Richard Hartley (composer)

English composer

Not to be confused with Richard Hawley.

Richard Neville Hartley is an English composer, best known for his work on The Rocky Horror Show. He grew up in Holmfirth.[1]

## Career

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In the 1970s he began a long association with Richard O'Brien.[2][3] Hartley was originally part of the four-piece band for The Rocky Horror Show. He went on to arrange the score for the London Stage and film adaptation (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) as well as its follow-up Shock Treatment, and then worked with O'Brien on another, as yet unproduced, sequel, Revenge of the Old Queen.[4] His other 1970s film scores included Galileo (1975), The Romantic Englishwoman (1975), Aces High (1976), and the remake of The Lady Vanishes (1979).[5]

## Musical works

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### Film and television

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In the 1980s, Hartley worked primarily in television, including providing the music for the 1986 Doctor Who story Mindwarp,[6] and TV movie productions, such as Kennedy (1983), Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil (1985), Mandela (1987) and Rules of Engagement (1989). However he also composed for film, including the Nicolas Roeg film Bad Timing (1980), Bad Blood (1982), The Trout (1982), The Return of Captain Invincible (1983), Sheena (1984) (for which Hartley was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award), Dance with a Stranger (1985), Parker (1985), The Good Father (1985), Consuming Passions (1988) and Tree of Hands (1989). However, one of his lesser known works is the music for The Fifth Dimension, a dark ride at Chessington World of Adventures.

In 1986, he composed additional music for the Wham! documentary Wham! in China: Foreign Skies directed by Lindsay Anderson.[7]

In the 1990s he provided the scores for many films including Afraid of the Dark (1991), The Railway Station Man (1992), The Secret Rapture (1993), Princess Caraboo (1994), Victory (1995), An Awfully Big Adventure (1995, which was released on CD), Rough Magic (1995), Stealing Beauty (1996), Rogue Trader (1999), and Alice in Wonderland (1999), in which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Movie (Dramatic Underscore).[8]

Hartley provided music for the BBC/HBO film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers in 2004, and wrote the music for the film Flashbacks of a Fool (2008).

### Stage productions

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* Dionysius 73 (Harrowgate Opera House, 1973) – composer, musical director
* The Threepenny Opera (Sydney Opera House, 1973) – musical arrangements
* The Rocky Horror Show (Royal Court Theatre, 1973) – musical director
* Tooth of Crime (Royal Court Theatre, 1974) – musical director
* T. Zee (Royal Court Theatre, 1976) – composer, musical director
* The Rocky Horror Show (Broadway, 1975) – vocal and dance music arrangements
* Disaster (Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1978) – composer, musical director
* The Stripper (Sydney Theatre Company, 1982) – composer, musical director
* The Rocky Horror Show (London, 1990) – musical arrangements
* The Stripper (UK tour, 2009) – composer, musical director

### Other

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Hartley is credited as producer of two of the four tracks on "The Music of Torvill and Dean" EP, which reached #9 on the UK Singles Chart[9] in the wake of Torvill and Dean's success at the 1984 Winter Olympics.

## References

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1. ^ Shaw, Martin (11 May 2013). "Award-winning film composer Richard Hartley returns to roots for Holmfirth Film Festival". Huddersfield Examiner.
2. ^ "Richard Hartley Original Musical Arrangements". Rocky Horror Show. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
3. ^ Abbott, Kate (4 March 2013). "How we made: The Rocky Horror Picture Show". The Guardian.
4. ^ Sokol, Tony (26 September 2015). "The Rocky Horror Picture Show 40th Anniversary: Absent Friends & Absolute Pleasure". Den of Geek. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
5. ^ "Richard Hartley – Movies and Filmography – AllMovie". AllMovie.
6. ^ Morley, Christopher. "The Composers of Doctor Who – Richard Hartley". Warped Factor. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
7. ^ Ellis, Lucy; Sutherland, Bryony (1998). The complete guide to the music of George Michael & Wham!. London: Omnibus Press. p. 131\. ISBN 9780711968226.
8. ^ "Richard Hartley". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
9. ^ British Hit Singles & Albums (18 ed.). Guinness World Records Ltd. 2005. p. 228\. ISBN 1-904994-00-8.

## External links

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* Richard Hartley – official website
* Richard Hartley at IMDb
* Richard Hartley at the Internet Broadway Database
* Richard Hartley at the Internet Off-Broadway Database

* v
* t
* e

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score)

1950s|

* Walter Schumann (1955)
* No Award (1956–1959)

1960s|

* No Award (1960–1961)
* Richard Rodgers (1962)
* Robert Russell Bennett (1963)
* Elmer Bernstein (1964)
* No Award (1965–1969)

1970s|

* Pete Rugolo (1970)
* Walter Scharf (1971)
* John Williams (1972)
* Jerry Goldsmith (1973)
* Fred Karlin (1974)
* Jerry Goldsmith (1975)
* Jerry Goldsmith (1976)
* Leonard Rosenman, Alan and Marilyn Bergman (1977)
* Jimmie Haskell (1978)
* Leonard Rosenman (1979)

1980s|

* Jerry Fielding (1980)
* Jerry Goldsmith (1981)
* Patrick Williams (1982)
* Billy Goldenberg (1983)
* Bruce Broughton (1984)
* Allyn Ferguson (1985)
* Laurence Rosenthal (1986)
* Laurence Rosenthal (1987)
* Laurence Rosenthal (1988)
* Basil Poledouris (1989)

1990s|

* James Di Pasquale (1990)
* Richard Bellis (1991)
* Bruce Broughton (1992)
* Patrick Williams (1993)
* Lennie Niehaus (1994)
* Laurence Rosenthal (1995)
* Ernest Troost (1996)
* Laurence Rosenthal (1997)
* Bruce Broughton (1998)
* Richard Hartley (1999)

2000s|

* John Altman (2000)
* Arturo Sandoval (2001)
* Adrian Johnston (2002)
* Bruce Broughton (2003)
* Bruce Broughton (2004)
* Bruce Broughton (2005)
* Geoff Zanelli (2006)
* Jeff Beal (2007)
* Jeff Beal (2008)
* Howard Goodall (2009)

2010s|

* Alex Wurman (2010)
* Carter Burwell (2011)
* Javier Navarrete (2012)
* Mychael Danna (2013)
* David Arnold and Michael Price (2014)
* Rachel Portman (2015)
* Victor Reyes (2016)
* Jeff Russo (2017)
* Cyril Aufort (2018)
* Hildur Guðnadóttir (2019)

2020s|

* Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (2020)
* Carlos Rafael Rivera (2021)
* Cristobal Tapia de Veer (2022)
* Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson (2023)
* Carlos Rafael Rivera (2024)

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Artists|

* MusicBrainz

People|

* Deutsche Biographie

Other|

* IdRef
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