Lush

Doreen “Mary” Carwithen (1922-2003)

Doreen “Mary” Carwithen was a British composer of classical and film music who quickly rose in prominence in the male-dominated post-WWII film world. Her music has seen a resurgence of interest in recent years and her output includes a piano concerto, short orchestral works, two string quartets, vocal and solo instrumental works, and about 30 film scores. Carwithen is the third of the composers we are sharing from Leah Broad’s book Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World.

In her youth she studied piano, violin and cello and began composing when she was 16. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music and later married her composition teacher, William Alwyn, eventually becoming a professor at the RAM. Her first orchestral work, the overture ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another), was premiered at Covent Garden by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1947.  

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Ravel was a French composer celebrated for his musical craftsmanship, vivid orchestration and perfection of form. Best known for his hypnotic 1928 orchestral piece Bolero, he pioneered 20th-century impressionism alongside his elder contemporary, Claude Debussy.

In the composers own words:
“Music, I feel, must be emotional first and intellectual second.”

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

A late work, the String Quintet in G major dates from 1890, in the last decade of Brahms’ life. Brahmsian hallmarks pervade the work, from the cross accents and rhythmically playful hemiolas in the opening 9/8 movement to the bittersweet melancholy of the D-minor Adagio and typically Brahmsian allegretto intermezzo. The Hungarian folk element of the finale calls back to the composer’s celebrated Hungarian Dances. —David Fick 

In the composers own words:

“It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous notes under the table.”