Giuseppe Becce

Giuseppe Becce (February 3 1877 in Lonigo/Vicenza, Italy – October 5 1973 in Berlin) was an Italian-born film score composer who enriched the German cinema.

Biography

Becce showed his musical talents early and was named the director of the student musical orchestra at the Padua University when he studied geography. In 1906 he moved to Germany and studied musical composition with Arthur Nikisch and Ferruccio Busoni. In the 1913 silent movie "Richard Wagner", directed by Carl Froelich, Becce played the title role and wrote the accompanying music. He continued to write such music for a series of subsequent movies. A collection of these pieces, the so-called "Kinothek" was published between 1919 and 1933 by the Verlag Schlesinger'sche Buchhandlung in Berlin.

From 1915 to 1923, Becce was the director of the little orchestra of the Berlin "Mozartsaal am Nollendorfplatz". After World War I, he was named to direct the music department of the Decla-Bioscop AG and chief director of its movie orchestra, later to became the Universum Film AG (UFA) orchestra. He also worked at major movie theatres as director of the orchestras, among them the UFA-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz, the Tauentzien-Palast, and the Gloria Palast. In this position he worked with the famous directors of the German silent movie era, namely Fritz Lang, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Ernst Lubitsch, Ludwig Berger, Joe May and Berthold Viertel; he arranged and composed music for their movies. In 1920 Becce published the magazine [http://www.deutsches-filminstitut.de/zeitschriften/zp_filmtonkunst.htm "Film-Ton-Kunst"] . [Hans Traub, Hanns W. Lavies: "Das Deutsche Filmschrifttum. Bibliographie der Bücher und Zeitschirften über das Filmwesen 1896-1939." Hiersemann, Leipzig 1940, Stuttgart 1980(Repr.), S.20, 221. ISBN 3-7772-8016-X] In 1927 he published, together with Hans Erdmann and Ludwig Brav, the "Allgemeines Handbuch der Filmmusik"; it was based on his "Kinothek", amongst other items, and enabled the pianist of silent movies to accompany movies in the generalized style and motifs of renowned composers.

With the arrival of sound movies Becce worked on musical movies and movies covering opera or operetta themes. He worked with Leni Riefenstahl, Luis Trenker, and Harald Reinl whose mountain films he scored. Becce was very prolific providing music to movies for more than four decades; he commonly mixed his own compositions with creations of other composers.

Becce is buried in the cemetery of Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Berliner Straße.

Film selections

* 1913 Richard Wagner. Director: Carl Froelich
* 1920 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Director: Robert Wiene
* 1921 Hamlet. Director: Svend Gade
* 1921 Scherben. Director: Lupu Pick
* 1921 Der müde Tod. Director: Fritz Lang
* 1922 Sodom and Gomorrah. Director Michael Curtiz
* 1923 Der steinerne Reiter. Director: Fritz Wendhausen
* 1924 Der letzte Mann. Director: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
* 1925 Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit. Director: Nicholas Kaufmann, Wilhelm Prager
* 1926 Tartüff. Director: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
* 1926 Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines. Director: Berthold Viertel
* 1926 Geheimnisse einer Seele. Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
* 1927 Am Rande der Welt. Director: Karl Grune
* 1929 Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt. Director: Curtis Bernhardt
* 1930 Skandal um Eva. Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
* 1931 Berge in Flammen. Director: Karl Hartl, Luis Trenker
* 1931 Zweierlei Moral. Director: Gerhard Lamprecht
* 1932 Razzia in St. Pauli. Director: Werner Hochbaum
* 1932 Das Blaue Licht. Director: Leni Riefenstahl
* 1933 Ekstase Director: Gustav Machaty
* 1934 Der ewige Traum. Director: Arnold Fanck
* 1934 Der verlorene Sohn. Director: Luis Trenker
* 1938 Der Berg ruft. Director: Luis Trenker
* 1941 Viel Lärm um Nixi. Director: Erich Engel
* 1949 Bergkristall, Director: Harald Reinl
* 1951 Nacht am Mont-Blanc, Director: Harald Reinl
* 1952 Der Herrgottschnitzer von Ammergau, Director: Harald Reinl
* 1954 Tiefland, Director: Leni Riefenstahl
* 1955 Das Schweigen im Walde, Director: Helmut Weiss
* 1957 Der Edelweißkönig, Director: Gustav Ucicky

Other musical works

*1910 "Das Bett der Pompadour", operetta
*1912 "Tullia", opera.

References

The start of this article is based on a translastion of the German Wikipedia, [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becce accessed on 2/24/2008] .

Literature

* Hans Erdmann, Giuseppe Becce, Ludwig Brav: "Allgemeines Handbuch der Film-Musik." Schlesinger'sche Buchh., Berlin-Licherfelde 1927.

* "Film-Ton-Kunst." Eine Zeitschrift für die künstlerische Musikillustration des Lichtbildes. Gegr. v. G. Becce. Schlesinger'sche Buchhandlung, Berlin 1.1920-6.1927.

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005959/ Giuseppe Becci] at the imdb
* [http://www.cyranos.ch/smbecc-d.htm Cyranos] Biography in German
* [http://www.filmportal.de/df/a8/Uebersicht,,,,,,,,13B5865C465F4191A040EE9A8AC26612,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.html Biographie] (German)