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| Photo of Morfydd Owen, National Library of Wales |
The biopic seems aimed at general audiences with a focus on Owen's marriage to Ernest Jones rather than on her music. The film is period romance, with a dark edge. Many marriages, especially at that time, were based on the abuse of power, and this was almost certainly not a match of equals. Morfydd is portayed as neurotic, on the verge of a breakdown, her last illness as much mental as physical. Given that Jones was a colleague of Sigmund Freud, he would have thought in terms of penis envy and hysteria, a"female problem" shifting blame onto the patient rather than the trauma. So why would he marry a woman who clearly had public status and a career ? The circumstances of Owen's death are mysterious, and would probably now be investigated by the police and General Medical Council. Why did Jones to operate on his wife on his own instead of driving her to hospital ? Perhaps it was something more scandalous than appendicitis. Jones was undoubtedly manipulative, but whether he was evil, we are in no position to know. The film accepts Freudian assumptions - Jones's point of view - while depicting him in a sinister light.
But what was Morfydd's side of the story ? She was not naive, nor a natural victim. She moved in avant garde circles, meeting D H Lawrence, Ezra Pound and Prince Yusupov, one of the conspirators who assassinated Rasputin, and was well aware of what being a "New Woman" meant. It's possible that she married Jones not just for security but becasuse she was curious about the newness of his profession. Her sultry "gypsy" looks were exotic. At 25, she wasn't marrying young like so many women did at the time. The biopic doesn't really develop Owen's personality and background. To have created the career in a male dominated hierarchy shows strength of chracater. To have been a staunch churchgoer - and a possibly what we'd now call a nationalist - among the fast set in London show that she wasn't afraid of being herself whatever others around her might do. Strong women do stay in abusive relationships but there's evidence that Owen realized early on that the marriage was a mistake. She was probably more unsure than she seemed on the surface, but again, we have no means of speculation what might have been had she lived.
Though the film includes clips of Owen's music, the focus is more on the costume drama aspects of the tragedy. But it would make a great difference if her music received more detailed attention. Owen's music "was" her life. Owen left some 200 surviving scores by the time of her death at the age of 26, a considerable output by any standards. She was prolific, producing a wide range of works, including large orchestral pieces, chamber music, songs and works for piano, and works for the stage. Even as a student, first in Cardiff and later in London, she was highly regarded. To this day, Owen's tally of prizes awarded by the Royal Academy of Music remains unrivalled. Though she was not part of the male English Establishment, Owen needs no special pleading. Her music stands on its own merits,highly individual and original. Her work was published in the Welsh Hymnal when she was 16.
Unlike far too many supposedly "lost" composers, Owen's substantial reputation doesn't rest on sentimentality or gender alone, but is based on substantial evidence. Owen's connections in London gave her an entrée to what was happening in the arts on an international level - she heard Stravinsky, and knew about Debussy, Ravel and other developments. Owen's Nocturne (mentioned here) is superb, as good as anything by other composers in Britain at the time, many of whom were much older and better placed than she was. Ralph Vaughan Williams found himself creatively after he went to Paris, aged 37. What might Owen have achieved, if she'd lived longer and had the right opportunities ? One day no doubt we'll get a more developed portrait of Morfydd Oween, but until then, this biopic will raise greater interest in this most remarkable of women.
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