http://wikidelia.net/index.php?title=The_BBC_Radiophonic_Workshop:_The_First_25_Years&feed=atom&action=historyThe BBC Radiophonic Workshop: The First 25 Years - Revision history2024-03-28T23:45:20ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.32.2http://wikidelia.net/index.php?title=The_BBC_Radiophonic_Workshop:_The_First_25_Years&diff=11848&oldid=prevMartinwguy at 17:59, 23 May 20162016-05-23T17:59:29Z<p></p>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">[[Image:</del>Delia with pen 1200dpi halftoned<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">.jpg|thumb|right</del>|Delia Derbyshire<del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">]]</del></div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">{{Thumb|</ins>Delia with pen 1200dpi halftoned|Delia Derbyshire<ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">}}</ins></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><CENTER>At the sign of the green lampshade<BR></div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><CENTER>At the sign of the green lampshade<BR></div></td></tr>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>One tale concerns her creation of the biggest loop of recording tape</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>One tale concerns her creation of the biggest loop of recording tape</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>ever seen in the history of the world. It circled her <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">atudio </del>several times,</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>ever seen in the history of the world. It circled her <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">studio </ins>several times,</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>looped gracefully out of the door and down the corridor as far as the</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>looped gracefully out of the door and down the corridor as far as the</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>commissionaire's desk at the entrance of BBC Maida Vale Studios, and</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>commissionaire's desk at the entrance of BBC Maida Vale Studios, and</div></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno" id="mw-diff-left-l65" >Line 65:</td>
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<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Queen and Prince Philip at the Royal Festival Hall. Taking the</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>Queen and Prince Philip at the Royal Festival Hall. Taking the</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>initial letters IEE, Delia composed music from their mathematical</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>initial letters IEE, Delia composed music from their mathematical</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>correspondences and from <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">morse </del>code: introducing elements of</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>correspondences and from <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Morse </ins>code: introducing elements of</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>the development of electricity in communication from the earliest</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>the development of electricity in communication from the earliest</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>telephone to the Americans landing on the moon. There was the</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>telephone to the Americans landing on the moon. There was the</div></td></tr>
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<td colspan="2" class="diff-lineno">Line 78:</td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>was most distinguished. For ''[[The Dreams|Dreams]]'', Bermange had first recorded</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>was most distinguished. For ''[[The Dreams|Dreams]]'', Bermange had first recorded</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>a number of people talking about their dreams and then analysed</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>a number of people talking about their dreams and then analysed</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'>−</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>the resulting conversations into subjects. <del class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Tigether</del>, he and Delia</div></td><td class='diff-marker'>+</td><td style="color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>the resulting conversations into subjects. <ins class="diffchange diffchange-inline">Together</ins>, he and Delia</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>built up a word pattern which was then set to pure electronic</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>built up a word pattern which was then set to pure electronic</div></td></tr>
<tr><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>sound. For the second programme in the series ''[[Amor Dei]]'' it was</div></td><td class='diff-marker'> </td><td style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #222; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #eaecf0; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div>sound. For the second programme in the series ''[[Amor Dei]]'' it was</div></td></tr>
</table>Martinwguyhttp://wikidelia.net/index.php?title=The_BBC_Radiophonic_Workshop:_The_First_25_Years&diff=5510&oldid=prevMartinwguy at 21:22, 13 December 20122012-12-13T21:22:00Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Thumb|The BBC Radiophonic Workshop - The First 25 Years}}<br />
<br />
''[[The BBC Radiophonic Workshop: The First 25 Years]]: the inside story of providing sound and music for television and radio, 1958-1983'' is a book by [[Desmond Briscoe]] and Roy Curtis-Bramwell published in 1983 by the BBC in London.<br />
<br />
It contains 12 pages about Delia.<br />
<br />
=Extracts=<br />
==Page 26==<br />
<br />
In 1963 a Workshop composer called Delia Derbyshire realised by a series of &lsquo;carefully times hand-swoops&rsquo; on twelve small oscillators the signature tune for a new children's series called ''Doctor Who.'' The story of how this momentous event came about is described in chapter 8.<br />
<BR CLEAR=ALL><br />
==Pages 82-86==<br />
<br />
[[Image:Delia with pen 1200dpi halftoned.jpg|thumb|right|Delia Derbyshire]]<br />
<br />
<CENTER>At the sign of the green lampshade<BR><br />
<I>Delia Derbyshire (1962-1973)</I></CENTER><br />
<br />
It's a suitable name for legends: and certainly a number of anecdotes about Delia crop up in the reminiscences of the time when she &mdash; together with Desmond Briscoe, Brian Hodgson, John Baker and David Cain &mdash; formed what some people look back upon as one of the golden ages of the Radiophonic Workshop.<br />
<br />
One tale concerns her creation of the biggest loop of recording tape<br />
ever seen in the history of the world. It circled her atudio several times,<br />
looped gracefully out of the door and down the corridor as far as the<br />
commissionaire's desk at the entrance of BBC Maida Vale Studios, and<br />
back again. Not everyone believes that one.<br />
<br />
Another story concerns her minor classic of radiophonic music, the<br />
signature tune to ''[[Great Zoos of the World]]''. It was apparently created<br />
overnight, with a little help from her friends, and completed just in time<br />
for the surprised and delighted programme producer who had come up<br />
specially from Bristol to take away a piece created entirely from the<br />
sounds of real animals.<br />
<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
Born in Coventry, and trained as a pianist, Delia read mathematics<br />
and music at Cambridge University and joined the Workshop<br />
team in 1962. Delia came to us very highly qualified indeed, says<br />
Descomnd Briscoe. At first she asked whether she could spend her<br />
days off sitting quietly in a corner and watching us work. We<br />
replied: &lsquo;Yes of course.&rsquo; So this tall, quiet, auburn-haired young lady<br />
came over from Broadcasting House whenever she wasn't<br />
working as a studio manager, and watched us. Later she stayed on<br />
to contribute an enormous amount of very beautiful &mdash; almost<br />
unearthly &mdash; and quite remarkable music. Some of her pieces like<br />
''[[The Delian Mode]]'' and ''[[Blue Veils and Golden Sands]]'' are without<br />
parallel in our output.<br />
<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
Few people can write witty music, but Delia could. She was an<br />
original worker who used an analytical approach to synthesise<br />
complex sounds from electronic scores. The mathematics of sound<br />
came naturally to her and she could take a set of figures and build<br />
them into music in a way quite different from anyone else.<br />
<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
Delia was also one of the first people to overcome the criticism<br />
that radiophonic music was always horrific. She really gave the lie<br />
to that often repeated saying that it was easy to be horrid,<br />
reasonable easy to be amusing, pretty difficult to be pompous and<br />
grandiose, and very difficult indeed to be beautiful.<br />
<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
It was Delia who first realised electronically Ron Grainer's<br />
music for the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' signature tune. Delia's ability to take on<br />
enormous projects to order was to be shown again much later<br />
when she composed a special extended electronic piece for the<br />
Institute of Electrical Engineers which was performed before the<br />
Queen and Prince Philip at the Royal Festival Hall. Taking the<br />
initial letters IEE, Delia composed music from their mathematical<br />
correspondences and from morse code: introducing elements of<br />
the development of electricity in communication from the earliest<br />
telephone to the Americans landing on the moon. There was the<br />
voice of Mr Gladstone congratulating Mr Edison on inventing the<br />
phonograph: the opening and closing down of Savoy Hill with<br />
Lord Reith's voice: and Neil Armstrong speaking as he stepped<br />
onto the surface of the moon. The powerful punch of Delia's rocket<br />
take-off threatened the very fabric of the Festival Hall.<br />
<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
Her collaboration with writer [[Barry Bermange]] in the Third<br />
Programme series of four programmes called ''[[Inventions for Radio]]'',<br />
was most distinguished. For ''[[The Dreams|Dreams]]'', Bermange had first recorded<br />
a number of people talking about their dreams and then analysed<br />
the resulting conversations into subjects. Tigether, he and Delia<br />
built up a word pattern which was then set to pure electronic<br />
sound. For the second programme in the series ''[[Amor Dei]]'' it was<br />
decided to use no electronic sounds at all. At one point, Barry<br />
Bermange said that he would like &lsquo;the sound of a Gothic<br />
altarpiece&rsquo;. &lsquo;Show me,&rsquo; said Delia. So Bermange drew a beautiful<br />
Gothic altarpiece and said: &lsquo;''That'' sort of sound.&rsquo; Using human voices<br />
and developing the use of sung words on tape, Delia provided what<br />
he wanted.<br />
<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
<I>That was music to take seriously, of course,</I> says Delia. <I>But I<br />
always immensely enjoyed doing funny programmes. There was<br />
one called ''[[Know Your Car|Family Car]]'', a do-it-yourself maintenance programme,<br />
for which they wanted lighthearted cartoon-type music. I worked<br />
out the four-stroke cycle of an engine and made suitable push &hellip;<br />
suck &hellip; bang &hellip; blow &hellip; noises. I used the tune<br />
''Get Out and Get Under'', but I made it on simulated car horns and cut it together<br />
very carefully. The music worked all right, but it was turned down<br />
because one particular car had been used for the series and the<br />
manufacturer's didn't really want my efforts to be associated with<br />
their product.</I><br />
</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<br />
A classic case of &lsquo;coals to Newcastle&rsquo; occurred during this time following<br />
a visit to the Workshop by a freelance German broadcaster. His<br />
interviews with the Maida Vale radiophonic music composers were<br />
built into a radio programme which proved so successful that Munich<br />
Radio approached the BBC with a polite request for a radiophonic<br />
signature tune for their daily news programme, which had since the<br />
war been heralded by an Eric Coates March. The BBC agreed, and the<br />
Workshop accepted the commission eagerly, thinking it an honour to<br />
be asked to export electronic sounds to the country that had first<br />
pioneered them. Delia Derbyshire composed the theme, and on the first<br />
evening that it was heard on air the German announcer duly credited<br />
and thanked the &lsquo;Britisher&rsquo; lady composer who was responsible for the<br />
piece.<br />
<br />
p.86:<br />
<BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<I>[...] all night towards what I wanted, but when the dawn came I felt I had so much more that I needed to do. Then the cleaning lady came in and I asked her what the music reminded her of. &lsquo;The North Pole,&rsquo; she replied. Right, I thought, I'm not going to muck about with it any longer.</I><br />
</BLOCKQUOTE><br />
Where other Workshop composers think in terms of visual images or colours, Delia considered everything in a very analytical way.<br />
<br />
=Availability=<br />
* It is hard to find an original; when a copy does appear on abebooks.it or eBay, it costs from fifty to a hundred pounds.<br />
* There is a searchable version [http://books.google.it/books?id=FqEYAQAAIAAJ on Google Books]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Book]]<br />
[[Category:Document]]</div>Martinwguy