A Look at the Syracuse Manuscripts

Richard H. Bush

Copyright 2000 - 2002, The Miklos Rózsa Society. PRO MUSICA SANA, A Publication of The Miklos Rózsa Society, Series 2: Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer 2000 PMS 58, reproduced by permission. All rights reserved. Audio files p 2000 - 2002, Richard H. Bush.

Among the papers and recordings in the Miklós Rózsa collection at the George Arents Research Library of Syracuse University is music manuscript from THE THIEF OF BAGDAD. This music is fascinating and provides a glimpse—albeit a murky one—of an unseen side of the classic Korda film.

The material seems to consist largely of unused songs and alternative or discarded cues. It is ironic that Rózsa’s original sketches for the final film score do not seem to survive, yet the incomplete and discarded Syracuse material does. Perhaps the Korda organization took the final materials back to England, where they were lost during World War II (possibly during the bombing of the studio). The discards evidently remained in the composer’s possession until he donated the material to Syracuse in 1964. At the time there was a tax advantage to encourage such donations, and many universities acquired film music materials. Rózsa and Franz Waxman were among those who made deposits at Syracuse. We don’t know why Rózsa had this particular grab bag of material from THE THIEF OF BAGDAD in his possession, but since the onion skin masters for the concert suite are among the collection, it is possible that he acquired the sketches when preparing the suite for recording in the mid-1950s.

Because of the large number of songs that Rózsa composed, one must assume that the original concept of the film was very different from the final picture that is now considered one of the finest classic fantasy films of all time. Elsewhere in this issue, Lothar Heinle details some of the background of how Rózsa came to compose Thief only after Oscar Straus bowed out. Here I will attempt to describe the differences between selections from the Syracuse collection and the completed film.

Most of the penciled manuscript is full score, in Rózsa’s own hand (click to view). The orchestrations are on 22-stave manuscript score. There are also some sketches. Some of the material is timed, and some cues include reel number identification, implying that the music was composed to accompany scenes that were actually filmed. Other material is devoid of such markings, perhaps because it was composed for prerecordings or other preliminary purposes.

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