Dimitri Tiomkin

Name	Dimitri Tiomkin
Birth name	Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin
Ethnicity	Jewish
Birth date	May 10, 1894
Birth place	Kremenchuk, Poltava, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Death date	November 11, 1979
Death place	London, England
Occupation	Hollywood Film composer
Influences	European classic composers
Notable works	"High Noon," "Giant"Westerns and drama
Spouse	Albertina Rasch (1927-1967 - her death)
Years active	1929–1979

Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin (May 10, 1894November 11, 1979) was a Russian-born Hollywood film score composer and conductor. He is considered "one of the giants of Hollywood movie music." Musically trained in Russia, he is best-known for his westerns, "where his expansive, muscular style had its greatest impact." with his father a "distinguished pathologist" and associate of Professor Paul Ehrlich, the inventor and Nobel laureate noted for discovering a cure for syphilis and for his research in autoimmunity, later becoming chemotherapy. His mother was a musician who began teaching the young Tiomkin piano at an early age. Her hope was to have her son become a professional pianist, according to Tiomkin biographer, Christopher Palmer. Tiomkin described his mother as being "small, blonde, merry and vivacious."

Music career

Early years

In 1920, while working for the Petrograd Military District Political Administration (PUR), he was one of the lead organizers of two revolutionary mass spectacles, the "Mystery of Liberated Labor," a pseudo-religious mystery play for the May Day festivities, and "The Storming of the Winter Palace" for the celebrations of the third anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. He supported himself while living in St. Petersburg by playing piano accompaniment for numerous Russian silent films.

He moved to Paris with his roommate, Michael Kariton, to perform a piano duo repertory together, which they did before the end of 1924. In 1925 the duo received an offer from the New York theatrical producer Morris Gest and went to the United States where they performed together on the Keith/Albee and Orpheum vaudeville circuits in which they accompanied a ballet troupe run by the Austrian ballerina Albertina Rasch. Tiomkin and Rasch's professional relationship evolved into a personal one, and they married in 1927.

While in New York Tiomkin gave a recital at Carnegie Hall which featured music by Maurice Ravel, Alexander Scriabin, Francis Poulenc, and Alexandre Tansman. He and his new wife went on tour to Paris in 1928, where he played the European premiere of George Gershwin's Concerto in F at the Paris Opera, with Gershwin in the audience.

Hollywood (1930)

After the stock market crash in October 1929 reduced work opportunities in New York, Tiomkin and his wife moved on to Hollywood, where she was hired to supervise dance numbers in MGM movie musicals. Although he worked on some smaller film projects, his goal was to become a concert pianist. However, that goal ended abruptly in 1937 when he broke his arm, and he then focused on a career as a film-music composer.

Frank Capra in Lost Horizons (1937)

Tiomkin received his first break from Columbia director Frank Capra, who picked him to write and perform the score for his film, Lost Horizon in 1937.

In his autobiography, Please Don't Hate Me! (1959), Tiomkin recalls how the assignment by Capra forced him to first confront a director in a matter of music style:

He worked on other Capra films during the following decade, including the comedy, You Can't Take It With You (1938 -AA winner for "Best Picture); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939- AA winner for "Best Picture"); Meet John Doe (1941); and It's a Wonderful Life (1946). During World War II, he continued his close collaboration with Capra by composing scores for his Why We Fight series, consisting of seven films commissioned by the U.S. government to show American soldiers the reason for the war. They were later released to the general U.S. public to generate support for American involvement. Another music expert, Mervyn Cooke, agrees, adding that in his opinion "the song's spectacular success was partly responsible for changing the course of film-music history . . ." The score was built entirely around a single western-style ballad. Tiomkin created an unconventional score for the film, and eliminated violins from the ensemble. Along with other instruments, he added a subtle harmonica sound in the background, to give the film a "rustic, deglamorized sound that suits the anti-heroic sentiments" expressed by the story. However, Robinson adds that the source of Tiomkin's score, if indeed folk, has not been proven.

He also composed the music to the song "Wild Is The Wind". It was originally recorded by Johnny Mathis for the 1957 film Wild Is the Wind. It is mostly well-known as jazz singer Nina Simone's standard. The song carried on in a 1976 David Bowie's cover (Bowie being a long time admirer of Simone). In 1981, Bowie released a shorter version as a single. which became a hit in the UK charts. It has since been recorded by several other artists.

Composition styles and significance

Although Tiomkin was a trained classical pianist, he adapted his music training in Russia to the rapidly expanding Hollywood film industry, and self-taught himself how to compose meaningful film scores for almost any story type. Film historian David Wallace notes that despite Tiomkin's indebtedness to Europe's classical composers, he would go on to express more than any other composer, "the American spirit—its frontier spirit, anyway—in film music."

Tiomkin himself alluded to this relationship in his autobiography:

Techniques of composing

Tiomkin's methods of composing a film score have been analyzed and described by music experts. Musicologist Dave Epstein, for one, has explained that after Tiomkin reads the script, he then outlines the film's major themes and movements. After the film itself has been filmed, he then makes a detailed study of the timing of scenes, using a stopwatch to arrange precise synchronization of the music with the scenes. He completes the final score after assembling all the musicians and orchestra, rehearses a number of times, and then records the final soundtrack.

Tiomkin also payed careful attention to the voices of the actors when composing. According to Epstein, he "found that in addition to the timbre of the voice, the pitch of the speaking voice must be very carefully considered. . . " To accomplish this, Tiomkin would go to the set during filming and would carefully listen to each of the actors. He would also talk with them individually, noting the pitch and color of their voice. Tiomkin explains why he took the extra time with actors:

Death

Dimitri Tiomkin died in London, England, UK, in 1979 and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Legacy

Dimitri Tiomkin, although born and trained in Russia, has been credited with composing the most memorable film songs ever produced by Hollywood. During the 1950s he was the highest paid film composer, composing nearly a picture each month, achieving his greatest fame during the 1950s and 1960s. Between 1948 and 1958, his "golden decade," he composed 57 film scores. During the single year of 1952, he composed 9 film scores, including High Noon, for which he won two Academy Awards. In the same decade, he won two more Oscars and his film scores were nominated nine times.

Tiomkin was the first film score composer to write both the title theme song and the score. During a TV interview, he credited his love of the European classic composers along with his ability to adapt American folk music styles to creating grand American theme music.

A number of Tiomkin's film scores were released on LP soundtrack albums, including Giant and The Alamo. Some of the recordings, which usually featured Tiomkin conducting his own music, have been reissued on CD. The theme song to High Noon has been recorded by many artists, with one German CD producer, Bear Family Records, producing a CD with 25 different artists performing that one song.

In 1999, the U.S. Postal Service added his image to their "Legends of American Music" stamp series. The series began with the issuance of the Elvis Presley in 1993, and Tiomkin's image was added as part of their "Hollywood Composers" selection.

In 1976, RCA Victor released Lost Horizon: The Classic Film Scores of Dimitri Tiomkin (US catalogue #ARL1-1669, UK catalogue #GL 43445) with Charles Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Featuring highlights from various Tiomkin scores, the album was later reissued by RCA on CD with Dolby Surround Sound.

The American Film Institute ranked Tiomkin's score for High Noon #10 on their list of the greatest film scores. His scores for the following films were also nominated for the list:

The Alamo (1960)

Dial M for Murder (1954)

Duel in the Sun (1946)

Friendly Persuasion (1956)

The Guns of Navarone (1961)

Lost Horizon (1937)

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

1972 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song" Score for Chaikovsky (1969)

1965 - nominated for "Best Music, Score - Substantially Original" for: The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)

1964 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" and "Best Music, Score - Substantially Original" for 55 Days at Peking (1963)

1962 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" for Town Without Pity (1961) and for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Guns of Navarone (1961)

1961 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" and for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Alamo (1960)

1961 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" for The Young Land (1959)

1959 - won an Oscar for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Old Man and the Sea (1958)

1958 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" for Wild Is the Wind (1957)

1957 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" for Friendly Persuasion, "Best Scoring of a Dramatic Picture" for "Giant" (1956)

1955 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" for The High and the Mighty (1954) and won an Oscar for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for the same movie

1953 - won (with Ned Washington) an Oscar for "Best Music, Original Song" for High Noon (1952) for "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'", sung by Tex Ritter

1953 - won an Oscar for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for High Noon (1952)

1950 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for Champion (1949)

1945 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944)

1944 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Moon and Sixpence (1943)

1943 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Corsican Brothers (1941)

1940 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring" for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Golden Globes

1965 for "Best Original Score" for The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)

1962 for "Best Motion Picture Score" for The Guns of Navarone (1961) AND for "Best Motion Picture Song" for Town Without Pity (1961)

1961 for "Best Original Score" for The Alamo (1960)

1957 he received the "Special Award" as "Recognition for film music"

1955 he received the "Special Award" "For creative musical contribution to Motion Picture"

1953 for "Best Motion Picture Score" for High Noon (1952)

References

External links

Official site

Find-A-Grave for Dimitri Tiomkin

Dimitri Tiomkin

Dimitri Tiomkin's HIGH NOON

Multimedia links

Audio clips, 40 film samples

, audio score compilation by Berny Debney, 10 minutes

Category:1894 births Category:1979 deaths Category:People from Kremenchuk Category:Ukrainian Jews Category:Ukrainian immigrants to the United States Category:American film score composers Category:American conductors (music) Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Jewish American composers and songwriters Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)