William Alwyn (1905-1985) was one of the most prominent British composers to emerge in the generation following Vaughan Williams and Holst. Stylistically, his music tended toward lyricism and was more closely related to theirs and to the neo-classical movement than to the modernism that was dominant for most of his career. He wrote a variety of types of music, including orchestral, chamber, keyboard, and vocal music, but the bulk of his later career was devoted to film scores. His best-known works include the orchestral pieces Elizabethan Dances and Magic Island, his five symphonies, and the opera Miss Julie.