Editing Test card (section)

==Test card music==
In Britain, music rather than radio sound was usually played with the test card. The music played by the BBC, and afterwards [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]], was [[library music]], which was licensed on more favourable terms for frequent use than commercially available alternatives.<ref> ''[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01061hr Into the Music Library]'', BBC Radio documentary, presenter Jonny Trunk, producer Simon Hollis, Brook Lapping Productions, April 2011</ref> Later, [[Channel 4]] used UK library LPs from publishers like [[EMI Production Music|KPM]], Joseph Weinberger and Ready Music.<ref name=doll>{{cite web|url=https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/FBCD2000.pdf|title=Currie, Tony. 'The Girl, The Doll, The Music' (1998), essay included as the notes for ''Test Card Classics'', Chandos CD FBCD 2000}}</ref>

Until September 1955, the BBC used live playing 78 RPM commercial records as an audio background to the test cards. After that date, they switched to using recorded music on tape.<ref name=rob>[https://rssconsultancy.co.uk/articleTCM.pdf Roberts, Neville. ''A History of Test Card Music'']</ref> The following year, the BBC began to build up its own library of specially produced music for the half hour tapes – initially three tunes in similar style, followed by an identification sign (the three notes B-B-C played on [[celesta]]). [[ITV (TV channel)|ITV]] (which began its first trade transmissions in 1957) continued to use commercially available recordings until the late 1960s, when it also began to make specially produced tapes.<ref name=rob/>

For rights reasons, much of the music was recorded by light music orchestras in France and Germany, though sometimes by British musicians, or top international session players using pseudonyms, such as The Oscar Brandenburg Orchestra (an amalgamation of [[Neil Richardson (composer)|Neil Richardson]], Alan Moorhouse and [[Johnny Pearson]]) or the Stuttgart Studio Orchestra.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bJRJBHUbJE|title=Royal Daffodil - Gordon Langford - Stuttgart Studio Orchestra/Ralph Elman - CBL 024|date=25 November 2018 |via=www.youtube.com}}</ref> Other composers and bandleaders commissioned for this type of work included [[Gordon Langford]], [[Ernest Tomlinson]]. [[Roger Roger]], [[Heinz Kiessling]], Werner Tautz, [[Frank Chacksfield]] and [[Syd Dale]].<ref>Lomax, Oliver: ''The Mood Modern: The story of two of the world's greatest recorded music libraries: KPM (1956-1977) and Bruton Music (1978-1980)'', Vocalion (2018)</ref>

During the 1980s, the test card was seen less and less - it was pushed out first by [[Teletext]] pages and then by extended programme hours. The same tapes were used to accompany both the test card and [[Ceefax]] on BBC channels, but some fans argue that new tapes introduced after Ceefax became the norm in 1983 were less musically interesting.<ref name=rob/>