Malcolm Arnold

Hobson's Brass

Malcolm Arnold's score to David Lean's 1954 film, Hobson's Choice, was one of three collaborations between the composer and director. It's a story of Henry Hobson, played by Charles Laughton, who runs a successful bootmaker's shop in nineteenth-century Salford. A widower with a weakness for the pub, he tries forcefully to rule the lives of his three unruly daughters. When he decrees 'no marriages' to avoid the expensive matter of settlements, eldest daughter Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) rebels and sets her sights on Will Mossop (John Mills), Hobson's star bootmaker. Maggie and Will leave to start up in competition, and she then turns her mind to helping her sisters marry their chosen partners. The Overture and Shoe Ballet introduces Hobson with a jaunty, humorous theme featuring trombone glissandos representing Hobson's drinking. The second movement depicts the growing relationship between Willie and Maggie with a beautuful love theme, whilst in the third movement, Hobson's jaunty music continues to break through as the love theme is reintroduced, in a more stately classical form which is also the film's conclusion.