Doreen Carwithen


Doreen Mary Carwithen was a British composer of classical and film music. The second wife of William Alwyn, she was also known as Mary Alwyn.

Biography

Doreen Carwithen was born in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire on 15 November 1922. As a child she had her first music lessons from her mother, a music teacher, starting both piano and violin with her at the age of four. At the age of 16 she began composing by setting Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud " for voice and piano.
In 1941 she entered the Royal Academy of Music and played the cello in a string quartet and with orchestras. She was a member of the harmony class of William Alwyn, who began to teach her composition. Her overture ODTAA was premiered at Covent Garden by Adrian Boult in 1947. The same year she was selected by the Royal Academy to train as composer of film music.
In 1961 she became William Alwyn's devoted secretary and amanuensis, becoming his second wife in 1975, adopting Mary Alwyn as her married name, as she disliked the name Doreen, and Mary was her middle name. She later worked as a Sub Professor of Composition at the RAM. After her husband's death in 1985, she founded the William Alwyn Archive and William Alwyn Foundation to promote his music and facilitate related research projects.
She then also resumed interest in her own music. In 1999 a stroke left her paralysed on one side. She died at Forncett St Peter, near Norwich, on 5 January 2003.

Works

Doreen Carwithen wrote scores for over 30 films, including Harvest from the Wilderness, Boys in Brown, Mantrap , and East Anglian Holiday, Three Cases of Murder. She also scored Elizabeth Is Queen, the official film of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
She also composed orchestral music: an overture ODTAA ; a Concerto for piano and strings ; the overture Bishop Rock and a Suffolk Suite. Scores and parts for Bishop Rock and Suffolk Suite are available from Goodmusic. She also wrote two award-winning, but little-known, string quartets.
She also edited for performance the second piano concerto by her husband William Alwyn.

Selected filmography