Open letter from Composer, Paul Lewis
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 06:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arthur_of_the_britonsDear Oliver,
I have the most vivid and fond memories of my work as composer, orchestrator and conductor on Arthur of the Britons. The whole experience was tremendously exciting and fifty years on I still dream from time to time that I'm back in Bristol and a new series is going to be made!
Everything about the process was extraordinary from the first enigmatic phone call from Patrick Dromgoole asking me to be in his office at 10 o'clock the next morning but not saying why, the briefing session with Peter Miller with a list of eventualities to be covered in the music and the final instruction: "Use French horns" - as if I wouldn't!
Then there were the three frantic weeks of composing with either my copyist Arthur Sendall ("Send-all-to-Sendall") driving down from Croydon to my 15th century home in Hastings Old Town to collect the latest batch of scores or my driving up and pushing them through his letterbox at one in the morning having been up working since 6 am, my Russian artist girlfriend who retreated to her mother's while I was buried in the work, only to complain later that I hadn't said I loved her for two weeks - ("I've been rather busy" was my reply.)
Then the trip to Belgium with my musical assistant in my black 1951 Triumph Renown saloon with its chauffeur screen and leather bench seats. We drove round Bruges by lamplight and parked in a large deserted square in Ghent for a few hours' rest, me sleeping on the front seat and Edward in the back, awaking the next morning to find ourselves surrounded by busy market stalls!
And of course the recording sessions with members of the Belgian National Symphony Orchestra in a wonderful studio with a seven-second natural echo in Brussels. We sat the players in concert formation and used a two-directional stereo mic above my head as I conducted and two ambient mics at the back of the hall - no laborious multi-tracking and subsequent mixing - that was it, and that's how I still like to record.
Finally, the big reveal as I played the entire score, including my orchestration of Elmer Bernstein's famous title music, to Patrick, Peter, John Peverall and yourself. The fact that the star of the show was interested enough to sit listening to the whole hour's worth of music was unique in my experience and still is. I was deeply touched by your presence and extremely grateful for your approval Oliver.
Composing the score remains one of the highlights of my forty-seven-year-long TV composing career. Nowadays, since all my regular directors and producers, being on the whole ten to twenty years old than me - (I started composing for TV at twenty) - have long retired and mostly died - I write concert music and seem to be as busy doing this as I was when I worked in TV, which is the reason I can't be with you in person for this wonderful celebration.
But my thoughts will be with you, and I send my greetings and the warmest of wishes to you, Joya and all the wonderful fans of our unforgettable programme.
Paul Lewis, Sussex, 12th October 2022.
I have the most vivid and fond memories of my work as composer, orchestrator and conductor on Arthur of the Britons. The whole experience was tremendously exciting and fifty years on I still dream from time to time that I'm back in Bristol and a new series is going to be made!
Everything about the process was extraordinary from the first enigmatic phone call from Patrick Dromgoole asking me to be in his office at 10 o'clock the next morning but not saying why, the briefing session with Peter Miller with a list of eventualities to be covered in the music and the final instruction: "Use French horns" - as if I wouldn't!
Then there were the three frantic weeks of composing with either my copyist Arthur Sendall ("Send-all-to-Sendall") driving down from Croydon to my 15th century home in Hastings Old Town to collect the latest batch of scores or my driving up and pushing them through his letterbox at one in the morning having been up working since 6 am, my Russian artist girlfriend who retreated to her mother's while I was buried in the work, only to complain later that I hadn't said I loved her for two weeks - ("I've been rather busy" was my reply.)
Then the trip to Belgium with my musical assistant in my black 1951 Triumph Renown saloon with its chauffeur screen and leather bench seats. We drove round Bruges by lamplight and parked in a large deserted square in Ghent for a few hours' rest, me sleeping on the front seat and Edward in the back, awaking the next morning to find ourselves surrounded by busy market stalls!
And of course the recording sessions with members of the Belgian National Symphony Orchestra in a wonderful studio with a seven-second natural echo in Brussels. We sat the players in concert formation and used a two-directional stereo mic above my head as I conducted and two ambient mics at the back of the hall - no laborious multi-tracking and subsequent mixing - that was it, and that's how I still like to record.
Finally, the big reveal as I played the entire score, including my orchestration of Elmer Bernstein's famous title music, to Patrick, Peter, John Peverall and yourself. The fact that the star of the show was interested enough to sit listening to the whole hour's worth of music was unique in my experience and still is. I was deeply touched by your presence and extremely grateful for your approval Oliver.
Composing the score remains one of the highlights of my forty-seven-year-long TV composing career. Nowadays, since all my regular directors and producers, being on the whole ten to twenty years old than me - (I started composing for TV at twenty) - have long retired and mostly died - I write concert music and seem to be as busy doing this as I was when I worked in TV, which is the reason I can't be with you in person for this wonderful celebration.
But my thoughts will be with you, and I send my greetings and the warmest of wishes to you, Joya and all the wonderful fans of our unforgettable programme.
Paul Lewis, Sussex, 12th October 2022.