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Welcome to the inaugural Carwithen Music Festival celebrating the centenary, life and music of Doreen Carwithen, the world’s first full-time female film composer. A pioneer in her field, who’s achievements in the film and music industries in the 1940’s and 1950’s paved the way for today’s generation of well-known UK based soundtrack composers such as Debbie Wiseman (president of this festival), Rachel Portman and Anne Dudley.

Doreen’s extraordinary gift for melody, the way she wore her heart on her sleeve, and the beautiful orchestration and textures have always marked her apart from both male and female counterparts.

Therefore, it is my sincere wish that you enjoy and discover Doreen’s music, perhaps for the first time, and that you also enjoy the festival’s

“Carwithen Connections”, her links to the other composers in the festival concerts and her family connections with the village of Haddenham. I also hope that you listen to the other female composers in the festival with a sense of wonder. They were composing this music when female equality was lacking in so many aspects of life,

from voting, to being able to do a vocation of their choice, irrespective of their family commitments. The important part to remember is that artistically these women were equal, if not above their male counterparts.

A happy coincidence then that Doreen’s centenary coincides with Vaughan Williams’ 150th celebrations. It is wonderful that he championed Doreen’s talent and that the pair often saw each other at Denham Film Studios in the late 1940’s.

I hope you have time to take in the ambience of St Mary’s church and the old part of the village, where you will find the birthplace exhibition on Doreen’s life and music. The exhibition is free.

On Saturday, the festival shares the stage with Haddenham Beer Festival and the local farmers and street markets around the Village Hall, so there is plenty to keep you occupied.

I hope the festival will be a fitting tribute to Doreen and her extraordinary life.

Enjoy!

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My personal thanks must go the Alwyn Foundation for believing in my vision for the festival and for giving their time and generous sponsorship towards the event.

My thanks also go to the Delius Trust and RVW Trust who have given generous grants towards the festival costs.

Creating a large festival like this requires a team behind the scenes and I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Justyna at j-creative.co.uk and Nigel and Claire

at chinnorwebdesign.co.uk. They were responsible for the design and look of the festival, and I think you will agree, they did an amazing job.

To all the helpers and volunteers, I cannot thank you enough for your time and generosity.

Lastly, my wife Liz needs a special mention. When I decided to do this festival, I felt like I was looking up at Everest from base camp. It has only been with her support,

understanding and patience, that I can say “Look, we did it!”

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Director, Mark Chivers

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being the only female, whose music was played at the BBC Proms in 1948.

The festival also references other forgotten female composers, including Minna Keal, Olive Pull (William Alwyn’s first wife), Doreen’s sister Barbara and Susan Spain Dunk.

Vaughan Williams was a great admirer of Doreen’s First String Quartet, and indeed was present at its first performance. Their paths frequently crossed at Denham Film Studios where Doreen worked as a film composer from 1946. So, it would seem fitting to celebrate the 150 centenary of Vaughan Williams alongside Doreen’s own centenary. Other influences to be explored are works by Delius and of course William Alwyn himself.

Finally, the festival is rooted in community, engaging many facets of Haddenham’s thriving village atmosphere including the local museum, local history, and village societies. At the same time, the festival is acting as a focal point nationally for Doreen’s centenary and her legacy.

The “Carwithen Music Festival” is the celebration of Doreen Carwithen’s cente-nary, through her music, in the village of Haddenham, Buckinghamshire, where she was born. It also explores the connec-tions between Doreen and other male/female composers of the time alongside her lasting legacy. The festival sees the launch of Leah Broad's new book “Quartet”, published by Faber, the first ever book to cover Doreen’s music and life in full.

The festival is based on the idea of “Carwithen Connections”, where almost every piece of music performed has some connection with Doreen or her family. For instance, the Royal Academy of Music in the 1920’s and 1940’s, the Tobias Mathay Piano School, Denham Film Studios, and Monks Risborough where Doreen was brought up. The Monks Risborough connection references Minna Keal, who lived near to Doreen’s childhood home, and Christopher Gunning, commissioned to write a companion piece to Doreen’s Violin Sonata, who used to live in the old schoolhouse in Monks Risborough where Doreen was educated.

A blue plaque is to be unveiled on the birth-place, by Debbie Wiseman OBE, president of the festival and one of the UK’s leading female film composers. The plaque is funded by one of the largest local chari-ties, Haddenham Beer Festival, as a lasting legacy to the local community.

The festival reflects different facets of Doreen’s career, from becoming the world’s first full-time female film composer to

I am hugely proud to be President of The Carwithen Music Festival. It brings me great joy to know that Doreen, a true pioneer in her field, will have so much of her music performed live at this Festival. There are some absolute gems that will be unveiled during the weekend’s events. This talented, spirited

woman is a true inspiration - her film scores, orchestral music and chamber music are all full of invention, endlessly creative and expertly orchestrated. She is a shining light to inspire any young female composer, and I'm looking forward to shining a light on Doreen's music during

the Festival. I can't wait for the magic to begin!

D e b b i e W i s e m a n O B EComposer/Conductor Classic FM’s Composer In Residence

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Events T H E C A R W I T H E N M U S I C F E S T I VA L

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Men of Sherwood Forest by Doreen Carwithen49th Parallel Main Title by Vaughan WilliamsRetrospect (Theme and Variations) by John JoubertThe Crimson Pirate by William Alwyn(Interval)The Black Tent by William AlwynThe Robe by Alfred Newman3 Pieces by Olive Pull (World Premiere)East Anglian Holiday by Doreen CarwithenBelles of St Trinian’s by Malcolm Arnold

Masquerade String Quartet

Fenella Humphreys (Violin) and Nathan Williamson (Piano)

Nick Stringfellow and Eleanor Hodgkinsonperform the film scores (in new arrangements)

of Doreen Carwithen and William Alwyn along-side music by Vaughan Williams, John Joubert and Olive Pull.

play world premieres by Christopher Gunning and Minna Keal alongside a celebration of the original Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams in his 150th Centenary.

give a beautiful recital of neglected English masterpieces.

Cello Sonatina by Doreen CarwithenThe Lake in The Mountains by Vaughan WilliamsRomance for cello and piano by Barbara Carwithen (World Premiere)4 Preludes for Piano by Doreen CarwithenBallade for cello and piano by Minna Keal

Violin Sonata by Doreen CarwithenLegende by Frederick DeliusThe Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams(Interval)New Commission by Christopher GunningFantasie in C Minor by Minna KealLorelei by Susan Spain Dunk

7:30pm St Mary's Church

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Clare Hammond

Debbie Wiseman OBE

International concert pianist, Clare Hammond, plays a fantastic programme of neglected masterpieces and unusual repertoire, having just recorded the Carwithen Piano concerto with the BBC Concert Orchestra. A romantic treat for a Sunday lunchtime.

brings her TV Score for Wolf Hall (BBC) to Haddenham, played by the Locrian En-semble of London (who played on the origi-nal soundtrack) with extracts from Hilary Mantel’s novel read by the Bafta decorated actor Anton Lesser*. *Subject to availability

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Sonatina by Doreen Carwithen3 Preludes by Frederick Delius Impromptu in G flat major by Franz Schubert Bells by William G StillSonata Romantica Op. 53 No. 1 by Nikolai Medtner

L a t e n i g h t J a z z c o n c e r t

Mike Moran Jazz Trio Julie Maquire (singer) Mike Moran (composer of Barcelona for Fred-die Mercury and Monserrat Caballe and Tv/film composer for projects such as ITV’s Tag-gart) brings his Jazz Trio to play classics from 1953, the year Doreen Carwithen composed the music for the Queen’s Coronation film.

Classic Jazz from 1953 (from Oscar Peterson to Thelonious Monk)

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9:30pm Haddenham Village Hall

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The exhibition, in Doreen Carwithen's birthplace, will be a multi media experience reflecting her life, time at Denham Film Studios and family connections to Haddenham. There will be various films shown with soundtracks by Doreen , including sections of the Coronation film from 1953, alongside music manuscripts, pictures and artefacts surrounding her life in Haddenham and beyond.

A blue plaque, funded by Haddenham Beer Festival, will be unveiled at the birthplace by Debbie Wiseman. This will be followed by a soiree in the grounds of the birthplace (Turn End Gardens) for invited guests and sponsors.

The Men of Sherwood Forest1954 Adventure 1h 17m

Three Cases of Murder1955 Horror/Mystery 1h 39m

Director: Val GuestScreenplay: Allan MacKinnonMusic composed by: Doreen CarwithenProducer: Michael Carreras

Directors: George More O'Ferrall, Wendy Toye, David EadyEditor: Gerald Turney-SmithMusic composed by: Doreen Carwithen

Enjoy this dark triptych masterpiece released in 1955. Starring Orson Welles, Ande Morrell and Alan Badel with a fantastic, atmospheric score by Doreen Carwithen.

A little known re-telling of the Robin Hood legend starring Don Taylor and Reginald Beckwith in jaunty mood, off set by Doreen Carwithen's greatest film score.

Opening 3.30pm Friday 1st July. (Then 10am to 4pm 2nd-3rd July). Paul Wilkinson Photography Studio

2:30pm 6 High St, Haddenham

2:45pm Saturday 2nd July matinee Haddenham Village Hall

7:30pm Thursday June 30th 2022St Mary's Church

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The story of Doreen Carwithen, and her long family associations with Haddenham, is the story of a beautiful and successful young woman, whose grandfather had been Chairman of Haddenham Parish Council in 1902 and 1908, and whose mother, Dulcie, was on the verge of becoming a brilliant inter-national concert pianist, only to give it all up to become the local piano teacher when she married in 1921.

Dulcie’s daughter, Doreen, was not only exceptionally talented, (her music was performed at the BBC Proms and in concert halls and cinemas all over the world), but also obsessive, (marked by her sixteen-year secret affair with her composition teacher at The Royal Academy of Music, William Alwyn). Alwyn, the celebrated film composer courted by Disney and Hollywood in the 1950’s, never envisaged a long, secretive affair with Doreen let alone for her to eventually give up her

flourishing career to look after and live with him in Suffolk in 1961. Intentionally shut off from London and the recording industry, and unable to marry William, Doreen changed her name permanently to Mary Alwyn, a scandal

diminished by being miles from anywhere on the Suffolk Coast in Blythburgh.

This story begins though, with Doreen’s birth on 15th November 1922, at No.8 High Street in Haddenham attached to No.6 the “Old Bakery”, now Paul Wilkinson Photography. The entire three-story building, including the family home, grocer’s shop (Clementine) and bakery, was built by Doreen’s grandparents, Freeman Clarke, and his wife Mary (their joint grave is clearly marked in the Baptist Church burial grounds off Stockwell). Freeman was a successful baker and grocer originally trading in premises on Fort End (now The Cottage Bakery). He outgrew this establishment and in 1902 looked to build, as Chairman of the Parish Council, the tallest building, beside Haddenham’s churches, in the village. The local gossip maintains that the “High Street”

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History

Church End, Haddenham, Aylesbury, HP17 8AH

Limited parking available next door at St Mary's School. Also free on street parking outside church.

Free parking next to venue.

Free parking at Haddenham Village Hall, then a short walk to the venue.

Paul Wilkinson Photography Studio6 High St, Haddenham, Aylesbury, HP17 8ER

London Marylebone to Haddenham and Thame Parkway (40 mins approx) Birmnigham Moor Street to Haddenham (1 hour 20 mins)

Banks Park, Banks Rd, Haddenham, Aylesbury,HP17 8EE

Venue info Life Story

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was renamed from “The Street” upon comple-tion of his large residence, shop and bakery. Freeman made sure that this extraordi-nary building with 11 further rooms (a mini mansion in all but name) received the address befitting of such a building project.

In 1921, Freeman and Mary’s youngest daughter, Dulcie, married Reginald Carwithen, a Londoner who had served in the trenches in the First World War and worked as an insur-

ance clerk. Dulcie, had, with Freeman’s finan-cial backing, become an exceptionally fine pianist. She trained in London with Tobias Matthay whose students were nearly all destined to become international stars of the concert platform. This was remarkable given that Dulcie practiced at home next to the Bakery. The employees must have been used

to being serenaded for many hours a day headed by a proud father, Freeman. In the 1911 census, Dulcie at the tender age of 15 is listed as a student of music and not at school.

Dulcie and Reginald’s marriage probably took place at the Meth-odist Church further down the High Street, then a Wesleyan chapel and regularly attended by the Clarkes. In fact, around this time, Freeman had hosted the annual Wesleyan garden fete in his large grounds, now the popular Turn End Gardens. In 1921, Dulcie gave up her aspirations to be an international concert soloist and, whether helped by Freeman is unclear, she and Regi-nald bought an enormous house on Peters Lane in Monks Risborough. They called it

“Underhill”.

Dulcie visited Haddenham regularly as the village piano teacher, the sounds of lessons with local adults and children becoming common place next to the Bakery. In November 1922 she briefly moved back in with her parents in the latter stages of her first pregnancy. Freeman and Mary’s first

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grandchild, Doreen Mary Carwithen, was duly born at No.8 High Street, Haddenham, on the 15th November 1922.

Doreen’s diaries from the 1930’s regularly see both her and Dulcie cycling over to Haddenham from Monks Risborough to visit the family. By this time both Doreen and her sister Barbara (born in 1926) were incredibly talented musicians driven, no doubt, by Dulcie teaching them both piano, violin and cello and wishing her children to have the potential career she gave up in 1921.

Doreen was a fine pianist and cellist and showed great promise as a composer. In 1941, Doreen won the Aylesbury Music Scholarship which enabled her to study at the Royal Academy of Music, situated on the Marylebone Road between Euston and Marylebone train stations. Two years later, her sister Barbara also went to the Royal Academy. On a weekly basis, both braved the trainline to commute from Monks Risborough into central London for music lessons, facing a ruined city from the recent Blitz.

Her meeting with her new c o m p o s i -tion teacher, William Alwyn, in October 1941, proved a life changing day. The young 19-year-old women fell for the shy, but increas-ingly famous 35-year-old film composer. Alwyn had married Olive Pull in 1929, a previous composition pupil of his at the Royal Academy and they had two young children. The ensuing 16-year affair, between Doreen and Alwyn, caused much hurt and stress to Olive over the years. It was not until 1973 that Alwyn eventually divorced her.

In 1946, now turning heads everywhere she went, Doreen became the first recipient of the J. Arthur Rank Film Composer Award and became part of the furniture at the film scoring studios in Denham. Her ability to work fast under pressure gave her a string of successes including the scores to British Classics such as Men of Sherwood Forest,

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historyThe Three Cases of Murder and, in 1953, the soundtrack for the film documenting the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Doreen was asked to do this scoring project not

because she was a woman, but because she was incredibly fast and accurate at her job. The whole film, including score, was released 3 days after the Coronation. Doreen hardly slept for those three days.

In 1946, the year her career took off in the film industry, Doreen lost her grandfather, Freeman. Her grandmother, Mary, had died the year before and the loss of both grandpar-ents coincided with Doreen throwing herself into hours of film scoring projects. Determined, stubborn and not bowed by the overbearing males at Denham studios (it is well docu-mented that several were not subtle about their feelings for Doreen), she flourished to the point of bursting into the manager’s office at Denham and demanding that she be paid the same as her male counterparts. Doreen got a small pay rise but risked being sacked as she was not yet of the musical status of her lover William Alwyn, or indeed of other luminaries such as Malcolm Arnold, who went on to write the score to Bridge Over the River Kwai in 1957. Doreen never achieved parity of pay with her male colleagues at Denham, but this story highlights how she flourished with guts and determination.

In many ways, Doreen’s focus under pres-sure and her successful delivery of project after project in record time, coupled with the intense long hours that came with this

way of working, led to her burn out. It has often been debated amongst musi-

cologists whether Doreen stopped work through her devotion to Alwyn or through exhaustion and lack of

recognition (she struggled to find a publisher for her main-

stream compositions).

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When asked in her final years why she had chosen to give up her successful film career to look after Alwyn she replied “Well, someone had to!”

The early 1960’s saw the decline of the Carwithen’s connections with Haddenham. In 1960, Dulcie and Reginald moved out of the family home on Peters Lane, Monks Risborough, further up the lane to a modern bungalow built to their specification. Dulcie continued to teach piano, but not at 6/8 High Street in Haddenham which had been rented out since Freeman’s death (the shop and bakery had been rented since 1922 as Freeman looked to wind down his business).

In 1961, Doreen’s devotion to Alwyn caused a schism in both their lives and they moved to Blythburgh on the Suffolk coast, the affair no longer a secret. Alwyn was an alcoholic and was having a nervous breakdown, his marriage to Olive in tatters. Doreen had become anorexic through the stress of keeping the affair secret and working long hours.

Finally, in 1963, the Freeman Clarke estate was sold off in lots, Dulcie being a signatory on the deeds transfer. I can imagine her visiting her parents’ grave in the Baptist Church cemetery throughout this time. Following Reginald’s death from cancer in 1970, Dulcie sold the bungalow in Monks Risborough and moved to Cheltenham to live with her youngest daughter Barbara who, like her mother, had married and given up her profes-sional music career. One would assume, that the discovery of Doreen’s affair in 1961 had weighed heavily on Dulcie, brought up as a devout Wesleyan by her father in Haddenham.

After Alwyn’s death in 1985, Doreen devoted the final 18 years of her life setting up the William Alwyn Foundation, championing his music and neglecting her own. Alwyn’s large body of work was catalogued by Anne Surfling, the archivist at the Britten Pears Foundation. She would often visit Doreen in Blythburgh and always maintained how talented and skilled Doreen was as a composer. A view, 18 years after Doreen’s death, that is gaining a lot of momentum.

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