Dealing with Derbyshire
I was there in the blitz and it’s come to me, relatively recently, that my love for abstract sounds [came from] the air-raid sirens: that’s a sound you hear and you don’t know the source of as a young child… then the sound of the “all clear” – that was electronic music. – Delia Derbyshire
Regarded by many as the mother of electronic music, Delia Derbyshire was a sculptor of sounds. The electronic music pioneer graduated from university with a degree in mathematics and music. On approaching Decca Records in 1959 she was informed that the company did not employ women in their recording studios. In 1960 Delia joined the BBC as a trainee studio manager and then requested to be attached to the newly created Radiophonic Workshop (whose most familiar contribution to the world is the Dr. Who theme tune) where she influenced many of her trainee colleagues. The idea was to have a department providing, at low cost, theme and incidental music plus sound effects for radio & TV series. Today some of this stuff sounds quaint and dated but Delia’s work stands out thanks to her ultimate resource – a limitless imagination. Delia combined her interests in the theory and perception of sound, modes, tunings and the communication of moods purely through electronic sources.
Deal or no Delia?
The Radiophonic department was initially always run by someone with a drama background. Derbyshire was the first person there of a higher musical qualification. However, much of her early work remained anonymous under the credit of “special sound by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop”. Delia was called upon to create music for any area where an orchestral composition would be out of place – the distant past, an unseen future or deep in the human psyche. Desmond Briscoe, founder of the department notes: “Workshop was then a very popular word among theatre ‘types’, and it gave away the Drama Department origins. It was originally going to be called the Electrophonic Workshop, but it was discovered that ‘electrophonic’ referred to some sort of defect of the brain, so it had to be changed! A board was set up to see that the place was run properly. Unfortunately, one board member had a doctor friend, who advised that three months should be the maximum length of time that anyone could work there, as staying any longer could be injurious to their health; like they’d go mad, or something.”
Recently an archive of 267 tapes has come to light including an experimental “dance track” which Derbyshire prefaces with: “Forget about this, it’s for interest only.” Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll says it is “quite amazing … That could be coming out next week on Warp Records … It’s incredible when you think when it comes from [the 1960s]. Timeless, really. It could be now as much as then.” She created her music before the invention of synthesisers using oscillators, signal genterators and loops, literally cutting, pasting and reversing segments of magnetic tape.
Delia fell out of love with the BBC in the mid 70s when her productions were being declared too lascivious and lustful for childrens television. She began to experiment in London’s psychedlic underground scene forming a band with founder of synth manufacturer EMS, Peter Zinovieff. Some of their gigs sound like crackers, how about the two-day “Million Volt Light and Sound Rave” at the Roundhouse? The association with Peter Zinovieff had already led to the BBC buying three VCS3s, and in 1970 the Workshop took delivery of an EMS Synthi 100 modular system. It was the biggest voltage-controlled synthesizer in the world Christened ‘The Delaware’, after the road outside the studios, it had 16 oscillators and even incorporated its own oscilloscope and frequency counter. As with the VCS3, there were no messy patch cords: instead were provided two 60×60-way ‘pin patch boards’. There was a digital sequencer too, which could store up to 256 events. The massive control surface presented a sea of knobs to twiddle, but one of them, labelled ‘Option 4′ was actually a dummy. Not connected to anything at all, it was occasionally tweaked to appease awkward producers who wanted to get ‘just the right sound’.
Her works from the 60s and 70s continue to be used on radio and TV 30 years after their creation. She has legendary cult status amongst electronic music fans in Sweden and Japan. Derbyshire is regularly cited, credited and covered by acts such as Aphex Twin and The Chemical Brothers. Its believed her infectious enthusiasm for experimental sound has transferred to others during meetings with Paul McCartney, George Martin, Pink Floyd and Brian Jones.
A complete list of her works has yet to be compiled, but amongst other things she has mentioned involvement in the earliest electronic music events in England – proto-raves perhaps? Before Delia, electronic music had a reputation for sounding ‘ugly’; she proved that it could also be extremely beautiful.
What we are doing now is not important for itself, but one day someone might be interested enough to carry things forwards and create something wonderful on these foundations. – Delia Derbyshire
Delia Derbyshire – Official Website
BBC Article on Delia Derbyshire
The Story Of The Radiophonic Workshop
Tags: Audio, BBC, Electronic, Experimental, Music
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