The Man Who Collected Sounds

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Its entry in Radio Times
George Newson working with Delia in 1966

Delia created "music effects" for a radio drama[1] The Man Who Collected Sounds by Douglas Cleverdon. He describes it as "A couple of song cycles set by George Newson to poems by Leonard Smith [... an] ambitious dramatic feature for radio. It is equally ambitious in its radiophonic exploitation of sounds and voices".[2]

The review article says "The hero, armed with the sounds of Good Government and Perfect Love, pursues pre-Raphaelite, mystical Avalon among the fascist politics of small-town California.", which is a strange coincidence with Delia's music for The Business of Good Government and her "Perfect Love" theme used in O Fat White Woman.

Its tape's catalogue entry is dated 1964, but George first went to the Radiophonic Workshop and worked with Delia in 1966, the same year the radio programme was broadcast[3] on the 8th of June.[1]

Credits[2]

  • Words by Leonard Smith
  • Music by George Newson
  • The Young Man: Denis Quilley
  • Paul Lincoln Demarest: Eric Shilling
  • Avalon: Dorothy Dorow
  • The Woman: Tucker McGuire
  • The Sheriff: Tommy Duggan
  • The Mayor: Stuart Nichol
  • Narrator: Allan McClelland
  • with: Walter Fitzgerald, Stephen Jack, Preston Lockwood, Elizabeth Proud, Betty Huntley-Wright
  • The Orchestra conducted by Graham Treacher
  • Harmonica played by Alfie Kahn
  • with additional music effects by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
  • Produced by Douglas Cleverdon

Track List

Act 1

  • 03:23-03:40 High wind "Listen!"

The Man Who Collected Sounds - 01 Wind - Spectrogram.jpg

  • 04:10-04:49 Effects "Cattle in Wyoming, Iron in Pittsburg, Steel in Detroit"

The Man Who Collected Sounds - 02 Effects - Spectrogram.jpg

  • 08:30-08:49 Bats and farts[?]

The Man Who Collected Sounds - 03 Bats and farts - Spectrogram.jpg

  • 08:54-09:37 Treated timpani[?] "Listen!"

The Man Who Collected Sounds - 04 Treated timpani - Spectrogram.jpg

  • 17:21-17:52 High whines "You'll be lonely here"

The Man Who Collected Sounds - 05 High whines - Spectrogram.jpg

  • 22:08-22:56 The Gallery of the Forms of Sound

The Man Who Collected Sounds - 06 The Gallery of the Forms of Sound - Spectrogram.jpg

  • 22:56-24:20 Ghosts on Main Street

The Man Who Collected Sounds - 07 Ghosts on Main Street - Spectrogram.jpg

  • 26:36-28:51 Treated laughter & deep wind effect

The Man Who Collected Sounds - 08 Treated laughter and deep wind - Spectrogram.jpg

Act 2

03:53-04:53  Eerie background sirens wash
             "... bit into me and my hands were crushed"
04:53-07:37  Wind effects and traffic
             "the young man stumbled and blundered through the maze of the town"
21:01-21:44  Treated timpani "You hear!"
22:47-23:51  Crowd [?] effect as b/g for "Now! ... Elect the mayor"
     -27:11  Same "... I leave" (edit best swells)
27:11-27:40  Siren effect (2 voices) "Don't let him go"
30:58-34:40  Filtered noise wash "What's the matter with him?" [..end]

Availability

  • Broadcast on Wednesday[4] at 8.55[2] and repeated on June 28 (of which year?)
  • Broadcast on BBC Radio's Third Programme on 8th June 1966,[1] which was indeed a Wednesday.
  • In the BBC Sound Archive on tape TRW 6192: "The Man Who Collected Sounds"[1]
  • In the BBC Sound Archive on tape TRW 7065: "The Man Who Collected Sounds (for Germany), copy of TRW 6192"[5]
  • On Attic Tape DD063: "Newson piece"[6]
  • The whole play may still be on dropbox:

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Tape Library List's entry for TRW 6192.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 DD110532: Clipping from the Radio Times for its first broadcast, together with an article by Douglas Cleverdon.
  3. ↑ Personal communication, June 2019.
  4. ↑ DD110156: A newspaper article The Sound Barrier which reviews the programme
  5. ↑ The Tape Library List's entry for TRW 7065.
  6. ↑ The Initial Catalogue's entry for DD063
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