, and says that Steiner used the "largest orchestra possible" (p. 100). I can put a hold on Musique fantastique at my library, but it sounds like you may not believe this source is accurate. Which sources say that he used 46 musicians? Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 15:28, 11 September 2023 (UTC)