Doreen Mary Carwithen (15 November 19225 January 2003) was a British composer of classical and film music. She was also known as Mary Alwyn following her marriage to
William Alwyn
William Alwyn (born William Alwyn Smith; 7 November 1905 – 11 September 1985), was an English composer, conductor, and music teacher.
Life and music
William Alwyn was born William Alwyn Smith in Northampton, the son of Ada Tyler (Tompkins ...
.
Biography
Doreen Carwithen was born at 8, High Street,
Haddenham, Buckinghamshire
Haddenham is a village and civil parish in west Buckinghamshire, England. It is about south-west of Aylesbury and north-east of Thame in neighbouring Oxfordshire. At the 2011 Census, the population of the civil parish was 4,502.
History
The ...
on 15 November 1922, in the house attached to her father's bakery and grocery.
[ As a child she had her first music lessons from her mother Dulcie, an aspiring concert pianist and pupil of ]Tobias Matthay
Tobias Augustus Matthay (19 February 185815 December 1945) was an English pianist, teacher, and composer.
Biography
Matthay was born in Clapham, Surrey, in 1858 to parents who had come from northern Germany and eventually became naturalised Brit ...
who gave up her wider ambitions to become a music teacher after her marriage in 1921. Doreen studied both piano and violin with her from the age of four. Her sister Barbara (born 1926) received similar tuition and also became a talented musician and composer.[Chivers, Mark. ''Dorothy Carwithen in Haddenham'']
/ref>
At the age of 16 Doreen Carwithen began composing by setting Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (also commonly known as "Daffodils") is a lyric poem by William Wordsworth. It is one of his most popular, and was inspired by a forest encounter on 15 April 1802 between he, his younger sister Dorothy and a "l ...
" for voice and piano. In 1941 she entered the Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke ...
and played the cello in a string quartet and with orchestras. She was a member of the harmony class of William Alwyn
William Alwyn (born William Alwyn Smith; 7 November 1905 – 11 September 1985), was an English composer, conductor, and music teacher.
Life and music
William Alwyn was born William Alwyn Smith in Northampton, the son of Ada Tyler (Tompkins ...
, who began to teach her composition. Her first orchestral work, the overture ''ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another)'', was premiered at Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
by the London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symp ...
, conducted by Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in Londo ...
on 2 March 1947. The previous year she had become the first recipient of a J. Arthur Rank Film Scholarship.
In 1961 she became William Alwyn's devoted secretary and amanuensis
An amanuensis () is a person employed to write or type what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another, and also refers to a person who signs a document on behalf of another under the latter's authority. In one example Eric Fenby ...
, becoming his second wife in 1975, adopting Mary Alwyn as her married name, as she disliked the name Doreen, and Mary was her middle name. She later worked as a Sub Professor of Composition at the RAM. After her husband's death in 1985, she founded the William Alwyn Archive and William Alwyn Foundation to promote his music and facilitate related research projects.
She then also resumed interest in her own music. In 1999 a stroke left her paralysed on one side. She died at Forncett St Peter, near Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...
, on 5 January 2003.
Works
Doreen Carwithen wrote scores for over 30 films, including ''Harvest from the Wilderness'' (1948), '' Boys in Brown'' (1950), '' Mantrap'' (released in the U.S. as ''Man in Hiding'') (1952), ''The Men of Sherwood Forest
''The Men of Sherwood Forest'' is a 1954 British adventure film directed by Val Guest and starring Don Taylor, Reginald Beckwith, Eileen Moore and David King-Wood. The film follows the exploits of Robin Hood and his followers. Doreen Carwit ...
'' (1954) and ''Three Cases of Murder
''Three Cases of Murder'' is a 1955 British horror omnibus film comprising three stories: "The Picture," "You Killed Elizabeth," and "Lord Mountdrago." Eamonn Andrews introduces each. Alan Badel appears in all three.John Hamilton, ''The British ...
'' (1955). Music from the score of the short British Transport Films documentary ''East Anglian Holiday'' (1954) was later reused in her ''Suffolk Suite''.[Deller, Toby.]
The Carwithen Music Festival
, ''Classical Music'', 18 January 2022 She gained a reputation in the film industry for her professionalism and speed under pressure: her score for ''Elizabeth Is Queen'', the official film of the coronation
A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...
of Queen Elizabeth II, had to be completed in just three days.[
Her orchestral works include an overture ''ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another)'' (1945) (after the novel by ]John Masefield
John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels ''The Midnight Folk'' and ...
); a Concerto for piano and strings (1948); the overture '' Bishop Rock'' (1952) and the ''Suffolk Suite'' (1964). Scores and parts for ''Bishop Rock'' and ''Suffolk Suite'' are available from Goodmusic. She also wrote two award-winning but little-known string quartets, which received their first recordings in 1998, and seven solo songs, composed early in her career.
She also edited for performance the second piano concerto by her husband William Alwyn.
A Doreen Carwithen Music Festival took place in the village of Haddenham between 30 June and 3 July 2022, marking her centenary. For the same reason, the BBC Proms
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
included three of her works - ''Bishop Rock'', the Second String Quartet and ''ODTAA'' - in the 2022 season, and her life and work were featured in the BBC Radio Three series ''Composer of the Week
''Composer of the Week'' is a long-running biographical music programme produced by BBC Cymru Wales and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
It is broadcast daily from Monday to Friday at 12 noon for an hour, each week's programmes being a self-containe ...
'' in November 2022.[Composer of the Week]
Selected filmography
* ''Harvest from the Wilderness'' (1948)
* ''To the Public Danger
''To the Public Danger'' is a 1948 British drama short film directed by Terence Fisher and produced by John Croydon. It stars Dermot Walsh, Susan Shaw, Barry Letts, and Frederick Piper.
The film was made at Highbury Studios as a second featu ...
'' (1948)
* '' Boys in Brown'' (1950)
* '' The Stranger Left No Card'' (1952)
* ''Elizabeth is Queen'' (1953)
* '' Mantrap'' (1953) (U.S. as ''Man in Hiding'')
* ''East Anglian Holiday'' (1954)
* ''The Men of Sherwood Forest
''The Men of Sherwood Forest'' is a 1954 British adventure film directed by Val Guest and starring Don Taylor, Reginald Beckwith, Eileen Moore and David King-Wood. The film follows the exploits of Robin Hood and his followers. Doreen Carwit ...
'' (1954)
* ''Break in the Circle
''Break in the Circle'' is a 1955 British drama film directed by Val Guest and starring Forrest Tucker, Eva Bartok, Marius Goring and Guy Middleton.
Doreen Carwithen composed the score for the film.
Plot
An adventurer is hired by a German ...
'' (1955)
* ''On The Twelfth Day...'' (1955) (directed by Wendy Toye
Beryl May Jessie Toye, (1 May 1917 – 27 February 2010), known professionally as Wendy Toye, was a British dancer, stage and film director and actress.
Life and career
Toye was born in London. She initially worked as a dancer and choreographer ...
)
* ''Three Cases of Murder
''Three Cases of Murder'' is a 1955 British horror omnibus film comprising three stories: "The Picture," "You Killed Elizabeth," and "Lord Mountdrago." Eamonn Andrews introduces each. Alan Badel appears in all three.John Hamilton, ''The British ...
'' (1955)
References
External links
*
Carwithen biography
on Musicweb
by Martin Anderson
*
East Anglian Holiday
', British Transport Films
Carwithen Music Festival
Sonatina, played by Clare Hammond at the Aldeburgh Festival, June 2022
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carwithen, Doreen
1922 births
2003 deaths
20th-century classical composers
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
English film score composers
Women film score composers
People from Aylesbury Vale
British women classical composers
20th-century English composers
Amanuenses
20th-century English women musicians
Musicians from Buckinghamshire
20th-century women composers
People from Forncett