Frank Cordell (musician)
Encyclopedia
Frank Cordell was a British
music composer
, arranger
and conductor
, who was actively involved with the Institute of Contemporary Arts
. He also wrote
music
under the name Frank Meilleur or Meillear (Meillear being his mother’s maiden name).
who served with the Royal Army Medical Corps
in the First World War
. Frank had two sisters
, and a brother who was a professional musician
. Frank's brother, Sid Cordell, wrote music for some of the Hammer Horror productions
filmed at Pinewood Studios
. As a young teenager Frank worked briefly for Homfray & Company in the cotton mill
s in Halifax and the Midlands
for a family relative, before returning to London
. By age 14, he was a competent pianist
. Cordell entered a city-wide London music contest and won a Melody Maker
poll at the age of 17 for the most promising jazz
pianist of 1935. This enabled him to secure a job as a sound man in one of the prestigious London Warner Bros.
film
studios.
broke out Cordell enlisted in the RAF and trained as a radio navigation
operator, flying the Vickers Wellington
in RAF Bomber Command
. In his time between dangerous flying "ops" Cordell was in constant demand entertaining his squadron
with popular piano music in the mess. On completing his 33 ops he was transferred to flying stealth De Havilland Mosquito
bombers on the run between Britain and the Middle East
. While in RAF Middle East he was later assigned as bandleader
with his own group of musicians and a small convoy of lorries to entertain the British troops in the Western Desert Campaign
. He was then appointed music director of Forces Radio in Cairo
, where he conducted a weekly radio program called Music For Moderns. Among the friends and local Cairo artists he worked with was the singer, Delores El Greco. From there he was assigned to a double role of music entertainment and intelligence work in Palestine
. It is in Palestine while music entertaining that he met his first wife Magda
, who was a Hungarian
refugee
working for the British in translating intercepted wireless signals. Magda later became a well known "Brutalist" artist, and along with Cordell was a participant in the This Is Tomorrow
Exhibit, and both were founder members of the Independent Group
at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
as a composer, arranger, and orchestra conductor. Among the recording studio
s he used were the Abbey Road Studios
in St John's Wood
, and the Aeolian sound studio in Bond Street
, he also worked with George Martin
. One of his early music hits
conducting his own orchestra was called "Sadie's Shawl" (1956, UK
#29), and another called "The Black Bear" (1961, UK #44). Cordell was noted in 1951 for his radio score of the historical drama The Gay Galliard, starring Valerie Hobson
as Mary, Queen of Scots. He worked with most of the well known performers and musicians of the day including Noel Coward
, Charlie Chaplin
, vocalists such as Alma Cogan
and Ronnie Hilton
, and the jazz trumpet player Humphrey Lyttelton
. In 1952 Cordell was drawn to the cinema
and made his music film debut. He also commenced composing music for many advertising commercials for film and TV.
London, which they shared and artistically collaborated with the British Modern artist John McHale
. The McHale/Cordell atelier occupied three floors in a large Georgian row house in Cleveland Square. Frank used the top floor with his piano and large windows overlooking the park as his music composing studio. John McHale occupied the large sky lit studio at the back of the atelier on the ground floor. Magda used the other large painting studio downstairs, which was also used by all three artist as a film studio. McHale used the downstairs film studio to produce his photograms for his Telemath collage
series. There was also a separate downstairs workshop and photographic dark room. The living room on the ground floor was used for entertaining guests such as: Reyner Banham
and other members of the ICA group, musicians, writers such as Eric Newby
, dramatists such as Arnold Wesker
, and international guests such as Buckminster Fuller
, and Picasso's son. Cordell made numerous tape recording
s of Bucky Fuller.
, a post held until 1962 when he decided to become a full-time film composer. He scored the music for the film The Captain's Table, 1959. In the early 1960s he divorced Magda who went with McHale to America
. Cordell married his second wife Anja whom he met on film location in Japan
while doing the music score for Flight to Ashia in 1962/63. He wrote the theme music for the spy adventure directed by Robert Lansing called The Man Who Never Was
1966-67. Cordell wrote The White Mountain introductory music for the science fiction episode of Space: 1999
- "Mission of the Darians", 1975. Frank Cordell composed over twenty major music scores including: The Voice of Merril 1952, First on the Road 1957, The Rebel
starring Tony Hancock
1961, The Bargee
1964, Never Put It In Writing 1964, Khartoum
1966, Mosquito Squadron
1969, Ring of Bright Water
1969, Hells Boots 1970, Cromwell
1970, Trial by Combat
1976, God Told Me To
(Demon in the U.S.
) 1976. Between his film scores Cordell wrote concert hall works including the Concerto for Cello, the Concerto for Horn, a wind quartet entitled Interplay; also pieces for saxophone quartet, Gestures and Patterns, and mood miniatures such as Production Drive.
He wrote choral music for the Choir of King's College, Cambridge
; and an arrangement for strings of the English air "Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be", available on Guild GED5104. He was nominated for the Academy Award and Golden Globe for his feature film score of Cromwell, 1970. Cordell was involved in several experimental and documentary films. These included a surrealist film made in Yugoslavia
in 1957 with McHale and his three sons and Arnold Bittleman the Yale
trained artist. Cordell also wrote the score for the documentary film Tiger Tiger
1977. He appeared in the Fathers of Pop interviewed by Reyner Banham
in a 1970s TV documentary on the origins of British pop art.
.
Cordell died in Hastings
in 1980, and his original manuscripts now reside in the archives at the Trinity College of Music
in London.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
music composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, who was actively involved with the Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
. He also wrote
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
under the name Frank Meilleur or Meillear (Meillear being his mother’s maiden name).
Early life
He was born Frank Cordell in Kingston-upon-Thames. His father was a doctorPhysician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
who served with the Royal Army Medical Corps
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
in the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Frank had two sisters
Sibling
Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...
, and a brother who was a professional musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. Frank's brother, Sid Cordell, wrote music for some of the Hammer Horror productions
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
filmed at Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios is a major British film studio situated in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, approximately west of central London. The studios have played host to many productions over the years from huge blockbuster films to television shows to commercials to pop promos.The purchase of Shepperton...
. As a young teenager Frank worked briefly for Homfray & Company in the cotton mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
s in Halifax and the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
for a family relative, before returning to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. By age 14, he was a competent pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
. Cordell entered a city-wide London music contest and won a Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
poll at the age of 17 for the most promising jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist of 1935. This enabled him to secure a job as a sound man in one of the prestigious London Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
studios.
Military service
When World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out Cordell enlisted in the RAF and trained as a radio navigation
Radio navigation
Radio navigation or radionavigation is the application of radio frequencies to determine a position on the Earth. Like radiolocation, it is a type of radiodetermination.The basic principles are measurements from/to electric beacons, especially...
operator, flying the Vickers Wellington
Vickers Wellington
The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...
in RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s stood at the peak of its postwar military power with the V bombers and a supplemental...
. In his time between dangerous flying "ops" Cordell was in constant demand entertaining his squadron
Squadron (aviation)
A squadron in air force, army aviation or naval aviation is mainly a unit comprising a number of military aircraft, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, depending on aircraft type and air force...
with popular piano music in the mess. On completing his 33 ops he was transferred to flying stealth De Havilland Mosquito
De Havilland Mosquito
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito was a British multi-role combat aircraft that served during the Second World War and the postwar era. It was known affectionately as the "Mossie" to its crews and was also nicknamed "The Wooden Wonder"...
bombers on the run between Britain and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. While in RAF Middle East he was later assigned as bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
with his own group of musicians and a small convoy of lorries to entertain the British troops in the Western Desert Campaign
Western Desert Campaign
The Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War, was the initial stage of the North African Campaign during the Second World War. The campaign was heavily influenced by the availability of supplies and transport. The ability of the Allied forces, operating from besieged Malta, to...
. He was then appointed music director of Forces Radio in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, where he conducted a weekly radio program called Music For Moderns. Among the friends and local Cairo artists he worked with was the singer, Delores El Greco. From there he was assigned to a double role of music entertainment and intelligence work in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. It is in Palestine while music entertaining that he met his first wife Magda
Magda Cordell McHale
Magda Cordell McHale was an artist, futurist, and educator. She was a founding member of the Independent Group which was a British movement that originated Pop Art which grew out of a fascination with American mass culture and post-WWII technologies...
, who was a Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
working for the British in translating intercepted wireless signals. Magda later became a well known "Brutalist" artist, and along with Cordell was a participant in the This Is Tomorrow
This is Tomorrow
This Is Tomorrow was a seminal art exhibition in August 1956 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, facilitated by curator Bryan Robertson. The core of the exhibition was the ICA Independent Group.-History:...
Exhibit, and both were founder members of the Independent Group
Independent Group
The Independent Group met at the Institute of Contemporary Arts London from 1952-55. The IG consisted of painters, sculptors, architects, writers and critics who wanted to challenge prevailing modernist approaches to culture. They introduced mass culture into debates about high culture,...
at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
BBC work
Cordell returned to Britain in 1947, resided on Higher Drive in Barnstead, and joined the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
as a composer, arranger, and orchestra conductor. Among the recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
s he used were the Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
in St John's Wood
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district of north-west London, England, in the City of Westminster, and at the north-west end of Regent's Park. It is approximately 2.5 miles north-west of Charing Cross. Once part of the Great Middlesex Forest, it was later owned by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem...
, and the Aeolian sound studio in Bond Street
Bond Street
Bond Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London that runs north-south through Mayfair between Oxford Street and Piccadilly. It has been a fashionable shopping street since the 18th century and is currently the home of many high price fashion shops...
, he also worked with George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
. One of his early music hits
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
conducting his own orchestra was called "Sadie's Shawl" (1956, UK
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
#29), and another called "The Black Bear" (1961, UK #44). Cordell was noted in 1951 for his radio score of the historical drama The Gay Galliard, starring Valerie Hobson
Valerie Hobson
Valerie Hobson was a British actress who appeared in a number of British films during the 1940s and 1950s...
as Mary, Queen of Scots. He worked with most of the well known performers and musicians of the day including Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
, Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
, vocalists such as Alma Cogan
Alma Cogan
Alma Cogan was an English singer of traditional pop music in the 1950s and early 1960s. Dubbed "The Girl With the Laugh/Giggle/Chuckle In Her Voice", she was the highest paid British female entertainer of her era...
and Ronnie Hilton
Ronnie Hilton
Ronnie Hilton was an English singer and radio presenter. According to his obituary in The Guardian newspaper, "Hilton was one of those 1950s vocalists whose career coincided with rock and roll's 1956 onslaught on the ballad dominated hit parade...
, and the jazz trumpet player Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
. In 1952 Cordell was drawn to the cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and made his music film debut. He also commenced composing music for many advertising commercials for film and TV.
The atelier
It was in this 1952/3 period that Frank and Magda Cordell established an artistic atelier at 52 Cleveland Square in PaddingtonPaddington
Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...
London, which they shared and artistically collaborated with the British Modern artist John McHale
John McHale (artist)
John McHale was an artist and sociologist. He was a founder member of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and a founder of the Independent Group, which was a British movement that originated Pop Art which grew out of a fascination with American mass culture and post-WWII technologies...
. The McHale/Cordell atelier occupied three floors in a large Georgian row house in Cleveland Square. Frank used the top floor with his piano and large windows overlooking the park as his music composing studio. John McHale occupied the large sky lit studio at the back of the atelier on the ground floor. Magda used the other large painting studio downstairs, which was also used by all three artist as a film studio. McHale used the downstairs film studio to produce his photograms for his Telemath collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
series. There was also a separate downstairs workshop and photographic dark room. The living room on the ground floor was used for entertaining guests such as: Reyner Banham
Reyner Banham
Peter Reyner Banham was a prolific architectural critic and writer best known for his 1960 theoretical treatise Theory and Design in the First Machine Age and for his 1971 book Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies...
and other members of the ICA group, musicians, writers such as Eric Newby
Eric Newby
George Eric Newby CBE MC was an English travel author. Newby's best known works include A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, The Last Grain Race, and Round Ireland in Low Gear.-Life:...
, dramatists such as Arnold Wesker
Arnold Wesker
Sir Arnold Wesker is a prolific British dramatist known for his contributions to kitchen sink drama. He is the author of 42 plays, 4 volumes of short stories, 2 volumes of essays, a book on journalism, a children's book, extensive journalism, poetry and other assorted writings...
, and international guests such as Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
, and Picasso's son. Cordell made numerous tape recording
Tape recording
Tape recording may refer to:*Reel-to-reel audio tape recording*recording with Magnetic tape...
s of Bucky Fuller.
Musical scores
In 1955, Cordell left the BBC to become musical director of HMV Records, known subsequently as EMIEMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, a post held until 1962 when he decided to become a full-time film composer. He scored the music for the film The Captain's Table, 1959. In the early 1960s he divorced Magda who went with McHale to America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Cordell married his second wife Anja whom he met on film location in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
while doing the music score for Flight to Ashia in 1962/63. He wrote the theme music for the spy adventure directed by Robert Lansing called The Man Who Never Was
The Man Who Never Was
The Man Who Never Was is a nonfiction 1953 book by Ewen Montagu and a 1956 Second World War war film, based on the book and dramatising actual events...
1966-67. Cordell wrote The White Mountain introductory music for the science fiction episode of Space: 1999
Space: 1999
Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran for two seasons and originally aired from 1975 to 1977. In the opening episode, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the Moon's far side explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and...
- "Mission of the Darians", 1975. Frank Cordell composed over twenty major music scores including: The Voice of Merril 1952, First on the Road 1957, The Rebel
The Rebel (1961 film)
The film The Rebel is a satirical comedy starring the British comedian Tony Hancock, and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.-Plot:...
starring Tony Hancock
Tony Hancock
Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...
1961, The Bargee
The Bargee
The Bargee is a 1964 British comedy film directed by Duncan Wood, and starring Harry H. Corbett, Hugh Griffith, Eric Sykes and Ronnie Barker. The screenplay was written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.-Plot:...
1964, Never Put It In Writing 1964, Khartoum
Khartoum (film)
Khartoum is a 1966 film written by Robert Ardrey and directed by Basil Dearden. It stars Charlton Heston as General Gordon and Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi and is based on Gordon's defence of the Sudanese city of Khartoum from the forces of the Mahdist army during the Siege of Khartoum.Khartoum...
1966, Mosquito Squadron
Mosquito Squadron
#Mosquito Squadron is a 1969 British war film made by Oakmont Productions, directed by Boris Sagal and starring David McCallum, with a memorable music score , which was composed and conducted by Frank Cordell.-Plot:During a Second World War Royal Air Force attack against German V-1...
1969, Ring of Bright Water
Ring of Bright Water
Ring of Bright Water is a British feature film starring Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna in a story about a Londoner and an otter living on the Scottish coast. The film was based upon a 1960 autobiographical book of the same name by Gavin Maxwell, featuring the stars of Born Free, another movie...
1969, Hells Boots 1970, Cromwell
Cromwell (film)
Cromwell is a 1970 film, based on the life of Oliver Cromwell who led the Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War and, as Lord Protector, ruled Great Britain and Ireland in the 1650s. It features an all-star cast led by Richard Harris as Cromwell and Alec Guinness as King Charles I...
1970, Trial by Combat
Trial by combat
Trial by combat was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession, in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right. In essence, it is a judicially sanctioned duel...
1976, God Told Me To
God Told Me To
God Told Me To is a 1976 science fiction/horror film written and directed by Larry Cohen...
(Demon in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) 1976. Between his film scores Cordell wrote concert hall works including the Concerto for Cello, the Concerto for Horn, a wind quartet entitled Interplay; also pieces for saxophone quartet, Gestures and Patterns, and mood miniatures such as Production Drive.
He wrote choral music for the Choir of King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
; and an arrangement for strings of the English air "Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be", available on Guild GED5104. He was nominated for the Academy Award and Golden Globe for his feature film score of Cromwell, 1970. Cordell was involved in several experimental and documentary films. These included a surrealist film made in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
in 1957 with McHale and his three sons and Arnold Bittleman the Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
trained artist. Cordell also wrote the score for the documentary film Tiger Tiger
Tiger Tiger
Tiger Tiger may refer to:*"The Tyger", a poem by William Blake, c. 1794, from whose opening words the other uses of the title are derived* Tiger Tiger , a British nightclub chain...
1977. He appeared in the Fathers of Pop interviewed by Reyner Banham
Reyner Banham
Peter Reyner Banham was a prolific architectural critic and writer best known for his 1960 theoretical treatise Theory and Design in the First Machine Age and for his 1971 book Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies...
in a 1970s TV documentary on the origins of British pop art.
Later years
Cordell retired with his wife and son, to their sheep farm in the English countryside where they kept open house to many of Britain's leading artists and musicians including The BeatlesThe Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
.
Cordell died in Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
in 1980, and his original manuscripts now reside in the archives at the Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
in London.