Tiomkin, Dimitri

Tiomkin, Dimitri, Ukrainian-born American composer of film music; b. Poltava, May 10, 1894; d. London, Nov. 11, 1979. He studied composition with Glazunov and piano with Blumenfeld and Vengerova at the St. Petersburg Cons., and in 1921 went to Berlin, where he studied with Busoni, Petri, and Zadora. He was soloist in Liszt’s 1^st Piano Concerto with the Berlin Phil. (June 15, 1924), and that same year gave several concerts with Michael Khariton in Paris. He appeared in vaudeville in the U.S. in 1925. In 1937 he became a naturalized American citizen. He made his conducting debut with the Los Angeles Phil. (Aug. 16, 1938), and later conducted his music with various U.S. orchs. Tiomkin married Albertina Rasch, a ballerina, for whose troupe he wrote music. From 1930 to 1970 he wrote over 150 film scores, including several for the U.S. War Dept. Among his most notable scores were Alice in Wonderland (1933), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Corsican Brothers (1942), The Moon and Sixpence (1943), The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944), Duel in the Sun (1946), Champion (1949), High Noon (1952; Academy Award), Dial M for Murder (1954), The High and the Mighty (1954; Academy Award), Giant (1956), The Old Man and the Sea (1958; Academy Award), The Alamo (1960), The Guns of Navarone (1961), 55 Days at Peking (1963), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), and Tchaikovsky (1970). His film music betrayed his strong Russian Romantic background, tempered with American jazz. He received an honorary LL.D. from St. Mary’s Univ., San Antonio, Tex.; was made a Chevalier and an Officer of the French Légion d’honneur; also received awards of merit, scrolls of appreciation, plaques of recognition, and a Golden Globe. With P. Buranelli, he publ. the autobiography Please Don’t Hate Me (N.Y., 1959).

Bibliography

C. Palmer, D. T.: A Portrait (London, 1984).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire