William Alwyn - Biography
William Alwyn (November 7, 1905 — September 11, 1985) was a dynamic catalyst in 20th century composition, whose firmly rooted classicism fused with a modernist flair, and resonated through concert halls, opera houses, and — most abundantly — film. Alwyn had a keen ear for an engaging form of dissonance, and he advanced the stance of the twelve-tone composers Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, but in a populist angle that was accessible, dramatic, fluid, and replete in oblique lyricism. He was a post-romanticist who followed in the footsteps of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst, yet his efforts contain a marvelously energetic flourish that makes them seem vibrant and contemporary, as well as uniquely identifiable. Alwyn’s productivity was vast and his talents wildly versatile; he wrote numerous song cycles and symphonies; he was a deftly skilled flautist; he wrote poetry, painted, and spoke numerous languages. But of all of Alwyn’s contributions to the arts, the most significant were his various innovations of the motion picture soundtrack. Between 1936 and 1962, he scored nearly 60 feature films and 150 documentaries, and he greatly expanded the aesthetic grammar of the medium, infusing it with a degree of sophistication and depth that still startles and pleases well into the 21st century.
Alwyn was born in Northampton, in the East Midlands of England, and he was immediately and obviously a musical prodigy. At the shockingly young age of 21 he was appointed Professor of Composition at the preeminent Royal Academy of Music in London. A year later he secured the first chair as flautist with the London Symphony Orchestra. He promptly became a nationally popular soloist, and mastered any number of chamber works. From there he rose to the realm of soundtracks, writing mesmerizing accompaniments for countless UK and Hollywood classics, including: Desert Victory (1943); Odd Man Out (1947);The October Man (1947); The Gay Intruders (1947); The History of Mr. Polly (1949), The Crimson Pirate (1952); Svengali (1954): A Night to Remember (1958); and Walt Disney’s beloved Swiss Family Robinson (1960).
He was also a relentless organizer, chairing foundations and tirelessly promoting the arts. Alwyn co-founded the Composers' Guild of Great Britain, and headed it in 1949, 1950, and 1954; he directed the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society; served the Society for the Promotion of New Music; and for twenty years he worked for both the Performing Right Society and the Council of the Society for the Promotion of New Music. Beyond these devotions, Alwyn worked extensively for the BBC, assessing the scores that were submitted for its programming. His awards and accolades were similarly impressive: he received the storied Collard Fellowship of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, as well as fellowships from the Royal Academy of Music, the British Film Academy, and the International Poetry Society. In 1978 he was bestowed with a supreme honor: Queen Elizabeth knighted him as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Alwyn’s compositions continue to appear in new forms, and there are numerous recordings worth hearing. Alwyn: Complete Symphonies; Sinfonietta for Strings (1996 Chandos) is one of the best places to start; it’s an impressive and lengthy collection of his Symphonies nos. 1-6, performed with striking clarity by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by the famed Richard Hickox. There is haunting and eerie lyricism galore in William Alwyn: Mirages, Divertimento for Solo Flute, Naiades Fantasy-Sonata, Fantasy-Waltzes, Sonata alla Toccata (2007 Lyrita), with expert performances by Benjamin Luxon, David Willison, Christopher Hyde-Smith, and Maris Robles. A superb selection of Alwyn’s film scores has been compiled in several volumes as The Film Music of William Alwyn (2006 Chandos); the films represented include Odd Man Out, Desert Victory, The Crimson Pirate, The Winslow Boy, Fallen Idol, Penn of Pennsylvania, The Running Man, and many more. However, Alwyn’s signature work may be the impossibly lovely Lyra Angelica (1992 Chandos). A concerto for harp and string orchestra, this version is performed by the City of London Sinfonia, and again conducted by Hickox. It’s the perfect summary of William Alwyn’s breathtakingly broad body of work: It melds lush beauty with subtle nuance and quiet dissonance, and paints vast aural soundscapes that enchant and linger long after the final note has faded into silence.
