Muir Mathieson
Muir Mathieson 1911-1975
Muir Mathieson - without a shadow of doubt the greatest name in the history of British film music, and arguably one of the most significant people in all film music - died on August 2nd 1975, aged only 64. His terminal illness was mercifully short. I had the pleasure of lunching with him and his charming wife Hermione at their lovely old house at Frieth very shortly before he died. I believe I knew him as well as any technician in this country; certainly our friendship had lasted for nearly forty years.
The Crown Film Unit and its founder members, the General Post Office Film Unit and the E.M.B. [Empire Marketing Board] Unit, have always been noted for the quality of the music used in their productions. Because it has no “big names,” technicolor, large-scale publicity campaigns, or any of the other devices used to herald the arrival of the latest feature film, documentary film lacks superficial appeal to the general public. For this very reason I believe that music, if its possibilities are fully realized, can serve one of its most satisfying and useful purposes in the cinema in connection with the documentary.
Reviews
Here is music from British films made between 1946-48, presented in recordings made for issue of 78rpm records, originally released on Columbia, Decca or HMV. It is a well-filled disc, though unusually the selections from Scott of the Antarctic (1948) also appear in identical form in the simultaneously issued Pearl GEM 0107, Vaughan-Williams Symphony No.6 - Film Music, which I review this month on FMOTW. For my comments on these see that review. That leaves music from six other films, all either classics or films with notable scores by major composers, or both.
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