DD155222

DD155222

DD155222 is a publicity-style description of the Doctor Who title music.

Transcript

DR. WHO
-------
title music
by Ron Grainer
with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop



The most remarkable thing about the Dr. Who title music is
that nobody played it  -  there were no instrumentalists,
no group!  Neither was it picked up by radio telescope from
outer space, nor was it beamed directly onto the recording
tape as electronic waves from the brain of its composer,
Ron Grainer.



The answer is to be found in the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop
at Maida Vale. It was here that, working from Ron Grainer's
score, the music was constructed note by note, with infinite
patience, and without the use of any live instrumentalists
whatsoever.  But what does such a score look like  -  is it
a series of undecipherable hieroglyphics set out on logarithmic
graph paper?  No  -  in fact in this case it was not far removed
from a regular music score except for certain rather abstract
indications of tonal quality such as "clouds", "wind bubble" etc,.
and subsequently a rather awe-inspiring superscription of long
decimal numbers denoting decibels, cycles per second and inches
of tape.



Working from this score then, the basic sound elements were
individually recorded from various electronic sources of sound
such as sine and square wave oscillators, a white noise generator
and a special beat frequency oscillator known as the wobbulator.
These raw, elemental sounds were then intricately cut, shaped,
filtered and manipulated in various ways until finally the separate
tracks were ready to be mixed and synchronized.



The resulting catchy sound, which can be heard every week
introducing Dr. Who on BBC Television, has now been issued as
a commercial recording.


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