I was a big Doctor Who fan as a young child – I especially enjoyed the original run from 1963 until 1989, and being an avid consumer/lover of music at the time (as remains the case now), of course one of the aspects I enjoyed the most was the theme tune. I was always particularly keen on the original 1963 tune composed by Ron Grainer and ‘bought to life’, as it were, by Delia Derbyshire. This is something so otherworldly, so haunting about it. It was very ahead of its time, made far before the ready availability of commercial synthesisers.

Of course, at the age of 6 I didn’t fully comprehend that I had come across the work of one of the pioneering institutions in British Sound Art – the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The Radiophonic Workshop was originally set up in 1958 with the purpose of providing music and sound effects for shows on the BBC, and was operational for 40 years until it closed down in 1998.

The original Doctor Who theme made use of many techniques that had been featured within musique concrète in recent years, and was made by editing, splicing, and changing the speed of pieces of tape that had recordings of white noise, test-tone oscillators and a single plucked string. Sadly, Delia Derbyshire, who was responsible for the sound and production of this incredibly innovative piece never received a co-composer credit or shared royalties with Ron Grainger due to the BBC wanting to keep members of the workshop anonymous. I personally believe this led to Derbyshire becoming a severely underrated pioneer of sonic production – she has become a cult figure within electronic music and sound art circles since, however I rarely hear her name bought up in these contexts either. One ought to listen to her 1966 project ‘Moogies Bloogies’ with popular actor and singer Anthony Newley to get an even wider scope on just how innovative her work was at the time.

Whilst reading the conversation between David Toop and Adam Parkinson hosted at the London Metropolitan University in 2015, I came across more artists who were involved with the workshop. In particular, I was struck by the work of Daphne Oram. This ‘radiophonic poem’ from 1957 is incredibly innovative for its time, and I almost couldn’t believe it had been broadcast when it was:

A particular invention of Oram’s which I find fascinating is the ‘Oramics’ machine, first developed in 1962. This machine made use of optical scanning technologies to read waveforms that were hand-drawn on to strips of 35mm film, and is sometimes seen as a predecessor to MIDI Sequencing.

I believe it is very important to highlight the work of the women of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop as their names can often be overlooked within the history of British sound art. This is unfortunately due to the BBC wanting to keep the members of the workshop anonymous, and I find this to be a shame as so much of the history of sound art can tend to be male-dominated. Derbyshire and Oram were true innovators, and I would like to hear their names mentioned more when talking about the history of electronic music and sound art.

References

1. Toop, D., Parkinson, A., 2015. Unfinished Business: A Conversation on Sound Art in the United Kingdom.
2. Butler, D., n.d. Delia Derbyshire – History of the BBC. [online] BBC. Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/pioneering-women/women-of-the-workshop/delia-derbyshire> [Accessed 8 December 2021].
3. Stewart, D., Stewart, I. and Kenny, J., n.d. Doctor Who: The Theme — Derbyshire (1963). [online] Doctor Who: The Theme. Available at: <https://www.dwtheme.com/derbyshire/1963> [Accessed 8 December 2021].
4. Williams, H., 2017. The woman who could ‘draw’ music. [online] BBC. Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170522-daphne-oram-pioneered-electronic-music> [Accessed 8 December 2021].
5. BBC. n.d. BBC Radiophonic Workshop Founded. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/april/bbc-radiophonic-workshop> [Accessed 8 December 2021].