James Kenelm Clarke (5 February 1941 – 29 July 2020) was an English film director and composer of film, television and library music.
Clarke was born inGreat Rissington, Gloucestershire, the son of musician and author Cyril Clarke[1] and the artist Eularia Clarke.[2] WithHarley Usill, Cyril Clarke establishedArgo Records in 1951. James Clarke was educated atLeighton Park School inReading and from 1959 travelled to Paris, where he studied music withRené Leibowitz.[3]
At the age of 18 he wrote the music forMichael Darlow's filmAll These People and then many scores forAnglia Television's plays (underGeorge More O'Ferrall) and then at the suggestion of Sir John Woolf joined Anglia Television full-time in 1961 as a researcher on Anglia's local programmeAbout Anglia. In 1967, he joined BBC Television in London as a producer on the award-winning programmeMan Alive, edited byDesmond Wilcox. Clarke produced film segments for reportersEsther Rantzen,John Pitman,Joan Bakewell and James Astor. He also contributed films - and the title theme music - toBraden's Week and worked with theThat's Life! team.[3]
He directed and co-produced the feature filmGot It Made (1974) starringLalla Ward, before setting up Norfolk International Pictures Limited in London. Norfolk International made the following feature films for the international market:Exposé (1976),Hardcore (1977),Let's Get Laid (1978),The Thirty Nine Steps (1978),The Music Machine (1979),Paul Raymond's Erotica (1981) andFunny Money (1983). His last known film wasGoing Undercover (1988),[4][5] aka,Yellow Pages (completed 1985), which went straight to video in the United Kingdom.[6][7]
Clarke first began to compose library music forDe Wolfe in the 1950s, while also providing scores for Anglia Television plays, throughAssociated Rediffusion. In 1967 he met head ofKPM Music Robin Phillips and began composing music for the KPM 1000 Series. Six original pieces came out of the first sessions at theAriola Studies in June 1967:Think Big (closing),Summer Thoughts,Autumn Thoughts,Winter Thoughts,Far Away Thinking andSpring Bossa.[8] Further compositions were included on KPM 1028,Miniature Moods (1968), KPM 1036,Gentle Sounds (1968) and KPM 1039,Light Intimations, Volume 3 (1968).[3]
In 1969 an original album,Girl on the Beach, was issued for broader commercial release on the Aristocrat label, distributed byPye Records. Produced by Robin Phillips and recorded byAdrian Kerridge, the style has been compared to the richly scored orchestral miniatures ofHenry Mancini. The pianist wasSteve Gray, who played on most of Clarke's sessions from then on.[3]
He was CEO of Norfolk Music Publishing Ltd.[9]
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