Carey Blyton

Blyton, a nephew of children's author Enid Blyton,[1] showed a talent for science from an early age, and did not switch to music until he contracted polio and, as he was recovering, began taking piano lessons in 1948 at the age of sixteen. In the 1950s he began his training as a composer and won several certificates and awards.

Blyton is primarily known as a miniaturist, composing short orchestral scores. He wrote some well-regarded and often humorous pieces including Return of Bulgy Gogo (a tribute to Peter Warlock), Up the Faringdon Road, Mock Joplin and Saxe Blue. He also worked as a music editor, and in this capacity he assisted Benjamin Britten.[2]

Blyton wrote incidental music for three stories in the BBC Doctor Who television series: Doctor Who and the Silurians (1970), Death to the Daleks (1974), and Revenge of the Cybermen (1975).[1] He was noted for his use of primitive musical instruments, using Crumhorns to depict the Silurians in Doctor Who and the Silurians, and serpents and ophicleides in Revenge of the Cybermen.

Several CDs of his work were produced, notably Sherlock Holmes meets Dr Who, showcasing his work for an unmade Sherlock Holmes animated series, cues from all three of his Doctor Who stories, and other classics such as Saxe Blue.

"Sweeny Todd and Dracula!" available on the Meridian label. www.meridian-records.co.uk CDE84533 Carey Blyton, nephew of the children's writer Enid Blyton, was born in Beckenham, Kent, on 14 March 1932. He was the second child (and only son) of Hanly and Floss Blyton and his elder sister (born in 1926) was named Yvonne.He was educated at the Grammar School there and showed, during the earlier part of this time, not merely an apathy towards music but a marked hostility to it until, as a convalescent from polio during 1947/8, he was taught the piano to while away the time. The years from 1948 - when Carey began to take piano lessons and start to show an increasing interest in music - to 1953 - when he commenced his formal training as a musician - were crucial years, in which his style as a composer was forged. In 1953 he entered Trinity College of Music, London, by examination, and during four years there he obtained all three college diplomas (Associate, Licentiate and Fellow) and in 1954 won the Sir Granville Bantock Prize for Composition. He studied harmony, counterpoint, orchestration and musical history with Dr William Lovelock, piano with Joan Barker, harpsichord with Valda Aveling and viola with Alison Milne. In 1957 he obtained a B.Mus. (London) degree and was awarded by the Sir Winston Churchill Endowment Fund a 10-month scholarship in composition tenable at Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium, Copenhagen. There he studied composition, musical analysis and more advanced orchestration with the Danish Composer, Jörgen Jersild. Returning to England in 1958, he became music editor to Mills Music Ltd in Denmark Street ('Tin Pan Alley'), which position he held for five years. After June 1963 he freelanced as composer, arranger, music editor and lecturer. He was Professor of Harmony, Counterpoint & Orchestration at Trinity College of Music, London, from 1963 to 1973, and Visiting Professor of Composition for Film, Television & Radio at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, from 1972 to 1983, where he pioneered the first course of tuition in these specialised aspects of musical composition at a musical conservatoire in this country. In September, 1964, he was appointed music editor to the Music Department of Faber & Faber Ltd (now Faber Music Ltd), which position he held until 1974. While at Faber's he was Benjamin Britten's personal editor, from 1963 to 1971, being responsible for the editorial work on Britten's works from Curlew River to Owen Wingrave, and on many works by Gustav Holst. Carey Blyton is primarily a miniaturist, composing mainly songs, chamber music and short orchestral scores. His works include a series of guitar pieces for the Italian guitarist, Angelo Gilardino, published by Edizioni Bèrben, about a dozen works for the London Saxophone Quartet, many works involving wind instruments and works reflecting his life-long interest in the music and art of the East, particularly Japan.His interest in writing for children is shown in various commissions from the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) for schools cantatas in the series Music Workshop, the incidental music for three Dr Who serials, the Victorian mini-melodramas, and a number of books for children, including Bananas in Pyjamas a book of nonsense songs and poems which has made his name well-known throughout the English-speaking world. Carey Blyton enjoyed something of an 'Indian Summer' of creativity in his last years, though generally he was prolific throughout his life, as his catalogue shows. Late works of particular note (all published by Fand Music) nearly all exhibit his leanings toward 'the mysterious East', from In The Spice Markets of Zanzibar for brass quintet to Lyrics from the East for tenor and piano (a short epigrammatic song-cycle based on Eastern poems, written for Ian and Jennifer Partridge). One of his very last works was El Tango Ultimo for symphony orchestra - the essence of Blyton's art in a brief 'Tango cromatico'. Also among these last compositions is Vale, Diana!, a poignant tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, scored for string orchestra, and his Dirge for St Patrick's Night. The 'Beckenham boy', Carey Blyton, was honoured by his home town in 2002 on the occasion of his 70th birthday by an exhibition and talk on his work at Beckenham Library. Many friends, supporters and colleagues contributed to an 'appreciation' which clearly showed the incredible diversity and range of interest, all reflected in the work, of this uniquely talented man. Unfortunately, owing to ill health, Carey was unable to attend (though a video recording was made) and he died of cancer and post-polio syndrome, on 13 July 2002 at Woodbridge in Suffolk.For further information about Carey Blyton, his compositions, short stories etc, please visit www.careyblyton.co.uk

He died in 2002 from cancer and post-polio syndrome, aged 70.

• Official website
• Carey Blyton on IMDb