August 2013
Tiomkin days in Kremenchug festival report

by Tamara Oskomenko-Parulava

Editor’s note: This report was written in Ukrainian; it has been edited for readability in English.

Dimitri Tiomkin.

“Tiomkin days – 2013 in Kremenchug,” the first large-scale musical theatrical performance dedicated to the world-renowned composer from Kremenchug, Dimitri Tiomkin, was held on May 18 and 19, 2013. Tiomkin received four Oscars®, the most prestigious award in film music, and twenty-two Academy Award nominations, as well as several other international awards.

The Kremenchug festival receives financial support from the Poltava Regional State Administration Department of Culture and is organized by the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Kremenchug City Council and the Poltava regional branch of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine, assisted by the Management of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine. These organizations strive to ensure this event is held at the highest professional and artistic levels and that the program is interesting and varied. Guests of the festival included relatives of Dimitri Tiomkin from the United Kingdom, widow Olivia Tiomkin Douglas and a cousin Eileen Shaw.

Kremenchug, Ukraine

Kremenchug is a remarkable city in the Poltava region of Ukraine. It is permeated with unbounded energy that is felt in every citizen of the Dnipro region and its towns and villages. [Ed. note: The Dnipro region includes many sub-regions such as Kiev, Poltava, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv provinces, as well as many other provinces.]

Among the great Ukraine artists and composers born in Kremenchug are Mykola Lysenko, George and Plato Mayborody, Alexander Bilash, and Dimitri Tiomkin (1894-1979), the latter now coming to the attention of Ukrainians through the festival. And from other parts of Poltava: Isaac Dunaevskii from Lokhvytsia and Oleg Kiva, who grew up in Poltava, the family home of his parents.

The Poltava region is where unique ancient polyphonic songs and musical traditions developed, which was commented upon as early as the 17th century. Each of the aforementioned composers from Poltava combines the same characteristic expressive melodic tone. This has been observed in many studies, both domestic and foreign. These same features pervade the work of Dimitri Tiomkin, because these are the sounds he overheard as a child, and knowledge that Ukrainian songs saved his life during the “Red Terror” in Petrograd. (A soldier guarding the prisoners, including Tiomkin, heard Tiomkin sing a song his mother taught him. Tiomkin began to sing in Ukrainian and the guard, as it turned out a fellow brother, was moved by the music and agreed to pass a note from Tiomkin to his teacher, Alexander Glazunov, who interceded on behalf of his beloved disciple.)

RELATED BLOG: Kremenchug May 2013

Dimitri Tiomkin’s oeuvre is impressive. He wrote music for 124 movies (of which more than 100 were for Hollywood studios), a number of ballets that were written for his wife, Albertina Rasch, instrumental compositions, and he also brilliantly performed as a pianist. He easily improvised as a student in St. Petersburg moonlighting as a pianist and he admired jazz from its birth. There in 1920 he participated in the formulation of grand theater (in fact, the first historical reconstructions) for May Day, “Mysteries of Released Time” and “The Taking of the Winter Palace,” which involved about a thousand artists, including 500 musicians.

Dramatized reconstruction from Cossack times of the battle for the liberation of Vienna in 1683. Participants from various public and music organizations in Kremenchug served as the Cossacks, Turks, and dancers. Photograph by Roman Butrimov.

Organizers of the festival, “Tiomkin Days in Kremenchug,” included in the program a dramatized reconstruction from Cossack times of the battle for the liberation of Vienna in 1683, which took place during the Polish-Cossack campaign for the liberation of Europe from the attacks of the Turks. More than 150 participants from various public and music organizations in the city served as the Cossacks, Turks, dancers and concubines. Cossacks wrote the famous “Letter to the Turkish Sultan” in the camp, located on an artificial plait of the Prydniprovskiy park, where they received ambassadors and the tabernacle of the sultan, “the ruler of the world,” and entertained with dances. During the mock battle, 12 guns, 15 carbines, 60 swords, lots of fireworks, and smoke bombs were used.

All this was included in the festival and in “Europe Days,” which took place in Ukraine on May 18. The “Europe Days” festival went well and Eurocity was attended by many local art groups, poets, artists and musicians. In the foyer of the palace of culture, “Creative Opening Day,” featured an exhibition by artists of handmade art works. The exhibit drew attention to the artists and to “living sculptures” from local youth theater.

But the main events of the festival took place the next day, May 19.

Roundtable participants. Photograph by Roman Butrimov.

Roundtable

The Roundtable, “Poltava Region and Ukraine in the World Arena of Theater and Movies,” opened the program day. Greetings from regional and local authorities and experts including this writer, composer Tamara Oskomenko-Parulava (NSKU member, Chairman of the Poltava regional center NSKU, winner of international and regional musical festivals, national festivals Winner, founder and artistic director of the public association “Youth Musical Theatre,” ParMiKo), which became the theme of “Music Theater and Film Composers of Poltava,” an overview of the ancient musical traditions of Poltava, which opened at region of the composer of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, followed gains composers of our region of the twentieth century, the authors of music for theater and film including Dimitri Tiomkin, Isaak Dunayevsky, Gregory and Plato Mayborody, Oleksandr Bilash, Oleg Kiva, Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky, Constantine Myaskova, and members of the Poltava regional center of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine, including Alexis Chukhrai, Vitaly Horses, Tamara Oskomenko-Parulava, Vladimir Karlasha, and Sergei Horyunovycha.

Eileen Shaw (right, speaking) and Olivia Tiomkin Douglas.

Eileen Shaw, a cousin of Dimitri Tiomkin, participated in the roundtable. She stressed that the world-renowned composer never forgot his homeland and remembered his native land and his hometown throughout his life.

Musicologist Olga Chepil (member NSKU, winner of the regional competitions TV and radio programs “We are Ukrainian”) shared notes on composer Isaak Dunayevsky from Lokhvytsia, the only worthy parallel to Dimitri Tiomkin in film music of the 1930s through 1950s. Dunayevsky was at the forefront of Soviet cinema, author of music for more than 40 films, became the “father” of the domestic musical comedy, and initiated new approaches to music-making movies, where his principle of “film music as a basis for drama movie” was a breakthrough in modern thought.

Olivia Tiomkin (far right) adresses the press. Photograph by by Press Service of the Kremenchug City Council.

Garnering special attention from the participants and the press was the widow of the composer, Olivia Tiomkin Douglas. She has dedicated her life to preserving the musical heritage of her husband. A Hollywood music publishing company in Los Angeles [Volta Music] supports performances and recordings of Tiomkin’s music around the world. On behalf of all those present she was awarded flowers by Poltava composer and conductor and People’s Artist of Ukraine, Vitaly Skakynov. Eileen Shaw received thanks for her roundtable presentation and her good words about Dimitri Tiomkin.

Composer Vladimir Gronska (member of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine and the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, Honored Artist of Ukraine, winner of the National Prize of Ukraine named Taras Shevchenko, chief music editor studio named O. Dovzhenko, author of music for more than 30 films) spoke on the theme “Ukrainian Film Music Today on the World Stage” and provided information on Ukranian cinema, shared his thoughts on composing for film, highlighted the problem of national cinema, and paid tribute to songs from the Poltava region, the unique area which nourished talents such as Tiomkin.

Other invited guests of the festival from Kiev included a student of Georgiy Mayboroda. He recalled the centenary of the master, to be held in December this year, and presented a book about his teacher. An emotional and enthusiastic Vladimir Petrovic told participants about folklore expeditions in Poltava in the twentieth century, where unique Ukrainian polyphony was found in the area of the villages of Kryachkivka and Pyriatyn that came from ancient times.

Olivia Tiomkin Douglas with winners of the Tiomkin piano competition. Photograph by Roman Butrimov.

In attendance were the three winners of this year’s Piano Competition named after Dimitri Tiomkin, for improvisers. The event was a kind of prologue to the festival (held since 2011, this year it took place in April). Young musicians were awarded certificates, which they were handed by Olivia Tiomkin Douglas (John Mohi, third place, a blind pianist from the city Sydelnykova; Ivan Kharlamov, second place, in Luhansk, and Eugene Cloud, first place, of Kiev) and gained information about Poltava from the festival, to give them inspiration for their own improvisations during subsequent performances in concert.

Theatrical performances

The second event of the day included concerts and theatrical performances. The Slavutich Folk Dancers, with choreography and by the Honored Worker of Culture of Ukraine, Vasyl Udovenko, opened with a theatrical prologue, “Kremenchuk is the city of the first conservatory in the Russian Empire.” Composer, pianist, and choral conductor Sergei Horyunovycha from Kremenchug created scenarios based on information from books for the work that incorporated material written on the basis of historical documents and published in Kremenchug this year. Events take place at the end of the 18th century, when Grigory Potemkin decided on Ukraine as the location for the first conservatory and convinced the queen, Catherine II. It was planned that the school be located in Ekaterinoslav (today’s Dnipropetrovsk), but the city had just been built. So it was decided that the conservatory would be temporarily located in Kremenchug. Everything was prepared to “the highest level,” the Italian composer Giuseppe Sarti was invited in honor of the queen-held court ball. The highlight of the theatrical performance (writer, director, and presenter Sergei Sytnyk and performers and actors of the Kremenchug Troyits’kyi Theatre) was the stage when Sarti asks a Ukrainian girl to sing, and she sings in a folk style song “Black Arable Land” (Olena Didenko) and the Italian maestro excitedly exclaimed: “Oh, Madonna, belissimo, bravissimo!”

The second part was dedicated to Dimitri Tiomkin and his childhood. A scene was acted out showing when the future composer decides for himself and convinces his parents that he will be a musician. A fragment from “Sonata Pathetique” by Beethoven performed by “Tiomkin” (Tiomkin’s role was performed by one of the students from a local music school) gave assurance that everything would turn out just so.

Winners of the Tiomkin piano competition took part in the concert.

Poltava Regional Academic Symphont Orchestra under the direction of Vitaliy Skakun (center). Photograph by Press Service of the Kremenchug City Council.

Symphony Orchestra Concert

The festival concluded with a symphony orchestra concert by the Poltava Regional Academic Ukrainian music dramatical theater named M.V. Gogol under the direction of People’s Artist of Ukraine Vitaliy Skakun. His entire program consisted of works by Dimitri Tiomkin. Music was sent from the United States, prepared by Patrick Russ, one of the leading arrangers in Los Angeles. The arrangements were by Russ, and previous Tiomkin arrangers Christopher Palmer, and Pete King.

The concert included the overture for the movie Cyrano de Bergerac, a concert film prologue to The Guns of Navarone (nominated for “Oscar” award “Golden Globe”), a suite of music for the film The Old Man and the Sea (“Oscar”), the march from the film Circus World (prize “Golden Globe” for best song), deeply expressive, with great sad tone melody with movie Friendly Persuasion (“Thee I Love,” nominated for “Oscar”) and The Fall of the Roman Empire (“Fall of Love,” nominated for “Oscar” and “Golden Globe”).

Ukraine is discovering the music of Dimitri Tiomkin, with its rhythms of the Cossack military hopak, and melodies full of the colors of our culture. Tiomkin’s music conveys the atmosphere of the American prairies of the Wild West as seen in Western films; which reminded the composer of Ukraine’s endless steppes. The significant impact of Mussorgsky could also be heard.

The composer wrote music intuitively, with a warm and expressive tone on a subconscious level and the results were amazing and artistic, making movies with his music especially attractive.

We hope that the festival “Tiomkin Days in Kremenchug” will evolve into an international event and appeal to many composers, performers, and listeners. Next up in 2014, an anniversary year for Dimitri Tiomkin, it is hoped that the festival will result in a true musical celebration that will last several days, which will include music and theater composers of modern Ukraine and abroad, as well as classics, among them – and music from famous countryman of Kremenchug. It is a great home for the piano competition, improvisers, pianists, and jazz. It will add attractiveness and historical reconstruction and theatrical performances. May God grant that such an event will happen every year.

RELATED: Tiomkin Days 2012 and Tiomkin Days 2011

About the author

Tamara Oskomenko-Parulava is a composer and chairman of the Poltava regional center National Union of Composers of Ukraine.


This report by Tamara Oskomenko-Parulavaand and photographs of the events taken by Roman Butrimov were originally posted on tiomkin.info and en.tiomkin.info (Tiomkin Days in Kremenchuk). Thanks to Tamara and Roman for permission to post the edited report and selected photographs here. Additional photographs courtesy the Press Service of the Kremenchug City Council.

This entry was posted in 2013, News and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.