Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 30, 1995 TAG: 9507310053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
He had suffered a stroke about three weeks ago and been put on life support, family members said.
Rozsa was known for doing meticulous research before composing for his films, which included ``The Four Feathers'' (1939), ``The Thief of Baghdad'' (1940), ``Jungle Book'' (1942), ``Quo Vadis'' (1951), ``Ivanhoe'' (1952), ``Julius Caesar'' (1953), ``Ben-Hur'' (1959) and ``El Cid'' (1961).
The re-creation of ancient music was his most difficult challenge. For ``Quo Vadis,'' he had nonfunctioning copies of ancient Roman instruments made, then tried to imagine how they sounded.
And for ``Ben-Hur,'' he went to Rome and stood on Palatine Hill, trying to imagine what had happened there 2,000 years earlier.
``I began to whistle scraps of ideas and to march about excitedly and rhythmically,'' he recalled years later. ``Two young girls looked at me in terror and fled, muttering `pazzo' [`madman'], but of my lunacy was born `Parade of the Charioteers,' which is now played at football matches and festivities all over America.''
In 1945, Rozsa won his first Oscar, for ``Spellbound,'' but would have preferred winning for his music for ``The Lost Weekend,'' nominated at the same time. He was awarded his second Oscar for ``A Double Life'' (1947) and his third for ``Ben-Hur'' (1959).
by CNB