Why is Dimitri Tiomkin so disliked within the community of Golden Age film
music composers? Despite writing classic scores for any number of great films,
and working successfully with virtually every top director from Capra to
Zinnemann, his work is largely ignored while others' are resurrected and/or
re-recorded on an almost daily basis. (This Web site, for example, currently
offers reviews of 12 Max Steiner scores, but only 2 of Tiomkin's.) Perhaps
part of the problem lies in Tiomkin's early gift for self-promotion - a faux
pas of great magnitude among the normally self-effacing Hollywood studio
musicians. Worse still, his gift for tune-writing often resulted in hit singles
(such as 'Friendly Persuasion' 'The High and the Mighty' and High Noon's
'Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling.') Although this came decades before the
now pervasive theme-song tie-ins began imposing commercial considerations
on artistic film music decisions, perhaps Tiomkin's contemporaries resented
his commercial success.
In any event, he was the first and only choice of producer-director-star
John Wayne to score The Alamo, a three-hour-plus account of the 1836 Texas
siege in which a handful of defenders were eventually massacred by Mexican
forces. Tiomkin's score -- earthy, melodious, rhythmic, and ultimately
heart-rending -- ranks among the best ever written for any spectacle, Western
or otherwise. At the heart of that score are two themes, a ballad-like melody
that functions as a recurring motif throughout the score, and the gorgeous
'Green Leaves of Summer,' which functions both in underscoring and in lyric
form for the film's key scene the night before the final, fatal attack. Director
Wayne, perhaps reflecting his mentor, John Ford, wanted a song to illustrate
the men's awareness of their impending deaths. The result is hauntingly
beautiful, and its use in this particular scene is a highlight in this often
overblown, plodding film. Indeed, it is one of the best uses of a song as
underscoring I've ever heard in a film. After first introducing the 'Green
Leaves' theme in the overture with high strings, Tiomkin then offers it with
accordions -- the effect is both somber and sentimental -- in the main title
following a stunning solo trumpet version of 'De Guella,' this latter piece
borrowed from Tiomkin's score to Rio Bravo just one year earlier.
Also worthy of note is Tiomkin's reel-like music for Crockett and his
Tennesseans, which is jaunty as a coonskin cap and has the earthy feel of
a buckskin legging. Character and mood are communicated with immediacy as
well as economy. This same quality can be found in Tiomkin's simpler songs,
'Tennessee Babe' and 'Here's to the Ladies,' each offering a folk-tune beauty
and simplicity such as Stephen Foster might have written.
And if the above comprised the whole of the score for The Alamo, it would
be a stunning achievement. But there is more. Simply put, nobody ever wrote
action cues quite like Dimitri Tiomkin, and The Alamo contains perhaps his
best work of this sort. These include 'Raid for Cattle,' 'Santa Anna,' and
the combined, 7-minute cue depicting the 'Charge of Santa Anna /Death of
David Crockett /The Final Assault.' 'Raid for Cattle' is a virtual tone poem,
following the Texans'stealthy movements as they prepare to steal the Mexican
troops' cattle, patiently await the dawn's coming, and then spring their
attack amid an orchestral frenzy that never loses touch with its several
thematic parts. Listen, too, as Tiomkin's woodwinds whirl and his strings
snap, whip-like, to herald the approach of Gen. Santa Anna. And finally,
marvel at how he captures specific action amid the vast panorama of the film's
final assault scenes, ending -- as the score began -- with the trumpeted
'De Guella.' (Max Steiner, among others, could have taken lessons from Tiomkin
on how to punctuate action cues with trumpets.)
Didier C. Deutsch has done a commendable job producing this 1995 re-issue
of the original soundtrack, complete with 11 additional cues. Carryovers
from the original LP include several dialogue tracks (including music) featuring
speeches by Wayne in the role of David Crockett. Both are corny and could
well have been excluded, though his farewell speech to the girl Flaca, in
which he explains his reasons for remaining at the Alamo, is not without
a certain poetic charm. ("Had me some money, and had me some medals -- but
none of it seemed a lifetime worth the pain of the mother that bore me.")
It's also rather appalling that anyone would have considered using 'The Eyes
of Texas Are Upon You' for the ending, and its inclusion here adds nothing.
Nor, for that matter, does the Brothers Four version of 'The Green Leaves
of Summer' although I do rather like the pop-single version of the main ballad
by country singer Marty Robbins.
Deutsch's notes offer insight on the political controversies that helped
sink the movie's Academy Award prospects in 1960, as well as the score's
murky recording history. But there is no information on specific cues, nor
any credit on the excellent choral work which, I presume, was led by Jester
Hairston with whom Tiomkin frequently worked.
Eyesight problems limited Tiomkin's output in the years after The Alamo,
although he would score at least three more masterpieces: The Guns of Navarone,
55 Days at Peking and Fall of the Roman Empire. Although best known for his
Western movie scores, Tiomkin soon would be succeeded as the reigning master
in that genre by the young Elmer Bernstein, whose Magnificent Seven score,
ironically, was nominated for an Academy Award along with The Alamo in 1960.
Both lost, as did Alex North's Spartacus, to Ernest Gold's Exodus -- itself
the beneficiary of a highly popular song.
Reviewer
John Huether
music
album
John Heuther has eloquently expressed much of what I want to say. Personally,
I could not place this western music above Tiomkin's scores for Red River,
Duel in the Sun or High Noon, but then, in the UK, the Alamo does not have
the same historical resonance. Nevertheless, this is a very impressive score
with all the sweep and excitement one could wish for together with the ravishing
melody that is 'The Green Hills of Summer'. All the well-loved Tiomkin musical
thumbprints are in place: the stirring pace, the sudden pauses and shifts
of key and accent, those thrilling jagged dotted rhythms and dramatic, trenchant
staccato two-note figures. As John observes there is that stunning solo trumpet
of 'De Guella' sounding far more bitter than sweet here than it did in Rio
Bravo. And the use of 'folk-tune' material is economical but telling. Highly
recommended
Ian Lace
[John raises a very valid and important point about the neglect of Tiomkin's
music. Readers might recall my indignation about the very cursory mention
and treatment of Tiomkin in the Warner Bros 75th Anniversary Box Set issued
by Rhino. However, you will notice that Museum Music, in their tribute to
Alfred Hitchcock album, reviewed on this site, this month includes the Main
Titles and a good slice of the music, with unobtrusive sound effects, from
Strangers on a Train.
Nevertheless I am taking this opportunity of appealing to record producers,
SILVA SCREEN, VARÈSE SARABANDE, NONESUCH, RHINO, BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
SCREEN ARCHIVES, SCREEN ARCHIVES and through MARCO POLO to John Morgan to
please re-examine the work of Dimitri Tiomkin and let us have a full appreciation
of his music in modern digital sound. If any of these companies would like
to respond to this appeal; I will be delighted to publish their message on
this site. Ian Lace]
To see the significant response we have had to this
appeal click here
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