Navigation

Miss Delia Derbyshire - Dr. Who Composer

The first commercial composition of electronic music came from a woman!!! Delia Derbyshire was way ahead of her time. So far ahead that even Robo's from Kraftwerk would have to bow down before her.

Before computers had any relevance in music, she was already where we are today with Ableton. Loop-based music is as popular globally today as sheet music was 100 years ago. Delia Derbyshire was already doing this in the early 60s. The music for the TV series Dr. WHO (BBC) is still the best known. It was not until 1982, twenty years later, that the work was reworked using the technology of the time with the first samplers and (usable) polyphonic synthesizers. The vocoder, i.e. voices, were also added (see 3rd YT video).