Blog Post

Dimitri Tiomkin’s Golden Decade

Roger Hall

An appreciation by Roger Hall © 2002/2008

Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol.21/No.84, 2002

Text reproduced by kind permission of the editor, Luc Van de Ven and Roger Hall

Today Dimitri Tiomkin is remembered primarily for his later scores such as THE ALAMO and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE. As enjoyable as these scores are, there is so much more to enjoy in his earlier work. In fact, Tiomkin composed some of the most enthralling music ever to come out of Hollywood. During the 1950s he was the highest paid Hollywood film composer. Why was he so popular? I believe it was the combination of his incredible energy and his gift for writing memorable melodies. He apparently composed with great ease. How did he manage it?


Writing one of the most perceptive contemporary articles about Tiomkin’s craft, published in Etude music magazine in 1953, Dave Epstein describes how Tiomkin worked, explaining that after he reads a script, he begins to write out major themes and movements, “some of which he knows he will never be able to perform for the soundtrack due to the inevitable cutting and editing that goes into the final film job.” Epstein further explains, “After the picture is completed, Tiomkin makes a detailed study of it and of its timing, sometimes spending days running scenes over and over in order to correlate the countless factors that go into the score.” Next he uses a stopwatch to arrange “his more-or-Iess final score, collects his musicians and assembles his orchestra, and after rehearsing, records the sound track, synchronizing it directly with the screening of the picture.”


Epstein also describes Tiomkin’s “staggering productivity,” noting the composer sometimes “averages a picture a month, a pace most Hollywood composer-conductors consider killing.” He attributes this incredible output to Tiomkin’s “thoroughly experienced musicianship and very substantial musical background.” Tiomkin was trained at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia before going first to Paris as a concert pianist and then eventually to Hollywood in 1929. His first film score was for Universal’s RESURRECTION in 1931. That was the beginning of his film score career, although it would take many years before he became famous in the 1950s and ‘60s.


I believe Tiomkin’s film music can be divided into four general periods:


  1. 1931-1941 – Early
  2. 1942-1947 – War and Postwar Years
  3. 1948-1958 – Golden Decade

  4. 1959-1971 – Late


His first Oscar nomination was for LOST HORIZON in 1937 and his last one was for TCHAIKOVSKY in 1971. Among his well received scores during the early and wartime years were Frank Capra’s MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and his first western score for David O. Selznick’s lusty but flawed film, DUEL IN THE SUN. These scores set the stage for what would become his greatest successes.


The Golden Decade. Few Hollywood film composers achieved what Tiomkin did during what I call his golden decade. Between 1948 and 1958 he composed 57 film scores. In 1952 alone – the year he won two Oscars for his landmark score to HIGH NOON – he composed 9 film scores. Other years he averaged over 5 scores a year. That’s an amazing achievement for any film composer, past or present. During the space of only a few years he received 4 Oscars for his film music and was nominated 9 times. Max Steiner and Miklos Rozsa accomplished similar feats but over a longer span of time. But Tiomkin had a greater impact on the later film music scene because of two key elements – the western score and the title song.


Western Film Scores. Many film critics and movie buffs would pick 1948s RED RIVER, directed by Howard Hawks, as one of the greatest of all western films. Besides the impressive acting talents of John Wayne and Montgomery Clift, there’s Tiomkin’s monumental score. As Christopher Palmer describes it in his outstanding book, Dimitri Tiomkin: A Portrait, “the title-music immediately sets the epic, heroic tone. The unison horn-call is indeed an invocation: the gates of history are flung wide and the main theme, high and wide as the huge vault of the sky, rides forth in full choral-orchestral splendour.” The robust male chorus was directed by his assistant, Jester Hairston, a former member of the Hall Johnson Choir who first worked with Tiomkin on LOST HORIZON. Up until now RED RIVER has only been heard in excerpts such as the Unicorn-Kanchana compilation conducted by Laurie Johnson. It has never received a full soundtrack recording. That’s due to change with a planned Marco Polo CD release in the excellent film score series by the team of John Morgan and William Stromberg.


The Song Scores. Tiomkin was really the first composer to become popular for both the title song and its score. During his golden decade he became known for using the title song as the main ingredient of the score. This technique is demonstrated in his two best-known western scores of the 1950s: HIGH NOON and GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL. Both use the opening ballad as the main theme, which is sung like a common thread woven throughout the film. Thus these scores are monothematic. Both songs also have lyrics by the gifted Ned Washington, who had won an earlier Oscar for his lyrics to ‘When You Wish upon a Star.’ Even though ‘Do Not Forsake Me’ was sung in the film by country & western singer Tex Ritter, the biggest hit recording was by Frankie Laine, who also sang ‘Gunfight at the O.K. Corral’ in that film. To demonstrate the incredible popularity of the title song from HIGH NOON, there is a German CD (Bear Family Records) with 25 different artists performing it. They range from the best-known versions by Tex Ritter and Frankie Laine to jazzy instrumentals by Ray Conniff and Henry Mancini. What other movie title song has received this kind of tribute?


Tiomkin loved to make ample use of source music in his scores. One example is the folk song ‘Buffalo Gals’ in the saloon scenes in HIGH NOON. Another Tiomkin success was the delightful title song for THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA from 1954, sung by the silky smooth Nat King Cole in a sultry arrangement by the great Nelson Riddle. This song, oddly subtitled a ‘Persian Lament,’ became a huge hit. These Tiomkin hits created what Irwin Bazelon called a “title song mania,” as mentioned in Matthias Büdinger’s thoughtful Tiomkin tribute in the Winter 1999 issue of this magazine. Thanks to Tiomkin’s success, every studio was looking for hit movie songs during the 1950s. Is it any different today after Horner’s hit song from TITANIC?


One other Tiomkin song score that isn’t really a traditional western but does take place in Texas is GIANT, directed by George Stevens and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean. The score of this film is similar to RED RIVER with its broad, sweeping landscape title theme. Both also make prominent use of chorus. But rather than the majestic title theme in GIANT, many film goers probably remember the folk song, ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas,’ which was not composed by Tiomkin.


Sci-Fi and Suspense. As with most film composers of his era, Tiomkin didn’t just do western scores. Among the others was a science fiction score for 1951’s THE THING, credited to Christian Nyby as director but some say it was actually directed by producer Howard Hawks. For this score, Tiomkin composed a creepy, highly evocative score using a heavily accented title theme to symbolize the massive size of the alien creature. As conductor Charles Gerhardt explained it in an interview with Christopher Palmer: “It’s certainly Tiomkin’s strangest and most experimental score with strong contemporary elements…” He then describes the unusual orchestra used: “a very large group of woodwinds and brass, no strings except for double basses, five percussion groups including two sets of timpani, flexatone, wind-machine, two pianos, three harps, Yamaha organ, pipe organ, and to replace the theremin, the Ondes Martenot.” Gerhardt employed this orchestra when recording a suite for his excellent RCA film score series. He also mentions that Tiomkin was working on this film at the same time as Bernard Herrmann’s THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Gerhardt mentions that both use a similar orchestra configuration but “Herrmann’s concept is basically a simple one, whereas Tiomkin’s is complex, and from the technical standpoint Tiomkin’s idiom is more advanced.” Both the Herrmann and Tiomkin scores are now considered among the greatest of all sci-fi scores.


Besides his western and experimental scores, Tiomkin also composed more conventional works, including several for Alfred Hitchcock. His first one was for SHADOW OF A DOUBT in 1942, skilfully arranging Lehar’s ‘Merry Widow Waltz’ as it figures to be a key element in the suspense tale. Later came STRANGERS ON A TRAIN in 1951, I CONFESS in 1953, and DIAL ‘M’ FOR MURDER in 1954. All these scores show that Tiomkin could compose in a style other than the rhythmically robust western or sci-fi style. His music for the Hitchcock films is in a lush romantic style, using solo violin and muted trumpet rather than the horns and brass as in his western fanfares. His music was more subdued to underscore the emotional nature of the Hitchcock suspense films.


Tiomkin Speaks. In the aforementioned Etude magazine article, Dave Epstein describes an often overlooked device in film scoring when he writes: “Tiomkin has found that in addition to the timbre of the voice, the pitch of the speaking voice must be very carefully considered and reckoned with in his scoring. Tiomkin finds that certain stars’ voices rule out dominant brasses, for instance, in the background music. Tiomkin goes to the set and listens to the players doing their lines. He talks to them conversationally, noting the pitch and color of their voice.” Epstein then turns to the film composer himself to give an explanation of how he composes for different characters in a film. “The music has the function of helping describe the characters,” Tiomkin stated. “It helps paint the portraits.” He then gives an example: “A couple years back I scored a picture in which the feminine lead was supposed to be a delicately featured Continental. The star playing the role, although a fine actress, didn’t really have that kind of face. It was my job to soften her face, to make her look more Continental, more refined. We did it with the music which accompanied her every appearance on the screen, by developing a delicate, graceful theme. To appreciate the effect of the movie and to realize how much it adds, one should see the average movie before and after the music is added.”


His last sentence is very much the same remark made to me by Aaron Copland about his film music (see the Fall 2000 issue of Soundtrack). I’ve tried it with HIGH NOON and sure enough, the film is not as effective without Tiomkin’s music. One example is the suspenseful ticking motif in the orchestra whenever a clock is shown in the film. This clock motif reaches its climax when the clock reaches noontime and the music stops suddenly as the train whistle is heard. In his book, ‘Film Music: A Neglected Art’, Roy M. Prendergast called this cue “one of the finest, most unnoticed moments in film music.” This cue is included on the Unicorn-Kanchana CD of Tiomkin’s western film music.


After the popularity of the HIGH NOON song, Tiomkin said he was asked to write just hit songs. “I followed the changes in progressive jazz, when calypso came along, I wrote in the West Indian vein. I could write rock n’ roll if necessary.”


He was known for his ability to write memorable title songs. But also he was famous for an acceptance speech he gave after he won his third Oscar for THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY in 1955. This film also featured another hit title song, which this time was just whistled in the film. Tiomkin explained his acceptance speech in his autobiography: “The television audience at the presentation and the newspapers gave me credit for getting off the big joke of the occasion. I was hailed as a wit. Upon receiving my Oscar for the best motion picture score of the year, I expressed my thanks to Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Strauss, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other great composers. A howl went up all over the country. A prize-winning Hollywood composer kidding Hollywood, poking fun at motion picture music. What could be funnier?”


And it turned out he admitted it was “unconscious humor” and the joke was on him. “I must tell the truth. I gained more fame in those two mistaken minutes than in forty years of music.” By thanking the classical masters who inspired him, he endeared himself to his audience. But more importantly, he was explaining why he had produced so many successful scores and title songs.


Tiomkin on Disc. Unlike other Golden Age film composers like Herrmann or Rozsa, Tiomkin hasn’t been well served on CD. I have an old LP with Tiomkin and his orchestra from 1955 that includes such rare items as ‘Jamie’s Theme’ from A BULLET FOR JOEY and the title theme from THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA. Even though he frequently conducted his own scores, there have been only a few CDs released. His 1958 Oscar-winning score THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA was available on a PEG CD but that is now out-of-print. Tiomkin and his orchestra are heard on a Unicorn-Kanchana CD from 1985, and another one on Columbia from 1988. There are also a few compilations with Tiomkin-conducted tracks. One of these is ‘Alfred Hitchcock – Signatures in Suspense’ on Hip-O, which includes rare recordings of themes from I CONFESS and DIAL ‘M’ FOR MURDER. Another CD compilation is Music from Hollywood on Columbia Legacy, with Tiomkin conducting an unreleased track of his theme from HIGH NOON.


With all his successes, it’s surprising the only commercial release of his Great Western Scores is on Unicorn-Kanchana, Laurie Johnson conducting the London Studio Symphony Orchestra with the John McCarthy Singers. While the orchestra and chorus do the music up in grand fashion, the weak-voiced Bob Saker is a big letdown.


Two of the best compilations are Lost Horizon: The Classic Film Scores of Dimitri Tiomkin and The Spectacular World of Classic Film Scores, both featuring The National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Gerhardt. The first one includes a suite of Tiomkin’s beautiful music for THE BIG SKY, and a scene in the barn from the enormously popular film FRIENDLY PERSUASION. The second CD includes a ten-minute suite from THE THING (FROM ANOTHER WORLD), which is not entirely successful at duplicating the original but is much better than the shorter version on the Silva compilation, Alien Invasion: Space and Beyond II.


Since Tiomkin’s music is so hard to duplicate convincingly by others, the best way to hear his music is on video or DVD releases for his films, like the excellent 50th anniversary edition of HIGH NOON with its superb sound and picture. For those who are willing to investigate, Tiomkin’s music has much to offer. This is especially true during his golden decade when he was the best-known composer working in Hollywood.


He summed up his popularity best when he wrote in his book: “In Hollywood vernacular, I could write commercial.”


2008 Addendum. Since I first wrote my Tiomkin article in 2002, there have been many CDs of his music. Rather than try to list them all I have chosen ten scores, including some that may be hard-to-find, that were mentioned in my article about Tiomkin’s “Golden Decade” from 1948 to 1958.


1948: RED RIVER – score restored by John Morgan. Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Choir, conducted by William Stromberg. Recorded in Moscow, Russia, February – March 2002. Available on Marco Polo CD 8.225217, 2003. Reissued on a Naxos CD 8.557699, 2005.


1950: D.O.A. – original soundtrack release. Music conducted by Dimitri Tiomkin. Produced by Ray Faiola and Craig Spaulding. Screen Archives Entertainment CD SAE-CDS-017, 2007.


1951: THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD – original soundtrack release. Music conducted by Dimitri Tiomkin. Produced by Lukas Kendall. CD also includes soundtrack to TAKE THE HIGH GROUND (1953). Film Score Monthly CD Vol. 8, No. 1.


1952: THE BIG SKY – original soundtrack release. Music conducted by Dimitri Tiomkin. Produced by James D’Arc and Craig Spaulding. Brigham Young University Film Music Archives CD FMA-DT111, 2003.


1952: HIGH NOON – original soundtrack release. Music conducted by Dimitri Tiomkin. The complete soundtrack including the title song sung by Tex Ritter. Produced by Ray Faiola and Craig Spaulding. Screen Archives Entertainment CD SAE-CRS-018, 2007. Also available is a CD with 25 different artists performing the title song on Bear Family Records BCD 16395 AR.


1954: THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY – Suite – London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Kaufman. Compilation CD: “The High and the Mighty: A Century of Flight,” Varese Sarabande CD 302 066 704 2, 2005. Produced by Paul Stilwell and Robert Townson.


1954: THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA – Title Song – sung by Nat King Cole, arranged by Nelson Riddle. Compilation CD: “Nat King Cole At The Movies” Capitol Records CD CDP 7 99373 2, 1992.


1956: FRIENDLY PERSUASION – original soundtrack release. Music conducted by Dimitri Tiomkin. Title song sung by Pat Boone. Produced by Bruce Kimmel. Varese Sarabande CD VSD-5858, 1997.


1956: GIANT – studio recording. Music conducted by Dimitri Tiomkin. Originally issued on a Capitol Records LP album in 1963 and reissued many times since then. Latest release: DRG/EMI CD 19080, 2006.


1958: THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA – original soundtrack release. Music conducted by Dimitri Tiomkin. Sony Music Special Products. PEG CD 028 A34281.

Charles Gerhardt & Classic Film Scores

by Pascal Dupont • 10 May, 2024
Charles Allan Gerhardt English version adapted by Doug Raynes - FRENCH VERSION AND COLLECTION had a reputation as a great conductor, record producer and musical arranger. His major work at RCA on the Classic Film Scores series earned him recognition from film music devotees of Hollywood’s Golden Age, as well as other renowned conductors of his day. Born on February 6, 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, Charles Gerhardt developed a passion for music and percussion instruments from an early age. At the age of five, he took piano lessons, and by the age of nine, had established a solid reputation as an orchestrator and composer. He spent his early school years in Little Rock, Arkansas, then after 10 years, having completed his schooling, moved with his family to Illinois for his military duties, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II as a chaplain's aide in the Aleutian Islands, then became an active member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He went on to study at the University of Illinois, at the College of William and Mary, and later at the University of Southern California. Throughout his time at school Gerhardt was attracted not only to music, but also to the sciences. Passionate about the art of recording, he joined Westminster Records for five years, until the company ceased operations, and then joined Bell Sound. One day, he received a phone call from George Marek to meet with the heads of Reader's Digest, to discuss producing recordings for their mail-order record business; a contact that was to secure his musical future and a rich career spanning more than 30 years. Gerhardt's first job for Reader's Digest was to produce a record; “A Festival of Light Classical Music”; a 12 LP box set that he produced in full. One of Gerhardt's finest projects was the production of another 12 LP box set, “Les Trésores de la Grande Musique (Treasury of Great Music)”, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by some of the leading figures of the day: Charles Munch to Bizet and Tchaikovsky, Rudolf Kempe to Strauss and Respighi, Josef Krips to Mozart and Haydn, Antal Dorati to Strauss and Berlioz, Brahms 4th Symphony by Fritz Reiner and Sibelius’ 2nd Symphony by Sir John Barbirolli. In the 1950s he conducted works by Vladimir Horowitz, Wanda Landowska, Kirsten Flagstad and William Kapeli. In the early 1960s, Gerhardt lived in England, where he made most of his recordings, but kept a foothold in the United States, mainly in New York. Often, when he went to the United States after a period of recording sessions, he would stop off in Baltimore and spend some time listening to cassettes of his new recordings. Gerhardt loved percussion instruments, especially tam-tams. One of his favorite recordings was the Columbia mono disc of Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, with Dimitri Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic. He had great admiration and respect for the many conductors he worked with, starting with Arturo Toscanini, with whom he worked for several years before the Maestro's death. It was Toscanini who suggested that Gerhardt become a conductor, which he did! His career as an orchestra director began when he had to replace a conductor who failed to show up for rehearsals. It was a position he would later occupy for various recording sessions and occasional concerts. His classical recordings include works by Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Ravel, Debussy, Walton and Howard Hanson. Hired by RCA Records, he transferred 78 rpm recordings of Enrico Caruso and other artists to 33 rpm. He took part in recordings by soprano singer Kirsten Flagstad and pianist Vladimir Horowitz. He worked with renowned conductors such as Fritz Reiner, Leopold Stokowski and Charles Munch, from whom he learned the tricks of the trade. Still at RCA, he assisted Arturo Toscanini, with whom he perfected his conducting skills. Then, in 1960, he produced recordings for RCA and Reader’s Digest in London, and joined forces with sound engineer Kenneth Wilkinson of Decca Records (RCA's European subsidiary), The two men got on very well and shared a passion for recording and sound quality, making an incredible number of recordings over a 30-year period. Also in 1960, RCA and Reader's Digest entrusted him with the production of a 12-disc LP box set entitled “ Lumière du Classique (A Festival of Light Classical Music) ”, sold exclusively by mail order. With a budget of $250,000, Gerhardt assumed total control of the project: repertoire, choice of orchestras and production. He recorded in London, Vienna and Paris, and hired such top names as Sir Adrian Boult, Massimo Freccia, Sir Alexander Gibson and René Leibowitz. The success of this project, in terms of both musical quality and sound, earned him recognition from his employers. Other projects of similar scope followed… A boxed set of Beethoven's symphonic works with René Leibowitz and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. A boxed set of Rachmaninoff's works for piano and orchestra with Earl Wild, Jascha Horenstein and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the above mentioned 12 LP disc set “Trésor de la Grande Musique (Treasury of Great Music)” with the Royal Philharmonic conducted by some of the greatest directors of the time: Fritz Reiner, Charles Munch, Rudolf Kempe, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Antal Dorati and Jascha Horenstein, with whom Gerhardt had sympathized. In January 1964 in London, Gerhardt joined forces with Sidney Sax, instrumentalist and conductor, to form a freelance orchestra. This successful group went on to join the National Philharmonic Orchestra of London, an impressive line-up that would later become Jerry Goldsmith's orchestra of choice. With Peter Munves, head of RCA's classical division, he conceived the idea of recording an album devoted exclusively to the film music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, one of his favorite composers. Enthusiastic about the project, Munves gave Gerhardt carte blanche, and was offered a helping hand by George Korngold, producer and son of the famous Viennese composer, who owned all the copies of his father's scores. The Adventure Began : The Sea Hawk: Classic Film Scores of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. For this first disc, Gerhardt selected 10 scores by Korngold, which he recorded in the Kingsway Hall Studio in London, renowned for its excellent acoustics. The disc thus benefits from optimal recording conditions, favoring at the same time the performances of the National Philharmonic (and its leader, Sidney Sax), a formidable orchestra made up of London's finest musicians and freelance soloists. Each album was recorded in the same studio, with Kenneth Wilkinson as sound engineer and George Korngold as consultant/producer. As soon as it was released, the album's success received strong acclaim in classical music circles and received a feature in Billboard No. 37, a first in this category in December 1972. It took no less than a year to sell the first 10,000 copies in all the specialist record suppliers and the album went on to sell over 38,000 copies, making it the fifth best-selling album in the “classical” category in 1973. On the strength of this success, Peter Munves and RCA entrusted Charles Gerhardt with the production of further discs devoted to other world-renowned composers of Hollywood music. The program includes several albums dedicated to Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold plus one each to Miklos Rozsa, Franz Waxman, Dimitri Tiomkin and Bernard Herrmann, followed by 3 volumes associated with specific film stars such as Bette Davis, Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart. Then, a disc devoted to Alfred Newman, a composer who was a pillar of the famous Hollywood sound, who Gerhardt admired and had met: “Newman was a charming man, full of good humor. He was friendly, fun and always had a joke. With his eternal black cigar in hand, he was a composer by trade, down-to-earth, discussed little about himself but was a first-rate advisor in my life. “ Gerhardt would consult certain composers in advance about how to recreate suites from their works, or when this wasn't possible, he would rearrange the suites himself and submit them to the composers for approval. "Some critics complained that my suites were too short, but my aim in the case of each album was to present a well-split 'portrait' of the composer, highlighting his many creative facets". Although Korngold, Newman and Steiner were no longer around to lend their support, Gerhardt was lucky enough to still work with Herrmann, Rózsa and Tiomkin as consultants who turned up at the recording studio to lend a hand. Gerhardt also had the idea of creating albums focusing on a single film star. Three specific volumes were devoted to music from the films of Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn and Bette Davis. Although these albums suffer from too great a diversity of genres, they still offer the chance to hear and discover rare and previously unpublished compositions. The best conceived album was arguably the one devoted to Bette Davis. Conscious of the important role played by music in her films, the legendary actress took part in the conception of the album, knowing that it favored scores by Max Steiner designed for Warner Bros. The Collection Begins ! Gerhardt's passion for certain composers knows no bounds, but he soon envisages a disc devoted to Miklos Rozsa, including suites for “Spellbound” and “The Red House”, one of his favorite scores, which he will exhume to create one of the longest suites in the series. At the same time, he received various fan wish lists and films to watch, such as “The Four Feathers”, which he had never seen and which gave him the opportunity to discover a splendid score by Miklos Rozsa that he had never heard before. He was disappointed, however, not to be able to conceive a longer “Spellbound” sequel for rights reasons. Despite RCA's full approval, Gerhardt realized that it was not easy to record film music in its original form, as few were ever edited, played and made available for rental. For The Sea Hawks album, things were simpler, as Georges Korngold had copies of his father's scores, and Warner Bros had also archived material in good condition. From the outset, Gerhardt encountered other major problems in the search for and discovery of scores hidden away in other studios, often with the unpleasant surprise of discovering missing or incomplete conductors, or others heavily modified by orchestrators during recording sessions, or the surprise of discovering, in certain cases, instrumentation information noted in shorthand on the edges of the conductor score. For the disc dedicated to Max Steiner, for example, the conductor score for “King Kong” had disappeared from the RKO archives, having been shipped in 1950 to poorly maintained warehouses in Los Angeles where it had become totally degraded and illegible. With the help of Georges Korngold, Gerhardt was able to reconstruct a substantial suite from the piano models left by Steiner at the time. This experience was repeated when the conductor score for Dimitri Tiomkin's “The Thing” was discovered in the same warehouse, in an advanced state of disintegration. Fortunately for Gerhardt, Tiomkin, who was still alive, had been able to provide precise piano maquettes with orchestration information in shorthand, revealing a complex and highly innovative style of writing. Tiomkin always composed at the piano, inscribing very specific information and signs on the edges of the scores in pencil, an ingenious system of his own invention that was difficult to decipher. “Revisiting the score of ‘The Thing from Another World’ was a complex task, involving experimental passages and an unorthodox orchestra. You can understand that I had a huge job on my hands. When I approached the recording sessions, it was not without some trepidation. However, the composer present made no criticism or comment on my work, and was delighted. He was delighted.” For “Gone With The Wind”, Steiner was against the idea of remaking a complete soundtrack, as he felt that too many passages were repeated. It was an opportunity for him to revisit his own score, integrating his favorite melodies. This synthesis gave him the opportunity to revitalize his music by eliminating the least interesting parts of the score. Conceived as long suites or isolated themes, the discs reflect the essence of the composers' work. The “Classic Film Scores” series by Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann and Miklos Rozsa etc will become a big hit with collectors. For Gerhardt, this will be an opportunity to unearth forgotten or rare scores such as Herrmann's “The White Witch” and “On a Dangerous Ground”, Hugo Friedhofer's “The Sun Also Rises” and early recordings for Waxman's “Prince Valliant” and Rozsa's “The Red House”, all with new, impeccable acoustics. For “Elisabeth and Essex”, Erich Korngold had already prepared a suite in the form of an Overture, which was given its world premiere in a theater. The suite for “The Adventures of Robin Hood” also pre-existed. Franz Waxman created his own suite for “A Place in the Sun”, which was also performed in concert. Dimitri Tiomkin, Miklos Rozsa and Bernard Herrmann acted as consultants and contributed arrangements to their scores. For the continuation of “White Witch Doctor”, Bernard Herrman added percussion to link the different musical tableaux. He did the same for the different parts of “Citizen Kane”. Miklos Rozsa saw an opportunity to add a male choir to the suite from “The Jungle Book”, based on an idea by Charles Gerhardt. For the record dedicated to Errol Flynn, Gerhardt re-orchestrated the theme “The Lights of Paris” from Hugo Friedhofer's “The Sun also Rises”, as the original was no longer available. “I wanted to go back to that time and systematically explore the very substance of the great film scores of the late 30s and 40s, sending them back directly to their images as dramatic entities. The desire to rediscover tunes we know and to take into account the contexts in which they were originally used. I decided to recreate these scores with their original orchestrations, and this could only be done by returning to the ultimate sources, as the composers had originally conceived them.” Keen to open up the collection to other genres, such as science fiction, Gerhardt dedicated two further albums to the series in 1992. The first featured contemporary sequels to “Star Wars” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, promoting the work of John Williams, a leading composer of new film music. Then another called “The Spectacular World of Classic Film Scores”, presenting a disappointing compilation of scores that had already been recorded, except for the creation of a sequel to Dimitri Tiomkin's “The Thing From Another World” and Daniele Amfitheatrof's rarely heard theme “Dance of the Seven Voiles” from Salome. In 1978, the collection was published in Spain by RCA Cinema Treasures. In the USA and Europe, the Classic Film Scores LP series was reissued in the early 80s with a black art deco cover and colored star index. All Volumes in the First Series Were Reissued : By the end of the '80s, the series was running out of steam, and Charles Gerhardt planned to relaunch his collection with albums dedicated to famous American actresses, a new volume for Max Steiner and the Western, a volume reconstructing the score of Waxman's “The Bride of Frankenstein”, followed by volumes devoted to Alex North, Hugo Friedhofer, Victor Young and Elmer Bernstein... But RCA would not support Gerhardt in these projects, preferring to release the collection on CD for the first time. In early 1990, RCA asked Gerhardt to supervise and co-produce the collection, which he saw as an opportunity to revisit some of the volumes, inserting tracks that had not appeared on the LPs or extending certain suites. The volume devoted to Franz Waxman, “Sunset Boulevard”, was the first to be released. The CD did not benefit from any particular promotion, but sold very well, as did the other CDs that followed... A collection marked by a new design in silver pantone. The CDs series was reissued in 2010, still under the RCA Red Seal label, but distributed by Sony Music Entertainment. RCA Victor's Classic Films Scores series represents a unique collection in the history of film music recordings. 14 recordings of rare quality, produced by Georges Korngold and Charles Gerhardt to become one of the revelations of the reissue phenomenon. Other Concepts... Later, Gerhardt spent most of his time in London, continuing to make recordings. After retiring from RCA in 1986, he returned to independent work for Readers Digest and other record labels, a position he held in production and musical supervision until 1997. Since 1991 he had lived in Redding, California. In later years, he did not appear professionally, refusing all public invitations because of his desire to remain discreet. In his entourage he was close to three cousins, Lenore L Engel and Elizabeth Anne Schuetze, both living in San Antonio, and cousin Steven W Gerhardt of St. Pete Beach, Florida. In late November 1998 Charles Gerhardt was diagnosed with brain cancer and died of complications following surgery on February 22, 1999. He was 72 years old. Thus ends this tribute to Charles Gerhardt and the most famous collection of film music records: The Classic Film Scores series.

Exodus

by Doug Raynes • 24 Jan, 2024
Following on from Tadlow’s epic recording of El Cid, the same team – Nic Raine conducting and James Fitzpatrick producing – have turned their attention to a completely different type of epic film for the definitive recording of Ernest Gold’s Academy Award winning score for Otto Preminger’s Exodus (1960). The score is something of a revelation because aside from the main theme, the music has received little attention through recordings. Additionally the sound quality of the original soundtrack LP was disappointing and much music was deleted or cut from the film.
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