Song library
Browse piano sheets by John Stepan Zamecnik on Zen Virtual Piano. The Sam Fox Moving Picture Music volumes composed by John Stepan Zamecnik consist of incidental music and leitmotifs such as “Mysterious Burglar Music,” intended for when a burglar is on screen. Music made to announce a burglar suggests that the silent screen wanted a ready-made sound for particular situations. Zamecnik was best known for this “photoplay music,” composed for use during silent films by pianists, organists and orchestras. He was born on May 14, 1872, in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of the Bohemian immigrants Joseph and Katherine Zamecnik. His father was a bandleader, and the young Zamecnik had already shown compositional and conducting talent before going to study music under Antonin Dvořák at the Prague Conservatory, where he graduated in 1897. He then took a post as violinist in the Pittsburgh Symphony under Victor Herbert. A composer trained under Dvořák who is best known for photoplay music suggests that the same craft could serve a concert hall and a picture house. Zamecnik returned to Cleveland in 1907 as composer-director at the new Hippodrome Theater, and his duties included providing music to the lyrics of William J. Wilson for the theater’s opening stage attraction, Coaching Days, in 1908. In 1911 he joined the Sam Fox Publishing Co. in the Arcade, where he served as musical editor-in-chief after 1914. A composer-director at a new theater who became a publisher’s musical editor-in-chief moved from making music for one house to shaping a stock of music for many. The Sam Fox Moving Picture Music volumes also include numbers titled Five Dances, such as an Italian Tarantella, a Spanish Fandango and a Zulu or African Dance. In 1925 he went to Hollywood, where he contributed scores to such films as Abie’s Irish Rose, Old Ironsides, Wings and Betrayal. By the time of his death in Los Angeles on June 13, 1953, he was credited with nearly 2,000 compositions. Nearly 2,000 compositions credited to one working musician suggest a craft practised steadily rather than a few works polished for years.
Browse piano sheets by John Stepan Zamecnik on Zen Virtual Piano.
The Sam Fox Moving Picture Music volumes composed by John Stepan Zamecnik consist of incidental music and leitmotifs such as “Mysterious Burglar Music,” intended for when a burglar is on screen. Music made to announce a burglar suggests that the silent screen wanted a ready-made sound for particular situations. Zamecnik was best known for this “photoplay music,” composed for use during silent films by pianists, organists and orchestras.
He was born on May 14, 1872, in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of the Bohemian immigrants Joseph and Katherine Zamecnik. His father was a bandleader, and the young Zamecnik had already shown compositional and conducting talent before going to study music under Antonin Dvořák at the Prague Conservatory, where he graduated in 1897. He then took a post as violinist in the Pittsburgh Symphony under Victor Herbert. A composer trained under Dvořák who is best known for photoplay music suggests that the same craft could serve a concert hall and a picture house.
Zamecnik returned to Cleveland in 1907 as composer-director at the new Hippodrome Theater, and his duties included providing music to the lyrics of William J. Wilson for the theater’s opening stage attraction, Coaching Days, in 1908. In 1911 he joined the Sam Fox Publishing Co. in the Arcade, where he served as musical editor-in-chief after 1914. A composer-director at a new theater who became a publisher’s musical editor-in-chief moved from making music for one house to shaping a stock of music for many. The Sam Fox Moving Picture Music volumes also include numbers titled Five Dances, such as an Italian Tarantella, a Spanish Fandango and a Zulu or African Dance.
In 1925 he went to Hollywood, where he contributed scores to such films as Abie’s Irish Rose, Old Ironsides, Wings and Betrayal. By the time of his death in Los Angeles on June 13, 1953, he was credited with nearly 2,000 compositions. Nearly 2,000 compositions credited to one working musician suggest a craft practised steadily rather than a few works polished for years.
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John Stepan Zamecnik
John Stepan Zamecnik
John Stepan Zamecnik
John Stepan Zamecnik
John Stepan Zamecnik
John Stepan Zamecnik
John Stepan Zamecnik
John Stepan Zamecnik
John Stepan Zamecnik
John Stepan Zamecnik
Common questions
The “photoplay music” he composed for use during silent films by pianists, organists and orchestras, including the Sam Fox Moving Picture Music volumes.
Antonin Dvořák, at the Prague Conservatory, where he graduated in 1897.
He contributed scores to Abie’s Irish Rose, Old Ironsides, Wings and Betrayal after going to Hollywood in 1925.