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Peter Thomas was born on Dezember, 1st 1925 at Breslau and later stayed in Berlin until
he started writing soundtracks. As an kindergarten-child he already learned playing piano.
After the war he studied music and played piano at various clubs of the allies. The different
tastes of Americans and Russians was a valuable time for him.
His compositions for Durbridge-crime-movies for TV, Edgar-Wallace- and Jerry-Cotton-movies
(starring American actor George Nader) for the big screen during the 60ies could not be mistaken.
His most successful work was the main theme of the black-and-white TV-science-fiction series
"Raumpatrouille" in 1966 (that is: "SPACE PATROL - the phantastic adventures of the spaceship
ORION"). The countdown in the beginning of each part he spoke himself, experimenting with voice distortion. Today the easy-listening - composer is to be found at various locations, from
Kitzbühel to St. Tropez, but still he is an active worker. And by doing this he also is supporting younger musicians to find their way. |
The 60ies were the great time of the German Edgar Wallace movies. Two composers were responsible for writing the best soundtracks of this series: Martin Böttcher and Peter Thomas.
Peter Thomas said at that time: "The music for crime movies in the cinema has a very special part.
It has more to do with the plot on the screen than the viewer or listener may know.
The best is when you can unplug the music from the happening on the screen and discover a whole new Edgar Wallace world only with the sound."
Besides the Edgar Wallace movies he too worked on Karl-May-movies, for the cinema with "Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand" (Thunder at the Border) and on TV with the series "Mein Freund Winnetou" (My friend Winnetou).
By the way: If you have a look at the All Movie Guide-pages for Peter Thomas,
don't get confused. They again messed it up and merged an actor Peter Thomas into the list who of course is not the composer Peter Thomas. The IMDB once again was more exact. |
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At the "Deutsche Museum" in Munich stands side to side to the Theremin (known from the Hitchcock-movie "Spellbound") and age-old-synthesizers the ThoWiephon, constructed and used by Peter Thomas for many audio-experiments. |
 SOUND CLIP
Theme for Lucy of "Das Verrätertor" (Traitor's Gate)
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Peter Thomas looks upon himself as an revolutionary among the German composers.
Nearly no one else has so often tried new ways in music. So it is no wonder,
when some day Jarvis Cocker, frontman of the English group Pulp called at him, asking for his father.
He wanted to use part of the "Raumpatrouille / Space Patrol"-soundtrack for the track "This Is Hardcore".
Thomas, first thinking that the caller was Joe Cocker and then telling him that he himself wrote that piece of music, got the astonished answer: "But you ought to be dead by now..." (!)
That Peter Thomas does not intend to retire for a long time, he proofs year for year again.
Be it in supporting young music-loving talents or "just" sit down and write a complete musical for an Portuguese producer about Princess Diana.
"Lady Di - Diana, Königin der Herzen" is the title of this musical and it had its premiere in October 2000 at Vienna.
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Again for TV Peter Thomas was busy in writing the soundtrack for an production of the RTL-station titled "007". And for a movie-parody on the Wallace-movie "Der Hexer" (The Ringer) he is writing the soundtrack, too. That one is to be named "Der Wixxer". For the "relaunch" of the renovated Brandenburg Gate at Berlin (2002) Peter Thomas re-arranged some of his classics in an uncommonly way, e.g. with spherical voice-effects of the famous Schöneberger Sängerknaben-choir. In the near future one can expect the launch of a new musical composed by Peter Thomas called "Hänsel and Gretel" - but don't hope to get to hear something like the Humperding-opera!
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Autograph address
Peter Thomas |
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 top of page |
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 PETER THOMAS - start-page |
PETER THOMAS - Filmography  |
On May 9th and 10th, 2003 two live-concerts were performed by the Big Band of the Hessian Radiostation in cinemas at
Wiesbaden and Lich. They were playing music composed by Peter Thomas and he himself was present at the concerts
and also played some tunes on the piano. Among the music tracks were "Raumpatrouille", a cult SciFi-series of the 60ies in Germany
(after the band-performance they showed one of the parts "Deserteure" on the big screen - they were in a cinema after all)
and music of several Edgar-Wallace-thrillers of the 60ies. Among those tracks was "Tea with Lizzy of the Wallace-movie "Die seltsame Gräfin" (The strange countess), that was used by George Clooney
as an opening in his director's debut 