Ben-Hur (1959 film) composer Miklós Rózsa
Musical score
The film score was composed and conducted by Miklós Rózsa, who had scored Quo Vadis and most of MGM's historical films of the 1950s. Rózsa researched Greek and Roman music, incorporating this work into his score for authenticity. Rózsa himself directed the 100-piece MGM Symphony Orchestra during the 12 recording sessions (which stretched over 72 hours). The soundtrack was recorded in six-channel stereo. More than three hours of music were composed for the film, and two-and-a-half hours of it were finally used, making it at the time the longest score ever composed for a motion picture. It was finally surpassed in 2021 by the near 4-hour long score of Zack Snyder's Justice League.Rózsa won his third Academy Award for his score. Like most film musical soundtracks, it was issued as an album for the public to enjoy as a distinct piece of music. The score was so lengthy that it had to be released in 1959 on three LP records, although a one-LP version with Carlo Savina conducting the Symphony Orchestra of Rome was also issued. In addition, to provide a more "listenable" album, Rózsa arranged his score into a "Ben-Hur Suite", which was released on Lion Records (an MGM subsidiary that issued low-priced records) in 1959. This made the Ben-Hur film musical score the first to be released not only in its entirety but also as a separate album.The Ben-Hur score has been considered the best of Rózsa's career. The musical soundtrack to Ben-Hur remained deeply influential into the mid 1970s, when film music composed by John Williams for films such as Jaws, Star Wars, and Raiders of the Lost Ark became more popular among composers and film-goers. Rózsa's score has since seen several notable re-releases, including by the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra on Capitol Records in 1967, several of the tracks by the United Kingdom's National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus on Decca Records in 1977 and a Sony Music reissue as a two-CD set in 1991. In 2012, Film Score Monthly WaterTower Music issued a limited edition five-CD set of music from the film. A two-CD set was released by Tadlow Music in 2017 of the complete motion picture score by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.
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