Biography
Giuseppe Becce was an Italian-born composer and conductor who became one of the leading figures in German film music. Born on 2 February 1877 in Lonigo, Veneto, he studied cello, flute and other subjects at the Pollini Conservatoire in Padua before moving to Berlin around 1900, where he studied composition with Arthur Nikisch and Ferruccio Busoni.
Becce entered film work in 1913, composing the score for and appearing in the title role of Richard Wagner. He went on to score more than one hundred films, including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Last Laugh (1924) and Tartuffe (1926). He created the Kinothek, a widely used library of film music cues, and continued working into the sound era on productions by directors such as F. W. Murnau, Fritz Lang and Luis Trenker. Becce died in Berlin on 5 October 1973.
