I’m just sorry that it has taken his death for me to realize he deserves to be in the Crossover Hall.
As with Colin Dexter with his original novels about Morse, and previous Hall of Fame member Russell Lewis with his ‘Endeavour’ scripts, Mr. Pheloung was fond of putting puzzles into his work, as you will see....
Barrington Pheloung, who composed the haunting theme for TV drama Inspector Morse, has died at the age of 65.
The Australian-born composer shared several interests with Colin Dexter's irascible detective, not least his love of opera and cryptic crosswords.
He became known for hiding clues and red herrings in the score for the TV show, occasionally revealing the killer's identity in morse code.
The hypnotic title song also included a motif based on the letters M.O.R.S.E.
Pheloung died at home in Australia, his agent confirmed to the BBC. No cause of death was given.
When the show's producer Kenny McBain joined forces with Anthony Minghella to adapt ‘Inspector Morse’ for TV in 1987, they approached Pheloung to supply the theme.
The classical-inspired melancholy score earned the musician global acclaim and a Bafta Award nomination for best original music. Pheloung said the success was down to the show's unconventional two-hour time slot, which allowed him to write more intricate musical cues.
"Our incentive was to try and produce a feature film rather than a television episode," he told cultural historian Damian Michael Barcroft in 2014. "Therefore, I was given much more scope to create longer sequences of music."
The theme song was written after studying Dexter's original novels and Minghella's screenplay for the first episode.
"We decided that Morse is a very melancholic character, so the tune had to be melancholic, and he was a lover of classical music, so it should be an orchestral score and not synthesiser," he told Soundtrack magazine in 1994.
"The final thing is that he has a very cryptic mind, he loves doing crosswords; we came up with the obvious idea - his name is Morse and we use morse code in the music.
Pheloung went on to score ‘Morse’ spin-offs ‘Lewis’ and ‘Endeavour’.
From Wikipedia:
Pheloung is best known for the theme and incidental music to the ‘Inspector Morse’ television series, for which he was nominated for Best Original Television Music at the British Academy Television Awards in 1991; the sequel ‘Lewi’s, and the prequel ‘Endeavour’.
Pheloung incorporated his own recordings of composers, whose music, whether instrumental, vocal, or operatic, could be judiciously incorporated as themes and clues into the various episodes of the ‘Inspector Morse’, ‘Inspector Lewis’, and the first years of the ‘Endeavour’ series, along with his own original music, especially the opening and closing works of the videos.
As I said, I’m sorry that Mr. Pheloung’s induction is under these circumstances. He would have made an excellent showcase for the September theme of Creators/Behind The Scenes.
"Some people just can't help making a difference in our lives by simply being who they are. They make the world a little brighter, a little warmer and a lot funnier. Barrington was one of these people. "
- DNA Music
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