THE LIVING COMPOSERS PROJECT  

Stephen Davismoon

(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.

CONTACT INFORMATION

E-mail address: davisms@hope.ac.uk

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)