Music in Radio Drama: The Curious Case of the Acousmatic Detective

Abstract This article explores music’s role in radio drama. While musical aspects of early experimental dramas have often been explored, the music that figures Anglo-American play tradition has remained under-theorized. Borrowing interpretative tools from audiovisual discourses can help to elucidate some subtleties medium, but methodological inadequacies soon become apparent. As exemplars modern dramatic technique, BBC’s complete adaptations Sherlock Holmes stories (1989–98) are their interwoven into drama with consistent levels subtlety. I draw primarily Michel Chion’s application ‘acousmatic’, showing how ambiguity concerning location enveloping solo violin – Holmes’s instrument offers twists and turns agency unfolding narrative. examine further a sustained technique intertextual allusion creates what call paradiegetic space, which pre-existing music, heard within dramas, provides parenthetical narrative unravels parallel primary narrative, reflecting back on its themes, changing meanings moreover challenging our preconceptions about radio’s particular acousmatic zone.