The late Australian composer Barrington Pheloung’s music might not be familiar to concertgoers, but if you watch public television’s Mystery series, you’ve probably heard a lot of his work.

Pheloung composed music for the British Inspector Morse TV series, chronicling the cases of a Thames Valley police inspector and his loyal assistant, Robbie Lewis, and once explained how he came up with the haunting “Inspector Morse” theme:

“Morse is a very melancholic character ... and he was a lover of classical music ... He has a very cryptic mind and loves doing crosswords; we came up with the obvious idea – his name is Morse and so we used Morse code in the [theme] music.” Pheloung said the tapped code for M-O-R-S-E created a rhythm and even suggested a harmonic structure: “I picked up my guitar and there was the tune.”

Barrington Pheloung was born on today’s date in 1954 in Sydney, Australia, played drums and guitar as a kid, discovered Bach as a teen, and ended up earning a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London. He composed music for dance, films, and TV, including “Lewis,” the sequel to the successful Inspector Morse series.

Barrington Pheloung (1954-2019) Theme (From "Inspector Morse") The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra; James Fitzpatrick, conductor Silva Screen Records 4729