I first came across
the music of William Alwyn back in the
early 1970s when I heard the symphonic
poem The Magic Island on Radio
3. I was seriously impressed with this
attractive score. To my youthful ears
it seemed to combine romanticism with
a particularly English sensibility.
Furthermore I was convinced that this
was music that would have sat well as
the background to a swashbuckling Erroll
Flynn type movie. It was easy to provide
the motion picture inside ones head!
It was only after reading the sleeve-notes
- I went straight to Biggar's Record
shop in Glasgow and bought the LP the
same day - that I realised The Magic
Island was more to do with Shakespeare
and Prospero rather than Hornblower
or Long John Silver. The piece has remained
one of my all-time favourites and is
highly likely to be on my list of Desert
Island Discs.
When I received this
current book for review I immediately
looked in the index to see what the
author had to say about this particular
work. And ... it is basically nothing.
There are a couple of references but
no factual comment. And this aspect
basically defined my approach to this
book – at least on first perusal. I
had been led to believe that there was
more about the ‘non-film’ opus.
If I am honest, ever
since buying the complete set of Alwyn
symphonies I have longed for a definitive
biography of the composer and a technical
study of his music. In fact there was
a time I considered writing it myself!
Over the years – mainly due to the excellent
cycle of Alwyn’s music by Chandos, I
have come to know and love most of the
composer’s works. I guess that there
must be, or have been, some 70% of his
catalogue available on disc. Of course,
I bought the three film music CDs as
they were issued and these impressed
me. Incidentally, I found out that Alwyn
wrote the music to a few of my favourite
films- including Carve her Name with
Pride and A Night to Remember
– and I did not know it! Yet nothing
in these film scores changed my view
that Alwyn was essentially a ‘concert
composer’ who wrote extremely effective
film music over a large part of his
career.
What I wanted was an
analysis of Alwyn’s symphonic, chamber
and instrumental music as opposed to
an exposition of his film music. What
we have got is a splendid study of the
film music which although contextualizing
the film scores within the general concert
works, gives them scant attention.
Having got over the
disappointment I began to explore the
book in depth; after all I should not
criticise the book for failing to be
something it was never set out to be
in the first place. It is not a volume
that requires to be read from cover
to cover – in fact I would advise against.
However I would recommend reading the
‘Introduction: Music in the Shadows’
for a basic primer of the subject. From
the very opening paragraph one realises
that we are in the presence of both
a scholar and an enthusiast. This book
is absolutely crammed full of information
– both referenced and anecdotal. It
is a model of how a book should be written
insofar as it manages to balance the
depths of learning and scholarship with
readability.
I noted that it is
a book to dip into. So not unnaturally
I chose to read about one of my favourite
films – Our Country. This is
a film that was produced during the
Second World War with ‘a moving poetic
commentary by Dylan Thomas, captivating
photography by Jo Jago and painstakingly
apt lyrical musical compositions by
[William] Alwyn.’ This was a documentary
that was particularly apposite for the
wartime years. It was the story of a
somewhat ‘impressionistic’ journey across
wartime Britain by a British sailor
recently arrived back from a two year
tour of duty. So in many ways it is
as if David Sime, the sailor was seeing
the landscape through the eyes of a
foreigner – a newcomer to these shores.
Yet by and large it has been consigned
to the archives. So I was delighted
to find out that Ian Johnson devoted
some eight pages to a detailed discussion
of this one film. It is erudite, it
is interesting and it would certainly
add considerably to an appreciation
of the film. This is a seriously impressive
study of one of the more poignant films
from the war years. Of course this attention
to detail is evident for most of the
many the films that Alwyn scored.
The book is beautifully
made: it feels good to hold – although
with the high quality paper it is rather
heavy in the briefcase! There are some
ten photographic plates which include
pictures of Alwyn and stills from a
number of ‘his’ films. A large number
of musical examples provide considerable
source material for the development
and illustration of the argument. Although
it is assumed that the ‘average’ reader
of this book will be reasonably musically
literate, it is still possible to gain
a vast amount of information and opinion
from this book if these examples remains
unheard or un-played – and of course
there are always the three Chandos discs
to help the reader with their appreciation.
Perhaps the most useful aspect is a
musical glossary which explains a large
number of musical terms. This allows
the book to be read intelligently by
those who are not acquainted with the
technical vocabulary.
Naturally there is
an excellent ‘filmography’ that details
every film that Alwyn worked upon, including
a number of un-attributed scores. This
is presented in chronological form also
with a special section outlining music
composed for the radio. It is neatly
keyed into the concert works that were
written during the same period. An excellent
discography is provided which naturally
leans heavily towards those many recordings
by Chandos and Lyrita.
This is a great book
that explores in considerable depth
Alwyn’s contribution to the world of
the moving picture. The breadth of these
contributions is considerable and covers
a wide diversity of film styles. The
book does not ignore, but does not concentrate
on the concert works produced alongside
these film scores. The entire film output
of William Alwyn is placed within the
context of the British film industry
which is perhaps the book’s greatest
achievement.
John France
The
William Alwyn Website
Alwyn’s entire film
output is placed in the context of the
British film industry which is perhaps
the book’s greatest achievement. A highly
detailed and readable study ... see
Full Review
