| Dimitri Tiomkin | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | Dmitri Zinovievich Tiomkin May 10, 1894(1894-05-10) Kremenchuk, Poltava, Ukraine |
||||||||||
| Died | November 11, 1979 (aged 85) London, England |
||||||||||
| Years active | 1929 - 1979 | ||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin (Russian: Дмитрий Зиновьевич Тёмкин, Dmitrij Zinov'evič Tëmkin, sometimes translated as Dmitri Tiomkin) (May 10, 1894 – November 11, 1979) was a film score composer and conductor. Along with Max Steiner, Miklós Rózsa and Franz Waxman, Tiomkin was one of the most productive and decorated film music writers of Hollywood.
Contents |
Tiomkin was born in Kremenchug, Ukraine and educated at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, where he studied piano with Felix Blumenfeld and harmony and counterpoint with Alexander Glazunov. 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.[1]
In 1924 Tiomkin left the USSR[2] and moved to Berlin, where his father was practising as a doctor, and had lessons with Ferruccio Busoni. He emigrated to the United States in 1925, moved to Hollywood in 1930 with his wife, dancer Albertina Rasch (1895-1967), and became an American citizen in 1937.
Although influenced by Eastern European music traditions, he was able to score typical American movies like Frank Capra's famous Lost Horizon (1937) or It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and also Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), both with James Stewart. He also worked on Fred Zinnemann's High Noon (1952), which also won him a "Best Song" Oscar for "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'(The Ballad of High Noon)". In 1954, he won the Academy Award for best scoring of the John Wayne film The High and the Mighty; during the telecast ceremonies, Tiomkin humorously thanked all of the earlier composers who had influenced him in writing this music.
Many classic scores followed, many of which were Western movies, like The High and the Mighty (1954), Giant (1956), Friendly Persuasion (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Rio Bravo (1959), The Alamo (1960), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Town Without Pity (1961), 55 Days at Peking (1963), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), and The War Wagon (1967).
Besides cinema he was also active in writing for the small screen, writing some memorable television theme-songs, as for Rawhide (1959) and Gunslinger. He was also hired to write the theme for TV's The Wild Wild West (1965), but the producers rejected his themes and hired Richard Markowitz. A cover version of the theme from Rawhide was performed in the 1980 cult musical film The Blues Brothers.
Dimitri Tiomkin died in London, England in 1979 and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
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.
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.
Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History