A bit of a soundtrack detour today into the world of late 60s and early 70s children's TV, not a topic that gets much coverage round here. In 1969 the BBC began broadcasting The Clangers, stop- motion animation series about a group of knitted creatures that lived on the moon who spoke by whistling and who ate only green soup and blue string pudding. The Clangers one of my earliest childhood memories.
The Clangers ran from 1969 to 1972 and was made by Oliver Postgate, who wrote, filmed, animated and narrated the series. He also scored the soundtrack by drawing it out graphically and then had it turned into music by his friend Vernon Elliott (a composer and bassoonist). They recorded it together in a village hall in Kent. Late 60s BBC English eccentricity at its finest. The music is classical crossed with kid's TV, the minor chord variations echoing minimalist composers such as Erik Satie
In 2001 Jonny Trunk released a CD of music from The Clangers, compiled with Oliver Postgate and containing lots of very short pieces, some only fifteen or twenty seconds long along with the intro music (with narration), some longer pieces, a self explanatory four minutes titled Useful Musical Sequences, another called Running Around Music and finishing with A Clangers Opera, Act One, an eleven minute libretto Postgate compiled from The Iron Chicken and The Music Trees. Enjoy.
Episode One/ Intro Music and Dialogue
7 comments:
Great. Cobbled together, handmade, recycled. Makes you think how much better 'Star Wars' would have been if Postgate and Firmin had made it.
-SRC
Huge fan of Vernon Elliott. His soundtracks to Pogles' Wood and Ivor the Engine are often played around these parts.
Marvellous stuff.
Fantastic. Oh how I loved the Clangers (still do) and the music was integral to their charm.
Glorious. I think it was music like this - and by the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop - that left an indelible mark on our generation of music lovers, many of who went on to create groundbreaking sounds of their own.
And the storytelling. At its own pace, but all the more wonderful for it.
Slightly tempered by today’s news that a film remake/reboot of Bagpuss is on its way. Just the synopsis alone suggests that they’ve missed the point and just hoping to replicate the success of the Paddington movies.
Unless Wes Anderson is writing and directing, in which case it will be brilliant.
A remake of Bagpuss??? exactly what I didn't think the world needed in 2025...
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