Crisis and Resolution
Donald Macleod recounts how Doreen Carwithen's elopement with William Alwyn happened, and considers the effect of this action on Carwithen's career.
Donald Macleod recounts how Doreen Carwithen's elopement with William Alwyn happened, and considers the effect of this action on Carwithen's career.
Doreen Carwithen is one of only a handful of female British composers who worked in the film industry in the 1940s and 1950s. Dramas, mysteries, horror flicks, documentaries, the thirty plus films she scored form a substantial part of her musical legacy.
Carwithen first came to critical attention in the concert hall, with the catchily titled ODTAA, One damn thing after another, in 1947. Predictably, newspaper headlines made much of her gender and her youth. She was just 24. It seemed as if a bright future lay ahead, yet, at the beginning of the 1960s Carwithen would stop writing music, a situation which perhaps in part explains why her music dropped off the radar for many years.
To mark the centenary of her birth, Donald Macleod is joined by Leah Broad, whose biography of Carwithen is due to be published in 2023. Together they bring to light the little-known yet fascinating story of this 20th century British composer.
On 19th April 1961 Doreen Carwithen and William Alwyn travelled to Coventry. At the hotel they each wrote to their respective families explaining that they were now living together. From this point on, Carwithen changed her name by deed poll to Alwyn, and preferred to be called Mary. Her life had changed irrevocably.
String Quartet no 2
II: excerpt
Tippett Quartet
Echo (Who called?)
James Gilchrist,
Nathan Williamson, piano
Cello sonatina
Andrei Ionita, cello
Lilit Grigoryan, piano
String Quartet no 2
Tippett Quartet
Mantrap Suites, arr Philip Lane
I: Main Titles and opening scene
II: Woman in Danger
III: Closing Scene and End titles
BBC Concert Orchestra
Gavin Sutherland, conductor
Producer: Johannah Smith
Last on
Music Played
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Doreen Carwithen
Echo (Who called?)
Performer: Nathan Williamson. Singer: James Gilchrist.- Somm : SOMMCD0636.
- Somm.
- 24.
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Doreen Carwithen
Cello Sonatina
Performer: Andrei Ioniţă. Performer: Lilit Grigoryan. -
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Doreen Carwithen
String Quartet No 2
Ensemble: Tippett Quartet.- Somm : SOMMCD0194.
- Somm.
- 7.
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Doreen Carwithen
Mantrap Suite (1st - 3rd mvt)
Orchestra: BBC Concert Orchestra. Conductor: Gavin Sutherland.- Dutton : CDLX7266.
- Dutton.
- 9.
Broadcast
- Thu 24 Nov 2022 12:00BBC Radio 3
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