''How to Be a Composer'' is a British television documentary first shown on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

in July 2009.

Background

The show (2 × 1 hr, made by Diverse Production, produced and directed by Paul Yule), was based around the former ''

New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' journalist

Paul Morley Paul Robert Morley is an English music journalist. He wrote for the ''New Musical Express'' from 1977 to 1983 and has since written for a wide range of publications as well as writing his own books. He was a co-founder of the record label ZTT Re ...

learning how to create a piece of classical music. The films observe Morley spending a year at the prestigious

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Even though Morley begins neither knowing how to read music nor how to play a musical instrument, by the end of the year, with the help of his tutor

Christopher Austin Christopher Austin (born 14 November 1968) is a British conductor, and an arranger and orchestrator of film and television scores. Austin originally intended to become a composer. He studied at the University of Bristol with Adrian Beaumont ...

and the students at the academy, we see the performance of his String Quartet.

External links

* BBC television documentaries 2000s British documentary television series 2000s British music television series 2009 British television series debuts 2009 British television series endings Royal Academy of Music {{BBC-tv-prog-stub