Surrey-born Williams (1921-2013) was already a seasoned soundtrack creator by the time he recorded his Life on Earth accompaniments. Deploying a discreet orchestral arsenal – clarinet, flute, harp and strings alongside vibraphone, marimbas, keyboards, percussion and slivers of electronics – his pieces were adroitly designed to both mimic and augment the often stunning visuals, underlining the fluttering, flickering and often magisterial strangeness of the natural world as laid bare by narrator David Attenborough. In the 1980 he invented the Soundbeam, a device that turned physical movements into music. Originally meant to allow dancers to create their own music as they danced, it became a useful tool for disabled people to express themselves through music. Williams was awarded the prize for best music at BAFTA Cymru for Excalibur - The Search For Arthur in 1986. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

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