Delia Derbyshire · BBC Radiophonic Workshop

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Delia Derbyshire · BBC Radiophonic Workshop · The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was a sound department of the BBC, founded in 1958 to create special sounds and new music for radio and later television. Daphne Oram set it up in 1957 with Desmond Briscoe, and the workshop was based in the Maida Vale Studios in London. At first the group mainly made effects for experimental radio plays, including for the science fiction serial Quatermass and the Pit and for The Goon Show. From the early 1960s, signature tunes for television followed. In 1998 the Workshop closed.

Music and breakthrough

Delia Derbyshire was one of its members, alongside Daphne Oram, David Cain, John Baker and Paddy Kingsland, among others. In 1963 the composer Ron Grainer asked the Workshop for the theme tune for the new series Doctor Who. He had written a score with directions such as sweeps, swoops, wind clouds and wind bubbles, and Derbyshire turned that into a piece of electronic music that has become one of the best-known television themes.

Influence

The music of the Workshop is experimental electronic music, made with equipment that was among the most advanced in the country at the time. The group's work points ahead to electronic pop music, even though it was intended for the BBC. Derbyshire stands for a time when electronic sounds were still made and edited by hand, and her work is a source of inspiration for later artists.

Listening

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  Blue Veils and Golden Sands · Delia Derbyshire · BBC Radiophonic Workshop, 1968
  Apple Music ↗

See also

• Radiophonic Workshop