updated 14 January 2019

Tansy Davies

British composer born in Bristol on 29 May 1973.

Tansy Davies was born in Great Britain in 1973. She studied composition with Alan Bullard at the Colchester Institute — which also awarded her an honorary doctorate 2011. In 1996, she was a BBC Young Composer and went to study with Simon Bainbridge at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and Simon Holt at Royal Holloway.

With the support of the Composers Ensemble and the London Sinfonietta, one of her first compositions, The Void in this Colour, was premiered in 2002, a commission from the Spitalfields Festival for the Brunel Ensemble.

In 2009 she received a Paul Hamlyn Award. In 2010, As with Voices and with Tears, a requiem for choir, string orchestra and electronics, was performed to commemorate soldiers who faught for the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in the two World Wars on Remembrance Sunday in Portsmouth Cathedral. In 2011, Tansy Davies collaborated with choreographer Ingun Bjørnsgaard on Omega and the Deer, a dance projet that toured Oslo, Berlin, Postdam, Hamburg, and New York City. In 2015, her opera Between Worlds, written with the librettist and poet Nick Drake, premiered in a performance by the English National Opera at the Barbican Theater in London. She collaborated with Drake again in 2018 on the chamber opera Cave.

Davies’ work is often inspired by visual or spatial experiences. The structure of Spiral House (2004) parallels the buildings of architect Zaha Hadid, and the work of Anselm Kiefer served as inspiration for Falling Angel (2007), written for Thomas Adès and the BCMG and first performed in Birmingham and at the Festival Présences in Paris.

Davies has received commissions from the London Sinfonietta, the CBSO Youth Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BIT 20, BCMG, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Her work has been performed by major international groups such as the Cantus Ensemble, Grup Instrumental de Valencia, the Tiroler Ensemble für Neue Musik, Musiques Nouvelles, Melos Ethos Ensemble, Orchestra of Filharmonia Baltycka, Israel Contemporary Players, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Chile, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and Tokyo Ensemble Factory.

In 2018-2019, Davies was composer-in-residence at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where she taught workshops for young composers and worked on a piece titled Soul Canoe for the Ensemble Asko | Schönberg, which premiered in May 2019.

She is an associate professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Her work is published by Faber Music.


© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2019

Sources

Site personnel du compositeur.

Éditions Faber Music.

  • Solo (excluding voice)
  • Chamber music
    • Undertow for chamber ensemble (1999), 6 mn
    • Small Black Stone for viola and piano (2000), 7 mn
    • Gin Trap for ensemble of six musicians (2001), 2 mn
    • Arabescos for oboe and piano (2002), 8 mn
    • Trio for clarinet, cello and piano (2002), 2 mn
    • Inside Out 2 for seven musicians (2003), 6 mn, Faber Music
    • Make Black White for viol ensemble (2004), 5 mn, Faber Music
    • elec Neon for seven musicians (2004), 10 mn, Faber Music
    • elec Salt Box for amplified ensemble of seven instruments and electronics (2005), 11 mn, Faber Music
    • elec Grind Show (electric) for chamber ensemble and electronics (2007), 6 mn, Faber Music
    • Adorned for strings, bass clarinet, cymbalum and harmonium (2008), 10 mn, Faber Music
    • Grind Show (Unplugged) for chamber ensemble (2008), 6 mn, Faber Music
    • Forgotten Game 2 for oboe and piano (2009), 6 mn, Faber Music
    • Aquatic duet for english horn and percussion (2011), 10 mn, Faber Music
    • Delphic Bee wind nonette (2012), 10 mn, Faber Music
    • Hawk for violin and piano (2018), 2 mn 30 s, Faber Music
  • Instrumental ensemble music
    • The Void in this Colour for ensemble of thirteen musicians (2001), 15 mn
    • Fern for ensemble of seven musicians (2003), 13 mn
    • Spine for eleven musicians (2005), 9 mn, Faber Music
    • Tilting for orchestra (2005), 7 mn, Faber Music
    • Falling Angel for chamber ensemble of 17 musicians (2006), 17 mn, Faber Music
    • Streamlines for orchestra (2006), 10 mn, Faber Music
    • kingpin for chamber orchestra (2007), 6 mn, Faber Music
    • Feather and Groove for ensemble of 6 to 20 musicians of mixed skill (2015, 2008), 5 mn 30 s, Faber Music
    • Wild Card for orchestra (2010), 24 mn, Faber Music
    • The Beginning of the World for string orchestra (2013), 5 mn, Faber Music
    • Re-Greening for orchestra (2015), 9 mn, Faber Music
    • Antenoux for mixed chamber ensemble of ten musicians (2017), 5 mn, Faber Music
    • Dune of Footprints for string orchestra (2017), 15 mn, Faber Music
    • What did we see? orchestral suite from "Between Worlds" (2018), 25 mn, Faber Music
  • Concertant music
    • Iris for soprano saxophone and chamber ensemble of fifteen musicians (2004), 15 mn, Faber Music
    • Spiral House for trumpet and orchestra (2004), 22 mn, Faber Music
    • Residuum for two solo violins, solo cello and strings (2005), 10 mn, Faber Music
    • Nature concerto for piano and ten musicians (2012), 20 mn, Faber Music
    • Forest concerto for four horns (2017), 20 mn, Faber Music
  • Vocal music and instrument(s)
    • Oven in the Underworld for choir and piano (2006), 4 mn
    • Destroying Beauty for soprano and piano (2008), 3 mn, Faber Music
    • Static for tenor and piano (2009), 2 mn, Faber Music
    • This Love for tenor and piano (2009), 2 mn 30 s about , Faber Music
    • elec As with Voices and with Tears a staging of Whitman's "Dirge for two Veterans" for choir, strings and electronics (2010), 23 mn, Faber Music
    • Greenhouses for bass voice, alto flute, percussion and double bass (2010), 3 mn, Faber Music
    • Troubairitz for soprano and percussion (2010), 17 mn, Faber Music
    • Song of pure Nothingness for Indian soprano and harmonium (2012), 13 mn, Faber Music
    • stage Between Worlds opera (2014), 1 h 30 mn, Faber Music
    • Song of pure Nothingness for mezzo-soprano or counterenor and piano (2015), 13 mn, Faber Music
    • The Second Key for mezzo-soprano or counterenor and mixed ensemble of ten or more players of mixed abilities (2011, 2016), 8 mn 30 s, Faber Music
    • elec stage Cave chamber opera in eight scenes for mezzo-soprano, tenor and ensemble with electronics (2018), 60 mn, Faber Music
  • A cappella vocal music
  • 2018
    • elec stage Cave chamber opera in eight scenes for mezzo-soprano, tenor and ensemble with electronics, 60 mn, Faber Music
    • Hawk for violin and piano, 2 mn 30 s, Faber Music
    • What did we see? orchestral suite from "Between Worlds", 25 mn, Faber Music
  • 2017
    • Antenoux for mixed chamber ensemble of ten musicians, 5 mn, Faber Music
    • Dune of Footprints for string orchestra, 15 mn, Faber Music
    • Forest concerto for four horns, 20 mn, Faber Music
  • 2016
    • The Second Key for mezzo-soprano or counterenor and mixed ensemble of ten or more players of mixed abilities, 8 mn 30 s, Faber Music
  • 2015
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • 2012
  • 2011
    • Aquatic duet for english horn and percussion, 10 mn, Faber Music
    • Christmas Eve for choir, 6 mn, Faber Music
  • 2010
    • elec As with Voices and with Tears a staging of Whitman's "Dirge for two Veterans" for choir, strings and electronics, 23 mn, Faber Music
    • Greenhouses for bass voice, alto flute, percussion and double bass, 3 mn, Faber Music
    • Troubairitz for soprano and percussion, 17 mn, Faber Music
    • Wild Card for orchestra, 24 mn, Faber Music
  • 2009
    • Forgotten Game 2 for oboe and piano, 6 mn, Faber Music
    • Static for tenor and piano, 2 mn, Faber Music
    • This Love for tenor and piano, 2 mn 30 s about , Faber Music
  • 2008
  • 2007
  • 2006
  • 2005
    • Dark Ground for solo percussion, 8 mn, Faber Music
    • Residuum for two solo violins, solo cello and strings, 10 mn, Faber Music
    • elec Salt Box for amplified ensemble of seven instruments and electronics, 11 mn, Faber Music
    • Spine for eleven musicians, 9 mn, Faber Music
    • Tilting for orchestra, 7 mn, Faber Music
  • 2004
    • Iris for soprano saxophone and chamber ensemble of fifteen musicians, 15 mn, Faber Music
    • Make Black White for viol ensemble, 5 mn, Faber Music
    • elec Neon for seven musicians, 10 mn, Faber Music
    • Spiral House for trumpet and orchestra, 22 mn, Faber Music
  • 2003
  • 2002
    • Arabescos for oboe and piano, 8 mn
    • Trio for clarinet, cello and piano, 2 mn
  • 2001
  • 2000
  • 1999

Liens Internet

(liens vérifiés en janvier 2019).

Discographie

  • Tansy DAVIES, Song of Pure Nothingness, Andrew Watts, contreténor, Iain Burnside, piano, dans « A Countertenor Songbook », 2018, 1 CD NMC Recordings, NMCD243.
  • Tansy DAVIES, Feather and Groove, London Sinfonietta, Gregory Rose, direction, dans « Open score », 2018, 1 CD NMC Recordings, NMC DL228.
  • Tansy DAVIES, Intro — What I Write Now (extract), Neon, Salt Box, Greenhouses, Inside Out 2, What I Write Now, Secret Wishes, Since I refused, Beloved Friends, Now He is gone, Winter, I Walk Alone, Grind Show, Dirty Electronics, Mira Calix Greenhouses remix, Tivannagh L’Abbé Ligature Remix, Gabriel Prokofiev ‘Non-Dub’ Remix, Rolf Wallin Arabica Overdrive Remix, Outro — I Walk Alone (extract), dans « Troubairitz », 2014, 1 CD Non Classical, NONCLSS011.
  • Tansy DAVIES, Iris, Static, Dark Ground, Loure, Falling Angel, This Love, Make Black White, Loophole 1, Lynchpin**1, Loophole 2, Lynchpin 2, Loophole 3, Spine, Huw Watkins, piano, Samuel Boden, ténor, Christopher Austin, direction, dans « Spine », 2012, 1 CD NMC Recordings, NMCD176.
  • Tansy DAVIES, Forgotten Game 2, Arabescos, Claire Jones, harpe, Huw Watkins, piano, James Turnbull, hautbois, dans « Fierce Tears », 2011, 1 CD Quartz, QTZ2081.
  • Tansy DAVIES, Destroying beauty, dans « The NMC Songbook », 2009, 4 CDs NMC Recordings, NMC D150.
  • Tansy DAVIES, Neon, London Sinfonietta, dans « The Jerwood Series 1», 2006, 1 CD London Sinfonietta, SINF CD1-2006.