Composing Style
Gray's music is characterised by the use of brass and percussion sections. It made extensive use of leitmotifs, with each machine in Thunderbirds having its own theme and the eponymous title character of Joe 90 being accompanied on-screen by a wordless representation of his name. The ensembles required for Gray's scoring in series such as Thunderbirds and Stingray dwarfed those used in the production of most contemporary television programmes; even the orchestra employed for the first Anderson-produced series to carry the "Supermarionation" label, Supercar, comprised some forty instrumentalists.
Besides composing and conducting orchestral scores for television and film, Gray developed an interest in the Ondes Martenot, which he used to produce unconventional musical notes as well as electronic sound effects in several of his scores, perhaps most notably those for Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Doppelgänger. Gray's knowledge and recognition in the field resulted in commissions to provide electronic music and sound effects for such films as Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., and uncredited work on Island of Terror (1966) and Fahrenheit 451 (1966).
Fanderson, the official appreciation society dedicated to the productions of Gerry Anderson, has gained access to all Gray's original studio tapes and undertaken a major re-issue project, compiling the theme and incidental music from Gray's various collaborations with Anderson onto a series of re-mastered CDs.
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