Shuffle, Balls & Who

Monday, Apr. 28, 2008 - 12:18 a.m.

John says the iPod Shuffle has changed his work atmosphere considerably.

He enjoys the fact that he can control many many hours of music without having to reach away from his computer and ditherfumble around with a bunch of CDs.

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Gee, I'm sure glad the state of Florida has solved all of the rest of its problems so they can devote time to stuff like this!

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This is being rebroadcast from Australia's The Age online news service:

Tristram Cary, the composer of the Dr Who theme tune and a pioneer of electronic music, has died in Adelaide aged 82.

Cary was also known for co-designing a synthesiser used by rock artists including Pink Floyd, The Who and Roxy Music.

He founded the electronic music studio at London's Royal College of Music in 1967 and, seven years later migrated to Australia to establish a similar studio at the University of Adelaide's Elder Conservatorium of Music.

The conservatorium's head of music technology studies, Stephen Whittington, said Cary's contribution to music was impossible to quantify.

"He laid the foundations," Mr Whittington said today.

"Without him, we wouldn't have techno, hip-hop or any kind of music which is sustained by technology."

Cary, whose father was prominent Irish-born novelist Joyce Cary, came up with the idea of electronic and tape music while a naval radar officer during World War II.

"He had a really unusual childhood, his father was an author and TS Eliot and James Joyce were always coming around for tea," Mr Whittington said.

"After the war, the Americans, British and Germans had a huge amount of electronic gear which came onto the market and was incredibly cheap," Mr Whittington said.

"That is when he began fiddling with things."

Cary composed for Hollywood feature films, television, theatre and concert music.

In 1991, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to Australian music.

He died last week at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The story has a really great photo of him, too.

Late Breaking News: Old Buddy Dave informs me that there is a different history to the Doctor Who theme than The Age reported.

My guess is that Mr. Cary may have had something to do with the machinery used in the creation of the theme, which may have been construed by The Age as meaning the theme was authored by him.

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All right, there we are.

Try and have a good Monday.

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4 of my readers commented on this entry

Bob - 2008-04-28 10:09:44
I was wondering about the Dr. Who theme, myself, as I always had it attributed to Ron Grainer (who also did the music for "The Prisoner").
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Andy - 2008-04-28 10:56:06
You are the Herb Caen of Diaryland.
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Brin - 2008-04-28 14:06:47
Andy, in my entire time here at Diaryland, just a smidge over five years, you are the only one to figure out why I use three dashes between storylines. Very good!
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Andy - 2008-05-06 23:22:31
What can I say? We're both San Franciscans. :-)
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