(b. 1964, London).
British composer of mostly orchestral, chamber, vocal, and electroacoustic works that have been performed throughout Europe and elsewhere.
Prof. Davismoon studied guitar with Antonio Albanes at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London from 1985–87 and composition with Eric Graebner at the University of Southampton from 1987–90, where he earned his BA. He then studied composition with Peter Nelson and Nigel Osborne at the University of Edinburgh from 1991–96 and there earned his PhD.
Among his honours are three scholarships to work at the Experimentalstudio des SWR in Freiburg im Breisgau (1996–97, 2000) and First Prize and the Ricordi Publishing Prize at the Kompositionsseminar in Boswil (1997, for ...against the grain). His work It Was Spring was selected for performance at the International Youth Music Forum in Kiev (1998), he has received two scholarships to work at CCMIX in Paris (1999, 2001) and he was shortlisted for the Creative Scotland Awards (2001, for Towards the Water's Edge). His music has been performed throughout Europe and in Canada, the USA and Uruguay.
He is also active in other positions. He has edited the volumes Luigi Nono The Suspended Song and Luigi Nono Fragments and Silence (both 1998), as well as Edgard Varèse Offerings and Edgard Varèse New Worlds (both 2004) and Hybridity of Practice and Aesthetics Between Electronic Dance and Electroacoustic Musics (2016, all Contemporary Music Review), to all of which he contributed articles. He later co-edited with Darius Kucinskas Music and Technologies (2012, Cambridge Scholars Publishing). He has served as a member of the editorial board of Contemporary Music Review since 1998 and of The Drouth since 2003, to which he has been an occasional contributor since 2003. He founded the Research Ensemble and the Sonic Fusion Festival in Edinburgh in 2006 and has served as the artistic director of each since 2006.
He taught analysis, composition and the history of contemporary music as Reader in Music at the Ian Tomlin School of Music of Edinburgh Napier University from 2000–10 and also served as its chair from 2007–10. He later taught as a professor at the University of Salford from 2010–16, where he also served as Director of Music of the School of Media, Music and Performance from 2010–16. He then taught as Professor of Contemporary Composition at Edge Hill University in Lancashire from 2016–18, where he also served as Head of Performing Arts from 2016–18. He has taught as Professor of Composition at Liverpool Hope University since 2018, where he has also served as Associate Dean of the Creative Campus and as Head of School of Creative and Performing Arts since 2018.
COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS
STAGE:
Electric Dreams (chamber realisation of part of Die Zauberflöte, K 621 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, produced by Wally Sutcliffe), soprano, mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet, French horn, cello, piano, 2007
Beasts in the Field (text by Johnny Rodger), 2007–09 (two sections may be performed separately: Beaver and Wolf, soprano, actor, clarinet, French horn, violin, cello, live electronics, animation [by Iain Gardner], 2007–08; In Search of Peace, soprano, flute, clarinet, French horn, piano, percussion, animation [by Iain Gardner], 2008–09)
In Search of the Phoenix (music-theatre work), soloists, large orchestra, 2017
Stuck (soundscape, choreography by Julia Griffin), 2017
ORCHESTRAL:
It Was Spring, 13 strings, 1993
waiting...and the moon?...turns, small orchestra (14 players), 1995
...outside dreaming, large orchestra (65 players), 1994–96
Concerto, tuba, small orchestra (flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, French horn, trumpet, harp, piano, celesta, 4 percussion), 2001
In the Highest, large orchestra, 2009
Beyond Twilight, small orchestra, live electronics, 2018
CHAMBER MUSIC:
...against the grain, percussion, live electronics, 1996
Thaw, French horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, tuba, 1997
...staring through empty fields of time, trumpet, live electronics, 1998
(this has already) Passed/Passing, bass flute, 1999
beneath garlands, cello, piano, 2002
Mist & Branches against a White Sky, piccolo, 2004, revised 2018
eleventeenth dream, 4 bass clarinets, 2005
Tower of Infinity, flute, live electronics, 2006
In Flight, violin, 2006
Beyond Your Valley, guitar, 2006–07
Mercy Litanies, bass clarinet, 2008
Empty Sky, percussion ensemble, 2008
Solar, 2 marimbas, live electronics, 2009
Incantation: I breathe my eternal rock, 2 bass flutes, cello, 2009
Glory Streams, piano, string quartet, 2009
Celestial Fanfares Fragmented, French horn, violin, piano, 2009
Magnolia Spring Unfurls, baritone saxophone, live electronics, 2011
So Long, string quartet, 2012
Timeless Shades of Green, bass clarinet, piano, 2012
Wreathed in Clover, percussion ensemble, 2018
Dream Makers, amateur ensemble, ensemble, 2018–19
CHORAL:
Gift (text by Ian Balch), mixed chorus, tubular bells, 2000
...a common treasury ... fragmented (text by Gerrard Winstanley), 6 mixed voices, fixed media (8 tracks), 2002
Deeper than all roses, 4 soloists, mixed chorus, rock ensemble, large orchestra, 2013
God's Own Caught in No Man's Land (oratorio), mezzo-soprano, male speaker, mixed chorus, large orchestra, 2016
VOCAL:
Last Waltz in Santiago (song-cycle, text by Ariel Dorfman), soprano, electric guitar, violin, live electronics, 1997
Patricia's Songs (song-cycle, text by Johnny Rodger), mezzo-soprano, flute (+ bass flute), clarinet (+ bass clarinet), French horn, violin, cello, piano, percussion, 2005–06
Love Eurydice (scenes from a music-theatre work, text by Johnny Rodger), 4 voices, orchestra, 2006
Driven Voids (texts by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Steven Holl, Johnny Rodger), voice, harp, violin, live electronics, 2015
Unlucky for Some (text by Roger McGough), soprano, small orchestra, 2017
PIANO:
Ramunėlės Fragmentai – Daisy Fragments, 2007
Resonant Shoreline, piano, live electronics, 2010
Dérive (after Pierre Boulez), 2 pianos, 2015
ELECTROACOUSTIC:
Basta!, fixed media (2 tracks), 1992
Towards the Water's Edge (sound installation), fixed media (16 tracks), 2005
Do this in memory of me (sound installation), fixed media, 2008–09
Ice, fixed media, 2011
Stations of the Clyde (sound installation), fixed media, 2013
Echoes of Friedrich Crossing the Irwell (soundscape), fixed media, 2013
Well Yeah, fixed media, 2014
Thrones (audience interactive sound art), live electronics, 2014
Tales from the dark interior (soundscape, text by James Kelman), live electronics, 2016
Beyond the North Tower (interactive sound installation), live electronics, 2017
Rains of Steel (soundscape), fixed media, 2017
Larkhill Place Armistice (sound installation/soundscape), fixed media, 2018
Territorial Driftings from the Brow (soundscape), fixed media, 2018
TEXT SCORES:
...octave, upon octave, ...upon, 2004
Octaves on Music's Expression of Place (Part I), 2011
DISCOGRAPHY
(this has already) Passed/Passing. Roberto Fabbriciani, bass flute (Atopos: ATP 003/4, 2005)
Timeless Shades of Green. SCAW (Cuillin Sound, 2013)
Stations of the Clyde. (Vinyl Selection, 2018) (LP)
Mist & Branches against a White Sky (revised version). Roberto Fabbriciani, piccolo (Tactus, 2020)