CAREY BLYTON - VISITING PROFESSOR OF COMPOSITION -

The following paragraphs (reproduced with kind permission) are taken from 'Composer Interviews Number One: Carey Blyton' in which Peter Thompson, a one-time pupil and long-time friend of Careys, interviews him about his life and times:

Peter: And it was around the time you were appointed Visiting Professor of Composition for Film, TV & Radio at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London?

Carey: Yes. I was invited to give weekly two-hour seminars in this rather specialised aspect of musical composition in 1972. I believe it was the very first such course - for graduate and post-graduate students - at a music conservatoire in this country. My getting this job was quite 'serendipitous'. Late one Friday afternoon I received a 'phone call from the then Principal of the GSM & D, Allen Percival, inviting me to do the course. I agreed, though as the first seminar was on the following Tuesday, I had my work cut out over the intervening weekend to plan out a one-year course covering all aspects: a bit of film music history, through various techniques to - in the 3rd and final term - getting the students actually to write music for film scenes, etc. But I did it!

I was provided with a 16 mm projector and screen, and as I had one documentary film for which I had written music on 16 mm, I was at least able to show the first students I had an example of my work. I ran this course for 11 years, passing it over to Francis Shaw when I went off on my self-given, self-financed sabbatical in Sri Lanka and Southern India, in 1984/5. I enjoyed every moment of every two-hour seminar: the students were so interesting and interested: many from countries abroad, like the USA, Yugoslavia, Japan, South America and so on.

In the early days, I did sometimes wonder if I had been a second choice lecturer, that the GSM & D had been let down at the last moment by a more distinguished colleague, who had suddenly been made an offer he couldn't refuse, like a big feature film; and I was a stop-gap. I never inquired of course, but if this was the case, then I was a very lucky guy!

(Composer Interviews Number One can be obtained from Fand Music, www.fandmusic.com)