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Tansy Davies

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Tansy Davies
Born(1973-03-29)March 29, 1973
Bristol, UK
OccupationComposer
EraContemporary
WorksCompositions
WebsiteTansy Davies

Tansy Davies (born 29 May 1973, Bristol) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. She won the BBC Young Composers' Competition in 1996 and has written works for ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. In 2023 she was awarded the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Works Collections at The Ivors Classical Award in recognition of her outstanding achievements in composition.[1] In 2019, she was listed as one of the UK’s most influential people by the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000, alongside Sir Simon Rattle, and Dave.[2]

Early life

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Davies started out singing and playing guitar in a rock band. She developed an interest in composition in her teens[3] and studied composition and French horn at the Colchester Institute,[4] followed by further study with Simon Bainbridge at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and with Simon Holt. Davies has been Composer-in-Residence at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she gained a PhD, and currently teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London.[5] She also worked for three years as a freelance horn player and was a member of the Moon Velvet Collective.[4]

Commissions

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Davies was a prizewinner in the 1996 BBC Young Composers' Competition.[6] She has received a number of commissions from a number of organisations, for such works as the following:

Other works include Streamlines (CBSO Youth Orchestra/Paul Daniel); Contraband (Britten Sinfonia); kingpin (City of London Sinfonia), Adorned (Haugesund CO – Norway), Hinterland (Cheltenham Festival), Rift (BBC Concert Orchestra) and Elephant and Castle (a large-scale multi-media work for the 2007 Aldeburgh Festival, co-written with Warp Records DJ Mira Calix, and directed by Tim Hopkins).

In February 2007, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Thomas Adès gave the premiere of Falling Angel, a 20-minute commission for large ensemble in Birmingham, and at the Présences festival in Paris. Her first commission for The Proms, Wild Card for orchestra, received its world premiere in September 2010.[13]

Musical style

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Davies' music is informed by the worlds of the classical avant-garde, funk, experimental rock, disco, bebop, alt-pop and modernism.[14] Her scores contain unusual directions, such as 'urban, muscular', 'seedy, low slung', 'stealthy' and 'solid, grinding'. Other influences on her compositions have included the architecture of Zaha Hadid,[6] in her trumpet concerto Spiral House.[15] She has also collaborated with the video artist Zara Matthews.[16] The Independent said of her:

Drawing on influences ranging from Luciano Berio to Miles Davis, and inspirations from architectural spaces to the tarot and the I Ching, she has created works such as Tilting (2005), Kingpin (2007) and Wild Card (2010), where compulsive rhythms, fragmented melody and outlandish counterpoint testify to her love of funk, contemporary jazz, the avant-garde, and a certain deep, unsettling sense of darkness.[17]

Of her 2006 work Falling Angel, Davies said in the Daily Telegraph:

Like a lot of my music, it's built up layer by layer, a bit like funk. But, whereas funk is incredibly tight, I make something very baggy. I like to keep people guessing by suggesting a pulse, and then showing that actually the true pulse is somewhere else.[18]

Recordings

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Davies has been the subject of three portrait CDs, Troubairitz (Nonclassical Recordings, 2011),[19] Spine (NMC Recordings, 2012)[20] and Nature (NMC, 2021).[21] Other compositions appear in various anthologies, notably on the NMC label.[22][23][24]

Compositions

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Davies' first opera, Between Worlds, is about the terror attacks in the USA in 2001.[17] She commented in the Guardian:

I don’t think it could have been done earlier. It just grew organically. We had another idea first. But gradually the librettist [poet] Nick Drake and the director Deborah Warner moved step by step towards it. The idea grew in all of us, and we knew we had to be brave and let ourselves be led by our highest instincts; to make something intensely human and to somehow transform or transcend the darkness into light. The story is told from many perspectives, from those trapped inside one of the Twin Towers, from there on the ground (people in NYC looking up), and from a far, cosmic place: an orchestral “fabric of the universe”, with the figure of a shaman at its centre who relays messages across time and space... Music is a fantastic vehicle for expressing energy, emotion, feelings that go beyond language.[25]

Her chamber opera of 2018, Cave, with Drake as librettist again, was staged in an abandoned industrial warehouse by The Royal Opera. It uses electronics as well as a small ensemble and "only two singers".[26]

  • The Void in This Colour (2001) – chamber ensemble of 13 players[27]
  • Inside Out ii (2003)[28]
  • Genome (2003)[16]
  • Spiral House (2004) – trumpet and orchestra
  • neon (2004) – chamber ensemble of 7 players[29]
  • Iris (2004) – soprano saxophone and chamber ensemble of 15 players[30]
  • Tilting (2005) – orchestra
  • Falling Angel (2006) – chamber ensemble of 17 players
  • Streamlines (2006) – orchestra
  • grind show (electric) (2007) – chamber ensemble of 5 players with electronics[31]
  • kingpin (2007) – chamber orchestra
  • Adorned (2008) – strings, bass clarinet, cimbalom and harmonium
  • Hinterland (2008) – chamber ensemble[32]
  • Rift (2008) – orchestra
  • Leaf Springs (2008)[33]
  • grind show (unplugged) (2008)[34]
  • Destroying Beauty (2008) – voice and piano [35]
  • This Love (2009) – tenor and piano [36]
  • Static (2009) – tenor and piano [37]
  • Troubairitz (2010) – soprano and percussion [38]
  • Wild Card (2010) – orchestra[39]
  • Greenhouses (2011) – female voice, alto flute, percussion and double bass[40]
  • Christmas Eve (2011) – mixed voice[40]
  • Aquatic (2011) – duet for cor anglais and percussion [41]
  • Nature (2012) – concerto for piano and 10 players [42]
  • Delphic Bee (2012) – wind nonet [43]
  • The Beginning of the World (2013) – string orchestra
  • Glider – "Bonne Clarinette" (2013) – bass clarinet and ensemble of 7 players
  • Re-greening for large singing orchestra (2015)[44]
  • Between Worlds (2015) – opera[17]
  • Dune of Footprints for string orchestra (2017)
  • Forest (2017) – concerto for four horns
  • Antenoux (2017) – mixed chamber ensemble of 10 players
  • What did we see? (2018) – suite from the opera Between Worlds
  • Cave (2018) – chamber opera for mezzo-soprano, tenor and ensemble with electronics
  • Hawk (2018) – violin and piano
  • The Rule is Love (2019) – song cycle for contralto and chamber ensemble
  • Plumes (2019) – orchestra
  • Soul Canoe (2019) – chamber ensemble of 10 players
  • Nightingales: Ultra Deep Field (2020) – string quartet
  • Grand Mutation (2020) – violin, horn and piano
  • Yoik (2020) – one or more horns
  • Yoik II (2021) – solo flute
  • Monolith: I Extend My Arms (2021) – strings and percussion
  • Stone Codes (2022) – solo percussion and ensemble of 14 players
  • Gem (2022) – solo cello
  • Star-Way (2023) – Prophet Rev 2 synthesiser

References

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  1. ^ Taylor, Mark (14 November 2023). "Winners of The Ivors Classical Awards 2023 announced". The Ivors Academy. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  2. ^ Smyth, Barry Millington, David (4 October 2019). "London's most influential people 2019 – Going Out: Music". Evening Standard. Retrieved 4 June 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Ivan Hewett (1 February 2007). "I love to work out after a hard day composing". Telegraph. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  4. ^ a b Tom Service (18 June 2001). "She's got the funk". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  5. ^ "A Recital for Voice and Percussion" (Press release). Royal Holloway, University of London. 19 October 2007. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  6. ^ a b Femke Colborne (1 April 2005). "Tansy Davies". Musolife. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  7. ^ Andrew Clements (7 July 2004). "London Sinfonietta (Cheltenham Festival)". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  8. ^ Andrew Clements (20 June 2005). "Birtwistle premiere (Aldeburgh festival)". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  9. ^ Geoff Brown (16 June 2005). "LSO/Previn". The Times. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  10. ^ Rian Evans (12 November 2004). "Orchestra of the Swan (Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham)". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  11. ^ Stephen Pritchard (21 November 2010). "Adriana Lecouvreur; Tansy Davies – review". The Observer. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  12. ^ "Order of Service" (PDF). King's College Cambridge. 1 December 2011. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
  13. ^ Ivan Hewett (9 September 2010). "Proms 2010: Prom 72: BBCSO / Belohlavek". Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 September 2010. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  14. ^ "TANSY DAVIES". The Ivors Academy. 14 November 2023. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  15. ^ Rowena Smith (9 March 2006). "Davies, McPherson premieres (City Halls, Glasgow)". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  16. ^ a b Andrew Clements (8 July 2003). "On Growth and Form (Institute of Child Health, London)". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  17. ^ a b c Duchen, Jessica (31 March 2015). "How Tansy Davies turned 9/11 into her opera 'Between Worlds' | The Independent". The Independent. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  18. ^ "I love to work out after a hard day composing". The Telegraph. 1 February 2007. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  19. ^ Andrew Clements, "Davies: Troubairitz", The Guardian, 14 April 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  20. ^ Andrew Clements, "Davies: Spine", The Guardian, 23 August 2012. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  21. ^ "Tansy DAVIES Dune of Footprints, Nature, What did we see?, Re-greening ELOQUENCE 484 0190 [SB] Classical Music Reviews: June 2021 - MusicWeb-International". www.musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  22. ^ Andrew Clements (16 November 2001). "Mind your manners". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  23. ^ Andrew Clements (26 April 2002). "The next generation". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  24. ^ Matthew Rye (1 April 2006). "Classical CDs of the week: Foulds, Vaughan Williams and more". Telegraph. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  25. ^ Maddocks, Fiona (5 April 2015). "Tansy Davies: 'I don't think a 9/11 opera could have been done earlier'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  26. ^ Hamer, Laura (6 May 2021). The Cambridge Companion to Women in Music since 1900. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-47028-5.
  27. ^ Paul Conway (23 June 2001). "Brunel Ensemble / Philarmonia, Spitalfields / RFH, London". The Independent. Retrieved 26 September 2010.[dead link]
  28. ^ Tom Service (2 April 2003). "Bergamo Ensemble (St Paul's Church, Canterbury)". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  29. ^ Tim Ashley (21 February 2005). "Inventions 2005 (Queen Elizabeth Hall, London)". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  30. ^ Erica Jeal (11 December 2008). "Al Farabi Concerto (Queen Elizabeth Hall, London)". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  31. ^ "Repertoire details". www.fabermusic.com. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023.
  32. ^ Tim Ashley (22 July 2008). "Festival Academy/Brabbins (Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham)". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  33. ^ Stephen Pritchard (11 January 2009). "Complex, clever, ear-splitting at times – but always excellent". The Observer. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  34. ^ "Repertoire details". www.fabermusic.com. [dead link]
  35. ^ "Repertoire details". www.fabermusic.com. [dead link]
  36. ^ "Repertoire details". www.fabermusic.com. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023.
  37. ^ "Repertoire details". www.fabermusic.com. [dead link]
  38. ^ "Repertoire details". www.fabermusic.com. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023.
  39. ^ Erica Jeal (9 September 2010). "BBCSO/Bělohlávek (Royal Albert Hall, London)". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  40. ^ a b "Repertoire details". www.fabermusic.com. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023.
  41. ^ "Repertoire details". www.fabermusic.com. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023.
  42. ^ "Repertoire details". www.fabermusic.com. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023.
  43. ^ "Repertoire details". www.fabermusic.com. [dead link]
  44. ^ "Facing the music: Tansy Davies". The Guardian. 3 August 2015. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
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