Ron Grainer
Ronald Erle "Ron" Grainer ( born August 11, 1922 in Atherton, Queensland, † February 21, 1981 in Cuckfield, Sussex, England) was an Australian composer of theater, television and film music predominantly in British productions.
Life
At the age of four years Grainer learned violin and piano and later additionally also mastered both instruments perfectly as a teenager. After the Second World War, he received his further education at Sir Eugene Goossens at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. After his training Grainer intended to begin a career as a composer and performer of classical music in England. However, when he in 1953 with his wife Margot arrived, he initially received only a job as a pianist in the light entertainment music in the show troupe The Alien Brothers & June, which among other things, Billy Daniels, Guy Mitchell, Frankie Laine, Al Martino and Billy Eckstine had committed. With this, he had including three appearances at the London Palladium. Grainer also gained reputation as a piano accompanist of famous artists.
During this time Grainer also made his first records recordings as a companion to the Irish folk singer Charlie McGhee and Patrick O'Hagan and could also be heard on a Christmas plate of the artist Shari. He liked doing the sounds of old musical instruments, and he began to collect historical instruments and also to write special music for them, including a jazz ballet.
After the divorce of Margot and marrying his second wife Jennifer Grainer be settled in Roehampton. He was active as a music consultant for the transmitter Associated Rediffusion TV, including programs with Tito Gobbi and Maria Callas. Mainly, however, he was again employed as a pianist in the sample chamber at the BBC TV, which he eventually opened the musical doors. He was commissioned to compose the music for a number of television dramas and also took the job as a music consultant by Julie Andrews.
In 1960, he was composing the theme and soundtrack music for the new television series " Maigret " (1960) entrusted with Rupert Davies, in which he used the instruments harpsichord, banjo and clavichord and as a French mood with the music created that the success series contributed. The single and EP- single with the theme music became his first recording contract with Warner Bros. and peaked in the UK Singles Chart number 20 Many other television series and movies followed, among them the film comedy The little ones want to move up, the TV series Paul Temple by Francis Matthews and Ros Drinkwater, as well as the science fiction series Doctor Who. Grainer was impressed by Delia Derbyshire's recording of his composition so that he wanted to see uncredited involved; he could at the BBC, the effect does not prevail.
Others
- In the German version of the series " Maigret " theme song from Grainer was replaced by a composition of Ernst August source.