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Muir Mathieson

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Muir Mathieson (1911 to 1975) was a Scottish musician who worked mainly as a music director for British film studios. He was born in Stirling into a musical family. His father was an artist and engraver, his mother a violinist, pianist and teacher, who accompanied silent films on the piano in the cinema. As a teenager he founded a youth orchestra in Stirling. In 1929 he went to the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied piano with Arthur Benjamin and conducting with Malcolm Sargent.

Music and breakthrough

Sargent recommended him to the film producer Alexander Korda, whose music director he became in 1934. After the Second World War he was music director of the Rank Organisation. As music director, arranger, conductor or sometimes composer he was involved in nearly a thousand films. He himself rarely wrote the music, because he felt he lacked the talent for it. But he commissioned composers such as Arthur Bliss, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and Benjamin Britten, and helped them to fit their music precisely to the action of the film. From some scores he made concert suites.

Influence

Among the recordings associated with his name are Warsaw Concerto of 1942, The Red Shoes of 1948, Shake Hands With the Devil, Gone With the Wind and Becket. He shows how much of a film score also depends on the person who conducts, organises and brings composers together.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to the music of The Red Shoes and notice how the music follows the image, and what changes in the orchestra when the scene shifts in mood.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsBritish concert composers (Denham and Ealing)