|
From the first radio news bulletins of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in July 1932 to now, there has almost always been a theme. And, for much of that time, it was Majestic Fanfare, a short piece of music composed by Charles Williams in 1935.
1932-1952: The Early Years
Long before Majestic Fanfare was used, there were a number of themes that were in use for the ABC's news bulletins. It began in the 1930s, when By Land, Sea And Air was chosen to open the bulletins. When World War II broke out, By Land, Sea and Air was replaced, rather appropriately, by the military tune The British Grenadiers.
This theme remained in place until the February of 1942, around the time that the Australian city of Darwin was bombed by Japanese aircraft, when an abridged version of Advance Australia Fair was used as the news theme. In later decades, Advanced Australia Fair became the Australian national anthem.
1952-1984: Majestic Fanfare
The first recording of Majestic Fanfare was in 1943, when Williams himself directed the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra's performance of the piece. Around this time, Majestic Fanfare was picked up as the theme for the ABC's parliamentary broadcasts.
It was chosen as the new ABC News theme for various reasons, amongst them the fact that edits to Advance Australia Fair were necessitated by its length as compared to the ideal duration of a news theme. At the time, this practice was considered disrespectful by some and so, on New Year's Day 1952, Majestic Fanfare became the theme for ABC News. When TV broadcasts began in Australia in 1956, Majestic Fanfare was retained as the ABC News theme.
A series of edits were made to the original minute-long recording of Majestic Fanfare - the two used most often were 18 and 9 seconds long. A practice was established during the 1970s whereby the 0'18" edit of Majestic Fanfare would be used for extended radio bulletins (generally fifteen minutes long and, these days, mostly only broadcast daily on ABC Local Radio at 7.45am) and the 0'09" edit would introduce all TV and all other radio bulletins. The practice is still in use today.
In 1982, when the ABC celebrated its 50th year of broadcasting (and changed from a Commission to a Corporation), Majestic Fanfare was, in the words of its 1982-83 Annual Report, 'subtly updated'. The update was used only on TV bulletins and featured several extra tracks performed on synthesisers.
1985: New Music
Around this time, ABC Radio News lost the original version of Majestic Fanfare and a series of synthesised news themes were trialled in succession, one of which was a purely-synthesised Majestic Fanfare. There was public outcry at the loss of one of the great symbols of the ABC (an outcry that threatened to repeat itself in early 2005 - we'll get back to that).
In 1985, when the ABC's News and Current Affairs divison underwent a shake-up, the original evening ABC TV News and Nationwide (current affairs) programmes were scrapped and replaced by an hour-long programme called The National1. At this point, ABC Television, too, lost Majestic Fanfare - it was replaced by the orchestration of Alan Hawkshaw's Best Endeavours used (then and now) as the theme for Britain's Channel 4 News.
1986: Tony Ansell & Peter Wall
Within nine months, The National itself ended for a variety of reasons. In its place, ABC TV News returned, but with no Majestic Fanfare in sight2. Instead, a specially-composed theme (written by Tony Ansell and Peter Wall, who also contributed a number of ABC News and Current Affairs themes) was used. Over the next ninteen years, the Ansell/Wall theme became a fixture at the ABC and was updated only once, in 1997.
1988: The Return of the Fanfare
Back on radio, the decision was made to bring back Majestic Fanfare, but not in its original form. Australian composer Richard Mills arranged Charles Williams' music in a more 'Australian' style. Three main versions of the theme were written - the full minute-long work and two 0'18" variations3. The music was recorded in 1988 - Australia's Bicentenary - by the ABC-owned and -operated Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stuart Challender.
For the past twenty years, Richard Mills' re-orchestration of Majestic Fanfare has been used as the ABC Radio News theme. For the 7.45am bulletin on ABC Local Radio, the full version of one of the 0'18" variations has been used. For all other bulletins on all networks except Triple J and NewsRadio, an edit of the 0'18" variation (to 0'09") has been in use.
During the early 2000s, Richard Mills donated his original pencil-written manuscript of his three variations of Majestic Fanfare to the Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library (housed in the Baillieu Library) of the University of Melbourne.
1991: Triple J
One version of Majestic Fanfare has not yet been mentioned, and that is the remix used on Triple J Radio's news bulletins. With the exception of NewsRadio, Triple J is the only ABC radio network that doesn't carry ABC Radio News bulletins - it instead produces its own using both the ABC's and its own resources. In 1991, the original Queen's Hall Light Orchestra recording of Majestic Fanfare was remixed by John Jacobs and Paul McKercher into a 0'10" theme that's been used by Triple J ever since.
Amongst the samples used in the remix were Paul McKercher on guitar playing the opening bars of Majestic Fanfare, a drill in use and the 'scratch' from hip-hop group N.W.A.'s song F*** tha Police (asterisks added at the researcher's discretion). At the time, the N.W.A. song was banned from Triple J and, in a way, the song has been played several times every day since 1991. In 2005, McKercher worked out that, if he had a cent for every time the news theme (and so the N.W.A. scratch) had been played on Triple J, he would've been able to 'go out and buy [himself] a crappy old Holden'. The beat used in the Triple J News theme was sampled from a section of Prince's 1989 song Get Off 'without Prince or any of his posse corrupting it'.
All the elements of the theme were loaded into an Akai S-1000 by Jacobs and then played in order off a Casio keyboard4.
2005: Martin Armiger
Since the 1980s, there hadn't been a 'standard' ABC News theme across both radio and television - this was to change in 2005 when a new theme, composed by Australian film and television composer Martin Armiger (with the assistance of John Gray), was to debut as the "ABC TV/Radio National News Theme"56.
The new theme came in several variations - chiefly, there was the 0'27" opening theme (with a 0'07" percussion 'tail' later added) and a 2'12" closing theme. But there were also arrangements of the closing music that varied not just from state-to-state, but apparently also from bulletin-to-bulletin.
The original reason given for the state-to-state variations in music was that one version was recorded by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and another was recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (also ABC-owned and -operated)7. However, there are at least three major variations of the closing music and two versions of the opening theme, although the differences between the opening theme versions are far less drastic than the differences between the closing theme versions. As far as this researcher has been able to find out, the theme (and possibly all its variations) was performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with the percussion groups Synergy and TaikOz.
Two 'stings' were also written, both of about 0'06" in duration, one of which was originally used both during the bulletin (following the recap of headlines halfway through) and to open news updates. After about a month, the second of these stings, one which more closely reflected the 0'27" opening theme, replaced the other at the start of news updates (with the exception of the 6.30pm updates, where the first sting is still used).
Although the Armiger theme was commissioned as a national theme that would unite the three ABC News 'brands' - on radio, television and ABC Online - this never happened. As in the 1980s, when Majestic Fanfare disappeared off both radio and television, there was public outcry at the loss of ABC TV News' long-standing Ansell/Wall theme, with many critics complaining that the new theme wasn't as attention-grabbing and 'punchy' as the old theme and that, while it was a fine orchestral piece, it wasn't suited for a serious news bulletin. For these and other reasons, the Armiger theme was never used as the ABC Radio News theme and Majestic Fanfare still stands as the radio bulletin theme. Because ABC News on television and ABC online have always shared resources, the ABC's online news bulletins use the Armiger theme.
Legal action was also taken against Martin Armiger by Peter Wall (Tony Ansell passed away in 2000), who claimed that Armiger had plagiarised the opening three notes (A-G-A) from the Ansell/Wall theme, which Wall described as 'the heraldic signature'8. The case was resolved in mid-2007 after discussions with both the ABC and the Australasian Performing Rights Association9.
However, while the Armiger theme was, overall, a completely new theme, it did (deliberately) borrow elements from Majestic Fanfare. In particular, a key theme from Majestic Fanfare was used as a key theme in the new Armiger theme. Indeed, it appeared not just as a background theme, but as the main theme of the piece (A-G-F-G-C-D).
A New Version?
In recent times, though, the now twenty-year-old Mills arrangement of Majestic Fanfare has, in the eyes of some, become tired. An internal review of ABC Radio News in late 2005 found that Majestic Fanfare was getting old and was in need of an update. As of June 2009, nothing seems to have become of this suggestion, although it may have been related to the fact that the Armiger TV theme was designed to also be used on radio.
However, following Peter Wall's case against Martin Armiger in relation to the latter's ABC TV News theme, Wall commented that the recording of Richard Mills' arrangement ended on a flat note, describing it as being akin to 'a fingernail on the blackboard' and suggesting that it be re-recorded. As with the afore-mentioned suggestion to update the theme, nothing has apparently been done to address this as yet10.
ABC NewsRadio is the only part of ABC News and Current Affairs to never have carried Majestic Fanfare in any form - since its launch in 1997, it has used various themes, none of which were based on Majestic Fanfare. The current NewsRadio bulletin theme was introduced in 2002. During 2006 and 2007, a different theme was trialled, but ultimately dropped.
So, this is how it stands in June 2009:
ABC Local Radio, ABC Radio National, Radio Australia & ABC Classic FM
- Title: Majestic Fanfare
- Composer: Charles Williams, arranged by Richard Mills
- Performed by: Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Stuart Challender (conductor)
- Year: 1988
Triple J
- Title: Majestic Fanfare (remix)
- Composer: Charles Williams, remixed by John Jacobs and Paul McKercher
- Performed by: Queen's Hall Light Orchestra and various artists (sampled)
- Year: 1991
ABC NewsRadio
- Title: Unknown
- Composer: Unknown
- Performed by: Unknown
- Year: 2002
ABC Television & ABC Online
- Title: ABC TV and Radio National News Theme
- Composer: Martin Armiger
- Performed by: Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Synergy & TaikOz
- Year: 2005
1 75 Years of the ABC Timeline - ABC Online, 2007
2 Well, more correctly, in earshot.
3 The only release thus far of Mills' re-orchestration was on the compilation CD ABC Radio Themes and featured both 0'18" variations, one of which was cut down to 0'09".
4 30 years of triple j: the news theme - Triple J Online, 2005
5 "ABC Launches a new look 7pm TV news" - ABC Media Release, 24 January 2005
6 stillpoint music : john gray : composer : news - October-December 2004
7 This decision was reported to have been made to avoid any possibly damaging feelings of jealousy, resentment and triumph that may have been felt by either of the cities.
8 "ABC hasn't changed its tune, says composer" - Sydney Morning Herald, 27 January 2005
9 "Reassessments: Noteworthy variations on a theme" - Stay in Touch, Sydney Morning Herald Blogs, 31 July 2007
10 Ibid.
|
|  | | 
Clip/Bookmark this page
| |
This article has not been bookmarked.
|
| | | ENTRY DATA
| |  | Edited by:
Cyvros
| | | | | | Referenced Entries:
| | | | | | Referenced Sites:
Please note that the BBC is not responsible for the content of any external sites listed.
| | | | | | | |
|
|
Home
