Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Film Music

Celebrating Steiner and Tiomkin Movie Music Legends

On Friday, May 7, the classical music world celebrated the dual birthdays of Johannes Brahms and Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky. But for those who care about film music, there’s May 10 – the anniversary of the births of Max Steiner and Dimitri Tiomkin.

Steiner (1888-1971), the literal godson of Richard Strauss, was instrumental in transplanting the sound of fin de siècle Vienna to the realm of cinematic dreams. He composed over 300 film scores for RKO and Warner Brothers, earning 24 Academy Award nominations and winning three – for “The Informer,” “Now, Voyager” and “Since You Went Away” – though he is unquestionably better remembered today for his work on “King Kong,” “Gone with the Wind” and “Casablanca.”

Tiomkin (1894-1979), a pupil of Alexander Glazunov, was born in Ukraine. He settled in the United States, where he composed music for films in all genres, though in the 1950s he enjoyed particular success writing for Westerns, including the Academy Award-winning “High Noon.” When asked why this would be the case, that a composer born halfway around the world would have such a command of this distinctly American idiom, Tiomkin replied, “A steppe is a steppe is a steppe.”

Tiomkin was honored with four Academy Awards – three for Best Original Score (for “High Noon,” “The High and the Mighty” and “The Old Man and the Sea”) and one for Best Original Song (“The Ballad of High Noon”).

Here’s a transcript of his acceptance speech, delivered after being handed the Oscar for “The High and the Mighty” in 1955:

“Lady and gentlemen, because I working in this town for twenty-five years, I like to make some kind of appreciation to very important factor what make me successful to lots of my colleagues in this town. I’d like to thank Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss, Beethoven, Mozart, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov. Thank you.”

You can watch it here:

Though Steiner and Tiomkin were both very well-connected in the wider musical world, comparatively speaking, neither left very much in the way of classical concert music. In 2019, Intrada Records put out a diverting 2-CD set of Tiomkin’s brightly-scored ballet music, dances composed in Paris for his wife, Albertina Rasch, in 1927-1932, prior to his work in film. It’s good mid-morning music, but would also be wonderful for afternoon drive-time – if only I had a live air shift! You can sample some of it by following the link. Already detectable is Tiomkin’s trademark snarling brass, in a number titled “Mars” (the second track in this YouTube playlist):

In 2020, Oxford University Press published a book by Steven C. Smith, “Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood’s Most Influential Composer.” Read my impressions of this authoritative biography, unbelievably the first full-length treatment of Steiner’s life and achievements, here. Then get yourself a copy!

Also last year, while I was twiddling my thumbs, waiting to get back to work, I put together a Steiner-Tiomkin crossword puzzle. The clues not only allude to specifics of their respective lives and careers, but they should also be of ample interest, I hope, to classic movie buffs. So even if you’re convinced you don’t know a lot about music, do check it out if, like me, you happen to watch a lot of movies from the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s.

To fill out the puzzle, follow the link and select “solve online” at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be able to type directly into the squares. Once you feel you’ve exhausted the puzzle, you’ll find the solutions by clicking on “Answer Key PDF.”

https://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/2020.05/1007/10071219.977.html?fbclid=IwAR3_LH48DW_z4Zy7RZmD8-lryFTVOKybs6Kb28ZccpCfAXjQkTUYXR8Vknw

Happy birthday to Max Steiner and Dimitri Tiomkin, two composers who enriched generations of movie lovers by keeping it “reel!”

Steiner’s “Now, Voyager”

Tiomkin’s “Land of the Pharaohs”

A great, two-part interview with Steiner:

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQuNnzH6_g8
Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmJLTn_6UOY

The official Dimitri Tiomkin website:

Welcome to DimitriTiomkin.com

PHOTOS: Steiner conducts (top); Tiomkin composes

May 10, 2021
Oscar’s Greatest Movie Music of All Time

Remember, just because you’re not into this year’s Academy Awards doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy great film music from Oscar history. Take a nostalgic, three-hour journey through Oscar’s glory years with selections from some of your favorite movie classics. Last year’s “Picture Perfect Oscar Party” is still posted as a webcast, at WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

https://www.wwfm.org/post/picture-perfect-february-7-oscar-party-2020?fbclid=IwAR2D5dpmv_-0svRyE7OvbMqbdHeyi1OjExP7Ubes3wgfJylgOuBZ8BtYK4Q#stream/0

If you can look past the inclusion of last year’s nominees, I think you’ll find that much of it has retained its crunch and buttery goodness!

April 25, 2021
Doreen Carwithen Unsung Film Composer

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll shine a light on the shamefully underutilized talent of Doreen Carwithen.

In 1941, Carwithen studied harmony and composition with William Alwyn at London’s Royal College of Music. For both, it was love at first sight. Their fateful pairing led to a decades-long romance that culminated in their marriage, finally, in 1975.

The reason for the delay was, unfortunately, at the time of their meeting, Alwyn happened already to be married. The double-life caused tremendous stress. Alwyn, in particular, descended into alcoholism and suffered a nervous breakdown. Finally, his doctor urged him that, if he was going to live at all, he should get on with it already and live honestly.

In the concert hall, Alwyn – a contemporary of William Walton and Michael Tippett – enjoyed comparative success as a symphonist. Carwithen, too, got off to a promising start. Her overture “ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another)” was conducted by Adrian Boult at Covent Garden in 1947. She also wrote two award-winning string quartets. But the cinema promised more lucrative employment. Carwithen was the first selected by J. Arthur Rank to enter the college’s new film music program.

Combined, during their heyday, in the 1940s and ‘50s, Alwyn and Carwithen wrote the music for over 100 films. Alwyn, in particular, scored such high-profile projects as “The Crimson Pirate,” “A Night to Remember,” and “The Swiss Family Robinson.” Carwithen, although groomed for the very purpose, was not given the same opportunities. In all, she scored only six dramatic features. The rest were documentaries and shorts.

Neither were her concert works, though well-received, met with the same enthusiasm or eagerness by either programmers or publishers. In 1961, she became Alwyn’s secretary and amanuensis, and following his death in 1985, devoted herself to the preservation of his legacy.

After her own death, in 2003, discovered among her papers were sketches for an unfinished string quartet (her third), a symphony, and a cello concerto. One can only imagine that, as an artist, her potential remained unfulfilled.

We’ll do our best to level the playing field this week, dividing the hour between Alwyn and Carwithen, 50/50, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Remember, you can help support “Picture Perfect” by making a donation at wwfm.org. Enjoy a sense of satisfaction as you cause the mercury to rise in the thermometer on the station’s homepage. Less than 100 contributions in any amount will bring this year’s Bach 500 to a close. Tomorrow is Bach’s birthday, the end of the campaign, so why not do it now? Thank you for your support of The Classical Network!

https://wwwfm.secureallegiance.com/wwfm/WebModule/Donate.aspx?P=DEFAULT&PAGETYPE=PLG&CHECK=vOU2bz5JCWmgCDbf53nm9ezWDeZ%2beA1M

March 20, 2021
Kenneth Alwyn Film Music Conductor Dies at 95

Oh my goodness! The conductor Kenneth Alwyn has died.

Alwyn recorded many popular classics and much film music. I remember the thrill of discovering his first, extensive digital recordings of music from “The Bride of Frankenstein” and “The Quiet Man” – two of my desert island film scores – in the bins at Tower Records.

He also conducted Decca’s first stereophonic recording of the “1812 Overture” and several albums devoted to the works of Richard Addinsell, including, of course, the ubiquitous “Warsaw Concerto.”

He was an experienced ballet and musical theater conductor. He held posts at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet and the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. He served as musical director at the English premieres of many British and Broadway musicals. He recorded ballet music by Lord Berners. He made at least two very fine recordings of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, including the complete oratorio, “The Song of Hiawatha.”

Some of Alwyn’s other memorable records include albums devoted to Max Steiner, a selection of music from Ealing Studios comedies, and orchestral highlights from classic British film scores by Vaughan Williams, Sir Arthur Bliss, and others. For Silva records, he led collections devoted to Alfred Newman, Miklós Rózsa, and Ennio Morricone, as well as any number of thematically-organized anthologies.

In 1992, he toured with the BBC Concert Orchestra, with his friend, Dudley Moore, at the piano.

Alwyn died yesterday at the age of 95. By coincidence, I happened to include his recording of Sir Arnold Bax’s “Oliver Twist” on last night’s broadcast of “Picture Perfect,” and on Friday, shipped his recording of Paul Ben-Haim’s Symphony No. 2, as part of a Christmas mailing to a friend.

R.I.P. Kenneth Alwyn.

December 13, 2020
Malcolm Williamson Master of Music

One of the things I love about foreign countries is that, historically, their composers haven’t been blackballed for writing film music. In fact, some of the most esteemed have made significant contributions to the form: Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Honegger, Milhaud, Vaughan Williams, and Walton, to name a few. In America, Aaron Copland or John Corigliano aside, there has been a sharp, critical divide between “serious” composer and “film composer,” as if the latter somehow automatically implies hack work. And depending on a musician’s ability and artistic freedom, I suppose it all-too-frequently does.

I’m sure there are plenty of foreigners that only wish they could make the kind of money writing film music they could here in the U.S. It’s easy to romanticize when you’re not the one breaking your back for a modest pay day! Composers don’t come any more esteemed, in England anyway, than the Master of the Queen’s Music. Yet, in having to earn a living, even a Master’s candidate may sometimes find it necessary to get his hands dirty.

Since the 17th century, Masters have assumed their post with the expectation that they would write music for important milestones in the lives of the Royal Family and for ceremonial occasions. Past Masters of the Queen’s (or King’s) Music have included John Eccles (who served four monarchs), William Boyce, John Stanley, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Arnold Bax, and Sir Arthur Bliss. The appointment is an honor, to be sure, but the responsibility brings with it a certain amount of pressure.

When Malcolm Williamson, Australian by birth, was appointed as the successor to Bliss in 1975, there was grumbling among his colleagues. Sir William Walton attributed the choice to a utilitarian need for “cementing the cracks in the Commonwealth.” He confided to Sir Malcolm Arnold (who most certainly would have brought his own set of problems) that “they had got the wrong Malcolm.” Arnold, a sporadically brilliant composer, was also a manic depressive (and possibly bipolar), who survived alcoholism and multiple suicide attempts.

Williamson’s great sin was that he was very bad with deadlines (and for that, he certainly has my sympathy). Most particularly, he failed to complete a symphony in time for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 1977. His ambitious “Mass for Christ the King,” also intended for the occasion, was also delivered late. Significantly, he was the first Master of the Queen’s (or King’s) Music in over a century not to be knighted.

Following the Jubilee debacle, his output slowed, though he was seldom unproductive. In all, he wrote seven symphonies, concertos for piano, violin, organ, harp and saxophone, and numerous other orchestral, choral, chamber and instrumental works.

Williamson suffered from ill health in his later years. He too turned to the bottle, and it can only be speculated if depression and the stress of trying to hold his head high as a colonial outsider at the Royal court contributed to his decline. Those close to him assert that toward the end of his life, Williamson never drank, but rather struggled with aphasia, the result of a series of strokes.

What’s certain is that he was the first non-Briton to be named Master. Following his death in 2003, the parameters of the appointment were revised. The position is no longer one for life, but rather a fixed, ten-year term. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was the first to serve under the new guidelines. He was succeeded in 2015 by Judith Weir, the first woman to hold the post (and yes, she is still referred to as “Master”).

Like many of his colleagues (Bliss and Bax did it too), Williamson wrote a fair amount of music for the cinema, admittedly for films of varying quality. It’s always amusing to discover his name in the opening credits of Hammer productions like “The Brides of Dracula” and “The Horror of Frankenstein.” But, as the prehistoric appliances on “The Flintstones” often remarked… it’s a living.

Happy birthday, Malcolm Williamson!

Malcolm Williamson in conversation with Bruce Duffie:
http://www.kcstudio.com/williamson2.html

Williamson performs his attractive Piano Concerto No. 2:

A rare recording of his Symphony No. 6:

Theme music for “The Brides of Dracula”

End credits for “The Horror of Frankenstein”

“Nothing But the Night,” starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing:

November 21, 2020

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