I was sad to hear of the passing this week of the gifted arranger, orchestrator and composer Angela Morley. Morley’s evocative and subtle work on many of the TV Dramas of my youth (Dallas, Dynasty, Hotel etc) still play in my head as the background music of my childhood and was often many magnitudes higher quality than the show itself. Morley composed the wonderful soundtrack to Watership Down, arranged for Mel Torme, Rosemary Clooney, Marlene Dietrich, Noel Coward, Petula Clark and Dusty Springlfield and worked as orchestrator/arranger and often uncredited composer on many of John Williams’ great scores including ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, ‘E.T.’ and ‘Schindlers List’.
Below is a snippet from a 2005 BBC broadcast: