Denes Agay (June 10, 1911 - January 24, 2007) was a Hungarian-born American composer, arranger and author.

Early life and education

Agay was born and raised in a small village near

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

and began playing piano at the age of three. In 1934 he completed his musical studies at the

Franz Liszt Academy The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music ( hu, Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem, often abbreviated as ''Zeneakadémia'', "Liszt Academy") is a music university and a concert hall in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875. It is home to the ...

in Budapest.

Career

Agay conducted the

Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra The Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra ( Hungarian: ''Budapesti Filharmóniai Társaság Zenekara'') is Hungary's oldest extant orchestra. It was founded in 1853 by Ferenc Erkel under the auspices of the Budapest Philharmonic Society. For many years i ...

in a performance of a symphony which he composed. He worked as a film composer; one film assignment was writing the background music for

Hedy Lamarr Hedy Lamarr (; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American film actress and inventor. A film star during Hollywood's golden age, Lamarr has been described as one of the greatest movie actresse ...

nude scene In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scene ...

in the 1933 film ''

Ecstasy Ecstasy may refer to: * Ecstasy (emotion), a trance or trance-like state in which a person transcends normal consciousness * Religious ecstasy, a state of consciousness, visions or absolute euphoria * Ecstasy (philosophy), to be or stand outside o ...

''.Frederick N. Rasmussen
"Denes Agay: (Age 95) Composer and anthologist wrote music for movies and was an arranger for an American radio show"
''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

'', January 29, 2007.Dana Hull
"Denes Agay, famed piano composer"
''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...

'', February 3, 2007. Agay was Jewish, and after the rise of Nazism, he emigrated to New York in 1939. In 1942 he became an American citizen and joined the military, entertaining patients in the hospital wards. His parents were murdered in

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

. In 1948, he wrote the score for " My Romance", which folded on the road before getting to Broadway. A new score was written by

Sigmund Romberg Sigmund Romberg (July 29, 1887 – November 9, 1951) was a Hungarian-born American composer. He is best known for his musicals and operettas, particularly ''The Student Prince'' (1924), ''The Desert Song'' (1926) and ''The New Moon'' (1928). Earl ...

for Broadway, but the show wasn't successful. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Agay worked as a teacher, composer and publisher, and as a conductor and arranger on the NBC show ''Guest Star''. He wrote more than 90 books about musical subjects, including a multi-volume collection of piano arrangements, ''The Young Pianist's Library'', and in 1975 produced the popular anthology, ''Best Loved Songs of the American People''. Agay also continued to compose. His lively ''Sonatina no. 3'' was frequently performed by young performers at piano recitals. Agay died in

Los Altos, California Los Altos (; Spanish for "The Heights") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 31,625 according to the 2020 census. Most of the city's growth occurred between 1950 and 1980. Originally a ...

in 2007 at the age of 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agay, Denes 20th-century classical composers Hungarian composers Hungarian male composers American music arrangers 1912 births 2007 deaths American male classical composers American classical composers 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians Hungarian emigrants to the United States