The subject of Delia Derbyshire and her music has always fascinated me. I was surprised at the lack of journal articles, books, and even websites. For those of you interested in Delia, you may enjoy perusing this (although it isn’t anything spectacular or new) and I hope the collection of links in the sources at the end may be useful. I suggest going here to listen to recordings: https://wikidelia.net/wiki/Audio
The Lost Tapes of Delia Derbyshire
Delia Derbyshire was born in 1937. She was a composer of electronic music and was most well known for her works with the BBC Radiophonics Workshop. Her works were heard on all genres of radio and television from the British Broadcasting Corporation, the most well known of which was the theme to Doctor Who. Many of her works seem almost too sophisticated to be considered musique concrete. Some are better described as soundscapes, some ethereal, some are dense and complicated.
Before Delia was equipped with a tape player and an array of tone generators, she played piano, and later after she started work at the BBC she took up double bass (Brennan). She studied music and mathematics at Girton College in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK and graduated in 1959 (Hodgson).
After graduating, Delia went to the career center at her school and asked what she might do. She explained in an interview, “I said I was interested in sound, music and acoustics, to which they recommended a career in either deaf aids or depth sounding,” to which she decided to apply for Decca records, only to find that they did not employ women in the recording studio (Surface). Continue reading →
