ASCAP SALUTES COMPOSER ROZSA : ROZSA GIVEN GOLDEN SOUNDTRACK AWARD

When Miklos Rozsa and fellow composer Arthur Honegger split the profits of their joint concert in Paris in 1934, they found they had 32 francs between them--about enough for a night on the town.

Reminded of that disappointing affair, Rozsa--who was honored Wednesday night with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ (ASCAP) Golden Soundtrack Award for lifetime achievement--chuckled and replied, “If I had made money, perhaps I would never have started scoring films.”

What might have been the concert hall’s gain would certainly have been the cinema’s loss, for Rozsa--who turned 80 April 18--went on to score more than 60 films over six decades, winning Academy Awards for “Spellbound,” “Ben Hur” and “A Double Life” and receiving 15 Oscar nominations.

As the second winner of the Golden Soundtrack Award--Alex North was the first--Rozsa was the focus of an ASCAP awards dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Wednesday. Yet, while he was thankful for the honor, Rozsa took the occasion to comment on the current state of film scoring, which he finds “too often motivated by profits and the rock-’n’-rollers.”

“Film music is being used so much only as a marketing tool,” Rozsa said. “The music in movies should be for the movie, not for the rock ‘n’ roll radio. If the score imposes a rhythm onto the movie that the director didn’t intend, then it fails as a score.”

But Rozsa is pleased by the burgeoning support for film music concerts--he said he’s going to London next month for a program of his music there--and says the music, if it’s well crafted, can thrive in the concert hall.

“Naturally, the film music must be written expressly and solely for the film,” Rozsa commented, “but if there are people out there who want to hear it in the best conditions, then by all means let’s have film music in the concert hall.”

ASCAP President Morton Gould--no stranger to composing for film himself (“Cinerama Holiday” and “Windjammer” were two of his)--is also aware of the increasing popularity of film music, and of course he’s all for it.

“What’s happening is a renaissance of film music as scores only, outside of the movie house,” Gould said. “That’s especially true of ‘forgotten’ scores that weren’t really heard before--Bernard Herrmann’s ‘Torn Curtain’ score, for instance. Since film seems to have been ‘kicked upstairs,’ from the entertainment world to the airy loft of culture, film music has taken on a significance all its own.”

Hence the Golden Soundtrack, which Gould said ASCAP intends as its highest honor. “It’s like getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” he said.

That is fine by Rozsa, who said he saw many of his talented contemporaries--Herrmann, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Max Steiner--go underappreciated as composers in their day.

“It’s time we recognized these people were gifted,” Rozsa said with a sigh. “So many of them were so frustrated in life. I’m not sure winning this award would have made them feel better, but I know I am extremely honored. I will accept it partially for them also.”