Colin Wark

{{short description|British composer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| image =

| imagesize =

| name = Colin Wark

| birth_date = 1896

| birth_place = London, England

| death_date = {{death year and age|1939|1896}}

| death_place = United Kingdom

| othername =

| occupation = Film composer

| yearsactive =

}}

Colin Wark (1896 – 1939) was a British composer of film scores, theatre music and light music, born in Ealing, West London and educated at Berkhamsted School.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba8bbd4a2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228085951/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba8bbd4a2|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 February 2017|title=Colin Wark|website=Bfi.org.uk|accessdate=28 July 2020}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=GJg7LA6GPUgC&q=Vi+Kearney+Colin+Wark Who's who in Music and Musicians' International Directory] (1937) Many of the films he scored were "quota quickies", mostly low-cost, low-quality, quickly-accomplished films commissioned by American distributors active in the UK or by British cinema owners purely to satisfy the quota requirements.Low, Rachael. History of the British Film: Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985. {{ISBN|9780047910425}}

Wark was also the composer of the score for Tulip Time, a comedy with music based on the play The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown by Robert Buchanan (1841-1901) and Charles Marlowe.[https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=627 The Literary Encyclopedia] Tulip Time opened at the Alhambra Theatre in London on August 14, 1935 and ran for 425 performances.[http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_t/tulip_time.htm Tulip Time entry, Guide to Musical Theatre]

In 1932 he was responsible for launching and managing Pasquale Troise and his Mandoliers, an orchestra of about 16 mandolin, accordion, guitar and tuned percussion players that made a series of BBC broadcasts between 1932 and 1933, and which went on to be the most frequently used band on the long-running BBC series Music While You Work (1940-1967).[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/41f53ccd6db541aca3d7e7078eecdcfb Radio Times, Issue 486, 20 January 1933, p 154]

Wark's light music compositions include the novelty intermezzo Animal Antics,[http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Mar08/Animal_glcd5143.htm Recorded on Animal Antics, Guild Music CD 5143 (2008)] Bouncing Ball (xylophone or piccolo solo), and Chrysanthemums for orchestra and piano. The Wedding of the Three Blind Mice, song/foxtrot, composed with Walter Williams and Bruce Sievier, was published in 1931. Philip L Scowcroft has suggested that Wark used the pseudonym Michele Lesley for some compositions, such as Waltz Serene.[http://www.musicweb-international.com/garlands/346-350.htm#ixzz6YCKx8Yut Scowcroft, Philip. 'A 349th Garland of British Light Music Composers' (2003)]

Wark worked for 12 years as musical advisor to the publishers Ricordi. He was married to actress Violet Kearney (1907-1985) who appeared as a dancer in the 1934 film Say It with Flowers, scored by Wark. There was one child, a son. Wark died in 1939 in Hendon, Middlesex.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0912279/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm 'Colin Wark', biography, IMDb]