Peter Knight (composer)

Peter Knight (born Exmouth, Devon, England 23 June 1917; died 30 July 1985) was an English musical arranger, conductor and composer.

Career

He worked with Independent Television light entertainment stars from " 'Spot The Tune' " (1956) with Jackie Rae and Marion Ryan to the comedy series " 'Home to Roost' " (1985). He also worked on feature films from " 'Curse of the Crimson Altar' " (1968, Boris Karloff) to " 'Hambone and Hille' " (1984, Lilian Gish). In between, the highlights of his career were perhaps:

* Conductor and orchestrator for the film " 'Ghost Story" ' (1981)
* Orchestrator of the music for the film " 'The Dark Crystal' " (1982)
* Orchestra director for many episodes of " 'The Morecambe and Wise show' " (1969-77)
* Conductor for " 'The Last Goon Show of All' " 1972

During the early years, he had his own orchestra " 'The Peter Knight Orchestra" '. Following his death, Yorkshire television launched the annual Peter Knight award to honour excellence in musical arranging.

His involvement with pop music was varied. Peter Knight became famous for his rich lush orchestration, best illustrated by the slightly "spaced-out" sections of The Moody Blues' "Days of Future Passed". Richard Carpenter invited him to fly over to Los Angeles in 1977 in order to generate a similar sound for The Carpenters "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" (1977). There is some kind of private joke here, since the album credits him with conducting the humourously-named "Overbudget Philharmonic". He gave a similar treatment to The Carpenters version of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina". He is also famous for his arrangements for the King's Singers, particularly the Airwave song "You are the New Day", now a best-selling title in the USA. He also arranged several works intended for amateur choirs. He spotted that his sound might have resonance with a hippy audience, and recorded a single " 'Within You, Without You' ", the George Harrison song from the " 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' " album [cite web|title = Internet Movie Database direct link to his works|url = http://www.secondhandsongs.com/medium/15206 Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band|accessdate = 2008-08-24] ., released under the name " 'Peter Knight and His Orchestra' ". This was part of a project to release the entire album in an orchestral version. It was released in 1967 on the Mercury label. His son, also called Peter Knight, co-produced the original cast recording of " 'Hair' " (1968).

Compositions

Incidental music for
* Theme tune for " 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' " (1961)
* " 'The Flight of the Heron' " (drama series) (1968)
* " 'Duty Free' " (TV comedy series 1984-86)
* " 'Home to Roost' " (TV comedy series 1986-89)

References

Web

External
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0461032/ IMDB]
* [http://web.singnet.com.sg/~tonytay/c_facts.htm The Carpenters]

External links