As well as being Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music
with a number of symphonic works to his credit, William Alwyn scored
more British films than any other composer. He began film composition
as part of the British Documentary Movement and worked particularly
with Paul Rotha and Humphrey
Jennings, for whom he scored Fires
Were Started (1943). After the war, he composed scores for around
eighty feature films, forming particular associations with Carol
Reed, and with Frank Launder and Sidney
Gilliat.
