Muir Mathieson

[julian_craster]

There is also a recent book on Muir Mathieson which is not mentioned.....

To read this Life of the Day complete with a picture of the subject,
visit http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/lotw/2008-01-24



Mathieson, (James) Muir (1911-1975), director and conductor of film music, was born on 24 January 1911 in Stirling, the son of John George Mathieson, an artist. Nothing further is known of his early life but after studying at the Royal College of Music he joined Alexander Korda's recently formed production company, London Films, in 1931 as assistant to the then musical director Kurt Schroeder. This was in the years following the introduction of synchronized sound on film and when the whole process of providing recorded music to accompany the images was being developed. Schroeder contributed a reasonable though hardly memorable background score to Korda's first major success, The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). However, as the political situation changed, Schroeder felt that his place should be in a German studio and he returned to Germany in 1934, leaving the post of music director to be filled by the now experienced Mathieson. It was often reported-erroneously-in the popular film and music press that film music had been composed by Mathieson; this was because Mathieson's name appeared on so many British films during the years following his appointment. But Mathieson's abilities lay not only in his masterly knowledge of how to assemble and conduct scores but in an early talent for selecting the right composer for the job, and many, now well-known composers wrote some of their finest work for the British cinema under his patronage. Indeed composers who had never shown any interest in writing for films often found a hidden aspect of their art revealed in the meticulous and exact processes required to score a film effectively.

Mathieson's first work as musical director was to conduct Mischa Spoliansky's score for The Private Life of Don Juan (1934), a rather flat attempt to revive the flagging career of the silent matinee idol Douglas Fairbanks. This score was by no means exceptional but Spoliansky was commissioned the following year to work on Sanders of the River (1935), a dramatization of Edgar Wallace's tale of colonialism in Africa. The songs written for Paul Robeson in the latter film were magnificent and did much to popularize the film in its day. During the same period Mathieson was instrumental in acquiring the services of composers such as Arthur Benjamin (whom he had met while studying at the Royal College of Music), who contributed scores for The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), Wings of the Morning (1937), The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937), and Under the Red Robe (1937). Richard Addinsell wrote for Dark Journey (1937), Farewell Again (1937), South Riding (1937), and Fire over England (1936). Georges Auric was specially imported from French studios for The Man who could Work Miracles (1936); Miklos Rozsa wrote for The Four Feathers (1939) and The Thief of Baghdad (1940). Most famously Arthur Bliss's score for Things to Come (1935) has earned its place in British film music history as supposedly the first contribution by a major British composer to cinema, which of course it was not. There is no escaping the quality of the film, its music, and the grandeur of the overall concept in adapting this unwieldly science fiction story by H. G. Wells. It was Mathieson who insisted that Bliss was brought in to the film's production early on and indeed much of the film was edited to Bliss's score rather than the other way round. Various movements of the final score were arranged into a concert suite, now familiar on modern orchestral recordings. The score was thought to be a breakthrough in first-class symphonic film music and parts were released on a set of Decca 78s, which were best-sellers in their day and which helped to elevate the status of film music in the public eye.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, in September 1939, Mathieson became musical director to the Ministry of Information, Royal Air Force, and army film units. In this capacity he used his considerable experience to involve composers of the quality of Richard Addinsell, for Men of the Lightship (1940), William Alwyn for Fires were Started (1942), and by no means least, Ralph Vaughan Williams for Coastal Command (1942). Indeed it was Mathieson who had enticed the ageing Vaughan Williams to the screen, in the previous year, with an offer to write the score for the propaganda feature film 49th Parallel (1941), which was being produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and photographed on location in Canada. Mathieson visited Vaughan Williams at his home in Dorking, where the composer, then aged sixty-nine, was puzzled as to how he might effectively contribute to the war effort; so far he had managed to collect salvage and was often seen pushing his little cart around the town. In the magnificent prelude to Michael Powell's superb film Vaughan Williams was able to show that he was master of the idiom; the opening ten minutes of this film serve as an example of first-class, effective, and superbly controlled film writing. During his work with the various documentary units during the war Mathieson also managed to commission scores from composers of the quality of John Greenwood, Clifton Parker, and Alan Rawsthorne, all of whom continued their film work after the war.

Perhaps the most celebrated film composer whom Mathieson encouraged during the war years was William Walton. This was after J. Arthur Rank had appointed Mathieson as music director for the Rank Organisation's film productions; he persuaded Walton to supervise the score for Henry V (1944), one of the greatest and most imaginative productions of the war period. Walton produced a score of almost unparalleled beauty in its melody, orchestration, and construction. Olivier recognized the quality of the music and the way in which it enhanced the effect of every scene of the film.

In the post-war period Mathieson supervised the music of nearly all the major productions emanating from the various independent units under Rank's control. These included Two Cities, The Archers, and Cineguild. Among the more notable films of the day for which Mathieson conducted the score were Great Expectations (1946; composer Walter Goehr), Oliver Twist (1948; composer Arnold Bax), Brief Encounter, which famously employed the second piano concerto of Rakhmaninov (1945), Blithe Spirit (1945; composer Richard Addinsell), Odd Man Out (1946; composer William Alwyn), The Brothers (1947; composer Cedric Thorpe Davie), and Men of Two Worlds (1946; composer Arthur Bliss). This period also produced a further Walton score of note, that for Olivier's 1948 film of Hamlet.

Around this time Mathieson himself made several appearances on screen as a conductor, including the films The Seventh Veil (1945) and Girl in a Million (1946). During the war he also conducted regular public concerts, occasionally including suites from the more celebrated film music that he had introduced on the screen.

One of Mathieson's most valuable and enduring works was his own production in 1946 of Instruments of the Orchestra, which he personally directed. This twenty-minute film was produced under the auspices of the Crown Film Unit and was intended for non-theatrical exhibition to schools as a music education film describing the various orchestral instruments. Mathieson commissioned a new work from Benjamin Britten, who had composed for documentaries in the 1930s, but not even Mathieson could have foreseen the quality of the work which resulted, which was originally entitled The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and later became known (minus the specially written narration by Eric Crozier) as Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Purcell. Under Mathieson's direction Malcolm Sargent conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and also addressed the camera, which represented a non-existent studio audience. Playing through the music Sargent was able to present each instrument both singly and as part of its orchestral group, while the culmination, a fugue, presented the entire orchestra playing together. The music was recorded at Wembley town hall and the film was later shot to 'playback' at Pinewood Studios. For the final shot, where the camera tracks right back to show the full orchestra, the sound stage had to be enlarged. This was, for its day, a very effective film, which has occupied an honoured place in the development of educational films as well as being a milestone in the history of the London Symphony Orchestra. Britten's work quickly established itself as a staple work in the concert repertoire.

In 1948 a second educational film of the same type was produced, entitled Steps of the Ballet, for which Mathieson's old professor at the Royal College of Music, Arthur Benjamin, produced the score, and Robert Helpmann and other leading dancers of the day described the principal steps of ballet and how a complete stage production is put together. Although it was an effective film at the time it has not been frequently revived and has consequently not enjoyed the fame of the earlier production. The Festival of Britain year found Mathieson appearing in the official industry feature, The Magic Box (1951), which portrayed the life of cinema pioneer William Friese-Greene. Mathieson played the part of Sir Arthur Sullivan, guest conductor of the Bath Choral Society.

During the early 1950s Mathieson continued to be a principal force in the musical design of British feature films, encouraging new film composers such as Malcolm Arnold, who wrote the score to David Lean's The Sound Barrier in 1952; the following year Mathieson suggested to Larry Adler that he contribute his solo harmonica theme to Genevieve (1953). Other notable features of the period included a further Walton score, this time for Olivier's Richard III (1955), and William Alwyn's tracks for films such as Carve her Name with Pride and A Night to Remember (both 1958). In the same year Mathieson achieved another major success, under unusual circumstances, when he had the opportunity to conduct Bernard Herrmann's celebrated score for Hitchcock's Vertigo.

During this period Mathieson continued his extensive work with documentary units such as British Transport Films, and he actively encouraged composers of the quality of Clifton Parker, Leighton Lucas, Elizabeth Lutyens, Doreen Carwithen, John Greenwood, and Edward Williams, many of whom had already enjoyed long associations with British cinema. What is often forgotten about Mathieson is that he was active in non-film work as well, and during the 1960s he became more active in the world of youth orchestras. His final studio work, of which he was very proud, repeated his old Crown Film Unit success of 1946; in 1966 he wrote and directed an ambitious series of twenty-four short films, entitled We Make Music, this time shot in colour.

On 21 December 1935 Mathieson married Hermione Marie Louise Darnborough (b. 1914/15), principal ballerina of Sadler's Wells, with whom he had one son and three daughters. He was appointed OBE for his services to music. He was a governor of the British Film Institute and a vice-president of the Greater London Arts Association. He died at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, on 2 August 1975 and was survived by his wife.

Andrew Youdell

Sources J. Huntley, British film music (1947) + D. Quinlan, British sound films (1984) + Journal of the Guild of British Film Editors, 46 (Dec 1975), 24-5 + International Film Collector, 12 (Dec 1975), 20 + Film Music Notebook (summer 1975), 31 + CGPLA Eng. & Wales (1975) + m. cert. + d. cert. + database, British Film Institute, London, BFI
Archives FILM BFI NFTVA, documentary footage SOUND BL NSA, performance recordings
Likenesses Baron, photograph, 1942, Hult. Arch. [see illus.] · group portrait, photograph, 1970, Hult. Arch.
Wealth at death £17,215: administration with will, 5 Nov 1975, CGPLA Eng. & Wales