Kosma, Joseph (EN)

Kosma Joseph, *22 October 1905 Budapest, †7 August 1969 La Roche-Guyon (near Paris), French composer of Hungarian origin. He studied composition with L. Weiner at the Academy of Music in Budapest. In 1926–28, he was assistant conductor at the local opera house and head of the avant-garde theatre company. In 1929, he received a scholarship to study in Berlin, where he met B. Brecht, H. Eisler, and K. Weill, who influenced his musical interests. From 1933, he worked in Paris as a composer of film and stage music and songs.

Kosma composed music for approximately 80 films, including some of the most outstanding works in the history of world cinema. He wrote music for plays by J.P. Sartre, T. Williams and E. O’Neill, ballets for R. Petit, J.L. Barrault and S. Lifar, and pantomimes for M. Marceau. He gained widespread popularity as a composer of original songs sung by J. Gréco, Y. Montand, the Jacques brothers and others. Working with the most respected lyricists, he contributed to the renaissance of French literary song in the 1940s. Many of his works gained worldwide popularity, and Les feuilles mortes became a standard of popular music. Kosma transferred some of the characteristics of French neoclassicism (moderate expressiveness, transparency of texture, deformations of classical harmony) to popular music. His subtle, sometimes nostalgic songs went beyond the conventions of the genre at the time; Kosma often abandoned the verse-chorus structure, contrasting the course of the piece by varying the type of melodics and accompaniment, using changes in tempo and key, and employing characteristic micro-motifs and harmonies enriched with added sounds (seconds, fourths, and other intervals). Kosma’s more technically advanced works (orchestral, chamber, cantatas, and operas) did not gain popularity.