Doreen Carwithen

born on 15/11/1922 in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom

died on 5/1/2003 in Forncett St Peter, England, United Kingdom

Doreen Carwithen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Doreen Mary Carwithen (15 November 19225 January 2003) was a British composer of classical and film music. She was also known as Mary Alwyn.

Biography

Doreen Carwithen was born in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire on 15 November 1922. As a child she had her first music lessons from her mother, a music teacher, starting both piano and violin with her at age 4. At age 16 she began composing by setting Wordsworth's I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (Daffodils) for voice and piano.

In 1941 she entered the Royal Academy of Music 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 overture ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another) was premiered at Covent Garden by Adrian Boult in 1947. The same year she was selected by the Royal Academy to train as composer of film music.

In 1961 she became William Alwyn's second wife, and took 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. She was devoted to her husband and acted as his secretary and amanuensis. After he died 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 in 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 (1950), Mantrap (1952) (released in the U.S. as Man in Hiding), and East Anglian Holiday (1954). She also scored Elizabeth Is Queen, the official film of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

She composed some orchestral music: an overture ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another) (1945) (after the novel by John Masefield); a Concerto for piano and strings (1948); the overture Bishop Rock (1952) and a Suffolk Suite (1964).[1] She wrote two award-winning but little-known string quartets.[2]

She also edited for performance the second piano concerto by her husband William Alwyn.[3]

References

  1. London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox, Chandos records 9524
  2. Sorrel Quartet, Chandos records 9596
  3. London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox, Chandos records 9196

External links

  • Doreen Carwithen at the Internet Movie Database
  • Doreen Carwithen biography on Musicweb
  • Obituary of Doreen Carwithen by Martin Anderson
This page was last modified 14.12.2013 09:59:49

This article uses material from the article Doreen Carwithen from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.