Malcolm Arnold, the prolific British composer who won an Academy Award for his musical score for David Lean's World War II prisoner-of-war epic "The Bridge on the River Kwai," has died. He was 84.
Arnold, who had been suffering from a chest infection, died Saturday at a hospital in Norfolk, England, said Anthony Day, Arnold's longtime personal assistant and caregiver.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday September 27, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 42 words Type of Material: Correction
Arnold obituary: The obituary of composer Malcolm Arnold in Tuesday's California section incorrectly said he was the first British composer to win an Academy Award. British composer Brian Easdale won an Oscar for his work on the 1948 film "The Red Shoes."
Arnold, who has been described as "one of the towering musical figures of the 20th century" and "Britain's most recorded and most prolific composer," composed nine symphonies, seven ballets, two operas, one musical, more than 20 concertos, two string quartets and music for brass and wind bands.
But he was best known for his film scores -- more than 100 for feature films, documentaries and television from the late '40s to 1970, including "Whistle Down the Wind," "Hobson's Choice" and "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness," and a television adaptation of "David Copperfield."
"He was one of the most prolific of all the English film composers," Jon Burlingame, who teaches film music history at USC, told The Times on Monday.
"One of the things that's significant about Arnold is that he understood the dramatic needs of film and seemed to be right for it in the sense that he could write complex music to a deadline. He was a master of mood and color."
Arnold had 10 days to write the score for "The Bridge on the River Kwai," Lean's 1957 film starring William Holden and Alec Guinness about British POWs whose Japanese captors force them to build a railroad bridge.
"That's an extraordinary accomplishment," Burlingame said. "The music is not simple, and it is undeniably right for the movie. He evoked the feeling of the jungles in Burma, and he managed to underscore the emotion of the situations."
Arnold, who became the first British composer to win an Oscar, used the preexisting "Colonel Bogey March," a catchy 1914 tune by Kenneth Alford, which the prisoners memorably whistle in the movie.
"Arnold uses that theme as part of the score, but he wrote a counter-melody to it, which is its own march and yet helps give the 'Colonel Bogey' tune depth as part of the score," Burlingame said. "There's something ingenious about that."
Arnold, who is said to have written a symphony, two chamber works, a ballet and nine film scores in 1953 alone, described "The Bridge on the River Kwai" as "the hardest job I ever had to do."
