Alwyn, William, 1905-1985 (composer)
Biography
William Alwyn was born William Alwyn Smith on 7th November 1905 in Northampton. His parents, William James Smith and Ada Tyler Tompkins, ran a grocer’s shop “The Shakspere [sic] Stores”. He took lessons on the piccolo from an early age, and then moved on to the piano and composition. He attended Northampton Grammar School, and by the age of 15 had entered the Royal Academy of Music initially taking flute as his major study before settling on composition. When his father died suddenly William was forced to leave the Royal Academy, and spent some years as a jobbing musician playing in seaside bands, and at cinemas, as well as teaching piano and harmony.
Following an unhappy period teaching at a preparatory school, Alwyn was invited back to the Royal Academy to teach when his former composition tutor John Blackwood McEwen became Principal. Shortly afterwards William married a fellow musician Olive Mary Audrey Pull; they had 2 sons.
He soon became very successful, his Five preludes for orchestra was premiered at the 1927 Proms, and the many short pieces that he had written for piano and violin became staples of the Associated Board of Music examination syllabuses. In the 1930s he visited Australia and Canada on extended examining tours for the Board.
His big break came in the 1930s when he was asked to complete the score for the film The future’s in the air. He would go on to compose the soundtrack for more than 200 films. His most highly regarded scores are probably those for the feature films he made with Carol Reed including Odd man out (1947) and Fallen Idol (1948), the Disney film Swiss family Robinson (1960), and the wartime documentaries and docu-drama Fires were started, World of plenty and The way ahead. William was thrilled to discover after the war that his film scores were considered to be so important to public morale that he had been placed on a Nazi death list. Throughout the war as well as composing a string of morale boosting film scores William was busy playing flute at the National Gallery concerts, and also volunteered as an air-raid warden.
The war marked a turning point in how Alwyn saw both himself and his music. He had begun a love affair with his composition student Doreen Mary Carwithen, who was herself to become a talented film composer. With the return of his family to London at the end of the war William was torn between his family and Doreen, it inspired him to look again at his earlier output, most of which he disavowed – although he never destroyed – and decided to start compositionally all over again.
He wrote the first of what he envisioned as a cycle of four symphonies in 1949, much encouraged by the enthusiasm of the conductor, Sir John Barbirolli, for the work. A second symphony swiftly followed, while a journal that Alwyn kept while composing the third symphony was later to be published in the literary journal ADAM as Ariel to Miranda. The 1950s were an astonishingly productive time for William, not only was he producing an enormous amount of high quality music – including works such as Lyra Angelica which would become one of his most popular compositions, and the first string quartet (having disowned his 13 pre-war quartets) - but he was also heavily involved in many industry committees serving as Chairman or Director of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain, the Performing Right Society, and the Society for the Promotion of New Music of which he was a founder member. He was elected to the Fellowship of the British Film Academy for his work in the film industry in 195?
The advent of the 1960s led to an enormous change in William’s life. His health had become increasingly poor under the strain of work and the breakdown of his marriage. He had also recently resigned from the Royal Academy of Music after more than 30 years as a teacher there following the appointment of a new Principal, and because of his increasing ill-health the film work was drying-up.
William left his wife, Olive, in 1962, and moved to Southwold and then Blythburgh with Doreen Carwithen. She changed her name by deed-poll to Doreen Mary Alwyn, and they were married in the early 1970s when Alwyn was finally divorced.
At Blythburgh Alwyn wrote another 2 symphonies, numerous piano works and songs (some to his own lyrics), 2 operas Miss Julie and Don Juan, and 2 more string quartets. He also wrote and translated poetry, wrote a novel, and two volumes of biography, and had time for his other great love – art. As well as his paintings and sketches William was an avid art collector with a special interest and knowledge of the Pre-Raphaelites, and French art of the same period.
He went through a period of some bitterness when his music was largely neglected by the establishment, but was thrilled to be made a CBE in 1977, and took great delight in answering the letters of his many admirers. He suffered a stroke in 1981 which left him unable to compose for 2 years, following this illness he wrote the last of his string quartets which was premiered in Blythburgh just before his death in 1985.
Found in 18 Collections and/or Records:
Correspondence FROM Olive Alwyn (nee Pull) to William Alwyn, 18th July 1924 - 15th October 1972
Correspondents A, 1935-1963
Hassall died intestate. His working papers were taken to the Royal Society of Literature by his assistant Gillian Paterson, who arranged and (presumably) listed them. They were bought by CUL from Bloomsbury Book Auctions in 1992. They were housed in paper box files 1 25 and cartons A D, as listed. They have now been re boxed, in 28 boxes and one packet, which has involved some reorganisation of the material and hence some rearrangement and re numbering of the original list.
Drawings and sketches, 1955-1980
Sketches, charcoal, pencil and pastel drawings. Also includes sketchbooks.
Film music scores and sketches, 1936-1963
from William Alwyn, 8 North Square, NW 11, 10 Oct 1954
Hassall died intestate. His working papers were taken to the Royal Society of Literature by his assistant Gillian Paterson, who arranged and (presumably) listed them. They were bought by CUL from Bloomsbury Book Auctions in 1992. They were housed in paper box files 1 25 and cartons A D, as listed. They have now been re boxed, in 28 boxes and one packet, which has involved some reorganisation of the material and hence some rearrangement and re numbering of the original list.
from William Alwyn, 8 North Square, NW 11, 17 Feb 1958
Hassall died intestate. His working papers were taken to the Royal Society of Literature by his assistant Gillian Paterson, who arranged and (presumably) listed them. They were bought by CUL from Bloomsbury Book Auctions in 1992. They were housed in paper box files 1 25 and cartons A D, as listed. They have now been re boxed, in 28 boxes and one packet, which has involved some reorganisation of the material and hence some rearrangement and re numbering of the original list.
from William Alwyn, 8 North Square, NW 11, 25 Aug 1957
Hassall died intestate. His working papers were taken to the Royal Society of Literature by his assistant Gillian Paterson, who arranged and (presumably) listed them. They were bought by CUL from Bloomsbury Book Auctions in 1992. They were housed in paper box files 1 25 and cartons A D, as listed. They have now been re boxed, in 28 boxes and one packet, which has involved some reorganisation of the material and hence some rearrangement and re numbering of the original list.
from William Alwyn, 8 North Square, NW 11, 13 Nov 1957
Hassall died intestate. His working papers were taken to the Royal Society of Literature by his assistant Gillian Paterson, who arranged and (presumably) listed them. They were bought by CUL from Bloomsbury Book Auctions in 1992. They were housed in paper box files 1 25 and cartons A D, as listed. They have now been re boxed, in 28 boxes and one packet, which has involved some reorganisation of the material and hence some rearrangement and re numbering of the original list.
from William Alwyn, 8 North Square, NW 11, 28 Jul 1958
Hassall died intestate. His working papers were taken to the Royal Society of Literature by his assistant Gillian Paterson, who arranged and (presumably) listed them. They were bought by CUL from Bloomsbury Book Auctions in 1992. They were housed in paper box files 1 25 and cartons A D, as listed. They have now been re boxed, in 28 boxes and one packet, which has involved some reorganisation of the material and hence some rearrangement and re numbering of the original list.
from William Alwyn, 8 North Square, NW 11, 1 Mar 1954
Hassall died intestate. His working papers were taken to the Royal Society of Literature by his assistant Gillian Paterson, who arranged and (presumably) listed them. They were bought by CUL from Bloomsbury Book Auctions in 1992. They were housed in paper box files 1 25 and cartons A D, as listed. They have now been re boxed, in 28 boxes and one packet, which has involved some reorganisation of the material and hence some rearrangement and re numbering of the original list.
from William Alwyn, Lark Rise, Blythburgh, Suffolk, 30 Aug 1962
Hassall died intestate. His working papers were taken to the Royal Society of Literature by his assistant Gillian Paterson, who arranged and (presumably) listed them. They were bought by CUL from Bloomsbury Book Auctions in 1992. They were housed in paper box files 1 25 and cartons A D, as listed. They have now been re boxed, in 28 boxes and one packet, which has involved some reorganisation of the material and hence some rearrangement and re numbering of the original list.
from William Alwyn, Lark Rise, Blythburgh, Suffolk, 9 Nov 1962
Hassall died intestate. His working papers were taken to the Royal Society of Literature by his assistant Gillian Paterson, who arranged and (presumably) listed them. They were bought by CUL from Bloomsbury Book Auctions in 1992. They were housed in paper box files 1 25 and cartons A D, as listed. They have now been re boxed, in 28 boxes and one packet, which has involved some reorganisation of the material and hence some rearrangement and re numbering of the original list.
from William Alwyn, The Pengethley Hotel, Nr. Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, 8 Oct 1962
Hassall died intestate. His working papers were taken to the Royal Society of Literature by his assistant Gillian Paterson, who arranged and (presumably) listed them. They were bought by CUL from Bloomsbury Book Auctions in 1992. They were housed in paper box files 1 25 and cartons A D, as listed. They have now been re boxed, in 28 boxes and one packet, which has involved some reorganisation of the material and hence some rearrangement and re numbering of the original list.
Josef Holbrooke: letters
Letters to Holbrooke, mostly from composers and writers on music.
Personal papers, 1915-1985
Vilém Tauský: Letters to him from musicians, 11 Aug. 1954-9 Feb. 1977
Artificial collection of single item or small collection accessions. Mainly correspondence but includes other papers.
William Alwyn (1905-1985)
Including William Alwyn, F. Baker, Don Banks, Benjamin Britten, Joseph Horowitz, Leonard Kastle, Elisabeth Lutyens, Walter Leigh, Peter MacNaughton-Smith, Buxton Orr, Alan Rawsthorne, Humphrey Searle, Matyas Seiber, James Stevens, Donald Swann, Alexander Walton, Sir William Walton; poems 'O the valley in the summer', 'I am a jam tart' by Wystan Hugh Auden.
William Alwyn and Doreen Carwithen Archives
Around 150 boxes of manuscript music, correspondence, concert programmes, photographs, paintings, press cuttings, writings, and ephemera.
Additional filters:
- ARCHON code (for CUL materials)
- Archives and MSS Dept. (GBR/0012) 17
- Type
- Archival Object 16
- Collection 2