IN between scoring music for a David Attenborough programme on Easter Island, Roger Bolton is busy capturing the many moods of Dartmoor.

The prolific film and television composer is currently visiting Devon regularly and working closely with Simon Ible, artistic director of the Ten Tors Concert Orchestra.

The work, called 'New Dawn — Dartmoor Sunrise', has been commissioned by the orchestra with additional funding provided by South West Arts. It will be premiered at St Paul's Church, Yelverton on May 29.

Roger regularly works on orchestral scores as well as current dance, sound design and technology-driven projects. In the last year he has completed scores for Granada television's 10-part period drama series 'The Grand' and more recently his second BBC action drama series of 'Bugs'.

Title sequences for television include '999', 'Sunday Night Clive James', 'The Late Show', 'Question Time', 'The Money Programme' and 'The Natural World'.

Roger lives inside the Avebury Stone Circle which, he says, is about 20 miles from Stonehenge — 'but 16 times bigger, and 500 years older'. From his studio he can seen the stones that date back to around 2,600BC.

'There is a link between there and Dartmoor as far as stone circles and stone rows. It is also on the same ley line, apparently.'

Roger composes in his studio using a computer which allows him to hear the music very much as it will ultimately sound. Every instrument in the orchestra is sampled so he can then record the music on cassette.

Throughout the composition process he has been working closely with Simon and the professional players of the Ten Tors Concert Orchestra.

'I have endeavoured to capture the changability of the Dartmoor landscape,' says Roger, who, during his moorland excursions has experienced the whole range of elements from balmy days to an unexpected blizzard.

'There are parts of the piece that are pretty irregular because of the weather. I have a lightning strike in the opening that will wake everyone up in the beginning!'

Roger admits that while there are some tempestuous sections, bits of the eight-minute long piece are 'hopelessly romantic'.

'Every time I come to Dartmoor I have a lovely time and it reminds me just how Britain has a tremendous range of landscapes. I think Dartmoor has got more mystery than most places. It is amazing to think there were more people living within the Dartmoor National Park 400 years ago than now,' said Roger, 36.

He always strives to make his music accessible to the listener — and his level of success must be reflected in the number of prestigious commissions he is invited to undertake.

His brief for 'New Dawn — Dartmoor Sunrise' was to create a work for the orchestra that summed up Dartmoor in this millennium. It was to create a new piece of music for a new orchestra so people in the region could boast their own professional orchestra with a Dartmoor identity.

'You lose bums on seats if the music is too technical. I write accessible music but it has to be challenging. I want my audience to walk away humming a tune and having experienced an atmosphere that says very clearly "Dartmoor".

'Contemporary music has been very academic, rarefied and technical. I'm very much part of a wave of composers who are neo-classical and are about putting emotion and drama into our work.'

He is all for setting a mood and telling a story rather than music being composed primarily as a technical exercise. The Cor Anglais with its winsome, haunting sound, will be one of the key instruments in the composition.

His music sets out to capture the all embracing personality of the moors — it's glory, its solidity and its remoteness.

'Music,' says Roger ' is a subjective medium. When you look at a picture you can see it before you — but music has a transience.'

He says the audience will come with a pretty good picture in their mind so he hopes his music will will marry up with their image.

'There will be five performances of the piece. It is excellent that we have got the kudos of added funding from South West Arts. They are acknowledging that we have something important here in the Ten Tors Concert Orchestra and that we are doing something contemporary.'

Roger's moorland composition is a far cry from such theme tunes as '999' which employ musical metaphors and resembles the SOS morse code.

'It is also very simple, repetitive and instant.'

He tries to imagine making a cup of tea in the kitchen and then hearing a signature tune that is sufficiently powerful to draw the viewer back to the television. He says when you do a signature tune that doesn't work it is because there are not enough musical metaphors.

'It hasn't got the depth of levels. Twenty per cent of what I do is music — and 80 per cent is psychology. Beethoven and Mozart did exactly the same.

'I stumbled on it unconsciously. I was never taught it. I learnt it as I did the job through the success failure ratio.'

Who knows. Once people have heard 'New Dawn — Dartmoor Sunrise' it may forever trigger images of the moor is all its majesty.

l Further concert details can be obtained on (01566) 783310.