Wait, what? By themselves, those are three separate things that I understand completely. But put them together and….wait, what? Well apparently the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra is indeed a thing. And it is glorious.
“One gloomy evening in early 2011, in Surrey, England, I was tinkering away in Sibelius on an arrangement of “I Am The Doctor”, the Eleventh Doctor’s theme, when a particularly crazy idea struck me. I knew that Murray’s music meant an awful lot to an awful lot of people, and I reasoned that, probably, among those fans, a lot would be musicians themselves. And that they’d give anything to be able to play music from Doctor Who. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if we could somehow play the music all together?”…….Stephen Willis
And thus the idea for Doctor Who Fan Orchestra was born. Inspired by Murray Gold’s music for Doctor Who and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, founder Stephen Willis, a musician and Whovian, posted on Gallifrey Base, a DW fan forum. The idea was that Willis would send the participants sheet music for their part, a click track and other materials. Participants then independently rehearse for a few months. Each person then records his/her portion and sends it back to Willis. Some, but not all, also record a video of that performance. Willis then compiles the various performances into the master track.
The first performance was “I Am The Doctor” and was published on YouTube July 10, 2011. There were 36 people. For the fifth performance, “The Impossible Astronaut (Suite)”, Willis had to put a cap on maximum number of participants – at 600. Members of DWFO “range in age from 10 to 80 and are located in at least 25 different countries.”
The performance are all available on YouTube and are:
“This Is Gallifrey/Vale Decem”
“The Impossible Astronaut (Suite)”
DWFO: About the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra
DWFO also has a blog, though it doesn’t seem to be updated much. DWFO also inspired another collaborative orchestra – the Sherlock Fan Orchestra. And you can bet I’ll be checking that one out asap.
Do yourself a favor and check out the performances on YouTube. DWFO is truly a beautiful thing.
My English Obsession 