 The Oscar-winner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 Brünn/Moravia - 1957 Los Angeles), was capable of producing more than the typical Hollywood-sound. In a european survey taken in1923, he ranked as the most important composer (Abbildung) after Schönberg. He crossed the border between filmmusic and serious music by exchanging materials, and employing tried and true methods of each as a part of his musical vocabulary. The example from the beginning of his Streichsextett (String Sextet) of 1917, displays his mastery of the complex techniques of chamber music. Innovation was not only achieved by abandoning traditional procedures, it could also be the result of a new evaluation of musical materials and freer use of the harmonic means. (M. Saary)
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