David Butler

Current research projects

At the core of my current research is a long-term project on the life and work of Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001), one of the most significant and influential figures in British electronic music who worked across film, television, theatre and radio as a composer and sound designer.  I am in the process of completing a biography of Delia Derbyshire for Manchester University Press.

In 2007, I helped to bring Derbyshire's tape and written archive to the University of Manchester, supported by the NOVARS Innovation and Media Lab, as a generous loan from the composer Mark Ayres on behalf of the Derbyshire Estate. The collection has grown to include items from Derbyshire's childhood, including her schoolwork, as well as her colleagues Desmond Briscoe, Brian Hodgson and Madelon Hooykaas and the Delia Derbyshire Archive is now accessible to researchers and the wider public at the John Rylands Library, Deansgate.

My work on Delia Derbyshire has informed my wider interest in the history of British radio features, the use of working-class voices and portrayal of working-class individuals and communities.  That research contributed to the release in 2023 of the four Inventions for Radio created by the dramatist Barry Bermange and Delia Derbyshire, first broadcast on the BBC Third Programme across 1964 and 1965.

Since 2015, I have been the Chair and one of the founder members of the music education charity Delia Derbyshire Day, which aims to grow awareness and understanding of Delia Derbyshire and British electronic music more broadly as well as providing opportunities for emerging artists, commissions for new work and outreach activities with schools, colleges and families.   

A deep fascination with the audio-visual relationship is at the heart of my work.  My PhD, examined by Richard Dyer and Peter Martin, explored the use and representation of jazz in film noir. The thesis set out my interest in the way meaning (particularly ideological notions of race and gender) is created in music and how film takes account of and contributes to that process.  My more recent work has addressed multiculturalism in contemporary science fiction television music alongside an enduring interest in the portrayal of Cumbria and the Lake District on screen.

Ever since the first School of Sound in 1998 and the inspirational presentations of Simon Fisher Turner and Peter Kubelka (among many others), I've been committed to the possibilities of juxtaposing sound with image (although my fascination stems from the magical credit Special Sound - Dick Mills and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop!). That commitment to sound has encouraged me to combine practice-based research with my more conventional academic work.

In 1998, I collaborated with the acclaimed composer David Shea on a speech and sound piece titled The Voice (the score is now available on John Zorn's Tzadik label). I collaborated with the celebrated jazz musician and composer, John Surman, on The Cairn, open to the public as an audio-visual installation in 2005. At the heart of this practice is a desire to create work that challenges the sensory hierarchy of contemporary Western culture and its privileging of sight over the other senses.

All of my projects are shaped by my research and the inspiration I've gained from my students. I've carried that creativity into my academic work and am keen to encourage practical work on my courses that is informed (I hope!) by an enhanced historical and critical awareness.