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Joseph Kosma

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Joseph Kosma (1905 to 1969) was a Hungarian composer who emigrated to France. His best-known piece is the standard Autumn Leaves. He was born as József Kozma in Budapest, into a Jewish family in which his parents taught shorthand and typing. He played piano from the age of five and at eleven wrote his first opera, Christmas in the Trenches. He studied at the music academy of Budapest under Leo Weiner and also with Béla Bartók at the Liszt Academy, with diplomas in composition and conducting. In 1928 he received a scholarship for Berlin, where he got to know Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht.

Music and breakthrough

In 1933 he moved to Paris. There he met the poet Jacques Prévert, who introduced him to the director Jean Renoir. In the 1930s he set poems to music with Prévert, which popular singers recorded and which sometimes became hits. For Renoir he wrote the music for La Grande Illusion, La Bête Humaine and La Règle du jeu. During the German occupation he was under house arrest in the Alpes-Maritimes and was not allowed to compose. Prévert arranged for other composers to serve as a front, and in this way Kosma wrote the pantomime music for Les Enfants du Paradis, which was released in 1945.

Influence

From his music for the film Les Portes de la Nuit from 1946 came Les feuilles mortes, with French lyrics by Prévert. In 1950 Johnny Mercer added English words to it and called it Autumn Leaves. The piece appeared in the 1956 film Autumn Leaves with Joan Crawford and became a jazz standard. Kosma wrote for dozens of films, and his melodies are quiet and wistful, with a strong bond with French chanson.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Les feuilles mortes in the French version and notice how the descending melody and the soft accompaniment translate autumn and farewell into sound.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists