Alun Hoddinott, who died Wednesday at 78, was a Welsh composer who wrote 10 symphonies as well as the fanfare for Prince Charles’s 2005 marriage to Camilla Parker-Bowles. In 1969, he had written music for the Prince of Wales’s investiture.

Like his Welsh contemporaries William Mathias and Daniel Jones, Hoddinott avoided being drawn into the nationalist mold of folk music and the reworking of traditional melodies; instead his outlook was distinctly internationalist, taking influence from the likes of Stravinsky and Bartók.

Hoddinott’s early ambition to be a violinist had been thwarted by stage fright. Similar considerations halted any hopes of conducting his own works. He worked for a time turning out film scores for Disney, and later became professor of music at University College in Cardiff.

In addition to the symphonies, he wrote six operas, numerous concertos (including one for euphonium) and a wide variety of songs, dances and hymns. Those for whom he wrote included Mstislav Rostropovich, Osian Ellis, and Sir Geraint Evans.

The first director of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Huw Tregelles Williams, credited Hoddinott with developing “an entirely new musical language in the history of musical Wales.”

Among his operas was “The Beach of Falesá” and including “What the Old Man Does is Always Right,” for children, adapted by Myfawny Piper from the Hans Christian Andersen tale. Tower (1999) was inspired by the words of the miners of Tower Colliery (“We were ordinary men, we wanted jobs, we bought a colliery”) who clubbed together to ensure that the source of their livelihood remained.

Although the musical landscape in Wales has changed dramatically in the past half century — much of it due to Hoddinott’s influence and enthusiasm — he remained sceptical about the notion of Wales as a musical nation or as the land of song. “I think that… crumbled into dust many years ago,” he said. “It was probably never more than wishful thinking.”

Hoddinott was an avid birdwatcher, spending many happy hours gazing through an enormous window at his home on the Gower peninsula, waiting patiently for a new species to peck at the newly replenished feeder outside. Around the room were carvings of birds, including a brightly colored mallard and an elegant curlew.

His final quartet was premiered by the Sacconi Quartet at the Wigmore Hall, London, the night before he died.