The Wizard of Oz remains one of cinema’s most enduring musical achievements, a film where the songs do not merely accompany the action but drive the narrative forward. And when discussing the composer of The Wizard of Oz, it is essential to distinguish between two distinct but interconnected roles: the creator of the iconic songs and the architect of the orchestral underscore. That said, harold Arlen wrote the melodies that the world still hums—Over the Rainbow, We’re Off to See the Wizard, If I Only Had a Brain—while Herbert Stothart crafted the sweeping, leitmotif-rich background score that stitches the film together. Which means together, alongside lyricist E. On the flip side, y. "Yip" Harburg, they built a sonic landscape that defined the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals.
Harold Arlen: The Man Behind the Melodies
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck in 1905) was already an established hitmaker on Broadway and in Harlem’s Cotton Club before Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer came calling. Unlike many of his contemporaries who favored rigid Tin Pan Alley structures, Arlen wrote with a fluid, almost improvisational sense of rhythm. His style was a unique fusion of jazz harmonies, blues inflections, and the Great American Songbook tradition. This made him the perfect choice for a fantasy film that required both whimsy and emotional depth Most people skip this — try not to..
Arlen’s collaboration with lyricist Yip Harburg was the engine room of the film’s vocal identity. Harburg’s lyrics were sharp, satirical, and deeply humanistic, providing the perfect textual counterpoint to Arlen’s lush, yearning melodies. Their working method was unconventional: Harburg would often write a title or a concept, and Arlen would compose the music first—a "music-first" approach that allowed the melody to dictate the emotional arc before words were fitted in.
The crown jewel of their partnership, Over the Rainbow, nearly didn't make the final cut. Studio executives initially felt the ballad slowed down the opening Kansas sequence and was too sophisticated for a children's film. It took the fierce advocacy of associate producer Arthur Freed and the sheer vocal power of a young Judy Garland to save it. Today, the song stands as the American Film Institute’s number one movie song of all time, a testament to Arlen’s ability to distill universal longing into a simple octave leap and a yearning bridge The details matter here..
Other Arlen/Harburg contributions showcase their range. Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead employs a mock-heroic march that feels both ancient and modern. So naturally, If I Only Had a Brain/Heart/Nerve uses a jaunty, syncopated rhythm to characterize the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion individually while maintaining a cohesive musical theme. The Merry Old Land of Oz captures the Art Deco glamour of the Emerald City with sophisticated chord changes that belie its cheerful facade.
Not obvious, but once you see it — you'll see it everywhere.
Herbert Stothart: The Architect of the Underscore
While Arlen and Harburg provided the "songs," Herbert Stothart was the composer of The Wizard of Oz responsible for the dramatic underscore—the instrumental music playing beneath dialogue, action sequences, and scene transitions. A veteran of MGM’s music department and an Oscar winner for The White Cliffs of Dover, Stothart approached the film with the rigor of a classical symphonist.
Stothart’s score operates on a system of leitmotifs—recurring musical themes assigned to specific characters, locations, or ideas. This technique, borrowed from Wagnerian opera, gives the film a structural coherence that pure song placement cannot achieve That alone is useful..
- Dorothy’s Theme: A gentle, pentatonic melody often played on woodwinds or solo violin, representing innocence and home. It appears in the underscore long before she sings Over the Rainbow, subconsciously preparing the audience.
- The Tornado Sequence: Perhaps Stothart’s most virtuosic writing. He abandons traditional tonality for swirling chromaticism, glissandi strings, and piercing woodwinds to simulate the chaos of the cyclone. It is pure "program music," telling a story without words.
- Miss Gulch / The Wicked Witch: A menacing, descending minor-key motif played on low brass and bass clarinet. It transforms Miss Gulch’s bicycle ride into a harbinger of the Witch’s arrival in Oz, linking the "real world" antagonist to the fantasy villain.
- The Emerald City / The Wizard: Grandiose, fanfare-heavy orchestration utilizing the full brass section and organ, projecting authority and artifice.
Stothart also without friction integrated Arlen’s songs into the underscore. Fragments of Over the Rainbow appear in minor keys during moments of danger, and We’re Off to See the Wizard morphs into a processional march as the quartet approaches the gates. He didn't just play the melody; he deconstructed it. This integration earned Stothart the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1940 (a category then called "Best Music, Score"), beating out heavyweights like Max Steiner (Gone with the Wind) Worth keeping that in mind..
The Collaborative Ecosystem at MGM
Attributing the music solely to Arlen or Stothart overlooks the factory-like brilliance of the MGM Music Department. The composer of The Wizard of Oz was effectively a committee of specialists overseen by Musical Director Georgie Stoll (credited as George Stoll) Still holds up..
- Orchestrators: Conrad Salinger, Leo Arnaud, and others took Arlen’s piano-vocal sketches and Stothart’s short-score sketches and expanded them for the massive MGM orchestra (often 60+ players). Salinger’s signature "lush" string writing—dividing violins into multiple parts—gives the film its signature shimmer.
- Vocal Arrangers: Ken Darby and his team shaped the choral sounds of the Munchkins, the Winkie Guards (Yo-ho-ho), and the Jitterbug sequence (cut from the final film but restored on soundtracks).
- Roger Edens: A crucial "unsung hero," Edens was Garland’s vocal coach and arranger. He worked intimately with Arlen to tailor the keys and phrasing to Garland’s specific vocal timbre at age 16, ensuring she sounded effortless rather than strained.
This assembly-line approach sounds cold on paper, but in practice, it allowed for a level of polish and complexity impossible for a single composer working alone. The seamless transition from spoken dialogue to song to underscore and back again is the hallmark of the "MGM Style," and The Wizard of Oz is its apotheosis.
The Deleted Songs and "The Jitterbug"
No discussion of the film’s composition is complete without mentioning the material left on the cutting room floor. That said, the most famous is The Jitterbug, a high-energy swing number set in the Haunted Forest. Arlen and Harburg wrote several numbers that were filmed but deleted after preview screenings ran long. That's why it was designed to showcase the film’s modernity and give the ensemble a big dance break. Its removal shifted the film’s tone toward the timeless and away from 1939 pop trends—a decision that likely aided its longevity.
Another cut, The Rescue, featured a complex contrapuntal arrangement for the quartet infiltrating the Witch’s castle. While the songs are lost visually, the orchestrations survive on the original soundtrack recordings, offering a glimpse into an alternate, jazzier version of Oz.
Technical Innovation: Recording the Rainbow
The recording technology of 1939 imposed constraints that shaped the composition. MGM used a monaural optical soundtrack system. There was no multi-tracking, no overdubbing, and no editing in the modern sense No workaround needed..
