Incidental Music on BBC Programmes
Auntie Beeb has always had a knack for using fragments of songs in their programmes. They do this in such a way as to make the song wholly new while at the same time vaguely familiar which then sends the musicophile searching through the interwebs to find relief from the maddening earworm that is relentlessly burrowing into their brain. You’ve seen the questions - What is the song at 1:32? Please tell me what the song is that plays after the opening credits? Etc. etc.
I am going to concentrate on three programmes.
Right? Let’s begin with a couple of starters then...
ITV Network, a competitor to the BBC, ran The South Bank Show between 1978 & 2010.
The music you hear is Variations on Paganini’s “24th Caprice” by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy based on the novel by Douglas Adams, originally aired on the BBC in 1981 and used The Eagles song Journey of the Sorcerer from their 1975 album "One Of These Nights".
Okay, on to the mains…
Whoever chose the music for BBC Four - Arena must have been a fan of Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, particularly in the “Philip K. Dick: A Day In The Afterlife” episode.
Often mistaken for “Deep Blue Day” which you might be familiar with from this sequence in the 1996 film Trainspotting…
The music that plays over the title sequence of Arena is actually the title song from Eno’s 1975 album “Another Green World”.
“Deep Blue Day” is actually on the 1983 album “Apollo” Atmospheres & Soundtracks” of which seven songs were used in the 1989 documentary For All Mankind. Another song from that same album was used quite liberally throughout the PKD Arena programme. The song An Ending (Ascent) is, in this humble blogger’s opinion, one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever conceived.
…
Moving on.
Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation In Three Movements had, as one of it’s movements, a segment on The Canterbury Scene.
The poem you hear from King Crimson Lyricist Pete Sinfield is from “The Destruction of Sennacherib” by Lord Byron.
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.
The very first music you hear at the beginning of the programme is from Procol Harum’s 1968 album “Shine on Brightly”. In particular it’s the first movement in the five part epic “In Held ‘Twas In I” called “Glimpses of Nirvana”.
There are three other songs used in the Canterbury segment.
- “Magic Man” by Caravan
- "In A Silent Way" by Miles Davis starting at about 10:37.
Now for the pudding...
Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany... Well lookee there, someone’s done it for me. They’ve gone and created a Spotify playlist of the songs used.
Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany... Well lookee there, someone’s done it for me. They’ve gone and created a Spotify playlist of the songs used.
I would like to highlight a couple of pieces.
The music you here at the beginning of the doc is by the Krautrock band Popol Vuh and was used by Werner Herzog in his 1972 film Aguirre: The Wrath of God.
You can also hear an oft used piece of music by Wagner called Götterdämmerung - Siegfried's death and Funeral march.
You might also recognize that same music from John Boorman's 1981 film "Excalibur".
In "The Enemy Of The World" which originally aired in six installments between December 1967 and January 1968, Bela Bartok's Music For Strings, Percussion and Celesta was used to great effect.
You might recognize it from Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film of Stephen King's The Shining as well.
Well, that about wraps it up for now.
