Malcolm Arnold
Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold CBE (21 October 1921[1] – 23 September 2006) was an English composer. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music for brass band and wind band. His style is tonal and rejoices in lively rhythms, brilliant orchestration, and an unabashed tunefulness.[2] He wrote extensively for the theatre, with five ballets specially commissioned by the Royal Ballet, as well as two operas and a musical. He also produced scores for more than a hundred films, among these The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Oscar.
For the British athletics coach, see Malcolm Arnold (athletics coach).Early life[edit]
Malcolm Arnold was born in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England,[1] the youngest of five children from a prosperous Northampton family of shoemakers. Although shoemakers, his family was full of musicians; both of his parents were pianists, and his aunt was a violinist. His great great grandfather was the composer William Hawes, a choirmaster at the Chapel Royal.[3] After seeing Louis Armstrong play in Bournemouth, he took up the trumpet at the age of 12,[1] and five years later won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music (R.C.M.).
At the RCM he studied composition with Gordon Jacob[4] and the trumpet with Ernest Hall. In 1941, he joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra[4] (LPO) as second trumpet and became principal trumpet in 1943.
In 1941 he registered as a conscientious objector, and was initially exempted from military service conditional upon joining the National Fire Service, but in the event he was allowed to continue in the LPO. In 1944, after his brother in the Royal Air Force had been killed, he volunteered for military service. When the army put him in a military band he shot himself in the foot to get back to civilian life; he remained in touch with the CO movement, giving a trumpet recital at the 1946 New Year party of the Central Board for Conscientious Objectors.[5] After a season as principal trumpet with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he returned in 1946 to the London Philharmonic,[1] where he remained until 1948, leaving to become a full-time composer.[4]
Career[edit]
Arnold began his career playing trumpet professionally, but by the age of 30 his life was devoted to composition. He was ranked with Benjamin Britten as one of the most sought-after composers in Britain. His natural melodic gift earned him a reputation as a composer of light music in works such as some of his concert overtures and the sets of Welsh, English, Scottish, Irish and Cornish dances.
He was also a highly successful composer of film music, penning the scores to over a hundred features and documentaries, including titles such as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Hobson's Choice and the St Trinian's series.[1] His nine symphonies are often deeply personal and show a more serious side to his work, which has proved more controversial. Arnold also wrote a variety of concertos and chamber works, as well as music for the theatre including major ballets.[1]
Later years and death[edit]
By 1961, Arnold had a reputation for being unpleasant, frequently drunk and highly promiscuous. He divorced his first wife in that year. His second wife took out a court order after they separated. After their divorce, he made two suicide attempts.[1]
His later years saw a decline in both his health and his finances. In 1978, he was treated as an in-patient for several months in the acute psychiatric ward at the Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, London, and in 1979 he entered St Andrew's Hospital in his hometown of Northampton to be treated for depression and alcoholism.
Between 1979 and 1986 he was formally in the care of the Court of Protection. However despite this, and being given only a year to live in the early 1980s, he recovered and lived for 22 more years, albeit with a carer, Anthony Day. In this period he completed his Ninth and final symphony in 1986.[1]
By the time of his 70th birthday in 1991 his artistic reputation with the general public was recovering and he was even able to enjoy a triumphant appearance on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall to receive an ovation after a Proms performance of his Guitar Concerto.[6][7]
Arnold died at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Norwich, on 23 September 2006, aged 84, after suffering from a chest infection. That same day his last work, The Three Musketeers, was premiered in a Northern Ballet production at the Bradford Alhambra. (The score included no new music by Arnold, but excerpts from various of his compositions were arranged by John Longstaff. The original score was compiled by Anthony Meredith.)
A dispute was fought out between Day and members of Arnold's family over the royalties of Arnold's Ninth Symphony. Day was granted rights, having been left a substantial part of Arnold's estate.[8]
Legacy[edit]
He was the President of the Rochdale Youth Orchestra until his death in September 2006. The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra made the first commercial recording of Arnold's Divertimento for the Pye label in July 1967 and regularly performed many of his works in the UK and abroad.
Arnold also conducted the orchestra in a 1963 De Montfort Hall concert that included his own English Dances and Tam O'Shanter. Malcolm Arnold wrote the Trevelyan Suite to mark the opening of Trevelyan College, University of Durham. His daughter was among the first intake of students. He conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the live Royal Albert Hall recording of Jon Lord's Concerto for Group and Orchestra with Deep Purple in September, 1969.
The following year he conducted the premiere of Lord's Gemini Suite with Deep Purple and the Light Music Society at the Royal Festival Hall and in 1971 conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in the studio recording of Gemini Suite with various rock soloists.[13]
Since the 1980s there have been frequent concerts and festivals dedicated to his music. In October of each year there is a Malcolm Arnold Festival in his birthplace Northampton, currently directed by the Chairman of the Malcolm Arnold Society - Paul Harris. On 3 September 2010 the Malcolm Arnold Academy, a secondary school in Northampton, was opened; while in September 2014 the new Malcolm Arnold Preparatory Free School was opened.[14]
As of 2020, the fate of an archive of material relating to the period between 1979 and 1986, when Arnold was in the care of the Court of Protection, is in question. Because the archive contains personal information, its current holders, the Ministry of Justice, have always refused access to it and wish to destroy it. Arnold's daughter, Katherine Arnold, and others have appealed for it to be retained and transferred to the National Archives.[7] In a written answer to John Hayes MP on 17 November 2020, John Whittingdale, Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, stated that the fate of the records was under discussion between the Ministry of Justice, the National Archives and the Court of Protection, and that they were "not at imminent risk of destruction."[15]