Steiner left New York for Hollywood in 1929 when sound films were beginning to be introduced. There at the start, he stands out among the film composers whose style dominated Hollywood cinema in the 1930s and 1940s, a group which includes Dimitri Tiomkin , Alfred Newman , and Miklós Rózsa .
Steiner's compositional style was post-Romantic, with strong leanings toward a light, sentimental treatment. From his earliest scores he used music in the service of the film, helping...