In 1966 Nigel Butterley had an outstanding international success. Director of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, John Hopkins, asked Butterley to compose a work for an Australian and ABC submission to the Italia Prize. This prize had specific regulations. Hosted by an Italian radio station, the key condition was that the finished work had to be, not only suitable for radio, but only suitable for radio. That is, the finished recording is the final extant version. It should not be possible to perform it live in the concert hall.
Hopkins put at Butterley's disposal the entire resources of the ABC. At that time the state symphony orchestras and several choirs were employed by the ABC. Today the symphony orchestras are independent organisations and there are no longer any choirs employed by the ABC.
Butterley conceived and developed a work in seven sections and seven layers, although not all seven layers are used all the time. The timing between those layers is pre-determined but not precise. He was able to record a segment with the Adelaide Singers for example and overlay it with sounds from a completely independent source. Butterley created an extraordinary work entitled In the Head the Fire, which combined texts including the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Latin Mass, Greek and Hebrew texts, biblical texts, an ancient Irish poem and more. These were combined with performances from orchestral and choral forces in Sydney and Adelaide, a narrator, a Jewish cantor, the shofar (an instrument used in ancient Jewish times and made of a ram's horn), organ and more. One of the particularly striking effects is the use of pre-recorded bells, played forwards and backwards. This is one of many works where Butterley took his inspiration from the written word. He loved literature and poetry. From this work onwards, poetry was the stimulus for many of Butterley's finest works.
Australia had no studios doing collage in the 1960s whereas this was common European studios. And yet Australia's entry, In the Head the Fire won the Italia Prize in 1966. Butterley remained genuinely modest and self-effacing about this success his whole life. He regarded his contribution to the genre as naïve at best and certainly simple in its technical application. Winning the prize had little to do with the work's technical achievement, it is the power of the musical response that carried it. In the Head the Fire is a powerful work that won a prestigious international competition ahead of significant names in contemporary music.