The Long Polar Walk

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Delia's created music for two episodes of the programme The Long Polar Walk, of which two extracts were reused in the 1972 documentary On The Rim in Spitzbergen.[1].

I loved creating the score for the TV programme The Long Polar Walk, I had to get the feeling of trudging through snow. I worked all night on that one, until the cleaners came in. I remember using one of them as a guinea-pig on that track. I asked her how my music made her feel and she said, 'Oh really shivery!' I knew I'd succeeded.
   -- Delia in the Soundhouse interview

Dudley Simpson also created music in 1968 for "The Long Polar Walk: Wally Herbert expedition"[2] and 1968 is also the date given for The Long Polar Walk in James Percival's catalogue of Delia's works in which he also writes that the Attic Tapes only contain "component sounds for the now-lost The Long Polar Walk", apparently unaware of the copies in the Radiophonic Archive.[3]

Tapes

  • DD226: 1 of 2 copies of the titles and cues
  • DD233: Various makeup materials, including some from The Long Polar Walk
  • TRW 6830: "The Long Polar Walk"[4]
  • TRW 6944: "The Long Polar Walk No. 2", credited to Delia with catalogue entry date October 1968, is missing.[5]
  • TRW 7067: "The Long Polar Walk No. 3", with catalogue entry date May 1969 and notes "Treatment of music TRW 6830, 6944 & 7067".[6]
  • TRW 7463: "On The Rim in Spitzbergen" contains two extracts totalling 1'07".[1]

Availability

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 DD134239: Memo dated 29 October 1971 from Dianne Forsyth to Delia about reusing two extracts from "The Long Polar Walk" in "On The Rim - Spitzbergen".
  2. The Dudley Simpson discography on dudleysimpson.com, saved on archive.org
  3. Delia Derbyshire's Creative Process, p.13-14, Table II.1 and following paragraph.
  4. 4.0 4.1 The Tape Library List's entry for TRW 6830.
  5. The Tape Library List's entry for TRW 6944.
  6. The Tape Library List's entry for TRW 7067.
  7. The Tape Library List's entry for TRW 7463.