Exploring Chappell’s library music: printed scores and reissues

Blog series Music

Author Lou Baynes, Collections Support Assistant, Music Collections

Production music, also known as library music or stock music, is typically understood as sound recordings (primarily vinyl format) which are then used in TV shows, films, and advertising, particularly from the 1960s and 1970s. The theme for Grandstand and the theme for the BBC’s Wimbledon coverage (Keith Mansfield), Crimewatch (John Cameron), Grange Hill and Countdown (Alan Hawkshaw) and countless other iconic themes are almost universally recognisable to listeners of a certain generation. Material forms of production music have become sought-after collectibles for vinyl fanatics. Others will recognise beats or bars in obscure production music tracks for their extensive sampling in hip hop and big beat.

In 2018, the British Library hosted the KPM Allstars (Mansfield, Cameron, Hawkshaw,  Alan Parker, and Brian Bennett) for a celebration and performance of their contributions to library music, along with an exhibit presenting items related to the KPM library music catalogue. Whilst KPM remains a publisher of some of the most widely recognisable library music tracks, there are many other publishers and composers who were central to the sound of television across the world in library music’s heyday.

Back in April, a selection of items from Chappell Recorded Music Library arrived at my desk, fresh from the Music Collections cataloguers, all composed by French production music composer Jack Arel and his frequent collaborators, Pierre Dutour and Jean-Claude Petit. The collection, comprised mostly of stripped-back lead sheet style arrangements, includes the theme for the 1972 miniseries A Place in the Sun, the brilliantly moody The Man from Nowhere, and the accompanying booklet for Dance and Mood Music volume 13 (1970).

The items in the collection sparked my curiosity, since I previously understood library music as a recorded format far more so than as printed sheet music. Upon searching the internet for more information about the composers I found the various Chappell Vaults compilations that heavily feature Arel, Dutour and Petit’s work: the Dance and Mood Music series (1960s–70s; reissued digitally in recent years), and the Kitsch Pop series (1990s, perhaps part of the decade’s cultural return to the Swinging Sixties, think ‘Cool Britannia’). These anthologies, along with a vast catalogue of other original 1960s and 1970s library music, are readily available to listen online. What’s more, Chappell even released their own selection of big beat remixes of Vaults music.

What strikes me about the Chappell Recorded Music Library collection is not only the quantity of music in this style, but also the quality of it. It seems a shame that this collection isn’t perhaps as well known or celebrated as the KPM collections, as they are a real treasure trove for those, like me, who enjoy the retro sounds of library music. Whilst KPM was primarily associated with British composers, Chappell seemed to feature mostly French composers. Replete with angular modernist melodies, funky syncopated basslines and bold horn arrangements, the Chappell collection provides a refreshing alternative to KPM library music that takes you right back to Paris in the 1960s. In my opinion, the Chappell library music is the perfect soundtrack to a hot summer day spent relaxing, enjoying the sun, or, in my case, placing and processing music collection items at the British Library.

Further reading

The Chappell collection at British Library shelfmark PM.2026.b.14.

Roy, Elodie A., ‘Under suspicion: library music and the Musicians’ Union in Britain, 1960–1978’, Popular Music, 45.1 (2023).