Hugo Riesenfeld

Hugo Riesenfeld
Riesenfeld in 1920
Born(1879-01-26)January 26, 1879
DiedSeptember 10, 1939(1939-09-10) (aged 60)
Los Angeles, California, United States
NationalityAmerican
EducationGesellschaft der Musikfreunde
Occupation(s)violinist, conductor, composer
Known forfilm scoring
SpouseMabel Gertrude Dunning
ChildrenJanet Alcoriza
AwardsOscar nominations for Musical Director and Best Music for Make a Wish (1937)

Hugo Riesenfeld (January 26, 1879 – September 10, 1939) was an Austrian-American composer. As a film director, he began to write his own orchestral compositions for silent films in 1917, and co-created modern production techniques where film scoring serves an integral part of the action. Riesenfeld composed about 100 film scores in his career.

His most successful compositions were for Cecil B. DeMille's Joan the Woman (1917), The Ten Commandments (1923) and The King of Kings (1927); D. W. Griffith's Abraham Lincoln (1930); and the original scores to F. W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) and Tabu (1931).