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Happy 50th BBC Radiophonic Workshop
By Simon James | April 26, 2008
It seems like a real time of reflection currently with the passing of two musical pioneers, Tristram Cary and Bebe Barron in the last week. It is also the 50th anniversary of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and the BBC has some coverage here where you can find out how the Dalek voice is made and what Delia Derbyshire’s (pictured) favorite instrument was. Most famous for creating the Dr Who theme music, the Radiophonic workshop was the BBC’s in house music and sound design facility tasked with creating incidental music, themes and sound effects for TV and Radio. In its early days it was at the forefront of musical and sonic experimentation and covertly introduced new sounds to an audience that would otherwise not have heard such challenging work. Their music was inspiring me before I even knew it and continues to delight and amaze me today.
BBC 4 produced a documentary called The Alchemists of Sound a couple of years ago and it is definitely worth tracking down. I think it might even be on Google video. Another film worth seeing is the excellent ‘What the Future Sounded Like’ which looks at British electronic instrument company EMS. EMS provided many of the early synthesizers for the Radiophonic workshop and Tristram Cary was a designer.
May 27th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
a 2 volume cd set and vinyl lp of previously thought lost and / or unreleased music by john baker from the bbc radiophonic workshop will be released on trunk records shortly in 2008. this is the first retrospective release dedicated to a single composer from the workshop, coinciding with the RWS 50th anniversary. for more details check this link:
http://www.trunkrecords.com/turntable/john_baker.shtml