BRITISH ELECTION COVERAGE GETS ITS OWN THEME MUSIC

The BBC has used its own staff orchestra to record theme music for its coverage of the British national elections tonight (Thursday), replacing the music that has been used during similar coverage for the past 31 years, the BBC said today. ITV has also recorded new music for its own election coverage, but it will be using electronic music “created using keyboards and samples.” In an interview with BBC News, composer Richard Blair-Oliphant said that he had been asked to write something that reflected the fact that “this is likely to be a fairly historic election … [something] serious, important and classy.” Unlike other themes, he noted, “Most people are only going to hear this thing once, so it’s got to be instantly accessible to people.” He added that the BBC was “very fortunate” to have an orchestra that could immediately record what he had written. “They certainly got what we were trying to do within a couple of plays.”