The British Library’s Francis Chagrin Collection: Joining the Dots

Abstract

Francis Chagrin (1905–1972), a Romanian who settled in Britain via France, worked on several film scores in the UK from the 1930s through to the 1960s. This paper will assess what the archive of Chagrin papers and audio recordings held by the British Library has contributed to my study of his film scores from the period. I will ask how Chagrin’s work fits in to the general frame of British scores in the period, and how correspondence between the composer and filmmakers enlightens our understanding of the creative process. The work of crossreferencing audio material with archived sketches, scores, and other documents will be explained and interrogated.