 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Brian Hodgson" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Brian Hodgson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1938 (age 86–87) Liverpool, England |
| Occupation | Composer |
Brian Hodgson (born 1938) is a British televisioncomposer and sound technician. Born inLiverpool in 1938,[1] Hodgson joined theBBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1962 where he became the original sound effects creator for thescience fiction programmeDoctor Who. He devised the sound of theTARDIS (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 voices of theDaleks, which he created by distorting the actors' voices and feeding them through aring modulator. he also effectively scored four serials (The Wheel in Space,The Dominators,The Mind Robber, andThe Krotons) under the credit of "Special Sound".[2] 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 musicianDelia Derbyshire andEMS founderPeter 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 inPutney, they exhibited their music at a few experimental and electronic music festivals, includingThe Million Volt Light and Sound Rave at whichThe Beatles' "Carnival of Light" had its only public playing. After a troubled performance at theRoyal College of Art, in 1967, the unit disbanded.
Also in the late sixties, Hodgson and Derbyshire, along with fellow musicianDavid Vorhaus, set up the Kaleidophon studio inCamden Town. The studio produced electronic music for London theatre productions and, in 1968, the three partners used it to produce their first album as the bandWhite 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 seventiesITV science fiction rivals toDoctor Who;The Tomorrow People andTimeslip.
After leaving the Radiophonic Workshop, Hodgson set up the Electrophon studio in an ex-fruit warehouse at 8Neal's Yard,Covent Garden. Hodgson withdrawing his BBC pension of around "two thousand pound"[3] set up the studio withDelia Derbyshire, who contributed a single tape recorder. Delia in a "depressive state"[3] soon left and it was a chance encounter with music composerJohn Lewis seeking Brian's advice on purchasing asynthesiser that lead to Lewis joining Hodgson. The pair under the duo 'Wavemaker' composed and produced two electronic albums forPolydor, 'Where Are We Captain?' in 1975 and 'New Atlantis' in 1977 which were reviewed favourably in the press.
In 1973, he worked with theDoctor Who composerDudley Simpson, under the name "Electrophon", on the albumIn 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 ofTchaikovsky'sNone But the Weary Heart andDebussy's "La fille aux cheveux de lin" later appeared in theDoctor Who serial "The Robots of Death". The duo also released the albumsZygoat in 1972, credited to the American composer for dance Burt Alcantara, andFurther Thoughts On the Classics, in 1974. 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 filmThe Legend of Hell House.
In 1977, leaving the Electrophon studio in the hands ofJohn Lewis, he returned to the Radiophonic Workshop to replaceDesmond 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 atDoctor Who's 20th Anniversary celebrations at Longleat alongside many cast and crew from the series.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |