British composer Sir Malcolm Arnold has died at the age of 84. He was said to be suffering from a chest infection at the time of his death. Arnold, perhaps most famous for his Oscar winning score for the film 'The Bridge On The River Kwai', wrote a total of 132 such scores, amongst them for the likes of 'Whistle Down The Wind' (one of my favourite films), 'Hobson's Choice' (another of my favourite films), and 'The Belles Of St Trinians' (also a favourite). He also composed nine symphonies, seven ballets and two operas.
According to his manager, Anthony Day, Arnold completed the score for 'The Bridge On The River Kwai' in less than two weeks: "They couldn't find anybody else to do the music in time because they wanted to release it for the Oscars and they gave him ten days," he said.
A new ballet 'The Three Musketeers', set to his music and performed by the Northern Ballet Theatre, premiered in Bradford on Saturday. Artistic director David Nixon said: "It's a compilation from all of his works - his symphonies, his chamber pieces, his film music - and when you see that you can grasp what kind of musician he was, and what the scope was, and the amount, just the pure amount of music he produced. He was very much an Englishman and his music had a great deal of patriotism to it and an Englishness about it, and I think that was the other very, very special quality."
Tributes to the composer have come from the likes of Richard Attenborough, who called Arnold a "totally outstanding composer", adding that he was a "great humanitarian, and I think the touching elements within his music embody that part of his personality. He was full of humour, full of commitment and excitement and involvement, and he cared about the films that he did work on and cared about people".
Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber described Arnold as an under-appreciated genius. "I think he was a very, very great composer but uneven in his output," he said, "because he had humour in his music he was never fully appreciated by the classical establishment."
He is survived by two sons and one daughter.