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But that's fairly easy to do, even I could do it and I'm no expert. Every recording is unique, it's like a fingerprint. If you are a record label, you should have people at hand who can do that.
I know of a German CD label which released mainly old German chansons and which even lost such a lawsuit although another boot label had only copied/compiled tracks from 2 or 3 of their CDs. In this lawsuit indeed tracks got compared and the boot label tried everything to conceal the fact that they had only copied the tracks (changed cover, different mastering etc.). This had taken place about 15 years ago when I heard the story from the label owner and almost couldn´t believe it, but nevertheless: Sometimes you really wonder what is going on and everything seems to be possible..
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For the rights holders it might be easier, but at first they must be sufficiently interested.
Yea, that's of course true. And in some cases, I think a new restauration of an old original score should also be granted a special copyright, but it's where it gets tricky.
Why for example are several Kritzerland titles still in the "Classic Soundtrack Collector" list as Bruce Kimmel is certainly not afraid to claim any damage against this person?
I don't know.
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Soooo... back to Hugo Friedhofer...
Wonderful post Steve! I remember reading about Hugo's troubles in the last few years of his life in Linda Danly's excellent book about him:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hugo-friedhofer-linda-danly/1124139067
I'm glad you got to send him that letter and get such a nice response.
For anyone here who might be interested in a great insightful podcast examination of Hugo's most acclaimed film score, I highly recommend this episode of Settling the Score from this past year:
https://www.settlingthescorepodcast.com/48-the-best-years-of-our-lives/
Speaking of Manderley, apart from supplying the Die Sister Die tapes to Intrada years ago, he also said he supplied the tapes for Hugo's other late film score, A Walk in the Forest, to some other label. Fingers crossed that release still happens!
Hey Justin, did Friedhofer ever score an episode of "Wagon Train"? I keep thinking he did, but can't seem to find it on I.D.M.B..
You probably mixed it up with Rawhide -- he did do one of those (plus four Lancers and some other western TV).
Yavar
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Soooo... back to Hugo Friedhofer...
Yes, back to Friedhofer. I very much enjoy ONE EYED JACKS, perhaps my favorite of Friedhofer's scores so far. Would be great to have a release of VERA CRUZ; I remember the music from watching the movie as a kid.
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No.. 1: THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946) – Film Music Review
fmrev.com/film-in-focus/the-best-years-of-our-lives
Perhaps the most compelling component of Wyler’s film, however, is its majestic musical scoring by Hugo Friedhofer. Arriving in Hollywood in 1929, Hugo Friedhofer quickly established himself as one of the screen’s most able and popular orchestrators, working closely with such composers as Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner on some fifty motion pictures.
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Sorry, Guys. For some reason the links work outside of these pages, but not on the FSM forum. I don't understand why.
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Hugo Friedhofer had a large body of work on the series I Spy: 26 scores.
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Sorry, Guys. For some reason the links work outside of these pages, but not on the FSM forum. I don't understand why.
Because you have not copied the entire URL.
Before you copy, click on the URL, wait until the entire URL appears incl. "https://..." -- then you can copy it.
=> https://fmrev.com/film-in-focus/the-best-years-of-our-lives/
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An anecdote I don't recall reading in this thread:
Alfred Newman, when asked by an aspiring musican, what he should do to become a film music composer.
"Study Friedhofer," Newman replied.
An earlier poster commented he had been listening to the 1959 score to "The Young Lions".
Actually, it's from 1958, and it was among the nominees for Best Original Score:
The Winner was THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Dimitri Tiomkin
Other NOMINEES:
THE BIG COUNTRY - Jerome Moross
SEPARATE TABLES - David Raksin
WHITE WILDERNESS - Oliver Wallace
THE YOUNG LIONS - Hugo Friedhofer
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THE BIG COUNTRY would have gotten my vote, hands down. But I like the other scores too.
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An anecdote I don't recall reading in this thread:
Alfred Newman, when asked by an aspiring musican, what he should do to become a film music composer.
"Study Friedhofer," Newman replied.
An earlier poster commented he had been listening to the 1959 score to "The Young Lions".
Actually, it's from 1958, and it was among the nominees for Best Original Score:
The Winner was THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Dimitri Tiomkin
Other NOMINEES:
THE BIG COUNTRY - Jerome Moross
SEPARATE TABLES - David Raksin
WHITE WILDERNESS - Oliver Wallace
THE YOUNG LIONS - Hugo Friedhofer
Dimi had the better PR agent. It surprises me that he even received a nomination for it.
Moross lost because he didn't really belong to the Hollywood crowd. But among these five selections his score is the only one that entered into the realm of the all time greatest film scores. I say this as someone who has high regards for Hugo's The Young Lions as well.
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Posted: Nov 24, 2022 - 1:42 PM Report Abuse Reply to Post
By: sales (Member)
It was through FSM I bought my first Friedhofer CD Between Heaven and Hell /Soldier of Fortune 20 years ago I also have a copy of his oral history he gave in Nov 1976 a very informative and amusing read. Truly a real giant among fake Pygmies
************************************************************************
************************************************************************
I have to give a hearty second approval to the above-mentioned book by member "sales":
An American Film Institute / Louis B. Mayer Foundation
ORAL HISTORY WITH HUGO FRIEDHOFER
Interviewed by Irene Kahn Atkins
March 13 - April 29, 1974
510 pages
If you are interested in the history of film music from the earliest days from the perspective of one of the pioneers in the field, Hugo Friedhofer, in his own words and seasoned with his own wit, wisdom, and insight, this big (510 pages) bound hardcover book provides a great document of the times.
And a big "Thank You" to Steve Vertlieb for providing a copy of his letter from Hugo Friedhofer and also for its background.
Copies are rare. I don't know how many were printed, but if you happen to come across one, snatch it up.
Ron Burbella
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Thank you all for your interest in Hugo Friedhofer and the information shared. I have collected a good deal of biographical information about my cousin and am willing to share what I have. Any information that might come my way also would be greatly appreciated.
You might be interested to know that since your cousin was from San Francisco, "In Love And War" had another San Franciscan who starred in the film: Bradford Dillman.
Hugo indeed had deep San Francisco roots. His grandfather Paul and great uncle August came out in a covered wagon in the 1850's. Hugo was born before the Great Earthquake but missed it because his mother Eva had taken him to Germany on an extended trip.
Thanks, Jim, for sharing some biographical trivia on your distant cousin Hugo Friedhofer. I often wondered if he spoke any German or was fluent in it. Could he speak it or even write it? I guess he must have learnt the language at some point through his parents when he was a child.
I've discovered his music when I bought the new recording of The Best Years Of Our Lives as an LP with that large booklet containing all those interesting notes as well as a single with a spoken tribute (read by Richard Hatch) to Hugo on the A side and the Homecoming excerpt from the original film sound track on the B side. It was obvious to me then that he was a film composer of great significance even though he wasn't as 'famous' as Bernard Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin or a John Williams. But it took a few more years to watch any of his films he scored. Before that LP purchase I've seen This Land Is Mine and One Eyed Jacks on TV, maybe some others as well, but the music didn't registered back then. I've played that LP to a then friend who was quite snobbish against film music. But this one recording he did like, praising the great quality of the music on it.
Did Hugo have any children? I believe he was married, wasn't he?
Hugo was fluent in German. He had two daughters - Erica and Karyl.
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Second cousin twice-removed! I'm one of the last three Friedhofers (direct male descendants) of our common ancestor Johann Gottfried Friedhofer who arrived in the US from Baden-Württemberg in 1851. I never met Hugo because he died in 1981 a month before I graduated HS. I had hoped to visit him after I got my music degree but fate intervened. I have had the privilege of talking with a few who knew him. Though I did not make music my profesison after getting my degree, I still compose for my own enjoyment and sing in a major symphony chorus. I am so pleased that so many still remember and appreciate Hugo.
Hey JF, this one's for you--
https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=1715&forumID=1&archive=1
Marvelous thread. Much thanks!
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I've read with interest some of the recent discussions and threads concerning the measure of Hugo Friedhofer's importance as a composer, and it set my memory sailing back to another time in a musical galaxy long ago and far away. I have always considered Maestro Friedhofer among the most important, if underrated, composers of Hollywood's golden era. His contributions to this lyrical art form have placed him high above most contemporary artists and musicians in my estimation and he will, perhaps,live on as one of the unsung immortals of film scoring.
I recall conversations with Miklos Rozsa regarding Friedhofer's contribution to motion picture music forty five years ago. Rozsa found Hugo Friedhofer an enormously gifted composer who had contributed more to the world of music than he would ever know. Indeed, Friedhofer's assessment of his own accomplishments was, to put it bluntly, derogatory and self punishing. Whenever the two spoke on the matter, Friedhofer would ridicule his own achievements and describe his career as miniscule and inadequate.
Friedhofer,as Rozsa discovered,lambasted the studio system and ridiculed his own significance within the industry. He had serious issues concerning his own self worth, and grew increasingly morose and cynical. He turned ever frequently to alcohol as a temporary cure for his depression and, during these bouts with feelings of inadequacy, became sadly impossible to reach. Rozsa told me that he had often tried to bolster Friedhofer's sense of worth by commiserating with him, and reminding him of his many successes but that Friedhofer simply refused to accept his value and importance as an artist. Finally, it grew too painful to broach the subject. If Friedhofer felt more comfortable in his escalating self flagellation, there was little that Rozsa could do to lift him out of it. He couldn't allow his own positive attitude to be pulled down by someone who could only continue to wallow in self pity and emotional suicide.
A year later, I decided to try to track Friedhofer down and attempt to repay the gift of beauty he had bestowed upon my life. I found his address and wrote him a long, loving letter of genuine admiration for his work and artistry. In late February, 1980, I received a reply written on an old, rickety typewriter. The page appeared stained with tears. The letter remains one of the most treasured pieces of correspondence that I've ever received. If I may, I'd like to share it with you.
2/28/1980
My Dear Steve Vertlieb:-
Thanks no end for your generous letter as well as for your review of 'The Best Years' album (plus mini-biography, in the #2 issue of Cinemacabre') and I must beg your forgiveness for my seemingly laggard response. Fact is, I am just now recovering from a series of tiresome ailments which have kept me under wraps and out of circulation for the past two years. Now that I'm feeling somewhat better I find myself confronted by an accumulation of unanswered correspondence which simply must be attended to,-hence the relative brevity of this rejoinder.....
Your words about my being 'an authentic original in a world of smugly defiant carbon copies' I find highly reassuring. Something over a half-century of involvement with films and film music tends to breed considerable uncertainty, particularly since that involvement has always been born of economic necessity;not aesthetic conviction. Consequently, the fact that you have singled out a number of my scores as being perhaps something more than merely expensive background noise is, to say the least, heartening; that I've perhaps not sold myself down the river. At least not entirely. The fact that the score for 'The Barbarian and the Geisha',- a far from box-office stand-out, got across to you as having not inconsiderable merit in its own right did much to dispel my doubt as to whether anyone actually listens to film music. Evidently you do, and for this assurance I am immeasurably grateful.
Yours, with warmest good wishes,-
Hugo Friedhofer
The last time Miklos Rozsa had seen Hugo Friedhofer was in a small restaurant in Hollywood. Friedhofer was seated, alone, at a table in a darkened corner of the room. His head was bowed and resting within his arms. Before him was a drink, half consumed. As Friedhofer weakly lifted his head from the table, he saw Rozsa walking in. Rozsa waved. Friedhofer managed merely a feeble attempt at raising his own arm in response.
I think of the Oscar winning triumph and majestic beauty of his music for William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives. I hear the exquisite strains of his love themes for The Barbarian and the Geisha and Soldier of Fortune. I experience the rapturous joy of listening to his music for Boy On A Dolphin, and I am moved to tears by the gentle expression of a man's inner depth and creativity. Would that HE might have seen the value and importance of his contribution to this wondrous and magical art form while he lived.
A little more than a year after I received his letter, Hugh Friedhofer suffered complications from a fall and passed away. His incomparable gift to the world of film and film music will, I believe, endure and flourish for many joyous years to come.
Steve Vertlieb
Thank you so much for these memories, even though many are hard to hear. Hugo did not come from a particularly loving and supportive family. His grandfather Paul (my 2nd great-granduncle) was just a horrible man by all accounts and fairly cruel. August Friedhofer (Paul's brother and Hugo's great uncle) committed suicide in SF. None of the men of the California branch of our family had successful marriages or family lives. And Hugo seems to have mostly estranged himself from his daughters and their families. Tragic.
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Posted: Nov 24, 2022 - 1:42 PM Report Abuse Reply to Post
By: sales (Member)
It was through FSM I bought my first Friedhofer CD Between Heaven and Hell /Soldier of Fortune 20 years ago I also have a copy of his oral history he gave in Nov 1976 a very informative and amusing read. Truly a real giant among fake Pygmies
************************************************************************
************************************************************************
I have to give a hearty second approval to the above-mentioned book by member "sales":
An American Film Institute / Louis B. Mayer Foundation
ORAL HISTORY WITH HUGO FRIEDHOFER
Interviewed by Irene Kahn Atkins
March 13 - April 29, 1974
510 pages
If you are interested in the history of film music from the earliest days from the perspective of one of the pioneers in the field, Hugo Friedhofer, in his own words and seasoned with his own wit, wisdom, and insight, this big (510 pages) bound hardcover book provides a great document of the times.
And a big "Thank You" to Steve Vertlieb for providing a copy of his letter from Hugo Friedhofer and also for its background.
Copies are rare. I don't know how many were printed, but if you happen to come across one, snatch it up.
Ron Burbella
I have been looking for a full copy of this. If anyone has access to it, please let me know in this thread.
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