<\/p>
They\u2019re the pieces of music, miniature mandalas of memory and meaning, that we\u2019ve all heard as much as any sounds in our lives. They make existential bridges between a real world of grinding mundanity to places of drama, fantasy and escapism.<\/p>\n
I mean, of course, TV themes: the most familiar, nostalgic and taken- for-granted \u2013 and now dangerously neglected \u2013 form of compositional creativity in the musical world.<\/p>\n
Their taken-for-granted status is a condition of their success. If the shows they frame are really popular, TV themes are hardly heard as music at all: in soap operas, they are instant sonic portals to Ramsay Street, the Queen Vic or the Rovers Return.<\/p>\n
Eric Spear\u2019s music for Coronation Street<\/em> is the single most-played theme tune on terrestrial telly. Its 22 seconds of exquisitely distilled nostalgia lead\u00a0 us gently into the drama of Corrie\u2019s characters in 10,000-and-counting episodes since 1960.<\/p>\n Spear remembered that his brief for the tune was a mass of competing ideas: \u2018They wanted something melodic, but not too much so. They wanted something rhythmic, but it mustn\u2019t be jazz. They wanted something exciting, but it mustn\u2019t be too thrilling.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Somehow, Spear fulfilled that impossible-sounding commission in music that\u2019s both upbeat and melancholic, with that cornet languidly soloing over a laid-back jazz band. For those of us who grew up with it, Spear\u2019s music is the sound of a nation gathering round the communal tellybox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spear\u2019s pioneering artform has had any number of virtuosic successors in British TV, from Denis King\u2019s suavely seductive Lovejoy<\/em> to Simon May\u2019s once- heard, never-forgotten tune for Howards\u2019 Way<\/em>, and Carl Davis\u2019s cod-classical concerto for Pride and Prejudice<\/em>.<\/p>\n The taken-for-granted status of TV themes is a condition of their success.<\/p>\n My favourite is Anne Dudley\u2019s music for ITV\u2019s Jeeves and Wooster<\/em>, in which the unforgettable art deco dance-band earworm she composed for the theme tune is used throughout the shows as a leitmotif, becoming everything from a parody of Wagner to Vaughan Williams.<\/p>\n And in the streaming era, TV themes have entered another golden age, from the epically serious medievaliana of Ramin Djawadi\u2019s Game of Thrones<\/em> to the sounds of narcissistic dissolution that Nicholas Britell created for the fetid family drama of Succession<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But there\u2019s a threat to this ever- developing artform: the \u2018Skip Intro\u2019 button on streaming services like Netflix. It\u2019s estimated that 136 million intros are skipped every day around the world. For Britell, that\u2019s a TV-theme tragedy, since those millions of intro-skippers are missing out on the essential atmosphere-creation of theme tunes and their title sequences.<\/p>\n I think Britell is right: let\u2019s all do our bit to recognise the creativity of TV composers and allow the brilliance of their theme tunes to burrow into our consciousnesses. Don\u2019t skip the intros!<\/p>\n Tom Service explores how music works in The Listening Service on Sundays at 5pm on BBC Radio 3.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n By Tom Service Published: Monday, 21 November 2022 at 12:00 am They\u2019re the pieces of music, miniature mandalas of memory and meaning, that we\u2019ve all heard as much as any sounds in our lives. They make existential bridges between a real world of grinding mundanity to places of drama, fantasy and escapism. I mean, of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":21898,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/are-tv-theme-tunes-real-music.png",611,468,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/are-tv-theme-tunes-real-music-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/are-tv-theme-tunes-real-music-300x230.png",300,230,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/are-tv-theme-tunes-real-music.png",611,468,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/are-tv-theme-tunes-real-music.png",611,468,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/are-tv-theme-tunes-real-music.png",611,468,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/11\/are-tv-theme-tunes-real-music.png",611,468,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Tom Service Published: Monday, 21 November 2022 at 12:00 am They\u2019re the pieces of music, miniature mandalas of memory and meaning, that we\u2019ve all heard as much as any sounds in our lives. They make existential bridges between a real world of grinding mundanity to places of drama, fantasy and escapism. I mean, of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/21897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
More from Tom Service:<\/h4>\n
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