Alexander (Sándor) László (November 22, 1895

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

(Hungary) - November 17, 1970

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

) was a Hungarian-American pianist, musical

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestrat ...

and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

. He was born Sándor ("San") Totis, but used the professional name of Alexander László as a composer and music publisher. After training at the

Franz Liszt Academy of Music The Franz Liszt Academy of Music (, 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 Liszt Collection, which features several ...

, László studied piano with Szendy and composition with Herzfeld and started as a pianist at the Blüthner Orchestra in Berlin in 1915. As a pianist, Sándor László in Freiburg, about 1920, recorded 31 reproducing piano rolls for Welte Mignon, of the piano music of mostly 19th Century Classical composers. He gave piano recitals in Germany and Europe in the 1920s, and was a music director and professor of film music in Berlin. According to the studies of the psychologist

Georg Anschütz Georg Ernst Anschütz (15 November 1886 – 25 December 1953) was a German psychologist, who worked especially in the field of music psychology and synaesthesia. Due to his exposed role during the National Socialism period, he was dismissed from un ...

, the mentor of the synaesthesia research of this time, László developed an apparatus for the combination of colored light, slides, moving amorphous and geometrical forms. The first demonstration of it took place under the name "Sonchromatoskop" in 1924. Although this sonicism was developed by music, it should neither serve the intensification of the musical life, nor should individual keys be illustrated by clearly related colors. Rather, it was a new art genre in which abstract images and sound do not behave supplementarily, but enter into an original and inviolable unity. László built a professional Sonchromatoskop and it was controlled by the pianist. In 1925 Laszló wrote a text called Color-Light-Music, and toured Europe with a

color organ The term color organ refers to a tradition of mechanical devices built to represent sound and accompany music in a visual medium. The earliest created color organs were manual instruments based on the harpsichord design. By the 1900s they were el ...

. Smith & Howe refer to him constructing a 'Farblichtklavier' (Color pianoforte) and publishing a book in 1925, 'Farblichtmusik', which describes the genre. He also participated in many Jewish lead charities. In 1938 he came to the United States, starting in Chicago as music professor at the

IIT Institute of Design The Institute of Design (ID) is a graduate school of the Illinois Institute of Technology, a private university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The Institute of Design was founded in 1937 as "The New Bauhaus" by László Moholy-Nagy, a Ba ...

. In the 1940s he was music director at

NBC Radio The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...

. In Hollywood from about 1944, he wrote the music for several films such as '' One Body Too Many'' (1944), ''Charlie Chan and the Chinese Cat'' (1944), ''Scared Stiff'' (1945) and ''Yankee Kafir'' (1947). Also, ''

The Great Flamarion ''The Great Flamarion'' is a 1945 American film noir mystery film directed by Anthony Mann starring Erich von Stroheim and Mary Beth Hughes. The film, like many films noirs, is shot in flashback narrative. The film was produced by Republic Pic ...

'' (1945), '' The Amazing Mr. X'' (1949), ''

Tarzan's Magic Fountain ''Tarzan's Magic Fountain'' is a 1949 Tarzan film directed by Lee Sholem and starring Lex Barker as Tarzan and Brenda Joyce as his companion Jane. The thirteenth film of the ''Tarzan'' film series that began with 1932's '' Tarzan the Ape Man ...

'' (1948), ''

Night of the Blood Beast ''Night of the Blood Beast'' is a 1958 American science fiction film, science-fiction horror film about a team of scientists who are stalked by an alien creature, which implants its embryos in an astronaut's body during a space flight. Produced ...

'' (1958), ''

Attack of the Giant Leeches ''Attack of the Giant Leeches'' (originally to be called ''The Giant Leeches'') is an independently made, 1959 black-and-white science fiction film, science fiction-horror film, produced by Gene Corman and directed by Bernard L. Kowalski. It star ...

'' (1959), ''

Beast from Haunted Cave ''Beast from Haunted Cave'' is a 1959 Horror film, horror heist film directed by Monte Hellman and starring Michael Forest, Frank Wolff (actor), Frank Wolff and Richard Sinatra. It was produced by Gene Corman, Roger Corman's brother. Filmed in ...

'' (1959) and ''

The Atomic Submarine ''The Atomic Submarine'' is a 1959 independently made, American black-and-white science-fiction film directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and starring Arthur Franz, Dick Foran, Brett Halsey, Joi Lansing and Jean Moorhead, with John Hilliard as the ...

'' (1959), and television series including '' Rocky Jones, Space Ranger'' and ''

My Little Margie ''My Little Margie'' is an American television sitcom starring Gale Storm and Charles Farrell that alternated between CBS and NBC from 1952 to 1955. The series was created by Frank Fox and produced in Los Angeles, California, at Hal Roach Stud ...

''. He established a publishing company to collect

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

royalties under the name "Alexander Publications."

References

External links

Alexander Laszlo papers
at th
American Heritage Center
* The reproducing piano rolls may be heard a

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laszlo, Alexander 1895 births 1970 deaths American film score composers American music arrangers Hungarian emigrants to the United States Composers from Budapest Franz Liszt Academy of Music alumni Hungarian classical pianists Hungarian male musicians Male classical pianists Illinois Institute of Technology faculty 20th-century composers American male film score composers 20th-century American male musicians Hungarian film score composers Hungarian male film score composers