
Alongside Daphne Oram (1925-2003) and Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001), Elisabeth Lutyens is an unsung pioneer in British electronic music, with a leaning to the avant-garde. A well-established classical composer, working on chamber music, orchestral scores, choral pieces and operas, Lutyens was not only a pioneer amongst female composers, but a pioneer in bringing the twelve-tone serial technique to Britain. This technique lends itself perfectly to horror scores with its discordant, a-tonal textures, which Lutyens was more than capable of exploiting. Unfairly forgotten today, Lutyens created music for some wonderful films within British cinema, including the early Christopher Lee thriller 'Penny and the Pownall Case (1948), the adventure-drama 'Bermuda Affair (1956), the comedy 'Don't Bother to Knock (1961), the psychological thriller 'Troubled Waters (1964), the sci-fi films 'The Earth Dies Screaming (1964) and 'Spaceflight IC-1 (1965), and the horror film 'Theatre of Death (1967). Other notable film scores include the Hammer films 'Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960) and 'Paranoiac (1963), and the Amicus Productions 'The Skull (1965), 'The Psychopath (1966), and 'The Terrornauts (1967). She also wrote and composed the music for the Dutch thriller 'My Nights with Susan, Sandra, Olga, and Julie (1975). In addition to her outstanding film work, Lutyens also composed music for several BBC documentaries as well as radio and television productions, and incidental music for the stage. Lutyens was and remains a highly respected avant-garde artist, and an innovator of serialism itself. Unfortunately, whilst the past decade has seen recordings of her chamber and choral works released to critical acclaim, her film music (which stretched from the late 1940's to the early 1980's) has remained relatively obscure.