Heir Apparent

This chapter focuses on Max Steiner’s musical education, both formal (at the Imperial Academy) and informal (through acquaintanceships with Johann Strauss Jr., Richard Strauss, and Gustav Mahler). Apprenticed by his father, who by now managed multiple theaters in Vienna, Steiner scored his first success while in his late teens, writing short operettas. In addition to describing the style of Steiner’s early compositions, the chapter chronicles the wide variety of influences to which he was exposed. Among the most indelible: concerts by Claude Debussy and John Philip Sousa, and the premiere of Richard Strauss’s cause célèbre opera Salomé. Drawn to both modernistic dissonance and the elegant light music of Vienna, Max Steiner matured from an initially indifferent music student to a composer highly motivated to achieve artistic and commercial success.