BBC Music Magazine

Sounds of our lives

Often dismissed as not ‘real’ music, television theme tunes are in fact succinct snippets of musical magic, capable of capturing a time and mood, says Tom Service

hey’re the pieces of music, miniature mandalas of memory and meaning, that we’ve all heard as much as any sounds in our

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from BBC Music Magazine

BBC Music Magazine1 min read
Bonang Goes Pythagoras’s Theory Of Numerical Harmony
Did Pythagoras get it wrong? In the 6th century BC, the great polymath showed that certain numerical ratios between sounds are what makes music sound pleasant to us – and dissonance occurs when there’s a deviation from such ratios. But scientists in
BBC Music Magazine2 min read
Three Other Great Recordings
There’s something immensely organic about the way René Jacobs unfolds the narrative’s ineluctable trajectory in his version recorded in 2000. And for a conductor so often associated with a certain operatic flamboyance, some of the ‘agitato’ moments p
BBC Music Magazine3 min read
Ibiza Spain
Headphones adjusted, the conductor raises his arms. Strings twist and turn, the sound swells; electronic vocals ride the crest of the wave. The beat drops. Then, as lights flash across the Royal Albert Hall, glockenspiels duet over a keyboard motif.

Related Books & Audiobooks