Composer and innovator Daphne Oram was a pioneer of electronic music. As the first person to design and build an electronic musical instrument, she created the blueprint for modern music. […]
Not only was Oram among the first to experiment with electronic sounds, she defied the double-barred boys’ club of both the BBC and the electronics industry to do it.
At one point the BBC told Oram to take six months off work as they were concerned about effects of radiophonic sound waves on the female body. In response Oram quit and set up her own studio in Kent, where she built the groundbreaking Oramics machine, a sound synthesizer which turned pictures into sound. The composer drew on film strips to create electrical charges controlling amplitude, timbre, frequency and length of sound.
Oram continued to produce soundtracks and incidental music until ill-health forced her into retirement in the Nineties. She died in 2003, aged 77.
