Quo Vadis (1951 film) composer Miklós Rózsa
Music
The music score by Miklós Rózsa is notable for its historical authenticity. Since no Ancient Roman music had survived, Rózsa incorporated a number of fragments of Ancient Greek and Jewish melodies such as the Seikilos epitaph, the Hymn to Nemesis and Hymn to the Sun by Mesomedes into his own choral-orchestral score.
In 1950, before film production began, Rózsa made prerecordings of numerous fanfares, marches, songs and dances with the M-G-M Studio Orchestra in Culver City, and these survive. In 1951, he recorded the full score at M-G-M's British studios with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, but these recordings were reportedly lost later on in a fire at the Culver City studios. However, 'dubdowns' of all of those recordings that were used in the film (about two-thirds with added sound effects) do survive. In 1951, MGM Records issued gramophone discs, in three different editions and speeds, of 12 tracks from the original soundtrack music (without sound effects). Consequently, much of the original recorded score is still available in various formats. In 2009, Film Score Monthly collected and issued these elements on two CDs.
In 1963, MGM  Records brought out a stereo compilation of excerpts from Rózsa's film scores played by the Symphony Orchestra of Rome, conducted by Rózsa and Carlo Savina. Rozsa conducted the Triumphal March from Quo Vadis.
In 1967, Rózsa conducted the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in a stereo compilation of excerpts from his epic film scores. This included three selections from Quo Vadis.
In 1977, Rózsa made a stereo recording of 12 selections from his score, once again conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2012, Nic Raine, conducting the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded the entire score (a total of 38 tracks on two CDs). This included several pieces of music that were originally recorded by Rózsa, but not used on the film's soundtrack.At the end of the film, a triumphal march heralds the success of the armies of the new emperor, Galba. This theme would be reused by Rózsa in Ben-Hur (1959) as the brief "Bread and Circuses March" preceding "The Parade of the Charioteers", prior to the famous chariot race.In his 1982 autobiography, Miklós Rózsa expressed his regret at the way his score was handled by producer Sam Zimbalist, 'a dear personal friend': "[He] didn't use the music in any way as effectively as he might have done. After all the trouble I went to, much of my work was swamped by sound effects, or played at such a low level as to be indistinguishable ... It was a great disappointment to me." However, he was mistaken when he wrote: "Quo Vadis, because it was produced abroad, was completely boycotted by Hollywood and received no Academy nominations." Although it did not win any Academy Awards, it did, in fact, receive eight nominations – including one for Rózsa's score.Rózsa's love theme for Lygia ("Lygia") was set to words by Paul Francis Webster and Mario Lanza sang it for the first time on his radio show broadcast of January 1952.
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