In September 2022 the BBC quiz present Mastermind can have been on our screens for 50 years, and each one in every of its episodes has began (and completed) with the identical somewhat foreboding music.
Like many piece of music utilized by traditional TV exhibits, Mastermind’s theme tune was licensed from a music library and it has one other – somewhat appropriately unsettling – title… ‘Approaching Menace’.
Written for a 1970 KPM library album referred to as Dramatic Background, it’s a sluggish doom-ridden march for percussion, brass and strings which is at present synonymous with that imposing ‘large black chair’ below the highlight the place contestants are interrogated.
Like all library items used for TV, we solely hear a small quantity (normally the start and finish) of what was really written and recorded. The longer piece has a way more elaborate center part, with woodwinds, harp and searing strings repeating the motif we’re extra conversant in.
The piece was written by the late Neil Richardson (1930-2010), who composed recurrently for British music libraries, although that is with out query his most acquainted work. Richardson additionally performed a key function on the BBC, conducting quite a lot of its long-since-abandoned Radio Orchestras. As a conductor and arranger he additionally labored on movie and tv scores, and recordings for different composers, together with the late Richard Rodney Bennett.
Born in Worcestershire, Richardson served as a chorister at Westminster Abbey and studied below William Lloyd Webber on the Royal School of Music.
‘Approaching Menace’ was re-recorded as merely ‘Mastermind Theme’ in 2010 by the BBC Philharmonic, in a brand new association by Clark Rundell. That model, which isn’t any much less menacing than the unique, continues for use at present. Right here’s a clip of the recording session: bbc.co.uk/programmes
High picture by BBC
