The English musician and producer Sir George Martin was born on this day in 1926.
As a producer, Martin spent the 1950s working to produce comedy records and championing classical and baroque recordings with Parlophone records, a branch of EMI. While searching for a group which could deliver surefire hits in 1962, he came across a band from Liverpool who had just been rejected by Decca Records. That band was known as the Beatles, whom he worked closely with throughout their career as their producer, arranger, and even as an extra musician when need be.
Besides working as a producer, Martin got a chance to indulge in a great love of his, symphonic music.
I remember well the very first time I heard a symphony orchestra. I was just in my teens when Sir Adrian Boult brought the BBC Symphony Orchestra to my school for a public concert. It was absolutely magical. Hearing such glorious sounds I found it difficult to connect them with ninety men and women blowing into brass and wooden instruments or scraping away at strings with horsehair bows. I could not believe my ears.
This began a lifelong love affair with the orchestra, and I am still hooked.
Sir George Martin (source)
Martin’s first brush with symphonic music courtesy of the BBC came full circle in 1967, when he was commissioned to write a theme for BBC Radio One when BBC Radio split into two stations. “Theme One”, as it was called, was technically the first piece of music heard by Radio One listeners.
Martin composed other things as well, including film scores.
In both creating his own music and helping others create theirs, Martin contributed significantly to the world of music during his lifetime.