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UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Projections of Musical Jewishness: Composers of Hollywood's Golden Age Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2500c312 Author Fruchtman, Aaron Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Projections of Musical Jewishness: Composers of Hollywood’s Golden Age A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music by Aaron J. Fruchtman August 2016 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Byron Adams, Chairperson Dr. Walter Aaron Clark Dr. Michael Alexander Dr. Daniel Goldmark Copyright by Aaron J. Fruchtman 2016 The Dissertation of Aaron J. Fruchtman is approved: ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements Despite locking myself away from the world to write this dissertation, I was supported by many individuals and institutions. I am grateful to my committee chair, Dr. Byron Adams, who always believed in my scholarly vision and made me want to become a musicologist. I am also grateful to my committee members: Profs. Walter Clark, Michael Alexander, and Daniel Goldmark. Each of you has made yourselves available to me over this journey and I am profoundly thankful for your words of wisdom. Two archivists deserve special praise: I would like to thank James D’Arc at Brigham Young University who shares my passion for the music of Max Steiner and made my visit to Provo most productive. At the University of Southern California, Edward Comstock constantly fielded my questions and requests and had time for wonderful conversations about our favorite Golden Age film composers. Likewise, thank you to Sandra Garcia-Myers at USC’s Cinematic Archive and Brett Service at USC’s Warner Bros. Archives for locating the numerous items I requested. Additionally, I would like to thank the staff of the Margaret Herrick Library, Syracuse University Libraries, American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming, and University of California, Los Angeles Performing Arts Special Collections. Daniel Gold at JoAnn Kane Music Service also deserves appreciation for allowing me to look at Newman’s The House of Rothschild and tour the magnificent aisles of film music history that you call your office. iv The UC, Riverside Music Department has been a supportive home base throughout my graduate work. I am grateful to the faculty and students of the music department. In particular, Profs. Ruth Charloff and Tim Labor, and my colleagues Robert Wahl, no.e Parker, Matthew Buchan, Jaclyn Howerton, Rachel Howerton, and Erica Jones. To my good friend Erica Siegel, thank you for numerous coffee and lunch meetings as well as Skype calls from London, we commiserated with and motivated each other over the years. The students in my “Music in Movies and TV” course deserve thanks for allowing me (whether they knew it or not) to be a sounding board for my research ideas and for listening to me go on about Max Steiner for much, much too long. I am grateful to Howard Fredrics for entertaining discussions and emotional support. Jonathan Friedmann generously gave me his thoughts on Jewish musical sensibility and recommended readings, which I greatly appreciate. Mark Kligman provided me advice on multiple versions of conference papers that lead to my Steiner chapter. My friend Nicola Lubitsch introduced me to John Waxman, who I enjoyed several phone conversations with about his father, Franz’s, music and life. Thank you to Tamara Levitz who in the early stages of my research provided consultation on the concept of Jewish canon formation. I am grateful for E. Randol Schoenberg’s assistance with accessing genealogy records for the Steiner family in Vienna. Hazzan-Rabbi Rodhe generously offered his thoughts on the Portuguese Eikha tradition via multiple email exchanges. Thank you to Shai Burstyn, my correspondent in Israel, whose knowledge and interpretation of early Israeli song greatly affected my understanding of Hollywood biblical film scores. My summer lunches and numerous emails with Roger Hickman v discussing film music were endlessly pleasurable and inspiring. William Rosar deserves special thanks. I am so fortunate to have met you at a critical moment in my research. Your advice and support during my dissertation is immeasurable. I cannot thank you enough. Your help especially on chapter 4 regarding the Urtheme was indispensable. I think of you as a very wise mentor and a dear friend. I also thank Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Prime for the ability to stream so many classic films and obscure Jewish movies in the comfort of my home. That they also provided me with untold hours of distractions (read: Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Downton Abbey, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Stranger Things, among countless others) is not held against them. Finally, I extend special thanks to friends and family who have supported and loved me. David Spear, my longtime friend and compositional mentor, thank you for your confidence in my abilities. You are always one of my best cheerleaders. A large thank you is bestowed upon the Flippos, Waldrens, Murphys, and a few Barmazels and Fruchtmans. And, to Asher, my son, who often commanded me to “Go work, Daddy!” I still tried to sing “Wheels on the Bus” and “Five Little Ducks” as often as I sang “Kol Nidre.” Most of all, I thank my wife, Poppy. You who have read and edited most drafts of this study and sacrificed because of my work. You have been subjected to the phrase, “by the way, did you know he was Jewish?” more times than anyone should be. Thank you for your support in every imaginable way. You are “My One and Only Love.” vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Projections of Musical Jewishness: Composers of Hollywood’s Golden Age by Aaron J. Fruchtman Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Music University of California, Riverside, August 2016 Dr. Byron Adams, Chairperson This dissertation investigates landmark Jewish topic film scores by composers writing dramatic music in the Golden Age of Hollywood (1932-1960). This study is a synoptic presentation of the musical Jewish world of Hollywood. During this period, Jewish composers, who had generally been viewed as marginal figures in music history, found a rare moment of insider status and wrote music informed by their Jewish heritage. Drawing from extensive archival research, I examine the life and music of Max Steiner, one of the most successful composers in Hollywood history, with special emphasis placed on his influential score to the “ghetto film” Symphony of Six Million (1932). A separate chapter explores Alfred Newman’s scores to a collection of Jewish topic films vii including The House of Rothschild (1934), Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), and The Diary of Anne Frank (1959). This is then compared and contrasted with Newman’s musical portrayals of the numinous in his scores to several post-war biblical epics, particularly focusing on The Robe (1953) and David and Bathsheba (1951). The final chapter focuses on the issue of cross reference in three seemingly disparate films on Jewish subjects by Franz Waxman, Alfred Newman, and Ernest Gold. The themes from Mr. Skeffington (1944), David and Bathsheba (1944), and Exodus (1960) share striking similarities, prompting an investigation of the musical sources that influenced these composers. The search aims to better understand Jewish musical signifiers in Hollywood. The film scores presented in this dissertation are texts that can offer understandings about the composers who created them and their shared social world in Hollywood. With this study there is a new point of departure for discussions about the complicated connection between musical Jewishness and Hollywood. viii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 Sensibility and Performance Practice – More Schmaltz, Please! .......................... 6 Pastiche ................................................................................................................ 13 Sources and Players ............................................................................................. 15 Chapter 2: Max Steiner’s Jewish Identity and Score to Symphony of Six Million ........... 29 Steiner’s Philanthropy .......................................................................................... 39 Steiner’s Score to Symphony ................................................................................ 42 Chapter 3: Alfred Newman: “I’m Just a Melancholy Jew” ............................................. 76 The House of Rothschild ...................................................................................... 77 Gentleman’s Agreement ....................................................................................... 86 The Diary of Anne Frank ..................................................................................... 96 The Robe ............................................................................................................ 103 The Counterfeit Traitor ...................................................................................... 111 A Man Called Peter ..........................................................................................