William Alwyn (1905-1985) studied at the Royal Academy of Music where, at the age of 21, he was appointed Professor of Composition - a position he held for nearly thirty years. Apart from his vast output of serious music he contributed nearly 200 scores for the cinema. Starting, mainly with documentaries he wrote his first full feature-length score in 1941.
The Crimson Pirate (1952) has music written in the form of an overture. As the title suggests the film was a swashbuckling adventure with romance thrown in for good measure. As always, Alwyn's music echoed the action on the screen!
