CWU Symphony Orchestra performing in Seattle, Washington

The Central Washington University (CWU) Symphony Orchestra presents “America – The West,” a program of early American and Western music at the McIntyre Music Building Concert Hall at CWU, Ellensburg, Washington, on February 16, 2012. Music from two Western films scored by Dimitri Tiomkin will be performed.

Tickets: Spirit of the West Cowboy Gathering
By phone, call toll free: 1-888-925-2204

Date: Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.
Venue: McIntyre Music Building Concert Hall at CWU, Ellensburg, Washington

Program (includes)
THE ALAMO — Suite
THE GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL — Ballad

Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: Nikolas Caoile
Performers: Central Washington University Symphony Orchestra
Concert title: America – The West

Notes: The concert kicks off the “Spirit of the West Cowboy Gathering” held over President’s Day weekend celebrating music, poetry, and art. The gathering, an annual three-day event attracting more than 4,000 visitors, has been staged in Ellensburg since 2005. Read more about the history of The Spirit of the West Gathering.

Dimitri Tiomkin

Reporting from Los Angeles, February 9, 2012

Last year, a banner one for the music of Dimitri Tiomkin, culminated in a series of concerts by the London Symphony Orchestra in October and a number of events related to It’s a Wonderful Life in December. In fact, only hours before the year’s end the Santa Barbara Symphony performed music from the film. A reviewer wrote,

[The] subtlety and elegance with which this suite wove together the melodies of several Christmas carols with the New Year’s Eve staple ‘Auld Lang Syne’ had everyone in the spirit.

READ: “The Santa Barbara Symphony at the Granada” by Charles Donelan

January 2012 started with a bang with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra’s performance of “The Film Music of Dimitri Tiomkin” in Dublin, Ireland. Read my blog, RTÉ Concert Orchestra concert update.

With 2012 shaping up to rival or exceed 2011, here’s a rundown of what to look forward to.

Concerts galore

How many composers of the 20th-century are having their music played month-after-month in concert venues around the world? In the coming months, Dimitri Tiomkin is in the enviable position of having his music performed in Central Washington; Croydon, England; Malaysia; London; and Jerusalem.

Oscar poster features image from GIANT

The Academy Awards are right around the corner and as a four-time Academy Award winner, Tiomkin’s name is in the news. Giant, scored by Tiomkin for director George Stevens, is one of eight films selected for inclusion on the official Academy poster (at right) proclaiming “Celebrate the Movies in All of Us.”

In addition, ABC has unveiled a poster series, “We Showed You How to Be…,” that ties in to the image as seen on the Academy poster. “We Showed You How to Be COOL,” depicts James Dean and the Reata mansion in Giant (scroll down to bottom of post to view).

Tiomkin was noted as a giant of Hollywood movie music with a “distinctive sound” in a recent Los Angeles Times feature article on the collaboration of composer John Williams and director Steven Spielberg.

READ: “John Williams and Steven Spielberg mark 40 years of collaboration,” by Rebecca Keegan

Spielberg has previously gone on record with his admiration for film scores and composers. During an interview, he told Jon Burlingame,

I collected soundtrack albums. My heroes were Dimitri Tiomkin and Franz Waxman and Miklos Rozsa and Bernard Herrmann and on and on and on.

READ: “Spielberg and Lucas on Williams,” by Jon Burlingame

Negro Soldier receives National honor

Statuette depicting Tiomkin conducting Negro Soldier

Negro Soldier was added to the National Film Registry in 2011. Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films to the National Film Registry that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. Of the 25 films added in 2011, the Hollywood Reporter gives a shout out to composer Dimitri Tiomkin in their comments on the film.

READ: “‘Bambi,’ ‘Forrest Gump’ Added to National Film Registry,” by Mike Barnes

The beauty of the National Film Registry is that for each named title, the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation works to ensure that the film is preserved for future generations through the Library’s film preservation program or collaborative ventures with others. Films scored by Tiomkin are well-represented on the list that includes It’s a Wonderful Life, the Why We Fight series, Battle of San Pietro, Let There Be Light, Red River, D.O.A., The Thing from Another Planet, High Noon, and Giant. Two of these classic films can be seen on cable network Turner Classic Movies.

TUNE IN: Turner Classic Movies (TCM)
February 9: Red River
February 10: Giant

More CD releases

Cover for CD booklet.

2011 saw three Tiomkin soundtracks released on CD. The new digital recording of The Fall of the Roman Empire and two archival releases, Last Train from Gun Hill and 55 Days of Peking. The Prometheus Records release of Fall of the Roman Empire was selected as among the Best of 2011 by the Film Music Society and made Daniel Schweiger’s “November Soundtrack Picks.”

READ: “Classic Film Scores: The Best of 2011,” by Jon Burlingame

Will 2012 measure up? Already announced for release is The Four Poster. And, the London Symphony Orchestra concert in October was recorded for LSO Live to be released in the fall. Check back often during the year for more information on these CD releases and others.

Only Angels Have Wings Lobby Card A

Howard Hawks: The Measure of Man

The Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California is showcasing the films of director Howard Hawks with screenings taking place through April. Tiomkin provided scores for five Hawks films. Four of the five films Tiomkin scored will be screened. (The Big Sky will not be screened.) Experience these films as they were meant to be seen and heard.

SCREENINGS: “Howard Hawks: The Measure of Man,” Pacific Film Archive
February 21: Only Angels Have Wings
March 20: Red River
April 3: The Thing from Another Planet
April 14: Rio Bravo

Cinerama Dome to screen Search for Paradise

Search for Paradise recording session, circa 1956-1957

A fall festival of all things Cinerama at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, California will include a screening of Search for Paradise, with Tiomkin’s transcendent musical score. The festival takes place from September 28 to October 4 and celebrates the 60th anniversary of the birth of Cinerama and the ensuing widescreen era.

Thanks to Patrick Russ for bringing this to my attention.

SCREENING
tbd: Search for Paradise

READ: “Historic Big Screen Films Get Major Digital Makeover”

Dimitri Tiomkin: The Official Website

Tiomkin and Arthur Zepp

Each month we feature news, articles, and blog posts. Check back in March for our feature article on Arthur Zepp, Tiomkin’s valet during the late 1920s. Tom Zepp, Arthur’s son, has supplied us with stories and rare photographs, such as the one pictured at left dating from 1928.

Finally, more photographs and poster art will be added to the Gallery this year.

Thanks for visiting www.dimitritiomkin.com

The Four Poster lobby card H

We are pleased to announce that Dimitri Tiomkin’s score for The Four Poster is in the final stages of production for release later this year. The CD will be the seventh soundtrack in a series of Tiomkin scores produced by Ray Faiola of Chelsea Rialto Studios and Craig Spaulding and to be released by Screen Archives Entertainment in association with Volta Music Corp.

Tiomkin came to The Four Poster through his prior association with producer Stanley Kramer, notably for Cyrano de Bergerac. In fact, The Four Poster recording sessions were completed shortly before the sessions for High Noon, another Kramer production, commenced.

Adapted to the screen from a play, The Fourposter by Jan de Hartog, the film was released by Columbia Pictures in 1952. The Dutch playwright’s examination of matrimony and relationships, first staged in London in 1950, follows the volatile marriage of John and Abby Edwards.

LISTEN: Main Title from The Four Poster

The Broadway stage production and Hollywood film both cast married couples to play the fictional Edwards couple. By the time the play with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy opened on Broadway on October 24, 1951, the film with Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer had already completed production.

The film opened in New York in the fall of 1952 before going into wide release in January 1953. The year-long post production process may have been due to the inclusion of animated sequences supplied by United Productions of America (better known as UPA). The sequences open the film and appear between acts. Because there are literally only two characters in the film, Dimitri Tiomkin’s music ably takes on the role of providing musical counterpoint to the story.

The Four Poster magazine advertisement

The Stanley Kramer Company used the title of the play during production; however, the film came to be released by Columbia Pictures under the title The Four Poster. The title refers to the style of bed that figures prominently in the storyline and as part of the set. A fourposter or four-poster typically has tall, often carved, corner posts that may support a canopy or curtains.

Upon release, the CD can be ordered directly from Screen Archives Entertainment.

Reporting from Los Angeles, January 17, 2012

Courtesy of RTÉ Concert Orchestra

Last Thursday’s concert by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra of “The Film Music of Dimitri Tiomkin,” at the National Concert Hall in Dublin was an overwhelming success according to Olivia Tiomkin Douglas who was in attendance. The concert was well attended and received and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra performed magnificently. The UCD Choral Scholars a performing group from the University College Dublin School of Music accompanied the orchestra on several of the performed works, including the Suite from The Alamo. Check out the Facebook page, “The Film Music of Dimitri Tiomkin,” as well as comments on the UCD Choral Scholars posted on Facebook.

In the days leading up to the concert, radio and newspaper coverage included the RTÉ Radio 1 and The Irish Times.

Olivia Tiomkin Douglas and conductor Richard Kaufman participated in a five minute special report with Brian Lally on RTÉ Radio 1 recorded at the National Concert Hall. In addition to timely quotes the report featured excerpts of music being rehearsed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, described by reporter Lally as a “mighty group.”

LISTEN: Drivetime, January 10, 2012, hosted by Mary Wilson (starts at 59:15, ends 1:04:30)

The day before the concert, Irish Times columnist Frank McNally ruminated on Russian literature and Dimitri Tiomkin and the week before blogger Laurence Mackin weighed in.

READ: An Irishman’s Diary, January 11, 2012 by Frank McNally, writing for The Irish Times

READ: Competition: Battleship Tiomkin, posted January 6, 2012 by Laurence Mackin, blogging for The Irish Times

Last updated January 19, 2012

Tickets: RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Box Office: Tel +353 (0)1 417 0000

Date: January 12, 2012, 8 p.m.
Venue: National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: Richard Kaufman
Performers: RTÉ Concert Orchestra, UCD Choral Scholars, and vocalists Andrew Playfoot and Whitney Claire Kaufman.

Program
CYRANO DE BERGERAC – Overture
THE ALAMO – Suite
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA – Theme; Cubana & Finale
THE FOUR POSTER – Overture
GIANT – Prelude; Love Theme; Finale
THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE – “The Fall of Love”
HIGH NOON – Song: “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’”
RAWHIDE – Song: “Rawhide”
THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY – Suite

Intermission

THE GUNS OF NAVARONE – Prologue & Main Title
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE – Suite
WILD IS THE WIND – Song: “Wild is the Wind”
THE SUNDOWNERS – Main Title
CIRCUS WORLD – March (also known as “The John ‘Duke’ Wayne March”)
LAND OF THE PHARAOHS – Song: “Land of the Pharaohs”; and Pharaoh’s Procession
FRIENDLY PERSUASION – The Fair; Song: “Thee I Love”
SEARCH FOR PARADISE

Concert flier

by Warren M. Sherk

Celebrate the New Year with a Dimitri Tiomkin concert in Ireland on January 12, 2012. The RTÉ Concert Orchestra presents “The Film Music of Dimitri Tiomkin,” at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Fresh from live-to-film performances of Howard Shore’s Fellowship of the Ring score in November and The Wizard of Oz in December, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra will now focus their attention on the film music of Tiomkin.

Buy tickets: National Concert Hall, Dublin

Richard Kaufman will conduct the orchestra and chorus in a wide range of music representing Tiomkin’s work in Hollywood, including suites from The Alamo, Giant, and It’s a Wonderful Life, as well as themes from Rawhide, High Noon, The High and the Mighty, and Wild Is the Wind.

See the complete program.

Kaufman has championed Tiomkin’s music with orchestras around the world, including the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and numerous others. Kaufman just completed a number of Tiomkin-themed concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices.

“As a conductor who loves great film music, for me it doesn’t get any better than conducting the legendary scores and songs of Dimitri Tiomkin with a great symphony orchestra,” Kaufman says. “Tiomkin is a master at creating music which brings a motion picture to life. No matter what the subject matter of a film might be, his themes are truly memorable, and the instrumental colors of the orchestra are at their most brilliant.”

Richard Kaufman

He continues, “Hearing this music in the concert hall is a unique and magnificent experience for the audience, the musicians, and most definitely for the conductor! I’m thrilled that on 12 January, the music of Dimitri Tiomkin, one of Hollywood’s most honored composers, will be in the skilled and caring hands of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Dublin. It will be a very special night!”

In the following video Kaufman speaks with symphonic orchestrator Patrick Russ about Tiomkin and the upcoming RTÉ concert. The music for the concert was largely prepared by Russ in Los Angeles, who comments, “It’s wonderful to know that the UK has embraced Tiomkin’s film music, and that the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and chorus will again be delivering a marvelous performance.”

VIDEO: Kaufman and Russ on Tiomkin and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra

Regarding the concert, Olivia Tiomkin Douglas offers, “The RTÉ Concert Orchestra, with its rich history and association with film music performances and recordings, is a natural choice to present this program showcasing Dimitri’s film music in Ireland.”

Andrew Playfoot

Whitney Kaufman

The concert will include a number of songs, performed by vocalists Andrew Playfoot and Whitney Claire Kaufman. Playfoot has won acclaim for his starring roles in various London West End musicals. He can be heard on a number of albums and film soundtracks and is a regular backing singer on The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. Kaufman is an American singer and actress who was a member of the North American tour of the hit musical Mamma Mia! She is currently performing music from the films of Walt Disney with symphony orchestras throughout the U.S. and around the world.

Dimitri Tiomkin with one of his four Academy Award statuettes.

One of Hollywood’s most distinguished and best-loved film composers, Dimitri Tiomkin’s prolific career as a composer resulted in of some of the most celebrated and iconic film scores of the Golden Age. Over five consecutive decades, Tiomkin received nearly two dozen Academy Award nominations for score and song. Of these, he took home four Oscars. As the composer behind such memorable films as Lost Horizon, It’s a Wonderful Life, High Noon, and The Alamo, he enjoyed an enviable position in the American film industry, having written for both film and television, and writing songs in addition to scores.

RTÉ is Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Ireland’s non-profit National Public Service broadcaster. The cross-media organization comprises television, radio, a library and archives, publishing, and a handful of performing groups, including the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra (pictured, below), and RTÉ Philharmonic Choir.

Courtesy of RTÉ Concert Orchestra

This past summer, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra recorded Irish composer Brian Byrne’s score for Albert Nobbs, along with the song, “Lay Your Head Down.” The film features actress Glenn Close as the title character. The song, performed by singer Sinead O’Connor over the end credits, was co-written by Byrne and Close and has been nominated for a Golden Globe for best original song.

Additional film credits for the RTÉ Concert Orchestra include The Island by Brian Byrne, Irish Destiny by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse by Joby Talbot. During the summer of 2011 the RTÉ Concert Orchestra provided live accompaniment for a screening of Casablanca and celebrated the film music of John Williams. The orchestra has an extensive discography on the Marco Polo, Naxos, and RTÉ lyric fm labels.

This concert follows the successful London Symphony Orchestra program of this past October. Read the LSO concert report, with links to reviews here.

Film correspondent and producer Tim Burden with the Q Radio Network and Film Score Monthly Online is helping to promote the concert. Burden enthusiastically recommends the concert: “Dimitri Tiomkin’s glorious music was made for the concert hall, with the symphonic sound of Hollywood rarely bettered considering this programme of historical, western, and war greats. Dublin will be in for quite a treat on January 12th.”

Tickets: Santa Barbara Symphony

Date: Saturday, December 31, 2011, 8:30 to 10:30 p.m.
Venue: Granada Theatre, 1214 State Street, Santa Barbara, California

Program (includes)
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE — Suite

Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: Robert Bernhardt, guest conductor
Performers: Santa Barbara Symphony, Mela Dailey, soprano
Concert title: New Year’s Eve Pops Concert
Notes: The suite concludes with a rendition of “Auld Lang Syne.” The New Year’s Eve Pops concert has been a Santa Barbara community tradition for more than 20 years.

Reporting from Los Angeles, December 2011

The Making of It’s a Wonderful Life

Program

Those who were able to attend the “Making the Holiday Classic: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)” at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood on December 9 were in for a treat. Hosts Craig Barron and Ben Burtt thoroughly entertained the packed house regaling the audience with tales of the technical side of the film. The duo demonstrated the visual effects by projecting images on the full theater screen and also played sound and sound effects from the film through the house speakers. Visual techniques in use in the mid-1940s, such as optical printing and matte painting, were explained followed by detailed imagery, often breaking down a scene by displaying its various layered components. Adding commentary were special guests Frank Capra III, the grandson of director Frank Capra whose own resume includes two decades of film credits as a co-producer or assistant director, and John Frazier, a special effects supervisor.

During the film’s pre-production Frank Capra nixed the use of bleached cornflakes to simulate snow primarily because the microphones would pick up the sound of the crunching flakes as the actors moved about during filming. Details were offered regarding the snow machinery that made its debut in this film. The Academy recognized this achievement and awarded the RKO Radio Studio Special Effects Department along with Marty Martin, Jack Lannon, and Russell Shearman a Scientific or Technical Award in 1948 for the development of this new method of simulating falling snow on motion picture sets.

For the grand finale, John Gray of Snow Business gave an in-house demonstration of how Hollywood makes snow using a vintage snow-blowing fan fitted with blade tips to produce howling wind and a canister of modern-day firefighting-type foam. It was a good thing the theater staff had been positioned on stage to hold down the screen curtains because as the fan revved up to full speed and started sucking in more and more air the curtains billowed and bulged and could have become a casualty of the evening without human intervention. If you ever wondered what it would be like to experience the inside of a snow globe, this was your chance. The snow engulfed the entire theater (see a demonstration at oscars.org) swirling up to rafters before landing on wide-eyed audience members and melting.

View “Movie Snow“: A special presentation on the innovative use of movie snow in It’s a Wonderful Life.

The newly-struck 35mm print courtesy of Paramount Pictures and archivist Andrea Kalas was beyond reproach. The crystal clear picture and steady image were probably as good or better than the film looked in its initial release sixty years ago.

On display in the theater foyer were items from the Linwood Dunn papers at the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library. Dunn worked on some key scenes in It’s a Wonderful Life and in 2002 the newly-built theater was named in honor of the special effects wizard. I attended the screening with Olivia Tiomkin Douglas and Richard and Gayle Kaufman. The program was presented by the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Golden State Pops Orchestra

Program

The Golden State Pops Orchestra (GSPO) is fast becoming one of California’s premier community orchestras and has developed a reputation for its programming and performance of film music. The GSPO holiday concert traditionally draws a large crowd and this year was no exception. The Warner Grand Theatre was buzzing with activity inside and out. The pre-concert talk featured GSPO Holiday Chorus director Marya Basaraba in conversation with GSPO executive director Linda Grimes.

Kudos to Grimes, conductor Steven Allen Fox, and music director Victor Pesavento for the progressive program featuring a wide range of Christmas-themed music drawn from the Classical repertoire, popular vernacular, and films from 1946 to 2004. Notably, an orchestral setting of “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”) adapted by Calvin Custer from the The Mannheim Steamroller Chip Davis arrangement was enthralling.

Film music on the program included The Polar Express Suite based on music by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard orchestrated by Conrad Pope; the Main Title from the 1994 film version of Miracle on 34th Street by Bruce Broughton; Elf music by John Debney arranged by Victor Pesavento; and Three Holiday Songs from Home Alone, music and lyrics by John Williams and Leslie Bricusse. The concert concluded with a performance of the Suite from It’s a Wonderful Life. Dimitri Tiomkin’s music from the film has been conscientiously arranged by Patrick Russ and Paul Henning, based on the original orchestrations by Paul Marquardt and (later) Christopher Palmer.

Arranger Patrick Russ was in the audience and two of the arrangers were among the orchestra. Violinist Paul Henning and horn player Victor Pesavento serve as concertmaster and music director, respectively. The GSPO has been growing strong since its formation ten years ago and the talent runs deep. A number of the orchestra’s composer friends have pledged to match up to $10,000 in donations between now and the GSPO Cinema Fantastique epic choral soundtracks concert in February 2012 with the USC Concert Choir. The GSPO Industry and Composer’s Fund donors include John Ottman, Christopher Tin, and others.

Become a Friend of the GSPO.

My family attended the concert with the family of Pat Russ. On the way out I happened to run into an old friend, film music enthusiast Preston Neal Jones. Post-concert, the GSPO continued their holiday tradition of providing falling snow in front of the theater to the delight of all.

These were just two of the many It’s a Wonderful Life related events this holiday season, both of which happened to come with snow—indoors in Hollywood and outdoors in San Pedro. For the record, the city of Los Angeles has seen trace amounts of real snow on a number of occasions, according to Los Angeles Almanac citing the National Weather Service.

Happy holidays!

Tickets: piao.com (from China Ticket Online, the largest English-language ticket Website in China)

Date: Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
Venue: Poly Theatre, Beijing, China

Program (includes)
THE GREAT WALTZ — Selected Tune

Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin [Johann Strauss]
Conductor:
Performers: American Hollywood Concert Orchestra
Concert title: A Night at Oscars

Tickets: GSPO Holiday POPS Spectacular 2011
Date: Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 8:00 p.m.
Venue: Warner Grand Theatre, 478 West 6th Street, San Pedro, California

Program (includes)
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE — Suite

Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: Steven Allen Fox
Performers: Golden State Pops Orchestra
Concert title: Holiday POPS Spectacular