by Uncle Dave LewisRoy Webb was a Hollywood studio film composer, whose reputation as a dependable workhorse -- he scored in excess of 360 films and served as musical director on about 100 more -- has obscured the very fine qualities of his music. Born in New York, Webb was the younger brother of Kenneth Webb, a popular songwriter and silent film director. Roy Webb began his career as a songwriter and pit conductor for Broadway shows; along the way, it was Webb who gave instruction to the young Richard Rodgers in musical notation. Webb composed Columbia University's official football fight song, "Roar, Lion, Roar," in 1925, and a stint with Broadway producer Herbert Fields brought Webb into contact with composer Max Steiner, who would become an important collaborator and lifelong friend.
With the advent of talkies, Webb departed for Hollywood to work for Radio Pictures, later RKO-Radio, his first job being to work as musical director on the movie operetta Rio Rita (1929). Steiner arrived soon afterward, but would defect to Selznick International in 1936. Webb stayed on, and served as RKO's principal music director until the studio closed in 1955. Roy Webb scored an impressive number of distinguished films, among them Ernest B. Schoedsack's The Last Days of Pompeii (1955), George Cukor's Quality Street (1937), Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (1938), Jacques Tourneur's Experiment Perilous, and Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious. Never a winner, Webb was nonetheless nominated for an Academy Award five times.
Webb's signature work is the moody, expressive music he composed for the nine films in the Val Lewton RKO horror cycle, starting with Cat People (1941). Never a proponent of bombastic film scoring, Webb was perfectly in tune with the low-key and atmospheric surroundings inherent in Lewton's horror films. Webb, along with Hugo Friedhofer, was considered by his peers as being the very best composer of music written to flow underneath dialogue. Webb also wrote a small amount of concert music, and was pleased to hear the piano concerto he wrote for the film The Enchanted Cottage played as part of a regular Hollywood Bowl concert in 1945.
Roy Webb was already retired by 1961 when his entire life's work was incinerated in a house fire. Devastated, Webb never wrote another note of music. Afterward Webb did find an admirer in musicologist Christopher Palmer, who interviewed him and began the process of reconstructing Webb's scores, work that continues under other hands as Palmer died in 1995.
by Uncle Dave LewisRoy Webb was a Hollywood studio film composer, whose reputation as a dependable workhorse -- he scored in excess of 360 films and served as musical director on about 100 more -- has obscured the very fine qualities of his music. Born in New York, Webb was the younger brother of Kenneth Webb, a popular songwriter and silent film director. Roy Webb began his career as a songwriter and pit conductor for Broadway shows; along the way, it was Webb who gave instruction to the young Richard Rodgers in musical notation. Webb composed Columbia University's official football fight song, "Roar, Lion, Roar," in 1925, and a stint with Broadway producer Herbert Fields brought Webb into contact with composer Max Steiner, who would become an important collaborator and lifelong friend.
With the advent of talkies, Webb departed for Hollywood to work for Radio Pictures, later RKO-Radio, his first job being to work as musical director on the movie operetta Rio Rita (1929). Steiner arrived soon afterward, but would defect to Selznick International in 1936. Webb stayed on, and served as RKO's principal music director until the studio closed in 1955. Roy Webb scored an impressive number of distinguished films, among them Ernest B. Schoedsack's The Last Days of Pompeii (1955), George Cukor's Quality Street (1937), Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (1938), Jacques Tourneur's Experiment Perilous, and Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious. Never a winner, Webb was nonetheless nominated for an Academy Award five times.
Webb's signature work is the moody, expressive music he composed for the nine films in the Val Lewton RKO horror cycle, starting with Cat People (1941). Never a proponent of bombastic film scoring, Webb was perfectly in tune with the low-key and atmospheric surroundings inherent in Lewton's horror films. Webb, along with Hugo Friedhofer, was considered by his peers as being the very best composer of music written to flow underneath dialogue. Webb also wrote a small amount of concert music, and was pleased to hear the piano concerto he wrote for the film The Enchanted Cottage played as part of a regular Hollywood Bowl concert in 1945.
Roy Webb was already retired by 1961 when his entire life's work was incinerated in a house fire. Devastated, Webb never wrote another note of music. Afterward Webb did find an admirer in musicologist Christopher Palmer, who interviewed him and began the process of reconstructing Webb's scores, work that continues under other hands as Palmer died in 1995.
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