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.

Biography

Doreen Carwithen was born at 8, High Street, Haddenham, Buckinghamshire 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 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" 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 of ...

and played the cello in a string quartet and with orchestras. She was a member of the harmony class of William Alwyn, 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 Symphony ...

, 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 London ...

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, on 5 January 2003.

Works

Doreen Carwithen wrote scores for over 30 films, including ''Harvest from the Wilderness'' (1948), ''

Boys in Brown ''Boys in Brown'' is a 1949 black and white British drama film directed by Montgomery Tully, which depicts life in a borstal for young offenders. It stars Jack Warner, Richard Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde and Jimmy Hanley. It is based on a 1940 p ...

'' (1950), '' Mantrap'' (released in the U.S. as ''Man in Hiding'') (1952), '' The Men of Sherwood Forest'' (1954) and '' Three Cases of Murder'' (1955). Music from the score of the short

British Transport Films British Transport Films was an organisation set up in 1949 to make documentary films on the general subject of British transport. Its work included internal training films, travelogues (extolling the virtues of places that could be visited via th ...

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 of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

, had to be completed in just three days. Her orchestral works include an overture ''ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another)'' (1945) (after

the novel ''The Novel'' (1991) is a novel written by American author James A. Michener. A departure from Michener's better known historical fiction, ''The Novel'' is told from the viewpoints of four different characters involved in the life and work of ...

by John Masefield); a Concerto for piano and strings (1948); the overture ''

Bishop Rock The Bishop Rock ( kw, Men Epskop) is a skerry off the British coast in the northern Atlantic Ocean known for its lighthouse. It is in the westernmost part of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsu ...

'' (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 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'' in November 2022.Composer of the Week

Selected filmography

* ''Harvest from the Wilderness'' (1948) * '' To the Public Danger'' (1948) * ''

'' (1950) * ''

The Stranger Left No Card ''The Stranger Left No Card'' is a 1952 British short film directed by Wendy Toye. The film won the Best Fiction award at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, where it was described as "a masterpiece" by Jean Cocteau. It marked the film debut of actor ...

'' (1952) * ''Elizabeth is Queen'' (1953) * '' Mantrap'' (1953) (U.S. as ''Man in Hiding'') * ''East Anglian Holiday'' (1954) * '' The Men of Sherwood Forest'' (1954) * '' Break in the Circle'' (1955) * ''On The Twelfth Day...'' (1955) (directed by Wendy Toye) * '' Three Cases of Murder'' (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