Composer Dmitri Tiomkin is recalled today for his extensive writing of
Hollywood themes and scoring for films. Most of his most famous film
compositions came during the 1950's and '60's. Tiomkin's musical background is quite extensive. His mother was a pianist and music teacher. His father was a physician who assisted the famous biochemist Paul Ehrlich. Torn between science and music, the family finally decided on a musical career for their son. At the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Dmitri studied with Felix Blumenfeld on piano, and Alexander Glazunov for composition. He appeared on Russian stages as a child pianist prodigy. In 1921, he traveled to Germany, studying with Hugo Leichenstritt; Egon Petri, and Ferruccio Busoni. During 1922, he continued his concert appearances in Germany, often with the Berlin Philharmonic. Several musical works were written just for him, and he performed them in Germany and France. He toured the U.S. in 1925, meeting many famous people. He met and married the dancer-choreographer Albertina Rasch. He also met such composers as George Gershwin; Richard Rodgers, and Jerome Kern. These men stimulated an interest in American Popular Song. In 1928, the French Government gave him special permission to perform at the famed 'L'Opera de Paris'. At one performance, he gave the French premiere of George Gershwin's "Concerto in F". MGM Pictures hired Albertina Rasch in 1930 to help with several musical films. Her husband Dmitri had accompanied her, and Hollywood gave him a contract to score five films; one starring Lawrence Tibbett ('The Rogue Song'), and three films starring Ramon Navarro, and also 'The Resurrection'. After this, Tiomkin returned to concertizing in New York city, and continued to write popular music, some of which was heard in Broadway shows produced by the Shuberts and Flo Ziegfeld. He even produced his own play 'Keeping Expenses Down', which flopped. In 1933, Dmitri returned to Hollywood, this time to become resident and most prolific musical director, and songwriter. Before he was through, he would write over 250 film scores, for some of the most successfull screen plays ever produced. In 1960, he was made "Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor" During WW2, the U.S. Army's Signal Corps employed Dmitri as an adviser, and musical director scoring music for training and orientation films. Over his long career, he was the recipient of very many awards. Dmitri died in 1979, at age 81, due to complications following a fall is which he fractured his pelvis. He had survived the death of his wife, Albertina (Rasch) who passed away in 1967.
It was once considered cute by Hollywood wits to poke fun at Russian-born composer Dmitri Tiomkin's borscht-flavored accent. How amusing it was to hear him yell out "Switt lyand of lyaberty!" while orchestrating "The Star Spangled Banner" for Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939).
One of the most prolific composers in Hollywood, Tiomkin was also one of the most respected, and one of the few - along with Max Steiner and Franz Waxman - who brought a level of Continental sophistication to American film music. Educated at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Tiomkin was a successful pianist and conductor in his homeland, and is generally credited for bringing the music of George Gershwin to European audiences. In 1925 he emigrated to the U.S., and never looked back, becoming an American citizen in 1937. By then, he was already a flourishing screen composer, having created memorable music for "Mad Love" (1935) and Frank Capra's "Lost Horizon" (1937). The latter won him the first of a remarkable 23 Oscar nominations. He and Capra had a falling-out over the director's displeasure with Tiomkin's dark, brooding score for "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946); the complete, original work wasn't heard until a restoration and recording was made in the late 1980s. Highlights from Tiomkin's work include his Oscar-winning scores for "High Noon" (1952, which also won him a Best Song Oscar for "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'"); "The High and the Mighty" (1954), and "The Old Man and the Sea" (1958). The great success of the song from "High Noon" caused producers to hire Tiomkin and lyricist Ned Washington, hoping they could work the same magic on their pictures. Some of the songs were quite successful, like the theme from "The High and the Mighty" others never caught on. Still, Tiomkin's résumé is formidable, including Oscar nominations for "Lost Horizon" (1937), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), "The Corsican Brothers" (1941), "The Moon and Sixpence" (1942), "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" (1944), "Champion" (1949), "Giant" (1956), the song "Thee I Love" from "Friendly Persuasion" (1956), the title song from "Wild Is the Wind" (1957), the song "Strange Are the Ways of Love" from "The Young Land" (1959), "The Alamo" (1960) and the song "The Green Leaves of Summer" from the same film, "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), the title song from "Town Without Pity" (1961), "55 Days at Peking" (1963) and the song "So Little Time", "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964), and best adaptation of "Tchaikovsky" (1971, which he also produced). He published his autobiography, "Please Don't Hate Me," in 1959.
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