Work Is A Four Letter Word poster

Work Is A Four Letter Word is Peter Hall's first feature film, made in 1967 by Calvacade Films^[1], released in the UK on 7th June 1968^[2] and distributed by Universal Pictures.^[1]

I also did the music for Peter Hall's first feature film, Work is a Four Letter Word. I did the electronic part of the music... the bloopy bits when they'd taken the magic mushrooms.
--Delia, in the Surface interview

She subsequently reworked these themes to make the "Delia's..." tracks on the ESL104 album.

Credits

From the opening titles:

Stars: David Warner, Cilla Black
Written by: Jeremy Brooks, adapted from the play "EH?" by Henry Livings
Director of Photography: Gilbert Taylor
Editor: Jack Harris
Art Director: Philip Harrison
Production Manager: Donald Toms
Assistent Director: Claude Watson
Sound recordists: Robert MacPhee, Gordon K. McDallum
Music Composed and Conducted by: Guy Woolfenden
Associate Producer: Ham Haysom
Production Controller: Tom White
Producer: Thomas Clyde
Director: Peter Hall

From the closing titles:

Electronic music by Delia Derbyshire

Excerpts

Spectrograms are from A(55Hz) to A(3520Hz) at 200 pixels per second except 9) at 100pps.

1. First theme: "I love you, Betty" (0:15)

2. Second theme; semitone chord theme: "Mrs Murray? You're beautiful" (0:38)

3. Delia's theme; first theme reprise: "Val, oh Val, you have such lovely ears" (0:15)

4. Climbing theme; second theme: "They had been climbing, it seemed, for hours" (0:59)

5. Spangles; Delia's theme (0:08)

6. Second theme reprise (0:39)

7. Second theme slow: "I'm just gonna see to me mushrooms, Betty" (0:15)

8. Acciaccatura theme (0:13)

9. Semitone cheeps and mushroom-eating finale (3:20)

Papers

Preparatory notes

Cue sheets

DD085123-DD085526 Cue sheets for all sound effects used in the film. See here.

Notes and sound diagrams

DD085538-DD085802 8 pages of Delia notes and sound diagrams. See here.

Manuscript scores

DD092445: Side 1 of 3: OK, B/W Waltz
DD092511: Side 2 of 3: Tune 1
DD092522: Side 3 of 3
DD092350: Tune 3, Tune 2A, Tune 2Z
DD092413: Tune 3
DD092425: Tune 4

Correspondence

DD080404: Letter dated 1st Jan 1968 saying that Kaleidophon lost money on this job

Tapes

DD129: Tape loops
DD199: Rough mix of cue 10M1, sent for approval
DD239: "Work is a 4 letter word: Master tape 3"
DD240: "Work is a 4 letter word: Master tape 2"
DD241: "Work is a 4 letter word: Master tape 1"

Copyright

The Performing Right Society's list of works by Delia Ann Derbyshire has:

Title: Work Is A Four Letter Word
Writer(s): Derbyshire Delia Ann
Creation date: 19 November 1996

Availability

You can buy it on DVD or VHS from The Video beat

References

[BrennanThesis-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Breege Brennan's thesis.

[2] Work Is A 4-Letter Word on imdb.com

[1]

[2]

Work Is A Four Letter Word

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