Antheil George Antheil

George Antheil (/ˈæntaɪl/; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, mechanical – of the early 20th century.

Spending much of the 1920s in Europe, Antheil returned to the US in the 1930s, and thereafter spent much of his time composing music for films and, eventually, television. As a result of this work, his style became more tonal. A man of diverse interests and talents, Antheil was constantly reinventing himself. He wrote magazine articles (one accurately predicted the development and outcome of World War II), an autobiography, a mystery novel, newspaper and music columns.

In 1941 he and the actress Hedy Lamarr developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used a code (stored on a punched paper tape) to synchronise random frequencies, referred to as frequency hopping, with a receiver and transmitter. This technique is now known as spread spectrum and is widely used in telecommunications. This work led to their being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

Selected works

Opera

• Helen Retires (1931)
• Transatlantic (1930)
• Volpone (1949–1952)
• Venus in Africa (1954)
• The Wish (1954)
• The Brothers (1954)

Orchestral

• Ballet Mécanique (1923–25, revised 1952–53)
• Capital of the World Suite (ca. 1955)
• Decatur at Algiers (1943)
• Hot-time Dance (1948)
• A Jazz Symphony (1925, revised 1955)
• McKonkey's Ferry, A Concert Overture (1948)
• Piano Concerto No. 1 (1922; had its world premiere as late as 2001, with the pianist Michael Rische)
• Piano Concerto No. 2 (1926)
• Serenade for Strings No. 1 (1948)
• Symphony for 5 Instruments (1922–23, second version 1923)
• Symphony No. 1 "Zingareska" (1920–22, rev. 1923)
• Symphony in F (1925–26)
• Symphony No. 2 (1931–38, rev. 1943)
• Symphony No. 3 "American" (1936–39, rev. 1946)
• Symphony No. 4 "1942" (1942)
• Tragic Symphony (1945–46)
• Symphony No. 5 "Joyous" (1947–48)
• Symphony No. 6 "After Delacroix" (1947–48)
• Tom Sawyer – California Overture (1949)
• Violin Concerto (1946)

Chamber and instrumental

• Concert for Chamber Orchestra (1932) (wind octet)
• Piano Sonata No. 1
• Piano Sonata No. 2 (1931)
• Piano Sonata No. 3 (1947)
• Piano Sonata No. 4 (1948)
• String Quartet No. 1 (1924)
• String Quartet No. 2 (1927)
• String Quartet No. 3 (1948)
• Trumpet Sonata (1951)
• Violin Sonata No. 1 (1923)
• Violin Sonata No. 2 (1923)
• Violin Sonata No. 3 (1924)
• Violin Sonata No. 4 (1948)
• Violin Sonatina (1945)

Film

Of his many film scores, Dementia (1955), which contains no dialogue, only music, is believed by many to be his finest.

• The Young Don't Cry (1957)
• The Pride and the Passion (1957)
• Air Power (1956) TV series (unknown episodes)
• Dementia (1955)
• Not as a Stranger (1955)
• Hunters of the Deep (1954)
• The Juggler (1953)
• Target Hong Kong (1953)
• Actors and Sin (1952) (uncredited)
• The Sniper (1952)
• Sirocco (1951)
• In a Lonely Place (1950)
• House by the River (1950)
• Tokyo Joe (1949)
• The Fighting Kentuckian (1949)
• We Were Strangers (1949)
• Knock on Any Door (1949)
• Along the Oregon Trail (1947)
• Repeat Performance (1947)
• That Brennan Girl (1946) (score music)
• Plainsman and the Lady (1946)
• Specter of the Rose (1946)
• Angels Over Broadway (1940)
• Adventure in Diamonds (1940)
• The Buccaneer (1938)
• Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
• The Plainsman (1936)
• Once in a Blue Moon (1935)
• The Scoundrel (1935)