As a native of Kremenchug received 4 Oscars: Dmitry Temkin's American Dream

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It so happened that the name of this composer is known abroad much more than at home. He was born in Kremenchug in the Poltava province, before the revolution he played the piano in the cinemas of St. Petersburg at screenings of silent films, in 1921 he emigrated to Berlin, and a few years later became one of the most famous Hollywood composers. His songs were performed by David Bowie and Barbra Streisand, he wrote music for more than 160 films, and in his homeland his name was forgotten for many years …

Dmitry Temkin was born in 1894 into a Jewish family, his father was a doctor, and his mother taught piano. She passed on her love for music to her son, and at the age of 13 Dmitry had already become a student of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. From 1914 to 1917 Temkin moonlighted as a pianist, accompanying silent films in cinemas in St. Petersburg. He spent his free time in the company of his friend, composer Sergei Prokofiev, in the famous art cafe "Stray Dog", where all the Petersburg bohemia gathered. Among the visitors were Vladimir Mayakovsky, Osip Mandelstam, Anna Akhmatova, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexander Blok and many others. Here Temkin first heard American music - ragtime, jazz and blues. Often, in order to pay off, the young composer acted as the official pianist of this institution.

Years later, the composer confessed that these evenings largely influenced his formation as a creative unit: "".

After the revolution, Temkin remained a popular composer - he took part in the organization and musical design of the theatrical mass action "The Taking of the Winter Palace". Artist Yuri Annenkov said: "". However, Temkin did not see the prospects for a further musical career in the USSR, and in 1921 he decided to leave for Berlin, where at that time his father was already living.

There was no political implication in his decision to emigrate abroad. He himself explained his choice as follows: "".

In Germany, Temkin began his career as a concert pianist, performing with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and also wrote etudes, foxtrots, marches and waltzes. On a tour in Paris, the composer met with Fyodor Chaliapin, who told him that European musicians enjoyed great success in the USA, and in 1925 Temkin went to America. There he got a job as an accompanist for the ballet troupe of Albertina Rasch, an Austrian ballerina and choreographer, who two years later became his wife. Together they toured across the country.

His career in Hollywood began in 1929, when the composer and his wife were asked to stage a ballet for the premiere of the film Broadway Melody. After that, he wrote music for several more musicals, and his wife choreographed dance numbers for them. Temkin received his first serious commission for soundtrack from director Frank Capra, with whom he later collaborated for many years. In 1937 he was nominated for an Oscar for the music for The Lost Horizon. In the same year, Temkin received American citizenship. He was repeatedly asked the question of how he, at his origin, can write music for American Westerns, to which he replied: "".

In the 1950s. Dmitry Temkin in just 6 years became a four-time Oscar winner for film scores, which was almost an unprecedented event in Hollywood. However, he was not bound by long-term contracts and said about this: "". Temkin created his own music publishing company, which allowed him to conclude contracts on favorable terms for him. Producer Henry Henigson said about him: "". For all his time in Hollywood, Temkin wrote music for more than 160 films.

Temkin lived in America until 1967 - this year his wife died. When the composer returned from the funeral, he was attacked in his own house, beaten and robbed. He took this incident as a sign, sold the house and left for Europe. 5 years later, Temkin married a second time, to the Englishwoman Olivia Cynthia Patch, with whom they lived in Paris and London.

It is interesting that the last work of the composer in big cinema was the music for a film by a Soviet director. It was Igor Talankin's biographical drama Tchaikovsky, released in 1969. Then Dmitry Temkin visited his homeland for the first time after 1921, but this was also the last time. In 1971, Tchaikovsky was nominated for an Oscar for Best Music and Best Foreign Language Film. The composer spent the last years of his life in London, where he died on November 11, 1979 at the age of 85.

There were many talented people among emigrants from Russia, but only a few of them managed to achieve such success as Dmitry Temkin and his colleague: The bright and short life of George Gershwin.