| The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop was the principle producer of electronic music in Britain throughout the late 1950s and 1960s and shaped a generation's perception of this new form of music. Originally inspired by the development of musique concrete and Elektronische Musik on the continent, artists at the BBC sought to adapt these techniques for their own productions. The original reason for the Workshop's creation, however, arose from the need within the BBC's Drama Department to accompany Theatre of the Absurd and other avant-garde radio plays rather than from within the Music Department. Using methods derived from microhistory, cultural theory, film music theory, the work of sound theorist Michel Chion, and traditional music analysis, this dissertation tells a history of the Radiophonic Workshop's creation, the battles from within the BBC between the Music and Drama Departments, and discusses a selection of works composed at the Workshop from the years 1956--1967. Through a complex mix of circumstances and technology, of Continental contemporary musical techniques and developments in French and English radio/dramatic styles, emerged a unique centralized sound-house, Britain's contribution to the world of electronic music. |
