Delia Derbyshire (1937–2001) 1962 Dartington Summer School
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News Delia Derbyshire (1937–2001) 1962 Dartington summer school. France). The Gold Pierre was Later, in collaboration with Brian awarded to Ludger Bru¨ mmer (Ger- Hodgson and David Vorhaus, she set many) for Nyx, and the Silver Pierre Delia Derbyshire, British pioneer of up Kaleidophon, an independent stu- to Jonty Harrison (UK) for Abstracts electronic music, died in Northamp- dio where she worked on the classic for tape and large orchestra. No mag- ton, England, on 3 July 2001, aged album Electric Storm (1968), which isterium was awarded. Residencies 64. Born in Coventry, England, she was credited to White Noise and re- went to Abdul Wahid Hasnizam (Ma- was educated at Coventry Grammar leased on Island Records. This studio laysia) for Fatihah, Paavo Impio (Fin- School and Girton College, Cam- continued to put together electronic land) for Kaleva, Mei-Fang Lin bridge, graduating in music and music for the London theatre of the (Taiwan) for Interaction, Felipe Perez mathematics. She joined the British late 1960s. In 1973 she left the BBC Santiago (Mexico) for Ofaniel (angel Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in and after a short period with a pri- de la luna), Juan Pablo Sorrentino 1960 as a studio manager and trans- vate studio she gave up composi- (Argentina) for Mi Primer Cello, and ferred in 1962 to the Radiophonic tional work for many years. Rogelio Sosa (Mexico) for Tenso II. Workshop, where she remained until Recently, she had returned to take In the category for electroacoustic 1973. During that time she produced an interest in electronic music, en- music alone, prizes were awarded to music and sound for almost 200 ra- couraged by members of a younger Natasha Barrett (UK) for Utility of dio and television programs. In 1963, generation, such as Sonic Boom and Space and Suk-Jun Kim (Korea) for she realized one of the first elec- Aphex Twin, to whom she had be- Midong. Mentions were made of tronic signature tunes ever used on come a cult figure. Her works from Werner Cee (Germany) for Cities’ television: Ron Grainer’s score for the 1960s and 1970s continue to be drift and Blas Payri (France) for Pay- the science fiction series, Dr Who. used on radio and television some 30 sage enseveli. Prizes for electro- Using concrete sources and the years later. Delia Derbyshire used an acoustic music with instruments Workshop’s oscillators and filters, analytical approach to synthesize were awarded to Mathew Adkins she produced what is probably one of complex sounds from electronic (UK) for Noumena for cello and tape, the most famous television themes sources. The mathematics of sound and Pinter Gyula (Hungary) for Les ever. Although Dr Who made the Ra- seemed to come naturally to her, but cloches de flammes roses for soprano diophonic Workshop nationally fa- she believed that the way the ear and and tape. Mention was made of Rob mous, it was Derbyshire’s other brain perceive sound should have Wright (UK) for Arco for cello and drama and features work that showed dominance over any basic mathe- tape. Under sonic art, prizes were her greatest talent, particularly her matical theory. awarded to Nicholas Parkin (UK) for 1964 collaborations with the poet Magmas and Andrea Szigetvari (Hun- and dramatist Barry Bermange (The gary) for Mandala 1. Mentions were Dreams and Amor Dei) and her work made of Marc Beugnies (France) for for the documentary series The Bourges Competition Awards, Incidences et Re´flexions sur la World About Us. In 1967, she Synthe`se Festival and Journe´es Naissance d’une Etoile, and Michele worked on Guy Woolfenden’s elec- Biasutti (Italy) for Deep Sea. No prize tronic score for Peter Hall’s Royal d’Informatique Musicale, was given for a piece for dance or Shakespeare Company production of June 2001 theatre but mention was made of Macbeth, and on Hall’s film Work is . .seine hohle form. by Butch a Four Letter Word. Award winners of the 28th Interna- Rovan (USA). Similarly, in the instal- In the mid 1960s she worked ex- tional Competition of Electroacous- lation category only one piece re- tensively with Peter Zinovieff, the tic Music and Sonic Art have been ceived a mention: Potential synthesizer pioneer. During this announced from a total of 501 pieces, Difference by Ted Apel (USA). Prizes time, she also worked with a wide submitted from 46 countries. The for multimedia works went to Miguel range of composers and musicians in- jury for the 2001 competition com- Hernandez (Mexico) for El Santo cluding The Beatles, Ianni Christou, prised Larry Austin (USA), Gisella Cuantico and Andrea Szigetvari Roberto Gerhard (on Anger of Achil- Belgeri (Italy), Janos Descenyi (Hun- (Hungary) for The Priest and the les), George Martin, Peter Maxwell gary), Dieter Kaufmann (Austria), Shell. Davies, Harry Nilsson, Pink Floyd, and Franc¸oise Barrie`re, Thierry In its 31st year, the Synthe`se Fes- and Karlheinz Stockhausen. She was Fournier, Jean-Michel Ponty, Pascale tival took a new approach to its Luciano Berio’s assistant at the Pronnier, and Nicolas Thely (all of meetings and concerts. Throughout News 13 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/01489260152815251 by guest on 01 October 2021 the ten-day festival, there was a day- themes of formalization and repre- ‘‘Gallery of Latin American time program of professional meet- sentation of musical structures; for- Composers’’ in Texas, USA ings and an evening program of malization and modeling of musical public concerts. As part of the pro- knowledge; environments and lan- The University of North Texas Com- fessional meetings, morning master guages for musical composition; posers Forum presented the third classes were given by Yves Coffy, automatic composition and arrange- ‘‘Gallery of Latin American Compos- Christian Clozier, Larry Austin, ment systems; tools for musical ers’’ in Denton, Texas, USA in April James Dashow, Max Mathews, Lars- analysis; musical editing and pub- 2001. Two concerts of electroacous- Gunnar Bodin, Barry Truax, and lishing systems; optical score recog- tic music and multimedia works Giuseppe Di Giugno. The afternoons nition software; musical performance from Latin America and Spain were included ‘‘Latitude 31’’ sessions, modeling and simulation; software presented. The first concert pre- where composers who were not oth- and hardware interfaces for musical sented Monalisa Overdrive II by erwise programmed could play and performance; sound synthesis sys- Daniel Antonio Miraglia, El Santo discuss a single work with a seminar tems and environments; musical in- Cuantico by Miguel Hernandez, Ar- audience, the open work project The strument modeling; signal analysis gos by Martin Fumarola, La distan- Creation of the World, and a series and processing systems; sound spa- cia mas recta entre dos puntos by of studio concerts presenting pieces tialization and acoustic modeling; Roberto Garcia, Orange (lima-limon) by previous Bourges prizewinners, software and hardware systems for by Juan Reyes, Kol Ha Torr by Rajmil many of the pieces receiving their interactive music; automatic recog- Fischman, Chi-pa-boo by Elsa Justel, French premieres. nition and extraction of musical pa- and entre Santos y los Dioses by Two public concerts were held rameters; musical perception, Gustavo Alcaraz. The second concert each evening. Friday’s contemporary modeling, and simulation; normali- included Mauricio Bejarano’s Land- dance evening presented Sisters by zation, archiving and transmission of scape No. 18, Mario Verandi’s Evil Wayne Siegel and Cataton by Michel musical information; and real-time Fruit, Orlando Garcia’s Como un Waisvisz. Saturday opened with a systems and protocols for computer coro de clarinetes celestiales, Rodrigo tribute to John Cage, following Fon- music. The specialist theme for 2001 Sigal’s Tolerance, movement 3 of Ed- tana Mix with the world premiere of was gestural control interfaces. uardo Reck Miranda’s Grain Larry Austin’s Williams[re]Mix[er]. Streams, and Ana Lucia Fontenele’s The late evening concert was of Efeitwo. world premieres of pieces by Christian ARTS.XXI International Clozier, Patrick Ascione, Michael Electroacoustic Music Karlsson, Pierre Boeswillwald, and Boston CyberArts Festival Ludger Bru¨ mmer. The rest of the fes- Competition in Spain tival paid tribute to new work and to Finalists and prize winners have During spring 2001, the second Bos- composers honored in previous been announced from the Interna- ton CyberArts Festival mounted a Bourges competitions. After the an- tional Electroacoustic Music Compe- series of events including several nouncement of the 2001 prizewin- tition ARTS.XXI, held in Valencia, world premiere performances. Under ners, the Monday concerts were Spain. Four finalists were selected, the title ‘‘Orchestral Music at the devoted to the Magisterium award from 60 submissions by composers Technological Frontier,’’ the Boston winners from 2000, Beatriz Ferreyra from 16 countries. The winner of Modern Orchestra Project, Artistic and James Dashow, and to video art the prize for music for tape alone Director Gil Rose, in association from the 2000 Trivium B. Later in was Andrew Lewis (UK) with Cable with Immersion Music, presented a the week, Mahammad Ghavi Helm Bay. Finalists in this category were three-hour concert at Symphony (percussion) and Michel Thiolat (gui- Theodore Lotis (Greece/UK) with Hall. This opened with the world tar) gave world premiere perfor- Shadows, Marcelle Deschenes (Can- premiere of John Oswald’s Concerto mances of pieces by Horacio ada) with Indigo, and John Young for Conductor and Orchestra which Vaggione, Fabio Ciffariello Ciardi, (New Zealand/UK) with Sju.No made use of the ‘‘Conductor’s Adolfo Nunez, and Eduardo Polonio. prize was awarded for music for tape Jacket’’ technology, developed at the The Journe´es d’Informatique Musi- and instrument but the jury special MIT Media Lab by Teresa Marrin cale (JIM), held immediately before made mention of Wires for tape and Nakra.