Elizabeth Parker is a British film and television

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

who worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop from 1978 until the workshop's closure.

Biography

Parker graduated from the University of East Anglia with a degree in music, after which she completed a Masters in electronic music. When she first started working at the BBC she was training to become a studio manager. Later, she joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop became redundant in the 1990s as electronic music equipment became cheaper, 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 equiment, leading Parker to describe the obsolete workshop in its final days as "horrendous" and "horrible". After the workshop shut down, Parker set up her own studio and began working as a freelance composer.

Works

During her time at the Radiophonic Workshop, Parker worked on hundreds of BBC productions for both television and radio. These productions included: * The science fiction television series '' Blake's 7''. Parker provided special sound for the series, taking over from Richard Yeoman-Clark from Series B onwards. She also provided the music for the episode "Gambit". * The

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

documentary series '' The Living Planet''. An LP of Parker's score for the series was released in 1984. * The science fiction television series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

''. Parker provided special sound for the 1978 story '' The Stones of Blood'', and the incidental score for the 1985 story '' Timelash'' under the name Liz Parker. Parts of this score are featured on the '' Doctor Who: 30 Years at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop'' compilation. * The BBC Radio 4 adaptations of Iris Murdoch's novels The Bell and The Sea, the Sea. * The

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

broadcast of

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...

's play

Moonlight Moonlight consists of mostly sunlight (with little earthlight) reflected from the parts of the Moon's surface where the Sun's light strikes. Illumination The intensity of moonlight varies greatly depending on the lunar phase, but even the ful ...

. Parker also arranged

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers ...

's short work Pavane for choir, which the BBC used as their theme tune for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. 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 ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' is a 1975 British comedy film satirizing the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) an ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Elizabeth BBC Radiophonic Workshop British composers British television composers Living people Alumni of the University of East Anglia British women in electronic music Year of birth missing (living people)