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John Addison | |
|---|---|
 Addison in 1953. | |
| Background information | |
| Born | John Mervyn Addison (1920-03-16)16 March 1920 Chobham, Surrey, England |
| Died | 7 December 1998(1998-12-07) (aged 78) Bennington, Vermont, U.S. |
| Occupation | Composer |
John Mervyn Addison (16 March 1920 – 7 December 1998) was a Britishcomposer best known for his film scores.[1]
Addison was born inChobham, Surrey[2] to a father who was a colonel in theRoyal Field Artillery, and this influenced the decision to send him to school atWellington College, Berkshire. His grandfather was Lieut-ColonelGeorge Addison, who played for theRoyal Engineers in the 1872 and 1874 FA Cup Finals.
At the age of sixteen he entered theRoyal College of Music,[3] where he studied composition withGordon Jacob, oboe withLéon Goossens, and clarinet withFrederick Thurston.[2] This education ended in 1939 with service inWorld War II. Addison served with the BritishXXX Corps in the23rd Hussars. He was a tank officer in theBattle of Normandy and wounded atCaen, later participating inOperation Market Garden. Addison would later write the score for the filmA Bridge Too Far about the operation. At the end of the war, he returned to London to teach composition at the Royal College of Music.
Addison is best known for his film scores. He won anAcademy Award for Best Original Score and aGrammy Award in theBest Original Score from a Motion Picture or Television Show category for the music to the 1963 film,Tom Jones.[3] He also won aBAFTA Award forA Bridge Too Far (1977). His other film scores includedA Taste of Honey (1961),Smashing Time (1967),The Honey Pot (1967),[4]Sleuth (1972),Swashbuckler (1976) and the television seriesCentennial (1978).
He composed the theme music for the television seriesMurder, She Wrote, and won an Emmy for the 2-hour pilot episode in the Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (dramatic underscore) category. Addison was the composerAlfred Hitchcock turned to when the director ended his long relationship withBernard Herrmann over the score to his 1966 filmTorn Curtain,[3] although Addison was not hired for any of his other films.
He had a personal connection toReach for the Sky (1956) which he scored, sinceDouglas Bader (the subject of the movie) was his brother-in-law, having married Addison's elder sister Thelma.[5]
For the theatre, Addison wrote the music forJohn Osborne's playsThe Entertainer (1957)[6] andLuther (1961).[7] He collaborated withJohn Cranko on a revue, "Cranks" in 1956.[8]
Although he wrote numerous classical compositions, Addison explained that "If you find you're good at something, as I was as a film composer, it's stupid to do anything else." His classical works included the Concerto for trumpet, strings and percussion (1949), described byThe Times as "buoyant" and "Gershwinesque";[9] a trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon;[10]Carte Blanche, a ballet forSadler's Wells first performed at the 1953 Edinburgh Festival[11] from which an orchestral suite of "sophisticated high spirits" was performed at theProms;[12] a septet for wind and harp,[13] a piano concertino,[14][15] a concertante for oboe, clarinet, horn and orchestra;[16] and a partita for strings, which was warmly praised.[17] The Bassoon Concertino was one of his last compositions. It was premiered by Graham Salvage and theHallé Orchestra on 4 July 1998 at theBBC Proms he died later that year in Vermont at 78.[18]
Marlene Dietrich recordedIf He Swing By the String andSuch Trying Times from the music inTom Jones.
Addison's collection of correspondence, scores, and studio recordings were donated to the Film Music Archives atBrigham Young University in 1994. He was survived by his wife Pamela; two sons Jonathan and Daniel; daughter Lucinda; stepson Rex Birchenough, and stepdaughter Sandra Stapleton. His daughter Jane pre-deceased him.
