Wise Music Group subsidiary G. Schirmer acquires catalog of film composer Franz Waxman

G. Schirmer (a subsidiary of the Wise Music Group) has acquired the rights to composer Franz Waxman’s catalog across all his concert works as well as a great number of his iconic film scores, including concert versions of his Academy Award-winning scores for Sunset Boulevard (1950) and A Place in The Sun (1951).

Franz Waxman is considered one of the most important film and concert composers of the 20th century.

His work includes scores for films including The Philadelphia Story (1940), Rebecca (1940), Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1941), Suspicion (1941), and Taras Bulba (1962), among many others.

G. Schirmer currently represents the film music of Sony Music Publishing, NBC Universal and Warner Chappell that include the works of Max Steiner, Bernard Hermann and others, in addition to Schirmer’s own roster of Oscar-winning film composers, including John Corigliano, Ennio Morricone, and Tan Dun.

Franz Waxman won an Oscar for his score to Sunset Boulevard in 1950, and then won the Oscar the following year for A Place In The Sun.

For over half a century, he was the only composer to have won the Oscar for “Best Score” in two consecutive years. Waxman received a total of 12 Oscar nominations in his lifetime.

Born in 1906 in Germany, Waxman spent his teen years enrolled at Dresden Music Academy to study composition and conducting, and then went on to study at the Berlin Music Conservatory. He put himself through school by playing piano at nightclubs.

Waxman eventually worked as an orchestrator and composer for the German film industry and scored Liliom in 1934, which was produced in Paris before he moved to the United States.

Waxman was part of the exile of Judeo-German musicians who fled Europe between 1933-1944 to escape Nazism. Finding work and making his home in Los Angeles, he was part of a wave of these musicians and composers including Bela Bartok, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Miklós Rózsa and Kurt Weill who eventually found refuge in the U.S. leading to a renaissance in American musical culture.

Waxman was also a renowned concert composer.

His body of concert work covered many different styles and genres such as chamber, symphony, strings, and choral. Some of his concert works include the oratorio Joshua (1959) and his most performed concert work, the showpiece for violin and orchestra, Carmen Fantasie (1946).

There is also The Song of Terezin (1966), which was based on I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a book of poems written by children who were interned in the Terezin ghetto.

“Schirmer is deeply committed to fostering his legacy.”

Robert Thompson, G. Schirmer 

G. Schirmer President, Robert Thompson, said:” “We are extraordinarily honored to be the worldwide publisher of Franz Waxman’s incredible film and concert oeuvre.

“Schirmer is deeply committed to fostering his legacy.”

“I’ve entrusted my father’s legacy to G. Schirmer/Wise Music Group because I know they will protect and value his work.”

John Waxman

John Waxman added: “I’ve entrusted my father’s legacy to G. Schirmer/Wise Music Group because I know they will protect and value his work.

I’m grateful that generations to come will now have the opportunity to experience the breadth of Franz Waxman’s music around the world.”Music Business Worldwide