Computer games, webpages, ringtones, movies, television and radio programmes - they all rely on electronic music to make their content exciting and irresistable.

Before digital technology made it possible to create this kind of music, a group of pioneers developed ways of making electronic music purely from natural sources. They did not have the luxury of synthesisers, keyboards, drumkits, and sound effects machines.

In Britain these pioneers worked mainly at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop from the 1950's until the late 1990's.

They performed and composed music and sound effects in a variety of ways. One method used, to create the sound of a spaceship taking off, was to record the scraping of piano strings many times. These recordings were then played at different speeds, forwards as well as backwards, and then altogether at the same time.

Listen to John's programme and hear how the pioneers of early electronic music created some memorable and exciting noises! Sun Chen helps out with some explanations in Chinese.

Radiophonic Workshop Audio
	Listen to and download John's report

The audio on this webpage was adapted from a radio programme originally devised by Desmond Briscoe and compiled by Michael Smee for BBC Radio 4. Broadcast April 1st 1979.

If you want to check any of the English words and phrases in the audio, you can download the script of the programme here.

Transcript of The BBC Radiophonic Workshop (pdf - 27k)

There are some fascinating pictures in the BBC archives that document the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. You might think some of their equipment looks unsophisticated, but in the 1950's the BBC created amazing electronic music and effects without the use of computers.

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop Picture Gallery

Look through the picture gallery to get a flavour of life at the Workshop.

Now listen to these sound effects. See if you can match the sound with its name. The answers are at the bottom of the page.

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Sound effect 1 - twang
Sound effect 2 - doying
Sound effect 3 - woosh
Sound effect 4 - quack-quack
Sound effect 5 - crash
Sound effect 6 - clonk