Ways of Seeing

From WikiDelia
Jump to navigationJump to search
Ways of Seeing end credits
Ways of Seeing - The Dream of Later Tonight
Ways of Seeing - The Skin Dream
Ways of Seeing - The Dream of a Faraway Place

Delia is credited with "Special Sound" for the fourth and final part of a BAFTA award-winning 1972 BBC series of programmes Ways of Seeing, produced and directed by Michael Dibb,[1][2] in which John Berger "analyses the images of advertising and publicity and shows how they relate to the tradition of oil painting - in moods, relationships and poses."[3]

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

Title: Ways Of Seeing
Writer(s): Derbyshire Delia Ann; Clarke Malcolm John
Publisher; BBC Music
Creation date: 8 March 1993

The first three minutes of episode 2[4] also have a radiophonic background[5] which sounds like two chords of an orchestral piece slowed down, maybe to a quarter of its original speed.

End credits

  • Special sound: Delia Derbyshire, BBC Radiophonic Workshop
  • Producer: Michael Dibb

Track list

  • 05:50-09:30 "Publicity impersonates painting" (uninspired slow monophonic synth solo, probably Malcolm Clarke, not Delia)
  • 09:53-10:31 "Publicity and oil painting use many of the same references" (similar piece for two voices)
  • 13:42-16:00 Perfume bottling factory rhythmic loop
  • 16:00-16:30 "The more monotonous the present, the more the imagination must seize upon the future" (ethereal chords similar to Amor Dei)
  • 16:42-17:45 The Dream of Later Tonight
  • 17:52-18:33 The Skin Dream
  • 19:03-20:18 The Dream of a Faraway Place

Analysis

James Percival says of these pieces:

'The Dream of Later Tonight' and 'The Skin Dream' use textures lifted virtually unchanged from 'The After Life' and 'Amor Dei' respectively, whilst 'The Dream of a Faraway Place' sets new (Delaware/Synthi 100?) material derived probably from some interesting spectral study (not found elsewhere on the Attic tapes as far as I recall) against the third section of Amor Dei ("I'd like to believe in God, but...")[6]

Tapes

Spectrograms

Episode 2 intro

Ways of Seeing - Episode 2 intro - Spectrogram.jpg

The Three Dreams Used In Advertising

Intro

Ways of Seeing 0 - Intro - Spectrogram.jpg

The Dream of Later Tonight

Ways of Seeing 1 - The Dream of Later Tonight - Spectrogram.jpg

The Skin Dream

Ways of Seeing 2 - The Skin Dream - Spectrogram.jpg

The Dream of a Faraway Place

Ways of Seeing 3 - The Dream of a Faraway Place - Spectrogram.jpg

Availability

References

  1. The programme's entry in the BFI Film & TV database
  2. BBC Radiophonic Workshop - surviving work entry for TRW 7448, credited to Malcolm Clarke/Delia Derbyshire
  3. Ways of Seeing on thebox.bz
  4. Ways of Seeing, part 2 on youtube.com
  5. Thanks to Alex J for spotting this.
  6. James Percival in a comment on facebook on 28th July 2018.
  7. Search Ways of Seeing at the BBC Genome Project
  8. The Tape Library List's entry for TRW 7448.