Coronation Film Composer

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 729, 3 July 1953, Page 19

Coronation Film Composer

eR: WARRACK, the composer of the background music specially written for the Coronation film, A Queen is Crowned, is at present in New Zealand as one of the visiting examiners of the Royal Schools of Music. The Listener met him in Auckland a few days ago, shortly after A Queen is Crowned. was released here. and asked hin¥ how he had gone about composing in ad-_ vance a score to fit such a big’ occasion. "It wasn’t my first experience of composing music to. fit scenes which had, not actually taken place," he said. "T have worked before with Castleton. Knight the producer of A Queen

is Crowned, and I was faced with similar problems when working on his film of the 1948 Olympic Games, XIVth Olympiad, where I had to visualise the right sort, of music to go with such events a§ throwing the hammer, high diving, the marathon race, and so forth. *T- also\ much enjoyed working on Theirs is the Glory, the story of the Battle_of. Arnhem, which was also produced by Castleton Knight. It was a magnificent film, with not a single professional actor in the, cast. Other films I have written background music for ate A Defeated People, The Story of Time, and Introducing the Commonwealth." We asked Mr. Warrack. what special problems had been involved in composing music for a film which had been made and released with such speed as A Queen is Crowned.

"Some of the sequences were worked out in advance, for example, the historical introduction," he said, "and for them I was given measurements to fit which the music had tobe written. The | music which you heard in the Abbey while the ceremony was taking ‘place was, of course, that which was recorded on the sound track at the same time as the cameras were photographing. the ceremony. My music was mostly that which you heard in the sequences preceding the Queen’s entrance into the Abbey, and in addition there was some processional music for the sequences | following the ceremony. I wrote first a march built up on two contrasted. themes, and then varied and developed these themes to use in other situations. "IT was on the high seas when the film was processed," he said, "so I couldn't be there during the dubbing and |

fixing of the various | pieces on to the finished | picture. The music was | played by the London | Symphony Orchestra, | with about 70 players, conducted by Sir Mal-_ colm Sargent." Mr. Warrack said he would be in New Zealand for about six months ex- | amining students, He was | born in Edinburgh. and | studied at the Royal College of Music under Vaughan Williams and | Sir Adriam Boult. He! was conductor of the | Handel Society during | 1934 and 1935, of the | BBC Scottish Orchestra | from 1936 to 1945, and | Musical Director and) Conductor of the Sad- | ler’s Wells Theatre Bal- | let from 1948 to 1951. His compositions Snechuicke-| Symphony in C Minor and Divertimento Pasticciato, Te Deum in E Flat, and many smaller works besides his film music. He was Chairman of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain last year, ‘