Erich Korngold and The Adventures of Robin Hood

Here we take a look into film music history by studying one of the legends of film music history: Erich Korngold‘s pioneering music paved the way for the golden age of symphonic film scores. Our special guest Edwin Wendler and our own David Das lead our study of Korngold’s Academy Award-winning score to The Adventures of Robin Hood. Korngold’s intensely melodic score is rich with leitmotifs. Does this style have any lasting influence on scores today? There are significant parallels between Korngold’s work and some later greats such as John Williams.

About Edwin:

During his four years with the Vienna Boys’ Choir, Edwin Wendler toured the world, singing in hundreds of concerts and dozens of opera performances. He earned Certificates in Film Scoring and Screenwriting from UCLA Extension in 2000, and was accepted into the prestigious ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop in 2004. Mr. Wendler’s feature film credits as a composer include The Interior (2007), Christmas With A Capital C (2010), Escape (2012), Tales Of Halloween (segment Friday The 31st, 2015), and Unnatural (2015). His score for the documentary The Right To Love: An American Family (2013) was nominated for a GoldSpirit Award in 2014. In 2010, Mr. Wendler won a “Best Score” award at the Los Angeles International Film Festival, for his epic score, Azureus Rising (CG short).

Mr. Wendler composed additional music for the box office hit, Non-Stop (Universal/StudioCanal, 2014), starring Liam Neeson. He worked as a music arranger and programmer on movies such as X-Men: Apocalypse (20th Century Fox, 2016), The Nice Guys (Warner Bros., 2016), Little Fockers (Universal / Paramount, 2010), Turistas (Fox, 2006), and Into The Blue (MGM / Sony, 2005). Mr. Wendler’s television credits include arranging on the 2006 Showtime series, Sleeper Cell: American Terror, as well as composing additional music for NBC’s popular reality series, Fear Factor.

Concert commissions include the choral/orchestral piece, Consolatio (1999; broadcast on Canadian television), choral works for the Illumni Men’s Chorale and the Kentridge High School Concert Choir, as well as instrumental arrangements for the Hollywood Soloists. Wendler’s critically acclaimed string quartet, The Marriage, has been performed in Canada and France.