Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Composer, arranger and conductor specialising in light music and film music.
On the island
Eight records
Well, I'm terribly fond of my dogs. We've got three of them. And my own personal dog is a thoroughbred mungrel, direct descendant from Battersea Dogs Home. And since I understand that I can't take a dog with me ... I'd like to have the record of the singing dogs just to remind me of the dogs at home.
Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra
Well, a musician that I very much admired in those days and tried to emulate as a trumpet player was a jazz trumpet player called Bunny Berrigan. And uh I used to imagine that I was Bunny Berrigan when I went out on these little gigs as we called them together.
Montreal Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Dutoit
I suddenly realised the tremendous possibilities of what one could do with an orchestra. It wasn't just a question of voicing things so that people played things in block harmonies and so forth ... You could do all sorts of wonderful things with the individual sections of the orchestra to paint pictures and make wonderful sounds.
They're Removing Grandpa's Grave to Build a Sewer
Well, I guess I'd need to have something to laugh at on this island. There wouldn't be a lot to laugh at just standing there on my own. And one of my funniest memories of uh working in gramophone records and so forth I once made a record with Peter Sellars of a ridiculous song called They're Removing Grandpa's Grave to Build a Sewer.
Well, being a film composer I I would like to have a record of some film music and I can't think of a better piece of film music than that written by Miklos Rocher for the film Ben Her and It's the Love Theme.
Well, in that case, I think I would need to be reminded of a a jolly good English winter with plenty of ice and snow and stuff about. So I've chosen a record called Midnight Sleigh Ride. The piece was actually written by Prokofiev, but I personally prefer the arrangement by the Sauter Finnegan.
TintagelFavourite
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
Well, being a West Country man, I would like to be reminded of the West Country of England on this desert island, and I can't think of a record that would do that better than Bax's Tintagl.
Well, I guess I'd like to sort of remember the good old days whilst I was on this island and uh part of the enjoyment of life, a large part of the enjoyment of life for me is going around and giving the concerts that we do. And an encore that we often play on concerts is a piece called The Peanut Bendor.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:35Ron, could you endure loneliness, do you think?
I think so, Roy. I really do have a a strong belief in a higher power, the creative force of the universe, if you like to put it that way. And I do feel that uh I'm not alone most of the time and that uh whatever I'm doing is what I'm supposed to be doing. So I would feel that if I was on this desert island it must be what I'm supposed to be doing at the time and I'd have to make the most of it, really.
Presenter asks
3:09Were you a musical family?
No. My brother and I were forced to take piano lessons at the age of five, because everybody else did. But we weren't all that particularly interested at that time. In fact, I never really got interested in music until I was eleven years old and went to a school that had a school orchestra.
Presenter asks
7:29Did your parents agree with [your desire to make a living as a musician]?
My mother was against it. She thought that music was all very well as a hobby but you should have a proper job. There was a a theory in the family that you should go into insurance.
The keepsakes
The book
Kahlil Gibran
It's a book that I find has got a lot of the kind of philosophy that helps me. And it fits into a pocket anyway. And I can usually find something in that book that relates to my current problems or my imagined problems.
The luxury
having been a brass player and got some inkling of how to manage a brass instrument, I think I should go to the other end of the range from the one that I've actually played in the past. And I think I'll choose the tuba.
Presenter asks
12:49What was the first time that you were commissioned to do an orchestration yourself?
I can't remember exactly. After having been at the publishers for some time, I answered an advertisement in one of the musical papers for a young arranger ... and gave me the job, and our main task in those days was a programme called Composer's Cavalcade ... that was the first real arranging and orchestrating assignments that I had.
Presenter asks
19:12Who looks after music [on a film]? Does the composer work with the producer or director? How does it operate?
Usually with the director if he's still around. I mean I have worked on a lot of pictures where the director's gone off to make his next epic and uh he's not available for the music runnings. But normally the director and the film editor and sometimes the producer if he's interested meet and discuss the music and decide where it has to go.
Presenter asks
29:07How do you think you'd be as a castaway on this desert island? Could you look after yourself?
Well, I would have a go. I'm I'm not really a very practical person, but uh I've had a wonderful example ... Arthur worked on the theory that there's nothing that you can't do ... So having had the example of Arthur, I I do believe that nothing is impossible and I'll have a go at it, but of course I wouldn't have his expertise.
“I really do have a a strong belief in a higher power, the creative force of the universe, if you like to put it that way. And I do feel that uh I'm not alone most of the time and that uh whatever I'm doing is what I'm supposed to be doing.”
“I was so fascinated with the idea of people playing and banging and scraping things together and uh making wonderful noises that I asked if I could join the the orchestra.”
“I'm longing for somebody to ask me to do a nice romantic film where one bar will last five seconds.”