William Walton’s Film Scores: New Evidence in the Autograph Manuscripts

William Walton’s manuscripts are generally well-preserved and well-documented. Autograph material survives for half of his fourteen feature film projects. These sources offer a rare glimpse behind the scenes into the production of mid-century British cinema—in particular allowing a more nuanced understanding of the film editing decisions made by Walton’s great collaborator Laurence Olivier, and the post-production role of conductor Muir Mathieson. Sketches reveal Walton’s early attempts to synchronize his music to action on screen, and later giving up this technique. Most surprisingly, the autographs reveal that the recent DVD release of Battle of Britain which purportedly restores the discarded Walton score (actually written jointly with Malcolm Arnold) misplaces every cue.