(b Milwaukee, 5 April 1899; d Baden-Baden, 3 Jan 1980). German composer of American birth, son of Hugo Kaun. Largely self-taught as a composer, he was tutored by his father, and studied the violin and piano while attending Gymnasium in Berlin. During World War I he served in the German army, playing the clarinet in a military band. After the war he arranged and conducted for RCA Victor in Berlin for several years. In 1924 he moved to the USA, where he worked as a music copyist in New York, conducted at the Alhambra Theater, Milwaukee (1924), and taught at the Eastman School of Music (1925–8). Recognized particularly for his orchestrations, he arranged music from Wagner's music dramas for the New York release of Fritz Lang's film Siegfried and orchestrated Howard Hanson's Legend of Beowulf and Organ Concerto.
In 1930 Kaun was invited to Hollywood by Heinz Roemheld, music director of Universal Studios. Over the following decade he worked for both Warner Bros. and Paramount, composing music for over 170 films; his first assignments included the first full-length score for a sound film (Heaven on Earth, 1931) and music for Frankenstein (1931). Highly sought after as an orchestrator, he orchestrated now classic film scores for Max Steiner (King Kong, 1933; Gone with the Wind, 1939), Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Ernst Toch (Peter Ibbetson, 1935), Dimitri Tiomkin (Lost Horizon, 1937) and Charlie Chaplin, as well as orchestrating his own scores. His eclectic, colouristic style, influenced by the music of Strauss, Sibelius, Ravel and early Schoenberg, was praised by Stravinsky. In 1941 Kaun left Hollywood for New York, where he devoted himself to composing concert music. He returned to Germany in 1953, where he conducted the Graunke Orchestra (Munich) until 1963.
(selective list)
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Film scores (names in parentheses are of directors): Frankenstein (J. Whale), 1931; Heaven on Earth (R. Mack), 1931; Doctor X (M. Curtiz), 1932; I am a Fugitive of a Chain Gang (M. LeRoy), 1932; The Mystery of the Wax Museum (Curtiz), 1932; 20,000 Years at Sing Sing (Curtiz), 1932; A Farewell to Arms (F. Borzage), 1933, collab. W.F. Harling and others; Luxury Liner, 1933; Death Takes a Holiday (M. Leisen), 1934, collab. M. Roder and others; The Firebird (W. Dieterle), 1934 [after Stravinsky]; The Scarlet Empress (J. von Sternberg), 1934, collab. J. Leipold and others; Oil for the Lamps of China (LeRoy), 1935, collab. H. Roemheld; She (L.C. Holden and I. Pichel), 1935, collab. M. Steiner; The Black Legion (A. Mayo), 1936; The Petrified Forest (Mayo), 1936; Story of Louis Pasteur (Dieterle), 1936, collab. Roemheld; The Walking Dead (Curtiz), 1936; The Patient in Room 18 (B. Connolly and C. Wilbur), 1937; The Return of Doctor X (V. Sherman), 1939; Forest Murmurs (S. Vorkapich), 1947; Special Delivery (J. Brahm), 1955; Alle Wege führen heim (H. Deppe), 1957; Lassie (TV series), 1958–9 |
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Other works: Entice Italienne; Zeitstimmung, female vv; Sketches, suite, orch, 1927; Nederländisches Volkslied, 1v, pf, 1929–30; Romantic Sym., C, 1930s, rev. 1960s; Qnt, ob, str, 1940; Sinfonia concertante, hn, orch, 1940; The Vagabond, suite, orch, 1956 [based on film and TV scores]; 20 pf pieces |
W.H. Rosar: ‘Music for the Monsters: Universal Pictures' Horror Film Scores of the Thirties’, Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, xl (1983), 390–421
C. McCarty: Film Composers in America: a Filmography 1911–1970 (Oxford, forthcoming)
WILLIAM H. ROSAR