The beseeching tone: The 'Musifex' of Barry Gray and their implications for composers

International audiences of the 60s and 70s were enthralled by the British sci-fi film and TV productions of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson; with series such as 'Stingray', 'Thunderbirds', 'Captain Scarlet', 'Joe 90', 'UFO' and 'Space: 1999'. This is surprising, given that their characters were often puppets of wood and string. Listeners were seized by a sound world contrived to command plausibility.
With direct reference to original hand-written scores and studio recordings of Barry Gray, Dr Evans reveals this composer’s electroacoustic working methods; clarifies how subverting diegetic boundaries enabled stories to be told and proposes a re-evaluation of Gray’s work as a bridge for composers today, between diegetic, non-diegetic, pitch-based acoustic music and spectromorphology.

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