Editing Daphne Oram (section)

== Career ==
=== Work at the BBC ===
In 1942, Oram was offered a place at the [[Royal College of Music]], but instead took up a position as a Junior Studio Engineer and "[[Audio engineer|music balancer]]" at the [[BBC]].<ref name="OramBBC">{{cite web
 |title        = The Oram Archive - BBC
 |publisher    = Daphneoram.org
 |year         = 2008
 |url          = http://daphneoram.org/oramarchive/bbc/
 |access-date   = 14 August 2008
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110726134519/http://daphneoram.org/oramarchive/bbc/
 |archive-date = 26 July 2011
 |url-status   = dead
}}</ref> One of her job responsibilities was "shadowing" live concerts with a pre-recorded version so the broadcast would go on if interrupted by "enemy action".<ref name="Indi">{{Cite web |date=2003-02-10 |title=Obituaries: Daphne Oram |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/daphne-oram-36248.html |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=[[The Independent]] |language=en}}</ref> Other job duties included creating sound effects for radio shows and [[Audio mixing|mixing]] broadcast levels.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://open.spotify.com/artist/5iipMnjR9MbSaS0sioYXKs|title=Daphne Oram|website=Spotify|language=en|access-date=2019-02-18}}</ref> During this period she became aware of developments in electronic sound and began experimenting with tape recorders, often staying after hours to work late into the night. She recorded sounds on to tape, and then cut, spliced and looped, slowed them down, sped up, and played them backwards.<ref name=":2" />

Oram also dedicated time in the 1940s to composing music, including an [[Electroacoustic music|electroacoustic]] work entitled ''Still Point''.<ref name="Guardian Obit"/> This was an innovative piece for turntables, "double orchestra" and five microphones. Many{{Who?|date=June 2024}} consider ''Still Point'' the first composition that combined acoustic orchestration with live electronic manipulation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.factmag.com/2016/07/13/daphne-oram-still-point-turntables-orchestra-performance/|title=How Daphne Oram's radical turntable experiments were brought to life after 70 years|website=FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music.|date=13 July 2016|access-date=2016-12-11}}</ref> Rejected by the BBC and never performed during Oram's lifetime, ''Still Point'' remained unheard for 70 years; on 24 June 2016 composer [[Shiva Feshareki]] and the [[London Contemporary Orchestra]] performed it for the first time.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.lcorchestra.co.uk/conversation-james-bulley-daphne-orams-still-point/|title=In Conversation: James Bulley on Daphne Oram's 'Still Point' - London Contemporary Orchestra|date=2016-06-14|newspaper=London Contemporary Orchestra|language=en-US|access-date=2016-12-11}}</ref> Following the discovery of the finalised score, the premiere of the revised version of ''Still Point'' was performed at the [[BBC Proms]] in London on 23 July 2018 by Feshareki and James Bulley with the LCO.<ref>{{cite web|title=Prom 13: Pioneers of Sound|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ebzcd4|publisher=BBC|access-date=18 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Spice |first1=Anton |title=The original turntablist – Daphne Oram by Shiva Feshareki |url=https://thevinylfactory.com/features/shiva-feshareki-daphne-oram-the-original-turntablist/ |magazine=[[The Vinyl Factory]] |date=22 June 2016| access-date=17 January 2020}}</ref>

In the 1950s, Oram was promoted to a music studio manager at the BBC. Following a trip to the [[Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française|RTF]] studios in Paris, she began to campaign for the BBC to provide electronic music facilities, utilizing [[electronic music]] and ''[[musique concrète]]'' techniques, for use in its programming.<ref name="OramBBC" /> In 1957 she was commissioned to compose music for a production of the play ''[[Amphitryon 38]].'' She created this piece using a [[sine wave]] [[electronic oscillator|oscillator]], a tape recorder and self-designed [[Electronic filter|filters]], thereby producing the first wholly electronic score in BBC history.<ref name="OramBBC" /> Along with fellow electronic musician and BBC colleague [[Desmond Briscoe]], she began to receive commissions for many other works, including a production of [[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[All That Fall]]'' (1957). As demand grew for these electronic sounds, the [[BBC]] gave Oram and Briscoe a budget to establish the [[BBC Radiophonic Workshop]] in early 1958, where she was the first Studio Manager.<ref name="OramBBC" /> The workshop was focused on creating sound effects and theme music for all of the BBC's output, including the science fiction TV serial ''[[Quatermass and the Pit]]'' (1958–59) and the sounds of "Major Bloodnok's Stomach" for the radio comedy series ''[[The Goon Show]]''.

In October 1958, Oram was sent by the BBC to the "Journées Internationales de Musique Expérimentale" at [[Expo 58]] in [[Brussels]], where [[Edgard Varèse]] presented his electroacoustic work ''[[Poème électronique]]'' in the [[Philips Pavilion]] (alongside Pavilion architect [[Iannis Xenakis]]' piece ''[[Concret PH]]'').<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pavillon Philips, Brussels – Iannis Xenakis |url=https://www.iannis-xenakis.org/en/pavillon-philips-bruxelles/ |access-date=2024-03-03 |website=[[Iannis Xenakis]] official website |language=en-US}}</ref> After hearing some of the work produced by her contemporaries, and unhappy with the BBC's continued refusal to push electronic composition into the foreground of their activities, she decided to resign from the Radiophonic Workshop less than one year after it had opened, hoping to develop her techniques further on her own.<ref name="Guardian Obit" />

In 1965, Oram produced the piece ''Pulse Persephone'' for the "Treasures of the Commonwealth" exhibition at the [[Royal Academy of Arts|Royal Academy of the Arts]].<ref name=":4">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170522-daphne-oram-pioneered-electronic-music|title=The woman who could 'draw' music|last=Williams|first=Holly|website=Bbc.co.uk|date=30 May 2017 |language=en|access-date=2018-03-11}}</ref>
=== Film ===
Oram provided the prominent electronic sounds for the soundtrack of ''[[Dr. No (film)|Dr. No]]'' (1962) from her six-minute work ''Atoms in Space'', but she was not credited in the film.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Thomas |first1=Graham |date=17 March 2020 |title=The early James Bond Music: Atoms In Space |url=https://midcenturybond.wordpress.com/2020/03/17/the-early-james-bond-music-atoms-from-space/ |website=Mid-Century Bond}}{{self-published source|date=December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDadgfW3B4A |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200223214021/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDadgfW3B4A&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=2020-02-23 |access-date=2020-05-19 |publisher=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> These sounds were also used in the following two [[James Bond]] films. Oram also manipulated [[Johnny Hawksworth]]'s soundtrack for ''[[Snow (1963 film)|Snow]]'' (1963), a short documentary by [[Geoffrey Jones]];<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1234415/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Snow (1963)|website=Screenonline.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-03-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2010/dec/06/1|title=Snow (1963)|last=GrrlScientist|date=2010-12-06|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-03-11}}</ref> after the success of ''Snow'', she worked with Jones again on ''[[Rail (1967 film)|Rail]]'' (1967).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1319220/credits.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Rail (1967) Credits|website=Screenonline.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-03-11}}</ref>

=== Oramics ===
[[File:Tower Folly, Gravesend Road, Wrotham, Kent - geograph.org.uk - 778149.jpg|thumb|Tower Folly in Fairseat, Kent, where Oram established her [[Oramics]] Studios]]
{{Main|Oramics}}
{{quote box|quote="We will be entering a strange world where composers will be mingling with capacitors, computers will be controlling crotchets and, maybe, memory, music and magnetism will lead us towards [[metaphysics]]."<ref name="iamanagram">{{cite web|title=ORAMICS: ATLANTIS ANEW a film by AURA SATZ|url=https://www.iamanagram.com/oramics.php|website=iamanagram.com|access-date=8 April 2019}}</ref>|source=— Daphne Oram, ''An Individual Note of Music, Sound and Electronics'' (1971)|width=25%|align=right|style=padding:8px;|border=2px}}
Immediately after leaving the BBC in 1959, Oram established the Oramics Studios for Electronic Composition in Tower Folly, a converted [[oast house]] at Fairseat, [[Kent]], near [[Wrotham]].<ref name=":4" />

Oramics, which Oram devised along with engineer Graham Wrench,<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Marshall |first=Steve |date=February 2009 |title=Graham Wrench: The Story Of Daphne Oram's Optical Synthesizer |url=https://www.soundonsound.com/people/graham-wrench-story-daphne-orams-optical-synthesizer |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=[[Sound on Sound]]}}</ref> is a [[graphical sound]] technique that involves drawing directly onto [[135 film|35mm film]]. Shapes and designs for various parameters of sound etched into the film strips are read by photo-electric cells and transformed into sounds.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":1">{{cite web |title=Daphne Oram {{!}} Biography & History {{!}} AllMusic |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/daphne-oram-mn0000938016 |access-date=2016-12-29 |website=AllMusic}}</ref> According to Oram, "Every nuance, every subtlety of phrasing, every tone gradation or pitch inflection must be possible just by a change in the written form."<ref name=":0" />

Financial pressures meant it was necessary to maintain her work as a commercial composer, and her work covered a wider range than the Radiophonic Workshop. She produced music for not only radio and television but also theatre, short commercial films, sound installations and exhibitions, including electronic sounds for [[Jack Clayton]]'s horror film ''[[The Innocents (1961 film)|The Innocents]]'' (1961), concert works such as ''Four Aspects'' (1960), and collaborations with composers [[Thea Musgrave]] and Ivor Walsworth.<ref name="SANBio">{{cite web|url=http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/?artist&id=749|title=Daphne Oram|publisher=[[Sonic Arts Network]]|access-date=14 August 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921122352/http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/?artist&id=749|archive-date=21 September 2008}}</ref>

[[Image:Oramics Machine - details 2.jpg|thumb|[[Oramics]] machine displayed at the [[Science Museum (London)|Science Museum]], London (2011)]]
In February 1962, Oram was awarded a grant of £3,550 ({{Inflation|UK|3550|1962|fmt=eq|r=-3|cursign=£}}){{Inflation-fn|UK}} from the [[Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation]] to support the development of the Oramics system; a second Gulbenkian grant of £1,000 was awarded in 1965. Oram's first composition using the Oramics machine, entitled "Contrasts Essonic", was recorded in 1963. As the Oramics project evolved, Oram's focus turned to the subtle nuances and interactions between sonic parameters, and she applied her research to the [[Nonlinear system|nonlinear]] behavior of the human ear and to perception of the brain's apprehension of the world. She used Oramics to study vibrational phenomena, divided into "commercial Oramics" and "[[Mysticism|mystical]] Oramics", and the Oramics machine became used more for research than composition. In her notes, Oram defined Oramics as "the study of sound and its relationship to life."<ref name=":0" />

In the mid-1980s Oram worked on a software version of Oramics for the [[Acorn Archimedes]] computer using grant money received from the [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]] Trust.<ref name="Guardian Obit"/><ref name="Brewer2018">{{cite web
| title = The Sound of 'Doctor Who'
| first = Nathan | last = Brewer
| work = IEEE: The Institute
| date = March 2018
| access-date = 2018-03-12
| url = http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/institute_march2018/index.php?startid=7#/6
}}</ref> She wished to continue her "mystical Oramics" research, but a lack of funding prevented this project from being fully realized.<ref name=":0" />