Elizabeth Parker (composer)

Elizabeth Parker is a British film and television composer who worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop from 1978 until the workshop's closure.[1]

Biography

Parker graduated from the University of East Anglia with a degree in music, after which she completed a Masters in electronic music.[2] When she first started working at the BBC she was training to become a studio manager.[2] Later, she joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.[2]

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop became redundant in the 1990s as electronic music equipment became cheaper,[3] and the workshop was ultimately shut down in 1998. Parker worked at the workshop "right until the very end". In the final years, the BBC could not justify the expense of upgrading the workshop's equipment, leading Parker to describe the obsolete workshop in its final days as "horrendous" and "horrible".[3] After the workshop shut down, Parker set up her own studio and began working as a freelance composer.[3]

Works

During her time at the Radiophonic Workshop, Parker worked on hundreds of BBC productions for both television and radio.[2] These productions included:

Parker also arranged Gabriel Fauré's short work Pavane for choir, which the BBC used as their theme tune for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.[5]

Parker continued to work on various television productions as a freelance composer. She wrote music for the BBC One documentary The Human Body and was commissioned to write new music for the soundtrack of a re-release of the comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.[3]

References
  1. "Classic photos from the golden days of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop - BBC Music". 17 March 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  2. "Elizabeth Parker". British Music Collection. 18 January 2018. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  3. Inglis, Sam (February 2001). "Elizabeth Parker: Flexible Working". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  4. "BBC - History of the BBC, Elizabeth Parker interviewed for Blakes 7 DVD".
  5. Pound, Jeremy (24 October 2022). "World Cup TV theme tunes: 5 famous melodies from previous tournaments". Classical Music. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
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