Brian Hodgson (1938 - )

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Brian HodgsonBrian Hodgson (born 1938) is a British television composer and sound technician. Born in Liverpool in 1938, Hodgson joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1962 where he became the original sound effects creator for the science fiction programme Doctor Who. His main claims to fame are the sound of the TARDIS (which he created by running the back door key to his mother's house along a bass string of a gutted piano, then electronically treating the recording) and the famous voices of the Daleks, which he created by distorting the actors' voices and feeding them through a device called a ring modulator. He continued to produce effects for the programme until 1972 when he left the Workshop, leaving Dick Mills to produce effects for the remainder of the show's run.

Earlier, in 1966, with fellow workshop musician Delia Derbyshire and EMS founder Peter Zinovieff, he helped set up Unit Delta Plus, an organisation which they intended to use to create and promote electronic music. Based in a studio in Zinovieff's townhouse in Putney, they exhibited their music at a few experimental and electronic music festivals, including The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave at which The Beatles' "Carnival of Light" had its only public playing. After a troubled performance at the Royal College of Art, in 1967, the unit disbanded.

Also in the late sixties, Hodgson and Derbyshire, along with fellow musician David Vorhaus, set up the Kaleidophon studio in Camden Town. The studio produced electronic music for various London theatres and, in 1968, the three used it to produce their first album as the band White Noise. Although later albums were essentially solo Vorhaus albums, the debut, An Electric Storm featured collaborations with Hodgson and Derbyshire and is now considered an important and influential album in the development of electronic music.

During this period the trio also contributed, using pseudonyms, to the Standard Music Library. Many of these recordings, including compositions by Hodgson using the name "Nikki St George", were later used on the seventies ITV science fiction rivals to Doctor Who; The Tomorrow People and Timeslip.

After leaving the Radiophonic Workshop, he set up the Electrophon studio with John Lewis, in Covent Garden, where he was later joined by Derbyshire. In 1973, he worked with the Doctor Who composer Dudley Simpson, under the name "Electrophon", on the album In A Covent Garden (sometimes credited to "The Unexploded Myth"). It featured Hodgson and Simpson's arrangements of several classical compositions for synthesisers and a 16 piece orchestra. Their versions of Tchaikovsky's None But the Weary Heart and Debussy's "La fille aux cheveux de lin" later appeared in the Doctor Who serial "The Robots of Death". The duo also released the albums Zygoat, in 1972, and Further Thoughts On the Classics, in 1974. In 1975, Hodgson collaborated with John Lewis, under the name "Wavemaker", on an album of experimental synthesiser work named Where Are We Captain ?... and later, in 1977, on New Atlantis. Besides records, Hodgson also spent his time at the studio writing scores for ballet and film including, with Derbyshire, the music for the 1973 horror film The Legend of Hell House.

In 1977, leaving the Electrophon studio in the hands of Lewis, he returned to the Radiophonic Workshop to replace Desmond Briscoe as its organiser. In 1983, he became the head of the department, remaining there until circumstances forced him to resign in 1995.

In 1983, he appeared at Doctor Who's 20th Anniversary celebrations at Longleat alongside many cast and crew from the series.

Maddalena Fagandini

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Maddalena FagandiniMaddalena Fagandini is an electronic musician and television producer. She was employed by the BBC in the early 50s as part of their Italian Service before becoming part of the pioneering BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1959.

Her work with the Radiophonic Workshop involved creating jingles and interval signals, using musique concrète techniques, for BBC radio and television. In 1962 one of her interval signals was re-worked by future Beatles producer George Martin and released, under the pseudonym "Ray Cathode", as "Time Beat". She left the Workshop in 1966, following the introduction of synthesisers, to become a television producer and director.

John Baker (1937–1997)

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John BakerJohn Baker (1937–1997) was a musician and composer who worked in jazz and electronic music. He was educated at the Royal Academy of Music where he studied piano and composition. In 1960 he joined the BBC as a sound mixer, before transferring, in 1963, to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop where he remained until 1974.

He was the most prolific of the early Workshop composers, developing a trademark style, creating music by manipulating tapes of everyday sounds such as blowing across the top of an empty bottle. A rare snippet of Baker at work was included in the 1968 documentary film Music, which more famously featured the Beatles working on Hey Jude in the studio. A jazz pianist, he brought a sense of rhythm to the Workshop which some of the other more mathematical composers lacked. His work included many signature tunes for BBC television and radio. He was also particularly interested in combining recorded electronic music with live musicians.

Baker's private life was affected by alcoholism, which led to his 'retirement' from the Radiophonic Workshop in 1974. He produced very little work thereafter.

Two compilations of his work entitled The John Baker Tapes were released in July 2008 by Trunk Records.

David Cain (1941 - )

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David CainDavid Cain (born 1941) was a composer and technician for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. He was educated at Imperial College London, where he earned a degree in mathematics. In 1963, he joined the BBC as a studio manager, specialising in radio drama.

He transferred to the Radiophonic Workshop in 1967 where he composed various jingles and signature tunes as well as the complete incidental music for the BBC's radio productions of The War of the Worlds in 1967, and The Hobbit in 1968. He also produced the Workshop's 1973 adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. He remained with the Radiophonic Workshop until 1973.

His 30-second composition "Crossbeat" was used as the original theme for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's morning radio current affairs program AM, which premiered in 1967.

Malcolm Clarke (1943–2003)

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Malcom ClarkeMalcolm Clarke (1943–2003) was a British composer, and a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop for 25 years from 1969 to 1994.

Clarke proved somewhat controversial when he joined the workshop, due to his views that Radiophonic music should be, in his words, "fine art," a philosophy that was not shared by other workshop members at the time. He composed the soundtrack for the 1972 Doctor Who episode The Sea Devils; only the second score that the workshop provided for the series. Clarke returned to the series ten years later for the serial Earthshock, and continued to work on the series on a regular basis until 1986.

His most critically acclaimed work was probably 1976's radio piece August 4th 2026, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury.

Outside of the workshop, Clarke was an automobile enthusiast, and over a period of years built up a Bugatti from a collection of spare and scavenged parts.