British Film Composers complete listing A
TEMPLE ABADY

This Year-London (1951), Work in Progress (1951), Away for the Day (1952)All documentary shorts.

RICHARD ADDINSELL

Addinsell (London 13 January 1904 - 14 November 1977) wrote the so-called Warsaw Concerto (orchestrated by Roy Douglas). There are many recordings of this piece. Was a product of the RCM in London. In 1933 he visited the USA and wrote film music in Hollywood. His greatest success was music for the film Dangerous Moonlight, which included the Warsaw Concerto for piano and orchestra. In the film soundtrack this is played by Louis Kentner with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Muir Mathieson. His films include Amateur Gentleman (1936 for Korda), Fire Over England (1937), South Riding (1937), Goodbye Mr Chips (1939), Gaslight (1940), The Lion Has Wings (1940), Men of the Lightship (1940), Love on the Dole (1941), Suicide Squadron (1941), The Avengers (1942), Blithe Spirit (1945), A Diary for Timothy (1945), Passionate Friends (1949), Under Capricorn (1949), The Black Rose (1950), A Christmas Carol (aka Scrooge - 1950 - a score warmly praised and recommended by Bill Huelbig for its fresh re-inventive use of well-known Christmas carols), Highly Dangerous (1951), Tom Brown's School Days (1951), Encore (1952), Sea Devils (1953), Beau Brummel (1954), Out of the Clouds (1957), The :Prince and the Showgirl (1957), A Tale of Two Cities (1958), Loss of Innocence (1961), Macbeth (1961), The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (1961), Waltz of the Toreadors (1962), Life at the Top (1965 - his last film).

JOHN ADDISON

Addison was born in 1920 in Surrey. He was on the RCM staff 1951-58 but since 1975 has been based in Los Angeles. Occasional skier and mountaineer in the French Alps.

During a BBC radio interview with Carl Davis in 1995, he recounted his introduction to the world of film music. The then Private Addison met Roy Boulting in the army and they became good friends. He had done one year at the RCM before being extracted for National Service. He returned to the RCM with a government grant after one year. Boulting kept in touch and came to a concert at which one of Addison's works was performed. Boulting thought Addison would be good at film music and took him along to the studios having him play piano for actors to get them into the mood of a particular scene. This got him hooked and he is sure that this started him off his film music career.

He did the opening and closing title music for Brandy for the Parson, the plot of which involved some innocents unknowingly smuggling brandy into Britain. He adopted a slightly dissonant style but was still able to conjure up a fine vivid sea picture.

He has covered a very wide range of films. There is the patriotic Reach for the Sky. The March for A Bridge Too Far is a devastatingly fine piece which some argue was of such a quality that its slightly ironic-heroic tone rather swamped the film. It has been recorded by Marcus Dods and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on EMI.

There was also the Cold War thriller the Man Between by Carol Reed. This is tougher sombre tragic stuff. The score has James Mason as the man between. The music is full of drums tolling and a classically wailing saxophone. There are crashing dissonances but we are spared a sustained assault. The score is replete with a certain commercial angst. Addison recalls that some directors ask film composers not to be too modern.

He is firmly committed to film music providing scores for more than sixty English and U.S. films. Scores include Seven Days to Noon (1950), Pool of London (1951), High Treason 91952), The Hour of Thirteen (1952), The Man Between (1953), Terror on a Train (1953), The Black Knight (1954), High and Dry (1954), The Paratrooper (1954), That Lady (1955), The Cockleshell Heroes (1956), The Light Touch (1955), Make Me An Offer (1956), Private's Progress (1956), Three Men in a Boat (1956), Reach for the Sky (1957), Lucky Jim (1958), I Was Monty's Double (1959), Look Back in Anger (1959), The Entertainer (1959), A French Mistress (1960), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), A Taste of Honey (1962), Tom Jones (1963), The Loved One (1963), The Girl with the Green Eyes (1964), Guns at Batasi (1964), The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965), A Fine Madness (1966), I Was Happy Here (1966), The Torn Curtain (1966), The Honey Pot (1967), Smashing Time (1967), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) a film offered to Malcolm Arnold but declined, Brotherly Love (1970), Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), Mr Forbrush and the Penguins (1972), Sleuth (1972), and The Seven Per Cent Solution (1976).

LARRY ADLER

World famous harmonica player whose classic harmonica-led score graces one of the lighter British film classics: Genevieve (1953), a Cry from the Streets (1959), The Hellions (1962), The Great Chase (1963), The Hook (1963), A High Wind in Jamaica (1965), King and Country (1965).

KENNETH ALWYN

Conductor - born London 1928. At the forefront of the revival of British film music. Has recorded extensively with Silver Screen.

WILLIAM ALWYN.

Alwyn was made a fellow of the British Film Academy in 1958. His list of scores is long and distinguished: Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, Mandy, A Night to Remember are amongst the highlights. He is another composer who is at ease with the same idiom in both concert hall and film auditorium. His first symphony leans heavily on his film scores. His income from film music royalties allowed him to launch a very full (though not complete) series of LP recordings of his orchestral music. These Lyritas recordings have now been reissued on compact disc and a parallel set of recordings has been produced by Chandos. It is to Chandos we are indebted for a wonderful recording with the LPO and Richard Hickox of a selection of his film music. Silva Screen have recently recorded a brief selection from his Burt Lancaster film The Crimson Pirate on FILMXCD188 (2 CD set).

After Alwyn left the Royal Academy he played flute in cinema and theatre orchestras in London's East End. At the invitation of J.B. McEwen he joined the staff of the Royal Academy in 1927 and remained on the strength until 1955. He moved to Lark Rise, Blythburgh in Suffolk in 1960. His major break into the film world came with a rush job to produce music for a documentary film on air travel. This was called The Future is in the Air. There was then a trail of documentary music commissions establishing his name. The Army Film Unit and the Ministry of Information soon noticed Alwyn when the war broke out and naturally looked to him to provide music. The scores dating from the war years include: Fires Were Started (1942), Desert Victory (1943) and Our Country (1944) the latter with words written and narrated by Dylan Thomas. However of all his war films it is the Carol Reed directed The Way Ahead (1944) which achieved great fame. Even the Nazis saw his qualities as a morale booster and Alwyn's name was on Hitler's hit list in the event of occupation of the British isles

The cinema achieved new heights during the war and retained them afterwards. Alwyn benefited from this. He wrote landmark scores for Odd Man Out (1946), The Fallen Idol (1948) and The Ship that Died of Shame (1955). Commission followed commission and the rewards were substantial and continued as royalties continued to benefit the estate as the films made the transition from big to small screen with multiple showings.

A phenomenal technique coupled with inspired ideas were a strong combination. And amongst the work that came his way was music for three Disney epics including Swiss Family Robinson. Alwyn became fascinated with the film medium and its relationship with music. He wrote with sensitivity to the counterpoint between music, dialogue and action. Hans Keller also a friend and supporter of another film composer Benjamin Frankel considered Alwyn's theory and its practice in an article on Film Music - Speech Rhythm.

Film music composers active in the concert forum as well have always suffered from a snobbism which suggests that because they wrote successful film music they cannot be worthwhile writers of 'serious' music. Alwyn was the target of such criticism. He continued his production of concert works alongside his film activities and the two inter-acted. Musical style of the two areas of practice is largely indistinguishable. It was an easy gibe when his concert works came out at a time when heroic romanticism was out of fashion to condemn the material as 'film music'. But for Alwyn's private resources it is dubious that his symphonies and other orchestral works (available now on Lyrita) would have been recorded as early as the 1970s.

Alwyn's score for The History of Mr Polly was revived by Carl Davis in 1995. The first movement is popular fairground entertainment - carefree and uncomplicated. There are great drunken slides amongst the strings and a wild quasi-Korngoldian waltz. This is very much music hall material. The second movement is pure romance with a gentle quiet string theme and a long solo violin section. The playful mood returns for the third movement and the final movement opens with a stolid Irish plod and closes in a triumphant glow. For contrast you should hear the brief episode of the Scarlet Pirate film music on Silva Screen 188 as played by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Paul Bateman. Swashbuckling at its prime.

The following quotes from the writing of Hubert Culot provide further helpful background:-

"Among his best film scores mention must be made of 'Odd Man Out ' (1947) and 'Shake Hands with the Devil' (1959). Both scores contain impressively powerful music which sometimes rises to symphonic proportions, e.g. the title music from the former and 'Dublin 1921' from the latter. His film music very often contains highly characteristic features generally found in his concert works. A striking example can be heard in the score for 'The Crimson Pirate (1952), although the film in itself may not be altogether distinguished. Nevertheless, it provided Alwyn with many opportunities to write some fine music and especially some sea music mainly as a splendid horn melody reminiscent of the magnificent horn theme from the scherzo of the 1st Symphony. On the other hand, some of the music for 'Shake Hands with the Devil' shares the same dramatic intensity and dark eloquence as the 3rd Symphony. Other excerpts from film scores, e.g. 'The Punting Sequence' from 'The History of Mr Polly' (1949), might have found their way into a concerto grosso or some short orchestral suite.

"In fact, writing for films was as serious a task as composing a major symphony. Alwyn approached the film score with the same earnestness of purpose and the same artistic integrity as he did his concert works, and he always tried to meet all the requirements of the film while writing music of high quality. He did his own orchestrations with the exception of the three Disney films, which were scored by Muir Mathieson who, incidentally, conducted most film scores by Alwyn. As the composer says in his autobiography, "each film score I had written was an opportunity for experiment and an exceptional chance, given the splendid orchestras who played my scores, to improve and polish my technique and widen my dramatic range". Although he enjoyed writing for films, Alwyn was never interested in having his scores re-recorded or reworked. [when it was] once suggested, rather naively, that he should make concert suites from some of his best film scores in order to preserve some fine music, which he countered by saying that the scores had been destroyed along with Pinewood Studios in the fifties! In this he shared the late Sir Arthur Bliss' defiant attitude towards his own film music, which is a pity given the musical excellence of some of it."

ALWYN - LIST OF FILM SCORES

1936

Air Outpost

The Birth of the Year

The Future's in the Air

Monkey into Man

The Zoo and You

Zoo Babies

1937

These Children are Safe

Wings over Empire

1938

New Worlds for Old (Paul Rotha)

1939

Roads Across Britain

1940

S.O.S.

Steel Goes to Sea

W.V.S.

1941

The Harvest shall Come (Marc Anderson)

Kipps

Penn of Pennsylvania

1942

Spring on the Farm

Crown of the Year

The Countrywomen

Life Begins Again

They Flew Alone

Wales

Western Isles

Winter on the Farm

World of Plenty (Paul Rotha)

The Young Mr Pitt

1943

Border Weave

Citizens of Tomorrow

Desert Victory (Roy Boulting)

Escape to Danger

Fires were Started

Medal for the General

On Approval

The Proud City

Squadron Leader X

There's a Future in it

1944

French Town

Lost Illusion

Our Country

Soldier-Sailor

Summer on the Farm

Tunisian Victory , with Dimitri Tiomkin

The Way Ahead (Carol Reed)

Welcome to Britain

1945

Great Day

The Rake's Progress (Sidney Gilliat)

Today and Tomorrow

Total War in Britain

The True Glory (G. Kanin and C. Reed)

1946

Green for Danger (Sidney Gilliat)

I See a Dark Stranger (Frank Launder)

Land of Promise

1947

Approach to Science

Captain Boycott

A City Speaks

October Man (Roy Ward Baker)

Odd Man Out (Carol Reed)

Take my Life (Ronald Neame)

Your Children and You

1948

Daybreak in Udi

Escape

The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed)

So Evil my Love with V. Young (Lewis Allen)

Three Dawns to Sydney

The Winslow Boy (Anthony Asquith)

1949

The History of Mr Polly

The Rocking Horse Winner

1950

The Cure for Love

The Golden Salamander ( Ronald Neame)

Madeleine (David Leane)

The Magnet (Charles Frend)

The Mudlark (Jean Negulesco)

Morning Departure ( Roy Ward Baker)

State Secret (Sidney Gilliat)

1951

Henry Moore

The House in the Square

Lady Godiva Rides Again

The Magic Box ( Roy Boulting)

Night without Stars (Paul Rotha)

No Resting Place

Royal River

1952

The Card ( Ronald Neame)

The Crimson Pirate (Robert Siodmak)

Mandy (Alexander Mackendrick)

Royal Heritage

1953

The Long Memory

The Malta Story (Brian Desmond Hurst)

Master of Ballantrae (William Keighley)

A Personal Affair

Powered Flight

1954

Black on White

The Million Pound Note

The Rainbow Jacket

The Seekers

Svengali

1955

Bedevilled

The Constant Husband (Sidney Gilliat)

Geordie

The Ship that Died of Shame

1956

The Black Tent (Brian Desmond Hurst)

Safari (Terence Young)

Smiley (Anthony Dimmings)

1957

Fortune is a Woman (Sidney Gilliat)

Manuela (Guy Hamilton)

The Smallest Show on Earth (Basil Dearden)

Zarak (Terence Young)

1958

Carve her Name with Pride (Lewis Gilbert)

I Accuse!

A Night to Remember ( Roy Ward Baker)

The Silent Enemy

1959

Shake Hands with the Devil ( Michael Anderson)

Third Man on the Mountain (Ken Annakin)

1960

The Killers of Kilimanjaro

Swiss Family Robinson (Ken Annakin)

1961

In Search of the Castaways

The Naked Edge (Michael Anderson)

1962

Life for Ruth

Night of the Eagle

1963

The Running Man

Alwyn's film music is now best represented on compact disc by Chandos CHAN

Archive recordings include:-

Calypso Music ( 'The Rake's Progress') (1945)

LSO/Mathieson (mono) Ariel CBF 13

Punting Sequence (1949) (The History of Mr Polly)

RPO/Mathieson ( mono) Citadel CT-OFI-1

Paul's Last Ride (1949) ('The Rocking Horse Winner')

RPO/Mathieson ( mono) Citadel CT-OFI - 1

Main Title ('The Card') (1952), Orch., Mathieson (mono) Citadel CT-OFI-1

Shake Hands with the Devil (1959) UNITED ARTISTS UAS 4043

Sinfonia of London/Mathieson UAS 5043/UASF 5043

ARMSTRONG GIBBS

Film Music: Lorna Doone (1934)

RICHARD ARNELL

Arnell in addition to being a composer is also a film-maker and he has also written much distinctive music for films. He was born in London in 1917 and studied at the Royal College of Music 1935-9 with Ireland. During his time in the USA his music was conducted by Stokowski and film music doyen Bernard Herrmann and by Beecham. In 1941 Arnell wrote his first film score to Robert Flaherty's documentary, The Land. Though the film was not immediately released, Arnell made a suite from the music. Arnell wrote a film for the British transport film unit: Wires Over the Border (Sticky George Group - 1974)

Films: The Land (1941); The Third Secret (1963); The Visit (1964); The Man Outside (1966); Topsail Schooner (1966); Bequest For A Village (1969); Second Best (1972); Stained Glass (1973); Wires Over The Border (1974); Black Panther (1977); Antagonist (1980); Dilemma (1981); Doctor In The Sky (1983); Toulouse Lautrec (1984).

MALCOLM ARNOLD

Arnold was born in Northampton on 21 October 1921. Incidentally Northampton is also the birthplace of Rubbra and William Alwyn. He has written more than 80 film scores, including his most famous 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' which received an Oscar.

Arnold is one of the great composers of British or any film music. His range is very wide. The music is always approachable and touches off deep responses. If people associate him with buffoonery they miscalculate very seriously. The diversity of his approach and achievement is just as evident from his film music as it is from the concert works.

His initiation came in 1947 when his friend John Swain invited him to provide music for Avalanche Patrol. This was a documentary and he was to produce music for another twenty of these before his first feature film: Badger's Green.

His early feature film scores arrived at the same time as prime scores from Alwyn and Frankel. His key scores from this era are The Captain's Paradise (1953), Albert RN (1953), The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954), I Am a Camera (1955), The Constant Husband (1955), The Deep Blue Sea (1955), several early Hammer productions and The Sound Barrier (1952). The rhapsody from the latter was recorded on 78.

Hobson's Choice was one of his classic scores. It was written in 1953 and some sections were written before filming so that the music could make maximum impact. It was written in dance hall style with a 25 string band and much music for wallowing boozy brass instruments. The tuba takes the part of drunkard Henry Hobson and the love theme is associated with Hobson's daughter.

This Lean film was not their last collaboration. The Bridge on the River Kwai came in 1957. This was a big production in every way. It (the score) was written and recorded in just ten days. It revived Kenneth Alford's march Colonel Bogey used as a contrasting strand to Arnold's own River Kwai march. Due to some strange copyright issue the two are not now permitted to be played together except on the film soundtrack itself.

Some years earlier his uproarious score for The Belles of St Trinians is just as important and enjoyable in a much lighter way. The scoring is for twelve players.

Dunkirk has impressive title music including a principal theme that has an Elgarian nobility to it and also a great degree of memorability.

Other films followed: Trapeze (1956), 1984 (1956), Island in the Sun (1957), The Roots of Heaven (1958), Dunkirk (1958), The Key (1958) a score much prized by Arnold, The Angry Silence (1959) and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958). This last follows the story of Gladys Aylward and her trek with hundreds of Chinese children to reach safety from the Japanese.

It was a close thing but he almost scored Lawrence of Arabia (1962) on which the conductor Myer Fredman worked but it was eventually Maurice Jarre who wrote the score. Totally affecting in much more tender way is the film for which he did provide totally apt music: Whistle Down the Wind (1961). The score is devastatingly sensitive with a slightly chilly innocence well projected. The whistling on the soundtrack is by the film's producer, Richard Attenborough.

After this came scores for The Chalk Garden (1964), The Heroes of the Telemark (1965 - a cracking score which could do with a fresh re-recording complete), and The Reckoning (1969).

Arnold also orchestrated, assisted generally and conducted the Walton music for the film Battle of Britain (1969) a score sacrificed in favour of Ron Goodwin's. In 1970 his final feature came in the shape of the score for David Copperfield.

Interviewed in 1996 by Carl Davis on BBC Radio, he explained that he got into films to give himself experience in conducting. He became a composer used to working very fast and meeting deadlines. Alan Rawsthorne was deeply impressed by his speed of production. He ran his career in both films and the concert side by side. He was also a composer whose film music vocabulary was no different than his concert language. Listen to the final pages of the Fifth Symphony if you want to compare the two. The composer calls this an 'organic unity'. Arnold was also phenomenally successful, in the film music world.

Arnold's work on the John Huston film Roots of Heaven produced a super-romantic prelude revived by Carl Davis and the BBC Concert Orchestra. As was not unusual he only met Huston once during the making of the film. The music used African rhythms and elephant hoots emulated by the horns using two octaves - quite a bold effect as the composer readily stated. As the expertise and fluency of his brass writing demonstrates, his background was in the London Philharmonic as third trumpeter from which he moved directly to principal. He then gave this up to conduct.

His method of writing demanded every line of dialogue before he would write the music. In Arnold's words 'Film music writing is a lonely job' although he was often assisted by Dorothy Payne but there was never any doubt who the composer was.

The revived 'Overture' to The Roots of Heaven was an example of a very strange genre. Overtures to films were written both for the opening credits (the title music) but specifically for the gala launch of the film. They are confections, usually about 5 minutes long, based on themes from the film. They were played at the gala premiere then put away. Korngold did same for premieres of his films. In the case of The Roots of Heaven this one had not been heard since 1958. The music opens with a blundering, clashing brass and exultant horns. The language is familiar from symphonies 4-6. There is a sinuous relaxed jazzy clarinet theme moving into a swooping string tune. The piece ends in much heaven-storming and sky-trumpeting: Love and Africa triumphant!

As a contrast he also wrote music for documentaries such as Report on Steel. This music he reshaped into 'Machines' a concert piece dating from 1954 which has been championed by the composer himself, by Charles Groves and Carl Davis. Alarmingly it is scored for brass, strings and percussion - no woodwind. In fact it is not as percussive as you might think. There is a fine Arnold melody in the middle section plus the occasional recollection of Bliss's Things to Come.

Another film, You Know What Sailors Are, produced the scherzetto for clarinet and orchestra (recorded on Hyperion).

The film The Reckoning was the quarry for themes for the neglected Eighth Symphony much overshadowed by its large-scale successor and predecessor.

The film The Sound Barrier yielded a concert rhapsody which has been broadcast by the Ulster Orchestra and Yannis Daras.

What a pity it is that Arnold has retired from the film music scene. We can draw consolation from the fact that it will be years before his many film scores will be excavated and re-recorded.

MALCOLM ARNOLD - THE FILMS

The Forbidden Street (1949)

Women in Our Time (1949)

Eye Witness (1950)

The Sound Barrier (1952)

The Captain's Paradise (1953)

Channel Islands (1953)

Hobson's Choice (1954)

You Know What Sailors Are (1954)

The Belles of St. Trinian's (1955)

The Deep Blue Sea (1955)

The Night My Number Came Up (1955)

A Prize of Gold (1955)

1984 (1956)

Port Afrique (1956)

Trapeze (1956)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Island in the Sun (1957)

Value for Money (1957)

Wicked as They Come (1957)

Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1958)

Dunkirk (1958)

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)

The Key (1958)

The Roots of Heaven (1958)

Suddenly Last Summer (1959)

The Angry Silence (1960)

Tunes of Glory (1960)

No Love for Johnnie (1961)

The Lion (1962)

Lisa (1962)

Whistle Down the Wind (1962)

Nine Hours to Rama (1963)

The Chalk Garden (1964)

Tamahine (1964)

The Thin Red Line (1964)

Heroes of the Telemark (1965)

Operation Snafu (1965)

The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966)

Sky West and Crooked (1966)

Africa - Texas Style (1967)

The Reckoning (1969)

David Copperfield (1970)

EDWIN ASTLEY

Apparently active only in the realms of film music. His scores include many documentaries: 1959 Diesel Train Ride, 1959 Broad Waterways, 1960 What a Day, 1960 Speaking of Freight, 1962 The Signal Engineers. Scotland for Sport used Hebridean 'Puirt a'Beul' (mouth music).

Terminus was the cinema debut of John Schlesinger in 1961 showing a day in the life of Waterloo Station. Astley's feature films included To Paris with Love (1955), Kill Her Gently (1958), Wishing Well Inn (1958), The Giant Behemoth (1959), The Mouse That Roared (1959), Woman Eater (1959), The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960), In the Wake of a Stranger ()1960), Passport to China (1961), A Matter of Who (1962), The Phantom of the Opera (1962).

GEORGES AURIC

Auric, one of Les Six was a writer of film scores long before sound came onto the scene. His bright music was a surprising counterpoint to many a typically English frolic in the 40s and 50s. He became particularly known for his music for the Ealing Comedies including Passport to Pimlico. This music was bright, vif, always colourfully chiming and brimming with bustle and activity. Bliss was commissioned to write the music for Caesar and Cleopatra (1944) but it was Auric also provided the score for The Galloping Major (1951). Little could be more English than the plot and setting of the Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt yet once again it was Georges Auric who provided the music. His roster of films is long indeed and runs from 1930 (Blood of a Poet) to 1969 (The Christmas Tree) - in total 52 scores. The list includes Beauty and the Beast (1946), The Eagle Has Two Heads (1948), The Queen of Spades (1948), The Storm Within (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), The Wages of Fear (1955), Rififi (1956), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), SOS Pacific (1960) and Therese and Isabelle (1968).

EDGAR BAINTON

This fine British born composer who emigrated to Australia wrote a number of very impressive works some of which exist in recordings which desperately now need reissue. The most important is the 1950s recording of the visionary Third Symphony. Bainton wrote the music for one film while in Australia. This was a short documentary film on the Australian Bush Police.

CHRIS BARBER

Better known in the jazz world Barber's British Transport film Holiday was made in 1957.

JOHN BARRY

Born 1933 in York. Very extensive list of film scores including a number of James Bond films (re-recorded on Silva Screen FILMCD007), A Doll's House, Love Among the Ruins and Mary Queen of Scots.

STANLEY BATE

Stanley Bate was a British composer, born in Plymouth who seems to have had more recognition abroad than he ever had in his home country. During the early 1940s Bate was chosen by the British Library of Information in New York to provide music for a documentary film about the progress of the War in the fifth year of fighting. This commissioned score was wedded to the film The Fifth Year and the music was written during 1944. Later the Arabian American Oil Company commissioned from him a documentary film: Careers in Oil. Amongst the commissions from this era is a score for the film Jean Helion. The film was made jointly by The Museum of Modern Art, New York City and The Sorbonne. Bate even appeared in the film.

Bate was engaged to write the music for the film The Pleasure Garden sponsored by the British Film Institute and produced by James Broughton. This was completed on 1 January 1953 and was shown at the Edinburgh Festival the same year. The film won an award at Cannes that year. The film was described as "an unclassifiable but entertaining glimpse of individual happiness triumphing rudely over official misery." The scoring is for voice, flute, clarinet, bassoon, cello and harpsichord. He also completed in 1953 a further film score for a documentary Light through the Ages.

HUBERT BATH

Bath was a pioneer in the field of film music though his reputation is virtually non-existent with one very late exception. In 1933 Bath was employed by Louis Levy's at Gaumont-British as composer and arranger. His work was uncredited and it was Levy's name which appeared on the titles. During the war he composed a number of scores for the RAF Film Unit. Later he worked on the film Love Story. This was the key to his moment of fame,. The score required a concerto for piano and orchestra in the spirit of the popular tabloid film concertos of the day. It needed to be hyper-romantic. At the same time composers like Jack Beaver, Richard Addinsell and Hubert Bath were turned to for the necessary product. In Love Story the music was to intensify the emotion of the story. The heroine pianist was played by Margaret Lockwood who falls for the composer played by Stewart Granger. Granger produces the concerto brimming with emotionalism and catching some of the stark Atlantic atmosphere and stormy brilliance of the Cornish cliffs. The work became very popular and gained the title Cornish Rhapsody. The filming was in Cornwall though the concert performance of Cornish Rhapsody was given in the Royal Albert Hall. On the soundtrack it is Harriet Cohen who must have recollected her days with Arnold Bax in North Cornwall some 30 years previously as she played this emotionally supercharged work.

He also composed some of the music for the first full-length British 'talkie' Blackmail (1929). This was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He was working on the score of The Wicked Lady when he died. There were many others for the Gaumont-British and Gainsborough (and other) studios of which I remember particularly the 1935 Donat version of The Thirty-Nine Steps, Rhodes of Africa (1936) and The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1935). He also conducted music for film recordings. Other of his film scores include: Kitty (1929); Rhodes of Africa (1936); Silent Barriers (1937); Love Story (1944, incorporating The Cornish Rhapsody for piano and orchestra); The Wicked Lady (1945).

ARNOLD BAX

Bax (1883-1953) is better known as an imaginative symphonist. His works have a distinctive touch and magic is never far from his music. Bax scored three films. The only feature film is David Lean's 1948 Oliver Twist. Bax was not an enthusiastic collaborator and quickly came to regard the writing of the music as a terrific chore and this also applies to the other two scores he had to write. However even third rate Bax is often better than the first rate material produced by other composers in this genre and era. The music certainly does not have the power of the symphonies or best tone poems. However it is bright and adds a valuable dimension to the film as a whole. The score survives complete.

Bax was lured into writing film music by Muir Mathieson. This began with the film Malta GC. The film was to celebrate the endurance of the people of the island of Malta who had sustained intense bombing during the second world war by Axis planes based in Sicily. The film was a joint production between the three services film units - obviously a major exercise. Mathieson approached Bax who had been going through a slack period. Bax's inspiration, from the late 1930s inwards, had burned low and he suffered bouts of depression.

He had just accepted, probably against his better judgement, the ultimate accolade of Master of the King's Musick and felt under some duty to do this war work. For a fee of £50 he agreed and set to work on a score which was longer than most of his tone poems. He completed the music in September 1942. The soundtrack recording was made by the RAF Symphony orchestra conducted by Muir Mathieson. The narration was provided by Laurence Olivier. It was premiered at the Gaumont in Haymarket on 22 January 1943. The original manuscript was presented to The People of Malta who were collectively awarded the George Cross in recognition of their endurance during the bombing. The score is now kept in the National Library of Malta in Valletta. The music rather goes for nothing on the soundtrack. It is much obscured by sound effects and the narration - all of which was a further frustration to Bax and hardly inclined him to write further for films.

When Olivier asked Bax if he was unhappy about the talking that went on simultaneously with his music, Bax replied: 'Yes I jolly well am - chattering away all over my music. Bombs falling in all directions, planes crashing right and left, my music is faded down to make way for some fatuous remark like 'an air raid is in progress; it is a time of danger for the population'.'

Against all the signs Bax was inveigled and pressurised by Mathieson to contribute a further score. This time it was to be for David Lean's Oliver Twist. Bax found the novel antipathetic and out of sympathy with his natural inspiration. This picture of Bax as a composer who was open to being pressurised is not one which is entirely convincing. There must have been a part of him which recognised that through the medium of film he would have a far greater chance of reaching a very large audience than any of his concert works would. This was particularly the case during the 1940s into the 1950s when his inspiration was damped and his works were suffering from the onset of a change in fashion.

He wrote the music for the film over ten weeks in The White Horse pub at Storrington where he lived for the remaining years of his life. The composing of the music was hard work but Bax retained a boyish fascination with the techniques of co-ordination of music with picture and dialogue. He held Mathieson in very high regard. The music was recorded at Denham with Harriet Cohen as the pianist. The orchestra was the Philharmonia. Bax no doubt felt morally obliged to use Harriet Cohen who was also associated with a number of other film concertos including the Cornish Rhapsody. Cohen would have been prescribed by Bax to the studio. The piano represented Oliver.

The film itself was made at Pinewood Studios and with a cast which included Alec Guinness, the very young Anthony Newley and Robert Newton quickly became a UK success and a classic of the time. Its portrayal of Jews as 'represented' by Fagin however caused distress and protest when the film reached Berlin and US audiences. To give the music a concert life Mathieson made a seven movement concert suite which was performed widely in concerts, broadcasts and parts of which were recorded on 78. There were a total of eleven movements in the suite recorded by Eric Parkin (piano), Kenneth Alwyn and the Royal Philharmonic in 1986. This was released on LP Cloud Nine CN7012 (since reissued on CD) with full notes by Bax authority Graham Parlett.

His last film was made in 1951 for British Transport Films. Journey Into History was a short documentary about British figures from the 18th century.

The film music especially for Oliver Twist had a concert vogue and enjoyed some coverage on the back of not the film music revival but the Bax boom traced from the early 1970s and peaking in the mid 80s around the time of the Bax centenary. The music is not top-drawer Bax but fine stuff in the field of film music. The highest tribute is that Bernard Herrmann chose a couple of tracks from this Oliver Twist when recording his classic British film music collection.

JACK BEAVER

Beaver (1900-63) was a product of the Royal Academy of Music. He wrote extensively for the British film industry especially Gaumont-British (1934 onwards). There are numerous scores in his name. These include The Wife of General Ling (1938), This Was Paris (1942), Showtime (1948).

THE BEATLES

Songs and albums for several films including Yellow Submarine and Hard Day's Night. Biographical details will be very well known already.

ARTHUR BENJAMIN

Arthur Benjamin though an Australian by birth spent most of his creative life in England and made a very strong and distinctive contribution to the world of British film music.

In an increasingly complex field film companies recognising the key role of music began to appoint music directors. Gaumont-British had Louis Levy. London Films had Kurt Schroeder. When Schroeder returned to Germany Muir Mathieson was engaged. If people like Bliss and Walton and a number of others made their own reputations as film composers and enhanced them in the concert hall, Mathieson stood behind them and played a key role in opening up the film world to composers. he also acted to intercede between the alien worlds of creative artist and studio accountants and directors. The clashes of culture are notorious and it is surprising that so much good work was done against an often inimical atmosphere.

Arthur Benjamin had taught Mathieson at the RCM and was now offering Benjamin an entre into the film world with a commission. The first film was The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934). This was followed later the same year by Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much with its Storm Clouds Cantata. The cantata returned in the 1955 Hitchcock remake in which the conductor was Bernard Herrmann.

The next year Gaumont-British made The Clairvoyant. There was also Turn of the Tide a film shot in Robin Hood's Bay with Benjamin's melodious music matching the beauty of the Yorkshire coast. The next project was the first Technicolor film made in Britain: Wings of the Morning (1936), with Henry Fonda. Muir Mathieson commissioned him to score The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937) and again later the same year a swashbuckler Under the Red Robe.

There was a pause during his time in Canada then on his return he wrote the music for the Master of Bankdam. This included an aria, The Fire of Your Love (sung in the picture by Maria Var) which was later recorded on 78.

An Ideal Husband was the next film and the waltz and other music from this film have been recorded several times by Herrmann and by Marcus Dods. The music has uncanny pre-echoes of Richard Rodney Bennett's style in e.g. Murder on the Orient Express. The Benjamin music yielded a Hyde Park Galop.

Steps of the Ballet was a documentary presenting in 20 or so minutes an introduction intended for schools of the ballet writing, producing and dancing process. Benjamin appears in the film and it is his music which makes the ballet itself. It represented a partner to Britten's Instruments of the Orchestra

Coronation Year coincided with the British ascent of Everest which was portrayed in The Conquest of Everest. The style is epic as befits the subject. In 1955 Benjamin wrote the music for the Rank picture Above the Waves. Two years later saw his final essays in the field with the feature films, Naked Earth and Fire Down Below. The latter had to be completed by Douglas Gamley and Kenneth V Jones.

ARTHUR BENJAMIN'S FILMS

1934

The Man Who Knew Too Much

The Scarlet Pimpernel

1935

Wharves and Strays (short)

The Clairvoyant

Turn of the Tide (available on the Connoisseur Video label)

1936

Lobsters (short)

Wings of the Morning

The Guv'nor

1937

Under the Red Robe

Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel

1947

Masters of Bankdam

The Cumberland Story

An Ideal Husband

1948

Steps of the Ballet (short)

1953

The Conquest of Everest

1954

Under the Caribbean (short)

1955

Above the Waves

1957

Naked Earth

Fire Down Below

RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT

He was born in Kent in 1936. A skilled and sensitive pianist he has recorded Constant Lambert's Piano Concerto for Polydor. He studied at the RAM with Lennox Berkeley and Howard Ferguson. He also spent some time with Boulez in Paris having previously been much influenced by the music of Elizabeth Lutyens. Bennett was recently (1998) knighted for his services to music.

He writes in both lighter (Little Suite, Diversions and film music) and tougher (Piano Concerto, Sonnets to Orpheus - the latter recorded by Continuum) veins. His styles in concert hall and in cinema are quite different although since the 1980s the two styles have moved closer together with a less severe spirit entering the bones of the concert works. The Third Symphony (1987 - on Koch 3-7341-2 H1) was noted by the critic Stephen Walsh as an example of a decided thaw in his musical language. For years the two worlds lived dangerously side by side but neither compromised the other; Bennett enjoying success in both fields unlike Alwyn whose styles remained constant whether in serious music or for celluloid.

His first score was contributed when he was 21 and was for a documentary. He has a sure touch for film scores of which he has written at least 35 and is much in demand. He has received no less than three Oscar nominations for his film scores.

The music for Far From the Madding Crowd is an object lesson in the perfectly judged film score marrying precisely with the atmosphere of the film and plot. The music has a simplicity and the full orchestra is rarely used. The simple theme has a wide ranging epic nature with an undercurrent of tragic loss. The music occasionally drifts in its more raucous moments into Malcolm Arnold territory. This however is one of the finest scores to come out of British cinema. The music for Nicholas and Alexandra is amongst his finest film inspirations.

His score for Murder on the Orient Express with its steam train evocation launching out from mysterious beginnings into a full flowing waltz is a classic which has already taken its place alongside such light music classics as Vivien Ellis's Coronation Scot. The music for Lady Caroline Lamb was issued on LP as both a 'straight' film score and as an Elegy for viola and orchestra (EMI LP CSD 3728). Again this music is magically touching. It is interesting to note that the Murder on the Orient Express music has remarkable echoes of Arthur Benjamin's An Ideal Husband.

His films include:

1956

The Angry Hills

The Devil's Disciple

The Man Who Could Cheat Death

1957

Pickup Alley

1958

Indiscreet

The Man Inside

Menace in the Night

The Safecracker

1960

Chance Meeting

1961

The Mark

1962

Only Two Can play

Satan Never Sleeps

1963

Billy Liar

1965

The Nanny

One Way Pendulum

1966

The Witches

1967

Billion Dollar Brain

The Devil's Own

Far From the Madding Crowd

1968

Secret Ceremony

1970

The Buttercup Chain

1971

Nicholas and Alexandra

1972

Lady Caroline Lamb

1994

Four Weddings and a Funeral

LENNOX BERKELEY

This fine composer contributed two film scores to the genre: Hotel Reserve (1944) and Out of Chaos (1944).

JAMES BERNARD

Bernard was born in Pakistan in 1925. He studied with Howells at the RCM. He served briefly (1950-51) as Britten's amanuensis, assisting him with Billy Budd. Bernard described his year with BB as "a wonderful baptism as a working composer." Tonal music came naturally to him but at a time when it was not wanted in many circles. He wrote instead for radio and it was as a result of his score for The Duchess of Malfi that he was recommended to Hammer Films who commissioned a number of scores starting with the music for The Quatermass Xperiment (1955).

There were to be more than 20 Hammer scores (a selection of which is to be found on Silva Screen FILMCD174 and 714). He is one British composer who in recent years has been accorded a complete score on CD. The music was commissioned from him years after he had retired to Jamaica. The score in question is for Nosferatu A Symphony of Horrors. This is played by the City of Prague PO conducted by Nic Raine (Silva Screen FILMCD192). The music is fully symphonic and in keeping with the edgy, neurotic atmosphere of the film. There is a great deal of tense and dark music with moments of variety, if not relaxation, provided by Hutter's innocent music and the swirling romanticism of Ellen's fine theme (obstinately memorable) on the strings. The music is tonal with occasional reminiscences of Janá¹ek. The booklet reflects great care in design; a feature of this company's CDs though I wish we could have been told something about the score originally used when the film was shown in the 1920s.

It would be interesting to compare this score with Hans Erdmann's original music for Nosferatu. The complete restored version has been re-recorded by Gillian B Anderson conducting the Brandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra on RCA/BMG 09026 68143 2.

Horror films are a genre in their own right. In them we see one example where a degree of dissonance in music is acceptable to the watching/listening public which would not be acceptable in the concert hall. Hammer Productions needed a great deal of music and were prepared to try out composers. The company became a source of income for many otherwise struggling British composers. James Bernard's Dracula (1959) prelude was recorded by the Philharmonia conducted by Neil Richardson. The score is all blackness - gong, cymbal and deep brass dominate. The massed strings have a sharp steely edge to them. The music itself is jagged.

Bernard's scores include:

1957

Across the Bridge

Enemy from Space

X The Unknown

1958

Windom's Way

1959

Elephant Gun

The Hound of the Baskervilles

1960

The Stranglers of Bombay

1961

Terror of the Tongs

1963

Kiss of the Vampire

1965

The Gorgon

Secret of Blood Island

She

These Are the Damned

1966

Dracula - Prince of Darkness

The Plague of the Zombies

1967

Frankenstein Created Woman

1968

The Devil's Bride

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

Torture Garden

1969

Frankenstein Must be Destroyed

1970

The Scar of Dracula

Taste the Blood of Dracula

1997

Nosferatu

LORD BERNERS

Berners the eccentric peer, composer and novelist was born in 1883 and died in 1950. He penned two film scores. In 1943 he wrote the music for the Ealing Studios production of The Halfway House. His lively music for his second and final film was written for the 1947 Nicholas Nickleby based on the novel by Charles Dickens and directed by Charles Cavalcanti. The orchestration was by Ernest Irving to whom the score is dedicated. The final section of Nicholas Nickleby was according to Berners as little theme for the producer and director, a trill, or two for the cast and then a massive fanfare for the title board 'Music by Lord Berners'. The 9 minute score is available on EMI originally released in 1986 as CDC 7 47668 2. It has since been reissued at mid-price. We can perhaps hope that Marco Polo's ongoing series of recordings of Berners' orchestral music will include Halfway House.

RONALD BINGE

Born Derby in 1910. His film scores include Desperate Moment (1953), The Runaway Bus (1954), The Adventures of Sadie (1955) and Dance Little Lady (1955).

STANLEY BLACK

Black, well known as a conductor also wrote prolifically in the field of film music: Lili Marlene (1961), Mr Potts Goes to Moscow (1954), White Fire (1954), Tonight's The Night (1954), High Terrace (1956), An Alligator Named Daisy (1957), As Long As They're Happy (1957), Two Grooms for the Bride (1957), Blood of the Vampire (1958), Cross-Up (1958), Dangerous Youth (1958), Mailbag Robbery (1958), Your Past is Showing (1958), Broth of a Boy (1959), The Circle (1959), City After Midnight (1959), The Battle of the Sexes (1960), Hand in Hand (1960), Hell is a City (1960), The Man Who Wouldn't Talk (1960), Double Bunk (1961), Five Golden Hours (1961), Stop Me Before I Kill (1961), Sword of Sherwood Forest (1961), The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1962), Wonderful to be Young (1962), Maniac (1963), Rattle of a Simple Man (1964), Crossplot (1969) also Wonderful Life, Hindle Wakes, Summer Holiday.

HOWARD BLAKE

Born in 1938 and active as pianist, conductor and composer. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Has written extremely attractive film music, e.g. for The Riddle of the Sands, Agatha (about Agatha Christie's disappearance, though incredibly Blake's score was not used) and The Snowman. The suite from his music for The Duellists is included on Silver Screen FILMXCD188(2 CD set). The full orchestral score for The Riddle of the Sands (1978) is extremely atmospheric and very much marine impressionistic. With a minimal approach - despite full orchestra - he produced one of the finest British cinema scores. A number of the scenes suggest Blake had been listening to the then recently issued Dilkes and Boult LPs of the E J Moeran Symphony. Well past time that this score was freshly produced in suite form for CD.

WILLIAM BLEZARD

Born 1921. Film music for documentaries and arranged Noel Coward's music for The Astonished Heart.

ARTHUR BLISS

Arthur Bliss was born in London in 1891 and died there in 1975. He was, in his music, a man of (at least) two worlds: the concert hall and the cinema. He is an important figure as a film composer because although by no means the first 'serious' composer in the arena his entry into the field was a momentous event. The score for the 1936 film Things to Come was a turning point for the British film industry and for British composers. Although Walton entered the industry at the same time it was the Bliss score which opened the way for serious composers to make their way in the field of film either as a career or by way of the occasional excursion. Bliss seemed to have had no fears about entering a field which was then still comparatively novel. He had much to lose. His revolutionary 1920s were behind him and he was beginning to make a very major respected name for himself in this country and on the continent. In taking this risk he courted the snobbery which film composers still suffer. In fact he scored a great triumph. Not only was the film of Things to Come popular despite being an abomination to H G Wells but also the music and especially the March which sported a crackling energy and a broad nobility quickly became concert favourites. He also arranged John Gay's Beggar's Opera for the 1952--3 British Lion film. Muir Mathieson recalled in a radio interview that Bliss's credo was that every film needs a different colour of music. This certainly accounts for the variety across the range of his film music.

Things to Come

This film was made in 1936 by Alexander Korda. It gradually grew to be recognised as a classic though the effects no look decidedly creaky. The commission came about as a result of Wells approaching Bliss after he attended one of Bliss's lectures. Score and plot, music and dialogue were seen and treated as a unity each relying on the other. The aim was for a fusion of sound and vision. Bliss wrote of the score. 'It should he judged solely as music - that is to say by the ear alone. and the question of its value depends on whether it can stand up to the test."

The music has proved more enduring than the film although this still gets the occasional TV showing. The concert suite was a success in the 1935 Proms and entered the regular repertoire. Christopher Palmer has reconstructed some passages missing from the suite and these have been recorded. In 1936 the Decca ignoring the suite recorded five segments from the score. There are many recordings both of the concert suite and the extended extracts from the score. Still there is no complete score recording. As a break from the commercial pressures and compromises forced on Bliss by the film he also wrote one of his most famous concert works: the Music for Strings. The film music also provided a quarry for other Bliss works: e.g. The. Entry of the Red Castles in the ballet Checkmate derives from Building the New World. It is interesting that when Primary Source Media had to select full scores for inclusion in their microfilm series they selected the score of Things to Come to feature alongside other Bliss concert works.

Caesar and Cleopatra

Bliss wrote a full orchestra score for this Pascal directed film. Tragically he pulled out because of his lack of sympathy with Pascal. Auric was then drafted in and it is his music which you hear on the soundtrack. Bliss's music survives and deserves as much exposure as many a discarded but recorded orchestral score.

Christopher Columbus

Gainsborough commissioned this score in 1949. Bliss provided a full length and full-blooded score. Sections of it were recorded by EMI in a collection of film music with the CBSO conducted by Marcus Dods. Latterly it has been included on a Marco Polo CD.

Conquest of the Air

This documentary was made in 1937 by Alexander Korda. Release was delayed until 1940. The concert suite was premiered before the film in 1938. The concert suite has six sections:

1. The Wind; 2. The Vision of Leonardo da Vinci; 3. Stunting; 4. Over the Arctic; 5. Gliding;

6. Conquest of the Air.

Men of Two Worlds

A 'Two Cities' film dating from 1945, the story concerns Kisenga, an African scholar and concert pianist/composer, who returns to his homeland in a teaching capacity and as a local government official. 'Baraza' is a Swahili word for the discussion in council between a chief and his head man. In the score it becomes a movement of a piano concerto written by Kisenga and played by him at a National Gallery concert. The concerto has three short movements with piano cadenza . and a male voice choir singing, in Swahili - a stirring work. Baraza was recorded by Decca with the original performers. Eileen Joyce with Muir Mathieson conducting the National Symphony Orchestra.

Présence au Combat

The score of this Anglo-French propaganda film dates from 1946. The only surviving part of the score is the section: Supply Sequence. Some of the material was recycled in the music for the 1949 documentary film Faster than Sound.

Seven Waves Away, or Abandon Ship

This film was made in 1956. Only three sections of the score have survived.

DENNIS BLOOD

Composer for documentary films. Including The True Story of Lili Marlene (1944), Crofters (1944), Farmer's Boy (1945) and Power in the Land (1947).

JOHN BLORE

Composer for Welcome Mr Washington (1944) and The Butler's Dilemma (1944).

CAREY BLYTON

Born 1932. Nephew of Enid Blyton. Has written some film music.

RUTLAND BOUGHTON

Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, 23.1.1878 - London, 25.1.1960. Boughton was an English composer who with the patronage of Lady Battersea studied at the RCM with Stanford and Walford Davies (1900-01). From 1904 to 1911 he was on the staff of the Birmingham Midland Institute of Music teaching singing.

Film: Lorna Doone (1934). Lorna's Song from the film (director, Basil Dean of Flecker/Delius Hassan fame). The song was recorded by Victoria Hopper (Basil Dean's wife), Associated Talking Pictures Studio Orchestra conducted by Ernest Irving (HMV B.8249). Does this film survive I wonder? Also can anyone let me have a cassette of this song?

This was Boughton's only film essay. The rest of the film score was provided by Armstrong Gibbs. Lorna was played by Hopper. John Loder played John Ridd. Boughton's fee for the one song was £30. This was one quarter of the composer's income for the year 1934. It was written overnight and posted off the next morning only the day after it had been commissioned by telegram.

ADRIAN BOULT

Made appearance conducting LPO in Battle for Music (1944).

DEREK BOURGEOIS

A prolific composer Bourgeois wrote two scores for the British Transport film unit: Thirty Million Letters 1963 and The Driving Force 1966.

PHILIP BRAHAM

Early talkie music director at Wembley Studios. Died circa 1934. Musical director for the following Wembley films: City of Song (1930), Wedding Rehearsal (1932), The First Mrs Fraser (1932).

WARWICK BRAITHWAITE

His distinctive beard and rostrum manner lead to some comments about physical similarity with Henry Wood. He made a screen appearance in the Strand Studios film Battle for Music (1944) conducting the LPO.

LUDWIG BRAV

Active as composer for silent films then for documentary scores. War Front and House We Live In date from 1941.

TONY BREMNER

Born 1939 in Australia. Has spent some time in UK. Scores for The Everlasting Secret Family (1988), A Halo for Athuan (1986), Kindred Spirits (1984). Southern Cross SCCD1020. In 1978 reconstructed Hugo Friedhofer's wonderful score for The Best Years of Our Lives (Preamble PRCD 1779).

LESLIE BRIDGEWATER

He was born in Halesowen in 1893; died in 1975. His Piano Concerto was recorded on Paxton 78s. Conductor and leader of own orchestra. His sole feature film score is Train of Events (1949). There are scores for Merton Park Studios documentaries: Progress, Looking Through, Down to Earth and The Village That Found Itself.

CHARLES BRILL

Composed music for Charter Films Pastor Hall in 1940. Also for Paul Rotha documentary Battle of the Books (1940). Extensive radio broadcasting with eponymous orchestra. They also recorded Britten's Irish Reel from Village Harvest since reissued on Beulah CD.

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

Britten's film music was a phenomenon of the 1930s. he wrote prolifically for documentaries; many for the GPO Film Unit. A number of these scores rank as classics of the genre. For years these scores have lain neglected. Since the mid-1980s however this music is receiving increased attention. The Britten Estate has allowed Colin Matthews to revive various scores in the form of concert suites.

Britten came to film through his friend the poet W.H, Auden ('a terrific bully' according to Peter Pears). Auden wrote the texts of a number of these GPO films and Britten wrote the music. He quickly established himself as a masterful and resourceful composer. Technically he was an exceptional composer able to use the prescribed six or seven players to create a very wide palette of effects. The scores were often, written played and recorded in the space of three days. Night Mail and Coal Face are quintessential scores. All of scores exist in Britten-Pears library indeed Britten has been fortunate in having his heritage preserved with such diligence and care. So many composers have suffered in later years because of the dispersal of their music.

Britten's mo

e into film music coincided with Bliss's involvement with Korda at Denham Studios. Britten's were very small scores but very effective. For Night Mail Britten wrote the title music and then the track was without any music for the next 20 minutes. The music returns for the last 4 minutes. The words of Auden are intoned by Stuart Legge.

Howard Ferguson recalls assisting during the GPO music sessions. He played piano duet or rattled chains or on one occasion emptied a bucket of water into another bucket. These sounds were all carefully annotated into the score. To achieve just the right result at the correct rhythm I he had a row of buckets ready for use.

The Spanish Civil War began to dominate the life of many people during the 1930s. Which side did one support? Should one go and fight and join the International Brigade or stay? Paul Rotha recalled his own decision to make films and warn about the imminent war and the onslaught of world fascism. He made the film 'People of Britain' (1938) and commissioned Britten to write and direct the music. The money ran to an orchestra of five players from the LSO with Britte