Bronisław Kaper
Bronisław Kaper (misspelled by the U.S. immigration authorities as Bronislau Kaper) (February 5, 1902 - April 26, 1983) was a Polish - Jewish film composer who scored films in Germany, France and USA. He will be remebered for his score for the musical Lili in 1953.
He has been also credited as Edward Kane, Bronsilaw Kaper, Bronislaw Kapper and Benjamin Kapper.
Bronisław Kaper was born in Warsaw on February 2, 1902. He played piano at the age of six. He studied at the Warsaw Conservatory piano and composition and at the same time, at the demand of his father, he also followed the studies at the Law School of the Warsaw University. Already as a young man, he was a talented pianist. After his studies Kaper went to to Berlin, then a city with many theaters and cabarets, where many artists from Eastern Europe - mainly Russia, Poland and Hungary were trying their luck.
In the late 1920s Kaper met in Berlin another young composer - an Austrian Walter Jurmann, and the two decided to work as a team, first in Berlin and then, after the Nazis took power in Germany, in Paris. Introduction of sound into the cinema created big possibilities for their talents. In Paris they composed music for films directed by film makers who fled Hitler.
In 1935, upon being offered a seven-year contract with MGM by Louis B. Mayer, Kaper and Jurmann emigrated to the United States, where they continued their work. One of their in the US first movies has been the Marx Brothers hit comedy A Night at the Opera (1935), for which they scored the song "Cosi-Cosa".
Kaper composed music for nearly 150 Hollywood movies, and won an Oscar for the musical Lili. He co-write the song "San Francisco" for the film San Francisco. He was, however, better known for composing the theme music and several scores for the Quinn Marti television series The F.B.I..
Bronisław Kaper died in Beverly Hills, California on April 26, 1983.
Credits on Broadway
- Polonaise (1945) - musical - composer
- Mostly Sondheim (2002) - concert - featured songwriter
Recordings - Film Scores
Compared with other film composers, Kaper was less well-represented in commercially available recordings of his film scores during his lifetime. This has changed recently, as Them! has been released on compact disc in a re-recording by the Monstrous Movie Music label. Recent changes in legal issues related to older music has also allowed original music tracks to many of his scores to be released on compact disc, primarily by another specialty label, Film Score Monthly (Lili, Home from the Hill, and others).
External links
- Bronislaw Kaper Filmography/Discography at Soundtrack Collector
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