The Cloud

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Her papers contain a collection of detailed notes and tape labels for the creation of sound for what appears to be a two-act play produced in collaboration with F. Chagrin and S. Brown.

S. Brown is presumably Sandy Brown, composer of the score for Searching, while F. Chagrin is presumably Francis Chagrin, a composer of film music[1] who created incidental music for a 1965 episode of Doctor Who, The Dalek Invasion of Earth.[2]

Barry Bermange, which whom Delia created Four Inventions for Radio in 1964-65, also produced a play of his own called The Cloud on stage in London in 1964,[3] and 1964 is also the date given for The Cloud in James Percival's catalogue of Delia's works.[4]

One Delia's Attic Tapes, "The Cloud 1 of 2", has Moogies Bloogies appended to it, which Delia created in August 1966.

Structure

The play is in two acts and the script has 12 effect cues, consisting of treated seagull sounds, "1000's of birds" and a "big screeching climax"[5] which were created using a Muirhead oscillator, the Wobbulator and some band-pass filters[6] and by playing things at double and half speed.[7]

There is a 4-note sequence A-B-C-D which is answered by the same four-note sequence.[8]

Papers

Tapes

  • DD143: "The Cloud 1 of 2 & Moodgies Bluedgies 3 of 3"
  • DD194: "The Cloud 2 of 2; F Chagrin; S Brown"

References

  1. Francis Chagrin's entry on en.wikipedia.org
  2. Francis Chagrin's credits page for Doctor Who on bbc.co.uk
  3. Barry Bermange's biography on Film Reference.
  4. Delia Derbyshire's Creative Process, p.13, Table II.1.
  5. DD094031: List of sounds on tape B.
  6. DD094050: List of sounds to make.
  7. DD094123: Cues for start of Act I.
  8. DD094105: Musical plan for "4-note answering phrases".