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Composing music for day to day television work has always posed great challenges to the composer as it is bound by deadline both in terms of duration of the music and in terms of time limit given to a musician for composing it. To be frank - television producers even sometimes gives a day's time to the composer to compose music for their stings and programs. Whereas composing music in earlier days were more luxurious as people had more time then to exploit their creativity and artistic bent of mind. Now a days a music composer who composes music for television, is in no better position than that of a copy editor in an advertising agency - always pressed for deadlines. Looking at music from another angle, composing music for television is also different from composing music for a staged orchestra. Not only the situation is different but also the visual plays a major role in demanding the type of music that's needed for a particular program or commercial. Here in television you don't create whatever you feel like but you compose music under given parameters outside which you cannot venture out.
Sound and Music are integral part of television, a bad score can always shoot down a production and a good score if utilised properly can even create history in television programming. Visual and Audio goes hand in hand in television and films - so the role of sound of music cannot be overlooked in either television or film. Music of television has also changed over the time all over the world in various aspects. In this collection of articles in "The Music of Television" we present the evolution of music in television and the lives of the people who are involved in composing music for television and how things changed over the years.
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Part 1 Emotional folk medleys defined start-up music
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Part 2 Life in television music libraries
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Some used orchestral marches and some chose to commission more “contemporary” compositions, but the medleys of traditional folk songs employed by several Independent Television companies to start their day form perhaps some of the most evocative music in television history, suggests Richard Elen. There is an extraordinary breadth to the music composed (or sometimes chosen) by ITV companies over the years to accompany the handover from the Independent Television Authority (later the IBA)
to the television company at the start of the broadcast day...more |
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Library Music, also known as “Production Music”... the words mean something to many people in and around the music business. But the ideas that spring to mind when you ask someone what library music
 actually is are varied – and often wrong. Music for TV test-cards and tuning signals? Yes, it’s one of the less-common uses of library material. Background music for lifts and hotels? Virtually never. So what, exactly, is Library Music? ...more
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Part 3
The quest for music
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Part 4:
The passion of creating music for television
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My parents, brother and two sisters had recently moved from Coventry to a house in Richmond Road, Kingston-upon-Thames. We had acquired what must have been our first, rented television, with a seventeen-inch screen, on which I had watched the first episode of Doctor Who. But at least as memorable were those ITV Schools Interludes, broadcast by Associated Rediffusion in the mid-sixties...more
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Since hearing John Dankworth’s "Widespread World" for the first time in 1997 (although I knew the ident clip long before that) I became fascinated with the whole idea of a march in three-four time.
 The strident main theme, based on the Mixolydian
mode, uses a "pedal" note – a recurring bass note drone on which to pin the
harmonic changes above it. One of the most common is "C", and I suppose the
other famous piece of British music than comes readily to mind based on a
"C" pedal is William Walton’s march "Crown Imperial" ...more |
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Part 5:
Gone are the days of start up music
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Part 6: Johnny Hawksworth, composer of Thames Television's indent
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This routine, which marked the transfer from test card to programming each day, had developed out of ITA regulations of 1955. It was essentially a piece of cod-ceremonial, which was typical of Britain in the years after the coronation. In a broadcasting industry dominated by a territorial formality, the specially-commissioned daily opening music was intended to be a declaration of style and purpose, almost a ‘mission statement’ for the company concerned....more |
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Johnny Hawksworth, composer of Thames Television's ident and opening tune, was a double bass player at the beginning of his professional musical career, playing with, amongst others, Ted Heath and Geraldo. In actual fact it comes as no surprise that most of the Heath and Geraldo musicians ended up in TV orchestras, some even as conductors or composers themselves. Jack Parnell, Reg Owen and Johnny Hawksworth himself walked this well-trodden path....more
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Part 7:
Arthur Wilkinson, composer of Three Rivers Fantasy
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Part 8: Graphic plates, music and Channel Identity - the earlier days
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Arthur Wilkinson began his arranging and composing career in the RAF, providing many numbers for the Squadronaires. From here he moved into television, hired at first by Eric Robinson to arrange the music for his "Music for You" series.
His work was often heard on other BBC programmes...more
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For 30 years, the Authority announcement was a fixed, settled and constant feature of the British broadcasting environment.
 Always
fairly formal even in its death throes in the mid-1980s, its tone
nevertheless changed and evolved with the times. Compare the stern and
imposing announcements of the 1950s with the friendly and inviting
introductions to the day's programmes in the early 80s, and you get a pretty
good representation of wider British social and cultural changes in that
time....more |
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Part 9: Loving the television musical jingles
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Part 10: The musical taste variations and the common people
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Matt Monroe sang…"Zal is freshness with a zing! Everyday, yes, Zal’s the thing! The dreamy, steamy smell of pine! Zal disinfectant every time! Zal hates germs, just kicks them out! Leaves the smell of pine about! You’ll notice the difference with everything! Zal is freshness with a zing!" ...more
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To say my tastes in music were inherited out of poverty would be totally unfair – I had plenty of records to for my Regentone Dansette
(still going some 33 years after it was purchased). Brass and military
bands, popular classics, a few crooners, big bands, an occasional comedy
number – all sorts, in most formats, all biased to my father’s taste as he
bought nearly all of them...more |
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Part 11: Being a television composer and inspirations
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Part 12: Life of the Television Musicians |
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The sight of Ronnie Hazelhurst conducting his own orchestra on "Val Doonican" in 1979 gave me the first thought of becoming a conductor myself, but it is now difficult to imagine television companies carrying their own orchestras and conductors. However, back before my time, music for the then-fledgling companies like ATV was held in very high regard....more
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The musicians often termed work at the Elstree studios as working in "Fort Knox", since the musicians would be paid for an overnight stay if doing an evening taping. However, everyone drove back to London anyway, and it was never queried.
Jack and the band often appeared in shot, necessitating an appearance fee.
It was always a thrill to see singers backed by such a huge orchestra, with
Jack and his famous hunched back and shoulders carving a mean beat for his
players ...more
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Part 13: The marching signature tunes during the world war years |
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Part 14: Composing music - television vs. concert hall |
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To a media generation brought up on a variety of instrumental sounds, it now seems odd that the world of TV station signature tunes in the twenty-five years after the war was so dominated by what seems at first hearing to be 'military marches'. This description does no justice to the music, as full orchestras played most of the tunes in the category, with lavish string sections, and well outclassed the 'marching band' ethos that the word 'military' conjures up. ...more
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"The composer is often as well paid as the poet," said the brochure in my school’s careers department. I suppose it really depends on the field of music in which one wishes to specialise. In these days the opportunities for concert-hall composers are far fewer than ever and the need to be adaptable is a must. Composers for the screen, too, are often hard-hit, thanks to the way that computer-based and synthesiser-generated music does away with the need to understand and write for live instruments....more
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Part 15: The eternal stock music |
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The second image to be seen on the world’s first
high-definition television service was Hyam Greenbaum with the BBC Television
Orchestra accompanying Helen Mackay. Music has always been a key feature of many
of the visual media – Lord Reith himself proclaimed that music was "the common
property and common enjoyment of mankind"...more |
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