To celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in April 2008, I wrote about
its history for Sound On Sound (you can read the article on‑line at /sos/apr08/articles/radiophonic.htm).
I've always felt that Daphne Oram's importance has been underestimated,
both as a co‑founder of the Workshop and as an electronic composer, so
I tried to redress this by including as much as I could about her
graphically controlled Oramic synthesiser. This was not easy, as Daphne
died in 2003 and I was unable to find anyone who'd even seen the Oramic
System, let alone knew how it worked. I did my best, but shortly after
the magazine went on sale, an email was forwarded to me by Sound On
Sound.
"I enjoyed the article very much,” said the writer.
"With reference to the bizarre design concept of the original Oramics
machine, you might be interested in some background as to why and how it
took shape! I was the engineer who originally turned Daphne's concept
into a reality, with an extremely tight budget and a lot of inverted,
lateral thinking.” It was signed: "Yours respectfully, Graham Wrench.”
I had to meet this man! So off I went to rural Suffolk,
where Graham lives in a little house crammed with engineering wonders.
There are musical instruments, home‑made telescopes, model railways,
vintage photographic gear… There's even a steam railway museum just down
the road! Despite these temptations, I managed to spend a whole
afternoon listening to Graham's account of how Oramics really worked,
and how he came to design and build the prototype.
Read more here
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