by Warren M. Sherk

The Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL), the largest and most influential organization of its kind in the United States, pays tribute to one of its own, composer Dimitri Tiomkin. The SCL home page contains a thirty-second introductory segment in which Tiomkin can be seen rehearsing the music for Giant (1956).

SCL home page featuring Dimitri Tiomkin.

Tiomkin is depicted in a stunning photograph by Allan Grant, a longtime staff photographer for Life. The magazine assigned Grant to shadow Tiomkin during post-production on the George Stevens film in September of 1956. Another image from that session depicting Tiomkin at the podium with James Dean onscreen and a trio of musicians in the foreground is available from Getty Images. Ron Grant, Allan’s son, a composer member of SCL working in Hollywood supplied the SCL home page opening theme music. As the co-inventor of Auricle’s Film Composer’s Time Processor he received a 1986 Scientific or Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The SCL is the primary professional organization for working professional composers and lyricists in the fields of motion picture and television music. Dimitri Tiomkin was a founding member of the predecessor organization, the Screen Composers Association.