Drum

Towards the end of 1940, the BBC European Service considered a campaign to impress its listeners in the occupied countries of the significance of the letter 'V' as a symbol of resistance. Attempts were made to put the Morse code pattern - three dots and a dash - to music. James Blades was asked to bring a selection of his percussion instruments to Bush House. Eventually the kettle drum was decided upon. The pitch of the drum was B, the vibrations of the three short notes were stopped by placing a cloth on the drums. The cloth was lifted from the drum for a long note, and the pattern registered very clearly. Blades wrote: 'A recording was made and approved by the panel. There was every reason to believe that this signal, which preceded the European news was highly successful. People in the occupied countries were able to listen to our news, even when their sets were were tuned so low as to be inaudible to outside listeners. Every few months - sometimes under extremely difficult conditions - I made fresh records of this signal. Owing to the African drum varying a good deal in pitch under certain atmospheric conditions, it was substituted by two modern drums that could be tensioned at will. The second note was raised and lengthened a little for the purpose of giving the signal greater urgency and a feeling of hope. It was quite a job making those four-minute records, as I had to keep time to the movement of the BBC studio clock which moved at intervals of a second. The first three beats took a second, also the dash, with a gap of two seconds before the next pattern was played. It was a grand moment in 1945 when I was approached to make a signal that would announce the coming victory. Nothing would suffice but the noble kettledrums. For the first week or two, the signal was to take the form of a victory signal, and was backed by the bells of St. Margaret's, Westminster. To the suit the pitch of the bells, the kettledrums were tuned to B and E. The sound of these drums is still used as an interval signal in the European Service. It is possible that the original and present signals are the most heard sound in the history of music.' (James Blades 'Remarks regarding the making of interval signal' from a broadcast).