Hamlet

Hamlet DVD cover image

At Kaleidophon, Delia helped create the ghost voice and electronic music sequences for Tony Richardson’s production of Hamlet at the Chalk Farm Round House, which was then turned into the 1969 film "Shakespeare's Hamlet".

Delia's sounds accompany the apparitions of the ghost of Hamlet's father and feature Nicol Williamson’s treated voice as the voice of the ghost. The only other music in the film are a couple of brief trumpet fanfares, for which Patrick Gowers gets the entire film credit as the composer of its original music.

Extracts

• 01:29-01:56 First apparition: "The same figure like the king that's dead"

• 02:14-02:45 Second apparition: "This bodes some strange eruption to our state"

• 16:36-20:02 Third apparition: "It is a custom more honoured in the breach than the observance", voice of Hamlet's father and clashes

• 1:08:10-1:09:12 Fourth apparition "A king of shreds and patches", voice of Hamlet's father

Tapes

• DD035: "Hamlet Copy Reels 1, 2, 3"
• DD210: "Hamlet Reel 1 of makeup"
• DD156: "Hamlet Reel 2 of Makeup. Music & FX"
• DD157: "Hamlet Reel 3 of Makeup"
• DD208: "Hamlet film material"
• DD209: "Copy Film Hamlet 3rd session"

Copyright

The Performing Right Society's list of works by Delia Ann Derbyshire has:

Title: Hamlet
Writer(s): Derbyshire Delia Ann; Clarke, Malcolm John (SNR)
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Music
Creation date: 27 March 1991

though this may be a different version of Hamlet from the Tony Richardson/Chalk Farm Round House one, which was not a BBC production.

Availability

• Shakespeare's Hamlet on YouTube
• Shakespeare's Hamlet on DVD from Amazon
• It is included in File:The Ultimate Shakespeare-on-Screen Archive (v1.0).torrent
• A part of one of the Attic Tapes is included in the Lost tapes of the Dr Who composer article, but it is from a different production of Hamlet: