THE INNUMERABLE DANCE:
THE LIFE & WORK OF WILLIAM ALWYN
‘The music must be conjured out of nothing; I am tense with anxiety and apprehension. I search for excuses, want to run away and hide in some inconvenient draughty garret where I can starve in peace, compose masterpieces, and grasp for comfort at some Mimi’s tiny frozen hand. Wistful dreams of La Boheme will not help me; if I were to starve my family would starve too. I am a romantic born a hundred years too late’ William Alwyn
From the flyleaf:
This book is the first full-scale biography of William Alwyn since his death in 1985. Alwyn’s early life as a flautist was altered when he became a leading composer of the Documentary Film Movement in the 1930s, going on to a prolific career in writing for feature films, including commissions for Walt Disney and Carol Reed.
By the mid 1950s his reputation was established by the beginning of his four-symphony cycle, his many tone poems, concertos, chamber and piano pieces. An habitué of the London film studios and concert halls, and a prominent professor at the Royal Academy of Music, a major crisis in Alwyn’s life precipitated an escape to the Suffolk coast in 1960, where he turned his back on film music and immersed himself in the writing of operas (including Miss Julie), poetry, essays, fiction and painting.
Adrian Wright’s book balances detailed analysis of Alwyn’s work with a vivid account of his marriages to the musician Olive Pull and the composer Doreen Carwithen, relationships that profoundly affected the course of his career. Using a mass of hitherto unpublished material (including an unexpurgated version of his noted Ariel to Miranda) and interviews with prominent figures in Alwyn’s life, the volume places his achievements in the musical context of his time, along the way dealing with his relationship with Benjamin Britten, and such works as Don Juan, The Fairy Fiddler and the radio opera Farewell, Companions.
REVIEWS
An intriguing overview of one of England’s important composers. FILM SCORE MONTHLY
An exceptionally thorough look into the contributions of this significant figure. Wright makes thorough use of both detailed positivistic analysis and autobiographic documentation to paint a moving image of Alwyn as a complete innovative. CHOICE
