Editing Max Steiner (section)

===Leitmotifs===
With Steiner's background in his European musical training largely consisting of operas and operettas and his experience with stage music, he brought with him a slew of old-fashioned techniques he contributed to the development of the Hollywood film score.<ref name="reader">{{cite book |editor1-last=Cooke |editor1-first=Mervyn |title=The Hollywood Film Music Reader |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780195331196}}</ref>{{rp|55}} Although Steiner has been called, "the man who invented modern film music", he himself claimed that, "the idea originated with Richard Wagner ... If Wagner had lived in this century, he would have been the No. 1 film composer."<ref name="news">{{cite news |last1=Burlingame |first1=Jon |title=Underscoring Richard Wagner's influence on film music |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jun-17-la-et-wagner-movies-20100617-story.html |access-date=June 18, 2018 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=June 17, 2010}}</ref> Wagner was the inventor of the [[leitmotif]], and this influenced Steiner's composition.<ref>{{cite web |title=Film music and opera – the same or different? |url=https://classicalvoiceamerica.org/2010/04/15/film_music_and_opera_-_the_same_or_different/ |website=Classical Voice North America |date=April 15, 2010 |publisher=Journal of the [[Music Critics Association of North America]] |access-date=June 18, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Palmer" />{{rp|29}} In his music, Steiner relied heavily on leitmotifs. He would also quote pre-existing, recognizable melodies in his scores, such as national anthems. Steiner was known and often criticized for his use of [[Mickey Mousing]] or "catching the action". This technique is characterized by the precise matching of music with the actions or gestures on screen. Steiner was criticized for using this technique too frequently.<ref name="reader" />{{rp|56}} For example, in ''[[Of Human Bondage (1934 film)|Of Human Bondage]]'', Steiner created a limping effect with his music whenever the [[clubfoot]]ed character walked.<ref name="reader" />{{rp|88}}

One of the important principles that guided Steiner whenever possible was his rule: ''Every character should have a theme.'' "Steiner creates a musical picture that tells us all we need to know about the character."<ref name=Kalinak>{{cite book |last1=Kalinak |first1=Karthryn |title=Film Music 1 |chapter=Max Steiner and the Classical Hollywood Film Score: An Analysis of ''The Informer''|editor1-last=McCarty|editor1-first=Clifford|date=1989 |publisher=Garland Publishing, Inc. |location=New York |isbn=0824019393}}</ref> To accomplish this, Steiner synchronized the music, the narrative action, and the leitmotif as a structural framework for his compositions.<ref name="Kalinak" /> It may be added that Steiner's leitmotifs were more direct and less subtle than those by his contemporary Austrian-emigré competitors in the Hollywood scoring market, such as [[Erich Wolfgang Korngold|Erich Korngold]] or [[Ernst Toch]]. Unlike the latter two, Steiner took on large staff to help with orchestration, allowing him to multiply his output.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://on.orf.at/video/14225524/hollywoods-filmkomponisten-vienna-in-hollywood-pioniere-der-filmmusik |title=Hollywoods Filmkomponisten: Vienna in Hollywood - Pioniere der Filmmusik |language=de |access-date=2024-08-27 |via=on.orf.at}}</ref>

A good example of how the characters and the music worked together is best exemplified by his score for [[The Glass Menagerie (1950 film)|''The Glass Menagerie'']] (1950):<ref name="Palmer" />
*For the physically crippled heroine, Laura, Steiner had to "somehow capture in sound her escape from the tawdriness of reality into her make-believe world of glass figures&nbsp;... The result is tone-colour of an appropriately glassy quality; ...&nbsp;a free use of vibraphone, celesta, piano, glockenspiel and triangle enhances the fragility and beauty of the sound."<ref name=Palmer/>
*For Laura's well-traveled soldier brother: "Tom's theme has a big-city blues-type resonance. It is also rich and warm&nbsp;... [and] tells us something of Tom's good-hearted nature."<ref name=Palmer/>
*For Jim, Laura's long-awaited 'gentleman caller' who soon transforms her life: Steiner's "clean-limbed melody reflects his likeableness and honesty&nbsp;... Elements of Jim's theme are built into the dance-band music at the 'Paradise' as he assures her of her essential beauty and begins successfully to counter her deep-seated inferiority complex. Upon their return home, the music darkens the scene in preparation for Jim's disclosure that he is already committed to another girl."<ref name=Palmer/>

Another film which exemplifies the synchronizing of character and music is [[The Fountainhead (film)|''The Fountainhead'']] (1949):
The character of Roark, an idealist architect (played by [[Gary Cooper]]):

{{blockquote|Steiner's theme for the hero is fraught with a true emotion and a genuine idealism and aspiration. It surges upward in 'masculine' style, whilst Roark's mistress's theme wends downwards in curves of typically feminine shapeliness&nbsp;... He above, she traveling up in the workmen's elevator: the music seems to draw them together in mutual fulfillment&nbsp;... The score brings dignity and grandeur to the picture.<ref name=Palmer/>}}

In the same way that Steiner created a theme for each character in a film, Steiner's music developed themes to express emotional aspects of general scenes which originally lacked emotional content.<ref name="Palmer" /> For example:

*''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]'' (1933): The music told the story of what was happening in the film. It expressed [[King Kong|Kong]]'s "feelings of tenderness towards his helpless victim." The music underscores feelings that the camera simply cannot express. The score of the film showed "the basic power of music to terrorize and to humanize."<ref name=Palmer/>
*''[[The Letter (1940 film)|The Letter]]'' (1940), starring [[Bette Davis]]: The music of this film creates an atmosphere of "tropical tension and violence" by "blasting the credits ''fortissimo'' across the theater." Steiner's score emphasizes the tragic and passionate themes of the film.<ref name=Palmer/>
*''[[The Big Sleep (1946 film)|The Big Sleep]]'' (1946): The music of this film "darkens to match" the changing atmosphere of the film. It creates a claustrophobic feeling by including high strings "pitted rhythmically" against low strings and brass.<ref name=Palmer/>
*''[[The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (film)|The Treasure of the Sierra Madre]]'' (1948): Steiner uses the music to intensify the anguish of [[Humphrey Bogart|Bogart]] and [[Tim Holt|Holt]], when they are left to dig a mine in the hot sun. The music "assumes the character of a fiercely protesting funeral march." The timing of the music caves in as the mind caves in on Bogart. The music also serves to emphasize the theme of greed. It "tells us the nature of the thoughts flashing through Holt's mind as he stands outside the ruined mine;" however, when the warm tones of the music rise again, it reflects Holt's goodness as he saves Bogart from the collapsed mine. This "climax is marked by a ''[[grandioso]]'' statement of the theme on full orchestra."<ref name=Palmer/>