The first appearance of the Daleks in the second episode of Season One of Classic Who, the First Doctor’s maiden tangle with the adversaries who’d come to define who and what he is: namely everything they aren’t, as his Twelfth incarnation (played by Hartnell-period fan Peter Capaldi) states while changing Rusty’s mind on almost everything under the sun in Into The Dalek, is notable for a great many reasons. Let us now, then, consider a facet of that first outing that deserves just as much praise as the performances of those glorious wheeliebins with ambitions for universal conquest and their grumpy young/old adversary. Underpinning it all is a score by the late & much-noted composer Tristram Cary.
Born on May 14,1925 in Oxford to parents Joyce Cary (a novelist, whose 1939 work Mister Johnson would be adapted into a 1990 film) and a pianist mother, Gertrude Ogilvie, who was very much influenced by Brahms and Wagner would later be regarded as one of the earliest explorers of electronic/tape music, an interest commonly attributed to his service in the ranks of the Royal Navy as a radar engineer during the Second World War (specifically 1943-46). As a Guardian obituary from May 2008 penned by Mark Ayres, a fellow Classic Who alumnus of the Radiophonic Workshop/composer of incidental music during Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy’s tenure, namely The Greatest Show In The Galaxy, Ghost Light and The Curse Of Fenric, put it “The composer Tristram Cary, who has died aged 82, was widely regarded as the father of British electronic music. While he also produced conventional works, he realised early on that a new form of music could be constructed out of “pure” sound, of natural or electronic origin, and that the ideal device for honing it was the tape recorder, developed in Germany during the Second World War.“
His first sliver of mainstream success came with his score to the 1955 Ealing comedy The Ladykillers.
He would return to the big screen again the following year having contributed a score to Time Without Pity, followed by 1967’s Quatermass & The Pit.
Around the same time selections from his music for The Daleks were used again as part of The Power Of The Daleks, the first full story to feature Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor after William Hartnell/the First had ‘worn a bit thin’. You can also find similar snatches of sound throughout the earlier post-Daleks First Doctor episodes Marco Polo, The Rescue, The Daleks’ Master Plan, The Ark and The Gunfighters. As if that weren’t enough, he was also the man behind the first dedicated electronic music studio at the Royal College Of Music in 1967! Lets now take a listen to one of his experimental pieces, released the following year - Narcissus intended for performance by two tape recorders & a flautist…
He would also contribute to Expo ’67 in Montreal as composer of the soundtrack to Don Levy’s film Sources Of Power.
He’d also be indirectly involved with the later music/sound design of Who as a partner in Electronic Music Studios ( London) Limited, better known as EMS- alongside Peter Zinovieff & David Cockerell. Starting out in 1969, they would go on to develop many of the first mass-produced commercially available synthesisers, the first model of the run being the VCS3.
Pete Townshend of The Who was a fan, the synth he uses on Won’t Get Fooled Again is known as a Putney. Pink Floyd would also seize upon another, the Synthi AKS, to help them craft On The Run. Another variant, the Delaware, is named after the then location of the Radiophonic Workshop- the mythical Room Thirteen at BBC Television Centre…
Delaware Road, Maida Vale was where the magic happened! It would also be used as part of a trial run for a new theme arrangement for the Third Doctor, used only once during Carnival Of Monsters. A year earlier he’d also followed up his Sixties music for Hammer’s Quatermass with 1971’s Blood From The Mummy’s Tomb. See also Tera’s Power for maximum chills!
One of Tristram’s last works on British soil before emigrating to Australia was an incidental soundtrack for another Jon Pertwee era tale, 1972’s The Mutants. He would follow that with an ambitious commission from the Olivetti company, who wanted something big for the opening of a new training centre at Haslemere. Here’s what they got for letting him loose on their office equipment, also featuring a jazz drummer & a chorus of sixteen singers.
Having settled in Adelaide & taken a teaching post at its University, taking with him his entire home studio painstakingly transported from Suffolk, he won the Albert H Maggs Composition Award in 1977. His post as an Honourary Visiting Fellow allowed him to conduct research into his developing interest in computer music, four of the works from his back catalogue 1979’s Nonet, the following year’s Soft Walls, 1984’s Trellises & The Impossible Piano ten years later) were developed with this medium specifically in mind. His teaching career would continue until retirement came calling by 1986, with a Medal Of The Order of Australia joining it on his mantelpiece in 1991 in recognition of his services to music. Perhaps with renewed dedication, Cary published his own Dictionary Of Musical Technology just a year after that!
And to think, according to another obituary, this one from the Independent following his death at the age of 82 on April 24, 2008, his father had tried to nudge him towards becoming a doctor, though eventually Joyce relented & was indeed supportive of his son’s decision to try his hand at composing. Tristram would go on to study at the Royal College of Music, taking classes in composition, conducting, horn, piano & viola. As well as making music, he also wrote & presented two programmes on the subject for the Open University as well as later becoming resident opera/concerts reviewer at The Australian- winning himself the Adelaide Critics Circle’s Lifetime Achievement award for 2005. But to a certain generation of nerds he’ll always be the musical driving force behind the Daleks!
This article is the first in our “Story by Story” series running all this week celebrating The Daleks. DWW welcomes all submissions and pitches on the theme throughout the week at [email protected]
In future weeks we shall be celebrating Inside the Spaceship (Nov 3 – 9), Marco Polo (Nov 10 – 16), The Keys of Marinus (Nov 17 – 23), The Aztecs (Nov 24 – 30), The Sensorites (Dec 1 – 7) and The Reign of Terror (Dec 8 – 14).
Latest News
