Welcome. Our goal is to promote all facets of the Tiomkin catalog, including performances of his work, soundtrack recordings, and scholarly articles, as well as general research and study.
This page will focus on items of current interest, including concert performances, newly recorded soundtracks or archival recordings, and other timely information.
Thanks to Olivia Tiomkin Douglas for her generous support of this venture.
Please visit often.
December 2005
It's a Wonderful Life from San Pedro to Pasadena
Southern California residents will have the opportunity to see and hear Frank Capra's classic, "It's a Wonderful Life," throughout this holiday season. The Golden State Pops Orchestra will perform Dimitri Tiomkin's music from the film at their home venue, the Warner Grand Theatre, a beautifully restored movie palace in San Pedro. Conductor Steven Allen Fox leads the orchestra in a "Holiday POPS Spectacular" that includes familiar faire, from Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride to Albert Hague's How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Performances are December 17 at 8:00 PM and December 18 at 3:00. Concert tickets and dinner packages are available at www.gspo.com or by calling 310-433-8774.
In its three-year existence the GSPO has developed a growing reputation for its programming choices. "The orchestra is dedicated to performing film music," explains Paul Henning, the group's concertmaster. Henning, music director Fox, and pianist Joshua Godoy are all graduates of the University of Southern California's Film and Television Scoring program. "We recently performed music by Christopher Young from Hellraiser and Urban Legend with the composer present," notes Henning, "and gave the first public performance of Elmer Bernstein's 'End Credits' from Three Amigos." Earlier this year the orchestra's North American concert premiere of John Williams' "Battle of the Heroes" from Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith was a success.
Tiomkin, this concert's featured composer, has had a special place in the group's past repertoire. Performances of the "Overture" from The Alamo, the theme from Rawhide, "The Fall of Love" from The Fall of the Roman Empire, and "The Pharaoh's Procession" from The Land of the Pharaohs have been well received by the orchestra's young patrons. Adds Henning, "And the musician's, most of whom were born after Tiomkin's death, have enjoyed playing the pieces. Next year we would love to bring in a choir and perform Tiomkin's 'The First Christmas.'"
Meanwhile across town at the Pasadena Playhouse performances of the Lux Radio Theatre version of the film are underway through January 1, 2006. From the mid-1930s to 1955 soap-maker Lux sponsored one-hour radio adaptations of Hollywood films. The live performances did not require much music and the broadcasts did not use music from the films they were adapted from. The seventy-minute Playhouse performance features music adapted from the original 1947 film, including Tiomkin's original score played by keyboardist Jonathan Green. The cast, directed by Stuart Ross, changes weekly. Jamie Farr, Sharon Lawrence, and Fred Willard can be seen from December 16 to 18. Meredith Baxter, Michael Gross, and Dick Van Patten fill the roles from December 29 to January 1. For more information and tickets see www.pasadenaplayhouse.org.
November 2005
Varese Sarabande to release The High and Mighty
Varese Sarabande will release a new digital recording that includes music from Dimitri Tiomkin's score for The High and Mighty on compact disc on November 22. The aerial-themed disc titled, "The High and the Mighty: A Century of Flight," opens with a six-minute suite from the film. The recent release of the film on DVD (see July 2005 news) has brought a resurgence of interest in Tiomkin's engaging score. The Smithsonian, which began celebrating "100 Years of Flight" in 2003, will display and sell the disc in the bookstore of its National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
The suite from Tiomkin's Academy Award®-winning score was recorded at Abbey Road in London by conductor Richard Kaufman leading the London Symphony Orchestra. Olivia Tiomkin Douglas attended the session at the famed Studio One. Kaufman conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the suite late last year as part of a well-received concert of film music. The concert marked the second public performance of the suite, arranged and extended by Patrick Russ from a shorter earlier version by Christopher Palmer.
Conductor Kaufman elaborates, "it has always been a thrill for me to conduct the music of Dimitri Tiomkin from The High and Mighty in concert with various orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And now, to have had the extraordinary opportunity to record this music with the magnificent London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studio is really a dream come true. This music is the perfect starting point for a CD which presents music from many of Hollywood's legendary films about flight."
With a picturesque cover painting by Matthew Joseph Peak and a wonderful selection of music performed by the LSO, the disc is a must-have for collectors and aficionados of film music. Additional tracks are by Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, Franz Waxman, and many others. A complete track listing can be found at www.varesesarabande.com.
September 2005
Top Ten finish for Tiomkin at AFI
Dimitri Tiomkin's score for High Noon placed 10th on the list of the American Film Institute's top 25 all-time favorite film scores as voted by filmmakers, composers, and historians. The announcement came during a special performance concert, "The Big Picture—AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores," at the Hollywood Bowl on September 23. The High Noon theme was performed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra as part of a medley with Chinatown and The Magnificent Seven. Olivia Tiomkin Douglas and Patrick Russ attended, as did Eve Bernstein, Carol Goldsmith, Leslie Korngold, Ginny Mancini, David Newman, and a host of other relatives of the esteemed composers whose scores were chosen.
For a complete report on the concert and a list of the honored scores, see Jon Burlingame's article "AFI's Film Music Favorites Come to Life: Top 25 Movie Scores Performed in Splendor at the Bowl," on the Film Music Society web site (www.filmmusicsociety.org).
Hollywood Bowl fireworks finale features Tiomkin music
A suite from Dimitri Tiomkin's score for Alfred Hitchcock's film Dial M for Murder was part of the traditional season-ending fireworks spectacular at the Hollywood Bowl on September 16, 17, and 18. Olivia Tiomkin Douglas and Patrick Russ attended the Sunday night concert. Billed as the "Fireworks Finale: The Russians Are Coming," Tiomkin was in good company, sharing the program with fellow Russian composers Khachaturian, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich. Following the final piece—a rousing firework-infused performance of Franz Waxman's "The Ride of the Cossacks," from Taras Bulba—conductor John Mauceri launched into Dimitri Tiomkin's theme from Rawhide. Those heading for the exits stopped short and listened to the galloping rhythms of the television show theme.
Although this marks the 75th anniversary of Tiomkin's association with the Bowl, it is not the first time the Tiomkin name has been associated with a Russian-themed concert at that venue. The lead line in a 1939 Isabel Morse Jones article in the Los Angeles Times read, "Russian music by Russian-born musicians who have wandered far, constituted the Hollywood Bowl program last night." On that occasion Tiomkin joined conductor Albert Coates and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a performance of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. Of Tiomkin's playing, Jones went on to write, "His contemplative Adagio marked a winning simplicity in Tiomkin and his sustained tone carried far. Brilliant passages verified his reputation for technical equipment." The previous year marked Tiomkin's conducting debut with music from Lost Horizon.
Performances throughout the 1930s, in particular 1930, 1933, and 1939, featured Tiomkin's music for ballet choreographed by his wife, Albertina Rasch. Music from at least a dozen different films scored by Tiomkin has serenaded the hills surrounding the amphitheater. In addition to performing his well-known works, such as High Noon and The High and the Mighty, the Bowl has seen performances of music from Spawn of the North, The Adventures of Hajji Baba, and Take the High Ground. Conductor John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra have championed Tiomkin's music in a number of Bowl concerts since 1996. Few can match Tiomkin's enviable record, including roles as composer, conductor, and pianist over the past seven decades; film suites, themes, and songs; ballet music; and music from the standard concert repertoire.
Dimitri Tiomkin and the Hollywood Bowl
August 1, 1930
“Suite Choreographic” (ballet)
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Choreographer: Albertina Rasch
Conductor: Arthur Lange
Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic
Notes: World premiere, written especially for the Hollywood Bowl, in four parts, including “Blues.”
August 12, 1933
“Spanish Suite” (ballet)
“Cake Walk” (ballet)
“Negro Chant” (ballet)
“Ambition” (ballet)
“Today” (ballet)
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Choreographer: Albertina Rasch
Conductor: Nathaniel Finston
Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic
Concert title or series: Symphonies Under the Stars
Notes: Pietro Cimini conducted the first half of the concert. Nathaniel Finston conducted the Tiomkin works.
August 2, 1938
Spawn of the North (music from the film score)
Four movements: “Indian Call,” “Love Scene,” “The Harpoon Flight,” and “Epilogue”
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: Boris Morros
Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic
Concert title or series: Music of the Cinema
August 16, 1938
“Suite of The Lost Horizon” (a 12-episode tableau from the film score, conducted by Tiomkin)
“Excerpts from The Great Waltz” (music from the film score, adapted by Tiomkin from Johann Strauss, conducted by Arthur Guttman)
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Choreographer: Albertina Rasch (for The Great Waltz)
Conductors: Dimitri Tiomkin; Arthur Guttman
Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Hall Johnson Choir
Note: Presented by the Southern California Symphony Association
July 28, 1939
“Piano Concerto No. 2”
Composer: Sergei Rachmaninoff
Conductor: Albert Coates
Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Dimitri Tiomkin, piano soloist
August 22, 1939
“Fiesta” (ballet)
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Choreographer: Albertina Rasch
Conductor: Henry Svedrofsky
Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic
Summer 1942
Lost Horizon (music from the film score, to be conducted by Tiomkin)
Note: This was announced in the Los Angeles Times, July 21, 1942; but there is no evidence that the concert took place.
May 24, 1953
"Take the High Ground" (main title song from the film of the same name)
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: John Green, guest conductor
Performers: U.S. Army Field Band
Note: Sponsored by the Los Angeles Council of the American Legion.
August 13, 1955
“Hajji Baba” from The Adventures of Hajji Baba (music from the film score)
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: Nelson Riddle
Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic
August 27, 1955
The High and the Mighty
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: John Green
Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic
September 25, 1963
“High Noon” from High Noon (arranged by Morton Gould)
“The Green Leaves of Summer” from The Alamo (Mahalia Jackson, vocalist; arranged by Stanley Wilson)
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: Dimitri Tiomkin
Performers: The Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra (freelance orchestra assembled by Bobby Helfer)
Concert title or series: Music from Hollywood
Note: This was the first annual Composers and Lyricists Guild-sponsored concert. The concert was televised live on CBS. It was issued on a Columbia LP in December 1963, and on compact disc in 1995.
May 8, 1964
Concert title or series: UCLA Spring sing
Note: Tiomkin agreed to serve as a judge, according to an item in the Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1964.
August 2 and 3, 1991
“Prelude” from Giant
“The Green Leaves of Summer” from The Alamo
“High Noon” from High Noon
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: Erich Kunzel
July 2, 3, 4, 1996
“Lone Star” suite
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: John Mauceri
Performers: Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
July 20, 21, 1999
The Old Man and the Sea (suite of music from the film)
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: John Mauceri
Performers: Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
July 14-15, 2000
The Fall of the Roman Empire
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: John Mauceri
Performers: Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
September 16-18, 2005
“Dial M for Murder Suite” (music from the film score)
“Rawhide” (theme from the television show of the same name)
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: John Mauceri
Performers: Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
Note: "Rawhide" was performed as an encore.
September 23, 2005
High Noon (theme)
Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin
Conductor: John Mauceri
Performers: Hollywood Bowl Orchestra
Compiled in September 2005 (posted September 2008) from the Dimitri Tiomkin Collection at USC, the Los Angeles Times (accessed through ProQuest), and from information supplied by Steve LaCoste, archivist, Los Angeles Philharmonic.
August 2005
Tadlow Music to release The Guns of Navarone recording
Tadlow Music is scheduled to release a new digital recording of Dimitri Tiomkin's score for The Guns of Navarone on compact disc in September. The 1961 film, written and produced by Carl Foreman, stars Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn. Tiomkin's score was nominated for an Academy Award® and the film received six other nominations, including best picture.
Produced by James Fitzpatrick, the CD is billed as the "world premiere recording of the complete film score." The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and the Crouch End Festival Chorus are conducted by Nic Raine. The original orchestrators for the film included Herb Taylor, George Parrish, Michael Heindorf, Leonid Raab, and Charles Maxwell. Composer John Williams, then a television composer and session pianist, orchestrated the "Exit Music." The song "Yassu," with lyrics by Ned Washington, is featured. (See "Wedding Music by Dimitri Tiomkin," the May 2005 feature story, for other films featuring Tiomkin songs related to weddings.)
Orchestrator Patrick Russ prepared the music scores for the recording sessions that took place in April. Full scores for some cues were culled from the Dimitri Tiomkin Collection at the University of Southern California (USC). Many of the large action cues, particularly in the last reels of the film, are not know to exist in full score. For these cues, Russ reconstructed the music from Tiomkin's handwritten sketches, along with repeated listening to the film's original sound track. Assisting Russ in the reconstruction were orchestrators Jon Kull, Warren Sherk, and Paul Henning.
"The chief musical glory of The Guns of Navarone," orchestrator Christopher Palmer writes in his Tiomkin biography, is "its splendid main theme, whose two contrasting segments prove themselves capable of all the necessary dramatic development." Tiomkin's musical approach to scoring war films has its roots in his service to the United States Army Signal Corps during World War II. His experience as music director and composer for the Army orientation films and the "Why We Fight" series helped provide the foundation for his Guns score. Look for more information on the War films in future postings.
In addition to more than an hour of music from Navarone, Fitzpatrick conducts the world premiere recording of a suite from The Sundowners. The suite received its concert premiere by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra this past March. Tiomkin's original orchestration did not require violins or violas. The ten-minute suite heard here as arranged by Patrick Russ and Jon Kull for full orchestra is in four parts, "Main Title," "Mad Dog," "The Fire," and "End Credits." (For more, see February 2005 news.)
Fitzpatrick launched Tadlow Music in 2001 for the purpose of producing and recording film scores with orchestras in London, Berlin, Prague, and Bratislava. In 2004 he produced a special limited collector's edition of The Alamo: The Essential Dimitri Tiomkin Film Music Collection for Silva Screen Records. In addition to his commitment to Tadlow, he continues to produce for Silva Screen Records, with several tribute albums scheduled for release this year.
This limited edition CD is available via the Internet (www.tadlowmusic.com) or by mail order only. For MP3 samples of the "Prologue," "Legend of Navarone," and "Yassu," go to Silva Screen Records(www.silvascreen.co.uk/master.cfm?SilvaCode=TADLOW001).
July 2005
Paramount Home Entertainment to release The High and the Mighty
Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment (www.homevideo.paramount.com) is scheduled to release The High and the Mighty on DVD as a two-disc collector's edition on August 2, 2005. The newly restored 1954 film was directed by William Wellman and starred John Wayne, Claire Trevor, and Jan Sterling. Dimitri Tiomkin received an Academy Award® for his score and a nomination for the title song, with lyrics by Ned Washington.
Disc one contains the film, with an introduction by Leonard Maltin and commentary by Maltin, William Wellman Jr., and others. Disc two includes many special featurettes, including "The Music and World of Dimitri Tiomkin." Argentinian-born editor Sergio Palermo produced and assembled this 16-minute film for Sparkhill Productions, a DVD content production studio located in Burbank, California, profiling Tiomkin and his score. Olivia Tiomkin Douglas provided rare photographs from the Tiomkin estate and appears in the film. Composer Christopher Young, orchestrator Patrick Russ, conductor Richard Kaufman, and writer/historian Jon Burlingame are all featured in on-camera interviews. They provide professional commentary and personal insights on the man and his music. The interviews, filmed in the Santa Monica office of the late Elmer Bernstein–a composer who thought highly of Tiomkin's work–are interspersed with film clips, with music from the original motion picture soundtrack.
For the average price of two movie tickets you can own a copy of the entire film and the bonus contents. Amazon.com is taking advance orders for US$13.99 (30% off the $19.99 list price). As of this posting, the amazon.com sales ranking is #4, placing it ahead of current hits like Harry Potter and The Incredibles. The immense popularity may be due in part to the fact that it has never been released on VHS or DVD. Paramount Home Entertainment and Batjac Productions, the production company founded by John Wayne, entered into an agreement in the Fall of 2004 granting Paramount worldwide DVD and television distribution rights paving the way for this release.
A suite from Dimitri Tiomkin's score was performed late last year by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Kaufman. The concert marked the second public performance of the six-minute suite, arranged and extended by Patrick Russ from a shorter earlier version by Christopher Palmer, which Kaufman recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra last year. Check back here for news announcing the forthcoming release of this music on CD.
Other DVDs currently in release with bonus features related to Tiomkin include High Noon and Giant. "The Music," featurette on track nine of the High Noon DVD contains commentary by Leonard Maltin and John Ritter (Tex's son). As for Giant, check out the Gig Young interview with Tiomkin for the 1956 television program "Warner Brothers Presents."
June 2005
The Negro Soldier to screen in Washington, D.C.
The Negro Soldier, a 1944 World War II Army documentary supervised by Frank Capra, will screen on June 17 at the National Archives in conjunction with the exhibit Close Up in Black: African American Film Posters. The exhibit, curated from the collections of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Margaret Herrick Library, will be on display at the Smithsonian Institution's International Gallery through July 28 (www.sites.si.edu). Negro Soldier was produced by the U.S. War Department to inform black troops of their particular stake in the fight against the Axis powers. Dimitri Tiomkin served as musical director. His staff included African American composers and arrangers William Grant Still and Jester Hairston.
The screening will take place at the National Archives' McGowan Theater, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. For more information see www.archives.gov. For reservations contact the National Archives public events line at (202) 501-5000, or e-mail reservations.new@nara.gov. The program is presented by the Foundation for the National Archives, the Charles Guggenheim Center for the Documentary Film at the National Archives, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Don't miss this rare opportunity to see a 35mm print of this historic documentary from the National Archives. A feature article on Dimitri Tiomkin and Jester Hairston's professional working relationship is coming soon to these pages.
May 2005
Wedding music by Dimitri Tiomkin
The arrival of summer brings so many traditions: baseball, beach picnics…and the peal of wedding bells. Dimitri Tiomkin scored the onscreen union between Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper in High Noon, but he also wrote music for the extravagant, real-life wedding of the luminous Kelly to Prince Rainier of Monaco.
Feature Article
The story of "The Prince and the Princess Waltz" and other wedding music by Dimitri Tiomkin
by Warren M. Sherk
It was one of the most celebrated events of the 20th century, with more than 500 guests, official representatives from some twenty-five nations, and hundreds of reporters. Millions huddled around their radios and televisions, caught up in the fairy-tale wedding of the American actress Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier III. Kelly had first toured the palace of the Prince of Monaco—but did not actually meet him—in 1954, while filming To Catch a Thief, her third film for the director Alfred Hitchcock. Her first film for Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder, was scored by Dimitri Tiomkin. Tiomkin had also scored High Noon, the film that had catapulted both Kelly and Tiomkin to international stardom. As he recalled of Kelly in his autobiography, "I used to see her at the Motion Picture Center [where High Noon was produced], an incongruous figure amid the crazy confusion." He added that the aristocratic and cultivated beauty could even eat a salami sandwich with elegance.
The story of the prince and the movie star began in May 1955, when Kelly attended the Cannes Film Festival in southern France. A photo shoot for the French magazine Paris Match was held at Rainier's palace. Smitten with the picture-book-pretty actress, Rainier pursued her when he traveled to the United States that December for a medical appointment. An American-born priest serving in Monaco and friends of Kelly's family arranged for Rainier to attend a Christmas Eve dinner at her parents' home in Philadelphia. Within days the couple were engaged, and within a week Jack Kelly publicly announced his daughter's plans to marry.
After Tiomkin learned of the engagement, he contacted Kelly and told her he wanted to compose a melody for the joyous occasion, dedicated to her. With her blessing, Tiomkin set to work, teaming with High Noon lyricist Ned Washington to craft a wedding waltz, which he sent to Kelly in March 1956. In response she wrote, "I think it is very exciting that you have written a song for us. I would be honored to have you dedicate it to me." The music was thus dedicated to "Their Royal Highnesses, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace." The publication of the music and lyrics in the New York Journal-American was billed as an exclusive, with the headline "You Can Dance to the Strains of Grace's Wedding Waltz." It appeared as part of a special April 15 Sunday section, which also featured on-the-spot coverage of the pre-wedding events by the popular columnist Dorothy Kilgallen. The following day, the Herald-Express also published the song, advising readers that they could "be among the first persons anywhere to read and play or sing it." News reports noted that the song was to be recorded by a 24-piece ensemble led by dance-band director Russ Morgan for Decca Records. A demo was apparently cut on a Gold Star–labeled disc.
The wedding took place at the Romanesque Cathedral of St. Nicholas on April 19. Guests included Ava Gardner, David Niven, Cary Grant, and Conrad Hilton serving as President Eisenhower's representative. Other than a trumpet fanfare announcing Rainier's entrance, little has been written about the event's musical program. All indications are that Tiomkin's waltz was intended as a wedding gift to the royal couple, but there is no evidence that it was actually performed at the ceremony. The waltz was not the only musical gift the couple received. The night before the wedding, during the civil ceremony, jazz pianist Stan Kenton performed "Homage to a Princess," which he apparently appropriated from music he had previously written. The performance, held at the Opera House, was commissioned by the London Festival Ballet and featured dancers from the company.
On March 30, 1956, the Tiomkin Music Co., a precursor to Tiomkin's Volta Music, copyrighted the waltz under two titles: "The Grace Kelly Wedding Waltz" and "The Grace Kelly Wedding March." It is unclear why Tiomkin chose to register the latter title, because the song is clearly written in triple meter (3/4), typical of a waltz. Perhaps, knowing that the most performed music at weddings seems to be marches, he believed that might help extend the life of the song. A few weeks later an additional verse was written and the song was copyrighted a second time, under the title "The Prince and the Princess Waltz."
Holograph musical sketches of the music can be found in the Dimitri Tiomkin Collection at the University of Southern California (USC). There are two sets of Ned Washington's lyrics in the collection, one for the "Grace Kelly Wedding Waltz" and the other for "The Prince and the Princess Waltz." The "Grace Kelly" lyrics apparently were written first, because the "Prince" lyrics contain the notation "new lyrics." They were published as one song with two verses in the Journal-American. Each verse matched its copyrighted title: "Dancing in dreams to the Grace Kelly Wedding Waltz" and "Dancing tonight to the Prince and the Princess Waltz," respectively. The song did receive airplay, as indicated by the listing of "The Prince and the Princess Waltz" in the 1963 ASCAP index of performed compositions.
Weddings and marriages figure prominently in the plot lines for some two dozen films Tiomkin scored, from Angel Face (1953) to When Strangers Marry (1944). In the early 1960s, Tiomkin was asked to write wedding music for The Guns of Navarone, including a song, "Yassu," with lyrics by Washington. Prior to penning the Grace Kelly waltz, Tiomkin wrote music for the onscreen wedding between Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper in High Noon. The couple's vows are accompanied by a hymn-like instrumental chorale, and the signature melody "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'" is heard briefly as they are pronounced husband and wife. This dramatic music underscores the inner struggle of Cooper's character, Marshal Will Kane, who is torn between his pacifist wife, played by Kelly, and the citizens of his town.
High Noon is considered the quintessential theme-song movie of the 1950s, and it launched a trend. Tiomkin and Washington used the same approach in The Four Poster, which was in production at the same time as High Noon. Both films even premiered in New York just three months apart in 1952. They collaborated on the song "If You're in Love," and Tiomkin worked the melody into the film's soundtrack. The stars of the Four Poster, Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer, who play newlyweds in the film, were married to each other in real life, as were Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in the Broadway production. After the main title, the first music cue features an instrumental version of the theme song as the newlyweds make their way to their hotel. Although both films use their respective title themes throughout, the title "Do Not Forsake Me" does not appear on the High Noon cue sheet and is referred to only as "Main Title Ballad," whereas "If You're in Love" appears some sixteen times on the cue sheet for Four Poster.
After High Noon, Gary Cooper starred in Friendly Persuasion as Jess Birdwell, patriarch of a Pennsylvania Quaker family. In a scene with co-star Anthony Perkins, Cooper sings a song called "Marry Me, Marry Me" ("Up to the altar please carry me…And I'll vow to be true to no one but you"), which Tiomkin wrote with lyricist Paul Francis Webster. The tune was later covered by Pat Boone. Flying Blind, Paramount's 1941 tale of romance and high adventure, features a wedding and honeymoon sequence that takes place in Las Vegas. The cue sheet for this sequence lists Wagner's "Wedding March," which doesn't credit Tiomkin's clever use of music in the scene. The cue opens with music that sets the appropriate Vegas tone, followed by a tongue-in-cheek arrangement of Wagner. Tiomkin then incorporates various musical quotes, including an extended passage of his own "Cubanola," into a seamless flow of musical ideas, ending with juxtaposed quotes from "La Cucaracha" and Wagner. The blend of picture and music is typical of montages in early 1940s films, where time is compressed and the storyline is advanced through images and music. In fact, the script called for a "silent section" opening with "brassy music" followed by a "wacky wedding march" and an onscreen rhumba orchestra. These scripted musical suggestions were expertly brought to life in a seamless two-minute sequence by Tiomkin.
Tiomkin often used Wagner's music in scoring his celluloid weddings. In I Live My Life (1935), the last cue before the end title incorporates the obligatory "Wedding March" from Lohengrinfor the surprise wedding of Joan Crawford and Brian Aherne. In Champion(1949), Tiomkin arranged the same march to fit the 54-second wedding scene. And in Twin Beds (1942), George Brent and Joan Bennett walk down the aisle to Wagner. But in It's a Wonderful Life (1947), James Stewart and Donna Reed are wed to the strains of Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" as arranged by Tiomkin. The wedding scene between Marlon Brando and Teresa Wright plays a critical role in Fred Zinnemann's post-war drama, The Men (1950). Tiomkin composed more than five minutes of original music to cover the wedding prelude montage, the chapel scene, and the newlyweds. The two-minute wedding prelude evokes a feeling of hope as paraplegic "Bud" Wilocek, played by Brando, prepares for the big day as he works out, engages in physical therapy, and practices "standing." Soaring strings and warm horn passages accompany the happy couple. In the church scene, Tiomkin used source music—an original organ solo—to comment on the narrative. The chapel organ plays a hymn-like piece at a slow tempo, and on each beat the harmony changes. At this point, the music is purely functional. When the minister asks if anyone knows a reason why the couple should not marry, there is a cut to a close-up of Brando's physician right after the words "Let him speak now." The organ reaches the end of a phrase and holds a chord for four beats. As the music stops progressing and is "held," we wonder whether the doctor will speak. (In an earlier scene, the doctor explains that victims of paralysis may be unable to father children.) This understated interaction between film and music is typical of the challenges facing film composers and justifies the use of original music, rather than pre-existing music, that can be manipulated to serve the film's needs. As the bride and groom attempt to join hands, Brando falters, and the organ is interrupted by dramatic underscore: a timpani roll followed by haunting strings. The unease continues as the newlyweds become aware of the reality of their situation during their first night together. Tiomkin was billed as a "modern" composer early in his career, and the music for these scenes reflects his tremendous versatility as he moves stylistically from "Bach" in the organ solo to "Bartok" in the underscore for the newlyweds. Five years later, in his acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, Tiomkin paid homage to his musical influences by thanking classical composers.
The Tiomkin collection at USC contains two other wedding-related pieces of music, although details are sketchy on both. A conductor/vocal part for a "Wedding Dance" with South Seas words could be from Burt Lancaster and Joan Rice's Chinese-style wedding in His Majesty O'Keefe, which was filmed in the South Pacific, or The Moon and Sixpence, which is set in Tahiti. There are also holograph music sketches, not specifically attributed to Tiomkin, for "Let's Spend a Honeymoon in Paris."
April 2006 will mark the 50th anniversary of the marriage of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier. While most wedding music is classical in origin, some popular songs such as the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" have become standards. Tiomkin's wedding waltz never received its due, no doubt in part because of its occasion-specific lyrics: "All the world will be dancing, dancing in dreams, to the Grace Kelly wedding waltz." Tiomkin and Washington may have realized this, hence the more generic lyrics for "The Prince and the Princess Waltz" which was published by Volta Music in 1958. Now that Volta has entered into a joint agreement with Hal Leonard Music Publishing, perhaps more piano arrangements of such music will be published, perfect for memorializing that walk down the aisle.
© 2005 Volta Music
Sources
April 2005
The Guns of Navarone suite in concert performances
The BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by John Wilson, will perform Dimitri Tiomkin's music from The Guns of Navarone in concert on Saturday, May 7, in West London. The 12-minute suite from Navarone includes the concert premiere of "Preparations," incorporated by Patrick Russ into a pre-existing suite by Christopher Palmer comprised of the "Prologue," "The Legend of Navarone," and "Epilogue." The concert commemorates the 60th anniversary of VE Day and showcases music by William Walton, Maurice Jarre, Elmer Bernstein, and others. War-themed films ranging from The Spitfire to The Great Escape and popular songs from both World Wars are also on the program. The venue is The Orchard, a 920-seat theater in the heart of Dartford, Kent. Olivia Tiomkin Douglas plans to attend the concert. For tickets: www.dartford.gov.uk/thingstodo/ORCHARD/fact.html.
A similar concert, this one featuring heroic themes from war films, takes place on Sunday, June 12. Dubbed "The Great Escape," it features some of the same music, including The Guns of Navarone. Carl Davis will lead the Hallé Symphony Orchestra performing music by Ron Goodwin, John Williams, Richard Rodgers, and others, interspersed with period songs featuring vocalist Claire Moore. As the second of ten concerts in the Hallé Promenade series it's all part of the 100 year anniversary celebration for the summer concerts at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. For tickets: www.halle.co.uk/publishedSite/booking.asp.
The Sundowners main title to be premiered by harmonica virtuoso and orchestra
The main title from Tiomkin's score for The Sundowners, featuring harmonica soloist Bernie Fields, will receive its world premiere by Orange County's Pacific Symphony Orchestra (PSO) on Friday, May 6, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (OCPAC). Fields will perform the approximately three-minute theme, which was adapted from the recently premiered suite (see February 2005 news) specifically for the soloist by orchestrator Patrick Russ. The Canadian-born harmonica virtuoso has been a featured performer on numerous film and television scores, notably for Little House on the Prairie and Love Boat. Harmonica Heat, his latest CD, has a sizzling contemporary Latin/Jazz feel. Fields is one of a handful of harmonica players who subsist on live performances. In the first half of the program, Fields will also perform a medley of Michel Legrand film tunes as well as Chuck Mangione's "Children of Sanchez." Post-intermission, the featured performer will be pianist Roger Williams, best known for his rendition of "Autumn Leaves" and for his solo piano arrangements of music from popular films such as "Born Free."
Richard Kaufman, PSO's principal pops conductor for fourteen years, will lead the concert. Kaufman was recently appointed principal pops conductor for the Florida Orchestra, and has served in the same capacity with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for eight years. In the past year he conducted two historic concerts of film music with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (see November 2004 news). Kaufman is now regarded as a leading proponent of film music in concert in the United States.
With some eighty concerts each year, PSO is at the forefront of bringing live music to the people of Southern California and has the distinction of being the largest orchestra formed in the United States in the past thirty years. The concert, to be repeated on Saturday, May 7, is part of the symphony's Pops series and will take place at Segerstrom Hall. OCPAC (http://www.ocpac.org) is located at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, California. Tickets are available by telephone from the PSO ticket office at (714) 755-5799, and online at http://www.pacificsymphony.org.
March 2005
The Thing soundtrack released by Film Score Monthly Golden Age Classics
Dimitri Tiomkin's scores for The Thing from Another World and Take the High Ground! have been released on compact disc as part of Film Score Monthly's Golden Age Classics series. Available for the first time, the source material for The Thing was obtained from acetate discs in the Dimitri Tiomkin Collection at the Cinema-Television Library at the University of Southern California.
Christian Nyby directed this 1951 RKO science fiction film whose cast includes Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, and Douglas Spencer. The film's producer, Howard Hawks, had previously worked with Tiomkin on Red River, which was directed by Hawks and edited by Nyby. As Jeff Bond and Lukas Kendall point out in the detailed liner notes, "Tiomkin's score was being written at the same time as Bernard Herrmann's groundbreaking score for The Day the Earth Stood Still, and the two works are now considered two of the most cutting-edge film scores ever created." The American Film Institute catalog states that "Many modern critics consider The Thing a seminal science fiction film and note that it was the first Hollywood picture to combine science fiction and monster genres." A composer would be fortunate to have scored one seminal genre film, Tiomkin scored two: The Thing and High Noon.
Because the 13 tracks time out at just under twenty-seven minutes, the disc also contains Tiomkin's Take the High Ground! score, adding another twenty-three tracks and more than fifty minutes of music. Richard Brooks directed this 1953 MGM military drama starring Karl Malden, Richard Widmark, and Russ Tamblyn. Included are two songs, a title song by Tiomkin and lyricist Ned Washington and a love song, "Julie," by Tiomkin and lyricist Charles Wolcott. The music was originally recorded at the MGM scoring stage in Culver City, California, in February, March, and June 1953.
This limited-edition soundtrack (FSMCD Vol. 8, No. 1), produced by Lukas Kendall, is available only from Screen Archives Entertainment, now handling order fulfillment for Film Score Monthly. Only 3,000 will be sold.
For more information: http://www.screenarchives.com/fsm/detailCD.cfm?ID=314
Red River soundtrack reissue available from Screen Archives Entertainment
The Marco Polo Film Music Classics compact disc recording of Dimitri Tiomkin's score for Red River is now available from Screen Archives Entertainment at the unbeatable price of US$8.00. Howard Hawks directed this 1948 United Artists Western starring John Wayne. William Stromberg conducted the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Choir and John Morgan is credited with score restoration. The music was recorded at Mosfilm Studio, Moscow, Russia, in February and March 2002.
For more information: http://screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=3381
February 2005
Suite from The Sundowners to receive world premiere
A suite from Dimitri Tiomkin's score for The Sundowners will receive its world premiere by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) on Saturday, March 5, at Federation Concert Hall at 1 Davey Street in Hobart. The Showcase series concert, "Australians at the Movies," will be conducted by Brett Kelly. Kelly is artistic director and chief conductor of the Academy of Melbourne, Australia, and principal trombonist of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. His long association with the Australian new music scene has resulted in his conducting the premieres of numerous new works. Hosted by Australian actress Sigrid Thornton, best known for her role in The Man from Snowy River films, the concert will feature music from a number of Australian films, including The Sundowners, an international co-production filmed on location in Australia and at Elstree Studios in London. The 1960 Warner Bros. film received five Academy Award® nominations, including best picture, and stars Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Peter Ustinov. Adapted from Jon Cleary's novel, Back of Beyond, "Sundowners" is Australian for "someone whose home is where the sun goes down" and serves as a metaphor for someone who doesn't have a home. Director Fred Zinnemann, who previously collaborated with Tiomkin on The Men and High Noon, counted the underappreciated critically acclaimed film among his favorites. Tasmanian-born Dorothy Hammerstein suggested setting a film in her homeland when Zinnemann was collaborating with her husband, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, on Oklahoma! (incidentally filmed in similarly rugged southern Arizona).
Tiomkin's original orchestration did not require violins or violas and was supplemented by accordion and guitar. The twelve-minute suite, arranged by Patrick Russ and Jon Kull for full orchestra, is in five parts, Main Title, Mad Dog, The Fire, Dingo, and End Credits. The music is available for rental from John Waxman's Themes and Variations. This is the first time music from the film has been performed in concert since the music was written some forty-five years ago. In addition to live concerts, the highly regarded TSO has a long history as a studio orchestra, excelling in the area of radio (it was the first Australian orchestra to have a weekly program) and television music.
For more information: www.tso.com.au
January 2005
Hal Leonard Corporation to represent Tiomkin's Volta Music catalog
The Hal Leonard Corporation (HLC) and Volta Music have entered into an agreement allowing the former to publish Volta-controlled music compositions in sheet music and songbook form. With this venture, Olivia Tiomkin Douglas hopes to make the Tiomkin catalog, particularly in song form, readily available for personal enjoyment and for performance by singers, pianists, and other instrumentalists. The Tiomkin catalog includes nearly 200 songs, written from the 1920s to the 1960s. His primary collaborators were the lyricists Ned Washington and Paul Francis Webster.
As the world's largest music print publisher, HLC;s ability to promote Tiomkin's music is unrivaled. Currently, songs in the Tiomkin oeuvre are primarily available in general songbook collections for piano. For example, "Friendly Persuasion" can be found in HLC's The Big Book of Early Rock 'n' Roll and The Songs of Paul Francis Webster - Composer Collection. According to Jeff Schroedl, vice president of pop and standard publications, HLC plans to publish these songs in numerous editions. A Composer Collection songbook for Tiomkin is in the works, and will be similar to those of other notable composers in the company's catalog, including Rodgers and Hammerstein and Irving Berlin. To obtain digital downloads of sheet music such as "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)," "Friendly Persuasion," or "Town Without Pity," visit www.sheetmusicdirect.com or another Hal Leonard Full-Line Internet Dealer.
Throughout his career, Tiomkin was a strong advocate for the right of composers to retain control of their own compositions. Much like today, the music for major studio-produced films in the past was often created under work-for-hire agreements that granted the publishing rights to the studio, while composers and lyricists shared only the performing rights. Due to his stature as a composer and the large number of independently produced films he scored, Tiomkin was able to secure the publishing rights to many of his film compositions. He formed his own publishing company, Volta Music, which was incorporated in California in 1957 and is a publisher member of ASCAP. Included in the Volta catalog is music from The Alamo, D.O.A., High Noon, The Men, and Rawhide.
Hal Leonard Corporation (www.halleonard.com), founded in 1947, publishes songbooks, sheet music, educational publications, reference books, videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs, children's music products, and more. Through its more than 60,000 publications, the company represents some of the world's best known and most respected publishers, artists, writers, and arrangers. HLC is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has offices in Winona, Minnesota; New York City; Nashville; Melbourne; Hong Kong; and London.
Rotterdam Philharmonic performs Tiomkin in concert
A suite from The Guns of Navarone was performed by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra as part of a program of orchestral film scores by Dimitri Tiomkin, Bernard Herrmann, and John Williams. Wayne Marshall conducted the January 28 and 29 concerts in the Netherlands.