Media > Film > Capital City

iCapital City

TV documentary commissioned by Antony Barrier Productions Ltd and sponsored by the Corporation of London, 1973.

Duration: 28 minutes

Music duration: 8 minutes
Music by Carey Blyton
Scoring: Piccolo/Flute, Oboe/English Horn, Horn/Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon, Two Violins, Viola, Violoncello, Piano, Percussion
Performance: Students of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Script by Wilfred Greatorex
Narrated by Clifford Norgate

Directed by Richard Taylor
and Carl Thompson
Edited by Robin Harrington
Produced by Antony Barrier,
Antony Barrier Productions Ltd

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Capital City


Only one square mile, yet it is the most sophisticated money market in the world: behind the tradition of the ancient Livery Companies, Capital City shows how the City of London sets about its complex task of providing a balanced environment for its working people and residents. Shots include Rothschild Bank; the Fraud Squad; Mansion House; Barbican, Fleet Street; the River Thames; London bridges; interior of a Barbican flat; Lord Mayor’s party in the Great Hall of Mansion House; policeman in a Triumph police car.

The end-credits for the music, being white text on a bright background with fairly poor picture quality, are quite difficult to make out. They read as follows:

MUSIC COMPOSED AND CONDUCTED BY
CAREY BLYTON
Professor of Film Composition at the
GUILDHALL SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND DRAMA
and played by the students

Please note that the original soundtrack of Capital City is available on the CD Carey Blyton: Film & Television Music (3/4), which may be purchased from this site.

Review

Here the music, scored for a larger group of instruments than is usual with this composer (11 compared with the usual 3–6), is mildly jazzy, and – in view of the film’s subject matter, the City of London – there are several quotations of well-known London tunes.

Hilton Gough, BFFS Film magazine, no 25, April 1975