Erich Korngold – Sheet Music & Scores

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) was an Austrian pianist, conductor and composer. His wonderful late and neo-romantic music can be found not only in dozens of Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s, but also in many operas and orchestral works. Browse our sheet music and scores, and explore the wide world of the Oscar-winning composer Erich Korngold!

His Life

Erich Korngold was born in Brno in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and was the second son of the well-known music critic Julius Korngold. After seeing him play the piano, Gustav Mahler immediately called Korngold a child prodigy, and recommended that he study under Alexander Zemlinsky.

Korngold began composing large concert works from the young age of 11, including ballets for the Vienna State Theater, and works for many famous instrumental soloists. His music inspired many of the greats of the cultural scene of the time, such as Richard Strauss, Giacomo Puccini and Paul Wittgenstein.

Beyond the Sea

In 1938 Korngold was invited to the United States, where he accepted a commission to write the film music for “The Adventures of Robin Hood’. From then on, Korngold began writing mainly for Hollywood. In 1945, after seven years writing film scores, his long-standing dissatisfaction with Hollywood came to a head. He ended his association with Hollywood, and began to devote himself almost exclusively to writing concert works, including his famous Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.

His Legacy

Brendan G. Carroll captured the essence of Korngold’s music:

“By conceiving each film as an “opera without song”, he created a powerfully romantic, melodic and contrapuntally rich music, the highlights of which could be described as comparable to the symphonic poems of Richard Strauss and Franz Liszt. His intention was to write music that could be performed in a concert hall independently of the movie.”

The American Film Institute ranked Korngold’s music for ’The Adventures of Robin Hood’ 11th on the list of best film scores. In all, Korngold composed 23 film scores, received five Oscar nominations, and won the Oscar for Best Original Score twice.

Korngold also wrote five operas, a great number of orchestral compositions, songs, piano pieces and chamber works.

More Korngold Links

• Korngold Orchestral – Sheet Music
• Korngold Piano – Sheet Music
• Korngold Chamber – Sheet Music
• Korngold Art Song – Sheet Music
• Korngold Choral – Sheet Music
• Erich Korngold – Sheet Music Downloads