Agay, Denes 1911-2007

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 10, 1911, in Hungary; died of multiple organ failure, January 24, 2007, in Los Altos, CA. Musician, composer, and author. Agay was a composer and arranger who was even better known for his many instructional and reference books on music. A musical prodigy who was playing the piano by the age of three, he graduated from the Liszt Academy of Music in 1933 and earned a doctorate in piano composition and performance from the University of Budapest the next year. Because his father had urged him to pursue a more practical career, Agay simultaneously studied law at the University of Budapest. A year before earning a law degree, he so impressed his father with his music and conducting skills that his parents agreed he could drop out of law school. During the 1930s, Agay worked for Hungarian film companies as a composer. Rather infamously, he composed music for the Czech-Austrian film Ecstasy. One scene has actress Hedy Lamarr running through the woods naked with Agay's soundtrack in the background. The movie was banned in the United States, though a version was later edited for American audiences. Soon, Agay would find himself moving to America when the Nazis came to power. While he was able to flee safely, his Jewish parents were not as lucky and perished at Auschwitz. Once in America, Agay sought work with music publishers, who urged him to abandon his classical background and compose popular songs instead. Agay would later admit that he was guilty of several pop tunes, which he wrote only out of the need for an income. Gaining American citizenship, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942 and was assigned to a Tuscaloosa, Alabama, military hospital. Here he entertained the wounded with his piano prowess. He rose to the rank of sergeant and went back to the life of a civilian after the war. Returning to the music publishing industry, Agay worked for such companies as Music Sales Corp., Yorktown Music Press, and Consolidated Music Publishers. Although he was the composer of pop tunes, as well as librettos and other classical music, Agay found his greatest success in publishing books about music. He released dozens of these works, including many in the "Easy Classics to Moderns" and "Joy Of" series. His biggest seller was Best Loved Songs of the American People (1975), which sold millions of copies. He continued to actively publish into the twenty-first century, including more recent books such as The Joy of Schubert (1998) and The Joy of Holiday Music (2001). Late in his life, Agay and his wife endowed the Denes and Mary Agay Piano and Composition Scholarship Fund for the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland.

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PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2007, p. B12.