Tuesday Tones

When I got in my car today, WNED was playing a piece called Suffolk Suite by Doreen Carwithen. I liked what I heard, so here it is!

But wait…who was Doreen Carwithen?

Carwithen was a British composer who lived 1922-2003. She is perhaps better known, sadly, as being the second wife of composer William Alwyn; her role for him seems to have been similar to Clara Schumann’s with Robert, as it fell to Carwithen to care for and advocate on behalf of her husband’s musical legacy. But Carwithen was very much an accomplished composer in her own right, and there has been renewed focus on her work in Great Britain. The Suffolk Suite is reminiscent of the kind of pictorially pastoral work, tinged with folk sounds, of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. Given when she wrote it, it’s likely something of an anachronistic work…but a fine and tuneful work it is, full of life.