Oramics

From founding the Radiophonic Workshop at the BBC to her unique Oramics machine, Daphne Oram was a pioneer

- Daphne Oram

There are few movements in music named after a single person; even fewer are named after women. Daphne Oram’s work is one of the great contributions to music tech.

Born in 1925, Oram was a talented pianist and organ player as a child. Her professional career in music and recorded sound began during World War 2; in 1942, on leaving school, she turned down an offer of a place at the Royal College of Music in London to instead take up a role as a junior studio engineer at the BBC, where her responsibilities would include mixing live broadcasts and creating sound effects.

The BBC’s approach to sound and music was, at the time, as much a scientific pursuit as it was artistic. Like so many major broadcasters, the corporation valued precision and quality of sound as much as the more conventional musical aspects. In 1958, alongside her colleague Desmond Briscoe, Oram oversaw the creation of the Radiophonic Workshop at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios, West London. Essentially an experimental sound effect and soundtrack unit, the Workshop used new technologies, musique concrète techniques and tape manipulation to create soundtracks for BBC broadcasts including the popular sci-fi television series Quatermass and the Pit, and radio comedy The Goon Show. In later years, it would soundtrack Doctor Who.