Doreen Carwithen: Overture: Bishop Rock (1952) Part I

It is hard to believe that Doreen Carwithen’s dramatic Overture: Bishop Rock has been largely ignored by concert promoters and record producers.  An internet search on NewsBank revealed a single performance of this work over the past 22 years. There may have been others that have not shown up in the search.

This performance was part of a concert given at St Oswald’s Church, Askrigg, North Yorkshire on Sunday 16 June 2013. The Richmondshire Orchestra was conducted by Tim Jackson. Several works were featured which ‘celebrated the diversity and beauty of the British landscape’ including Gustave Holst’s Somerset Rhapsody, George Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad: Rhapsody for orchestra, the Second Suite of English Folk Dances by Ernest Tomlinson, Edward German’s Three Dances from Nell Gwyn and the Scottish Dances by William Alwyn. The final work at this concert was Hamish MacCunn’s masterly Overture: The Land of the Mountain and the Flood.  The reviewer from the Darlington and Stockton Times (2 July 2013) noted that the ‘journey began at the edge of the Isles of Scilly with Bishop Rock by Doreen Carwithen, an overture describing the stormy seas around the lighthouse in the bleak waters of the Atlantic.’ It is a succinct description of this work.

Doreen Carwithen was born in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire on 15 November 1922, and after music lessons from her mother, she entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1941.  It was at this time that she met William Alwyn, who was her ‘harmony teacher.’ In 1947 she took up an apprenticeship offered by J. Arthur Rank to study and compose film music. Over the years she produced several scores for the concert hall and the recital room. However, as Martin Anderson (MusicWeb International, 3 April 2003) has pointed out in his obituary of Carwithen, she found it virtually impossible to find a publisher willing to promote music written by a woman.

In 1961 Carwithen set up home with William Alywn in the lovely Suffolk town of Blythburgh. She gave up composing and concentrated on supporting William’s music and acting as his amanuensis and personal secretary a cause she maintained until the end of her life. After her husband’s death in 1985 she began to re-examine her own music and sketched out a third string quartet: this was never completed. Once married William Alwyn, Carwithen began to use her middle name, Mary, as she had never liked Doreen. Mary Alwyn died on 5 January 2003.

Doreen Carwithen’s music has been recorded on several CD including two from Chandos and one each from Dutton Epoch, Lyrita and SOMM. These include virtually all her major works, including a good selection of her film scores.  

The Overture: Bishop Rock, composed in 1952, is a splendid seascape on a par with Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave and Arnold Bax’s Tintagel. The work is predicated on a musical evocation of the Bishop Rock lighthouse which is located a few miles from St Agnes Isle in the Scillies, and more than 30 miles from Land’s End. It is almost the westernmost point of England, however, the actual location with that distinction is Crim Rocks just one and half miles nor’, nor’ west of Bishop Rock. The liner notes written by the composer for the Chandos CD (CHAN 9524) eloquently explain that ‘this lonely tower is the last sight the seafarer has of land, and, to the traveller from the New World, is a symbol of welcome after the bleak waters of the Atlantic.’ How true this must have been for generations of seafarers, and most especially those who had sailed during the Second World War and the Battle of the Atlantic. This was a very recent memory when Carwithen penned her Overture.

The entire work, which lasts for just under nine minutes is an ‘impression of the thoughts stimulated by the lighthouse and depicts Bishop Rock in both storm and calm’ (Carwithen op.cit). The music begins with agitated horn motifs which immediately suggest stormy weather. This may be musical onomatopoeia for the flashing of the light over the sea or even Morse Code. The storm music continues, but soon resolves into a long cantilena on the violins accompanied by the French horns.  Slowly, this gorgeous tune builds to an impressive climax, before brass interjections announce that the storm is just about over. Now, the score begins to reflect a calmer sea, with the water lapping against the rocks. This is a perfectly tranquil moment. But it cannot last. At about the ‘5-minute mark’ a disturbing undercurrent is heard in the low strings, which begins to take over the progress of the music. The storm has returned in all its power and vigour. There is the inevitable recapitulation of the elegant second theme before the work closes with some strident chords.  Listeners who know Carwithen’s earlier music will consider that the language here is ‘craggier’ and more dramatic. This surely befits the subject matter of this overture.

In 2006 Goodmusic (Concert Originals GMCO076) published the full score and parts for the Overture Bishop Rock. The work  is scored for 3 Flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 Oboes, Cor Anglais, 2 Clarinets in Bb, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, Contra Bassoon 4 Horns in F, 3 Trumpets in C, 3 Trombones, Tuba, Timpani, Percussion (Snare drum, Xylophone, Tambourine, Triangle, Cymbals), Harp, Strings (Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Double Bass).

Doreen Carwithen’s Overture: Bishop Rock can heard on YouTube. (Accessed 08/09/2019) Part II of this essay will examine the premiere performance and the single recording of this work.