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John Mervyn Addison (16 March 19207 December 1998) was a British composer best known for his film scores.
At the age of sixteen he entered the Royal College of Music, The Guardian obituary, 15 December 1998 where he studied composition with Gordon Jacob, oboe with Léon Goossens, and clarinet with Frederick Thurston. This education ended in 1939 with service in World War II. Addison served with the British XXX Corps in the 23rd Hussars. He was a tank officer in the Battle of Normandy and wounded at Caen, later participating in Operation Market Garden. Addison would later write the score for the film A 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.
He composed the theme music for the television series Murder, 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 composer Alfred Hitchcock turned to when the director ended his long relationship with Bernard Herrmann over the score to his 1966 film Torn Curtain, although Addison was not hired for any of his other films.
He had a personal connection to Reach for the Sky (1956) which he scored, since Douglas Bader (the subject of the movie) was his brother-in-law, having married Addison's elder sister Thelma.
For the theatre, Addison wrote the music for John Osborne's plays The Entertainer (1957)Tynan, Kenneth. Tynan on Theatre, Penguin Books, London, 1964, p. 50 and Luther (1961). The Times, 7 July 1961, p. 15 He collaborated with John Cranko on a revue, "Cranks" in 1956. The Times, 24 May 1956, p. 3
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 by The Times as "buoyant" and "Gershwinesque"; The Times, 18 July 1950, p. 8 and 18 June 1951, p. 2 a trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon; The Times, 18 April 1952, p. 2 Carte Blanche, a ballet for Royal Ballet first performed at the 1953 Edinburgh Festival The Times, 19 August 1953, p. 4 from which an orchestral suite of "sophisticated high spirits" was performed at the The Proms; BBC Proms performance archive, 11 August 1956 a sextet for wind and harp, The Times, 27 February 1957, p. 3 a piano concertino,1959, commissioned for and performed by the then "National Schools Symphony Orchestra" (not to be confused with the later National Schools Symphony Orchestra), otherwise called the "British Youth Orchestra" ( http://www.answers.com/topic/trevor-harvey-2 ), following the withdrawal of his former teacher, Gordon Jacob from the commission, following the death of the latter's first wife a concertante for oboe, clarinet, horn and orchestra; The Times, 14 July 1959, p. 8 and a partita for strings, which was warmly praised. The Times, 1 May 1961, p. 16 The Bassoon Concertino was one of his last compositions. It was premiered by Graham Salvage and the Hallé Orchestra on 4 July 1998 at the BBC Proms he died later that year in Vermont at 78.Philip Lane. Notes to ASV CD WHL 2125 (2001)
Marlene Dietrich recorded If He Swing By the String and Such Trying Times from the music in Tom Jones.
Addison's collection of correspondence, scores, and studio recordings were donated to the Film Music Archives at Brigham 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.
Film scores
Music composed for TV
Concert works
Notes
External links
Categories: 1920 Births, 1998 Deaths, Military Personnel From Surrey, Best Original Music Bafta Award Winners, Best Original Music Score Academy Award Winners, Primetime Emmy Award Winners, Grammy Award Winners, English Film Score Composers, English Male Film Score Composers, People From Chobham, Surrey, People Educated At Wellington College, Berkshire, British Army Personnel Of World War Ii, 23rd Hussars Officers, Alumni Of The Royal College Of Music, 20th-century English Classical Musicians, 20th-century English Composers, 20th-century English Male Composers, Varèse Sarabande Records Artists
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