Shaun Davey

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shaun Davey (born January 18, 1948 in Belfast ) is an Irish composer. Davey has composed works for orchestra, film music, songs, advertising jingles and the music for the opening of the Special Olympics World Games 2003 in Dublin. His compositions, in which he often uses typical Irish instruments, integrate elements of traditional Irish music in a variety of ways .

Life

Shaun Davey attended Rockport School near Belfast and Campbell College in Belfast. He then studied art history at Trinity College in Dublin ( BA ). This was followed by a master’s degree at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. From 1975 to 1977 he taught art history at the National College of Art and Design and Trinity College in Dublin . From 1977 he works full-time as a composer.

Shaun Davey is married to the singer Rita Connolly. He lives in County Wicklow , Republic of Ireland .

plant

Incidental music

Shaun Davey's collaboration with Dublin's Abbey Theater began in 1977 and lasted around 20 years. There he wrote the music for a production of Ibsen's Peer Gynt . From 1987 to 2003 he worked with renowned theaters in the United Kingdom, such as the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Barbican Center . He composed a. a. the incidental music for Shakespeare's Winter Tale , King Lear , The Tempest , Pericles and Romeo and Juliet , for The Fair Maid of the West by Thomas Heywood , and for the children's musical The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1998) based on the book by CS Lewis and in the stage version by Adrian Mitchell . He also composed the music for productions at the London Young Vic , Theater Royal Haymarket , for the Royal Court Theater , the Almeida Theater and Magdalen College School, Oxford and Oxford Playhouse . In 2012, Silviu Purcăretes (* 1950) version of Jonathan Swift's satire Gulliver's Travels premiered at the Edinburgh Festival , for which Davey composed the music.

Choral and orchestral works

Shaun Davey's concertante works are characterized by the integration of elements of Irish-Celtic music in traditional classical music forms, as well as the thematic reference of his suites and orchestral works to subjects from Irish-Celtic history and mythology. Typical of his suites are the opulent orchestra, the addition of instruments from Irish folk and the use of large mixed choirs.

The Brendan Voyage , composed in 1980, was the first of his orchestral pieces to be performed in a concert hall and established his reputation as Ireland's leading contemporary symphonist. The work is a laudation for the British adventurer Tim Severin , who, like the legendary Irish abbot Brendan around 570, sailed from Ireland to the New World in two stages between 1976 and 1977. Severin's boat Brendan was a perfect replica of an Irish leather curragh , as the Irish abbot probably used. In The Brendan Voyage , a suite in 10 movements, he used the uilleann pipes for the first time as a solo instrument in a work for symphony orchestra , and supplemented the ensemble with a rhythm section consisting of drums, electric bass and bodhran . The work was premiered in 1982 in Rennes , France and repeated in the same year in Lorient , Brittany . The Irish premiere was only in 1983 in the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

The Pilgrim followed in 1983 , a work commissioned by the Festival Interceltique de Lorient , consisting of a total of 22 numbers. The world premiere took place in Lorient. Shaun Davey fundamentally revised The Pilgrim in the following years. He removed numbers, added new ones and added a narrator to the work. The new version for orchestra, solo voices, choir, uilleann pipes, bombards , Celtic harp and pipe band had its world premiere in 1990 at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall .

Granuaile , created in 1985, is a suite for chamber orchestra, female voice, uilleann pipes, harp, percussion and piano. In a 2001 rework, Davey added another voice for Fiddle . The theme of the suite is the adventures of the Irishwoman Grace O'Malley , who, like her whole family, was active in Ireland's battles against Elizabeth I in the 16th century . Grace O'Malley - from the English point of view a pirate - is extremely popular in Ireland to this day and has been sung about in many songs.

The Relief of Derry was commissioned by Derry City Council as a contribution to the reconciliation process between the two warring Irish peoples and the descendants of those who fought or lost their lives on the Catholic and Protestant sides in the Battle of Derry in 1689. The symphony, also known as the "Peace Symphony", premiered in the summer of 1990 in the Guildhall in Derry / Londonderry under the direction of Gearóid Grant.

Film music

Davey has composed the music for several feature and television films, some of which have won awards. He has also composed the music for Tim Severin's films "The Spice Islands Voyage" and "In Search Of Moby Dick" as well as for several BBC documentaries.

Feature and TV films (selection)
  • 1995 The Hanging Gale , BBC Northern Ireland TV series, directed by Diarmuid Lawrence
Ivor Novello Award for the best soundtrack
Nomination for the Ivor Novello Award
Film music Shaun Davey, Harald Kloser , John E. Keane
nominated for the BAFTA TV Awards, best film music
The Irish Film Orchestra, conductor: Fiachra Trench
  • 2000 David Copperfield , directed by Peter Medak , BBC TV movie
Nominated for the BAFTA

Awards

  • 1995 Ivor Novello Award nomination for the soundtrack for Twelfth Night , directed by Trevor Nunn
  • 1995 and 1995 BAFTA nomination
  • 1996 Novello Award
  • 1998 BAFTA nomination for the films The Hanging Gale and Ballykissangel
  • 2000 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical ( The Dead by James Joyce )
  • 2000 nomination for the Tony Award for the music for the Broadway version of The Dead
  • 2000 TRIC Award (Television and Radio Industries Club)
  • Golden Reel Award

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shaun Davey's website ( August 26, 2015 memento on the Internet Archive ), accessed May 13, 2019
  2. ^ Silviu Purcarete's play surprises at Edinburgh International Festival. In: Business Review. August 21, 2012, accessed August 30, 2015.
  3. ↑ The Brendan Voyage. Composed Shaun Davey. Soloist Liam O'Flynn, background notes , accessed August 30, 2015.
  4. ^ Lyrics , accessed August 31, 2015.
  5. ↑ Song list , accessed on September 1, 2015.
  6. ^ The Relief of Derry Symphony , accessed August 31, 2015.
  7. ^ Filmography , accessed August 31, 2015.
  8. ↑ Film music , accessed on May 13, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Davey, Shaun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Belfast