Carl Davis
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Carl Davis CBE (born October 28, 1936, New York City, United States) is an American conductor and composer who has been living in the UK since 1961.
He has made England his home and married English actress Jean Boht. He is a conductor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and regularly conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has written music for more than 100 television programs, but is best-known for creating music to accompany films that were originally silent. He has assisted in the orchestration of the symphonic works of Paul McCartney.
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The television years
Davis achieved early prominence with the title music for the BBC anthology play series The Wednesday Play and later for Play for Today. Additional television scores include The World at War (1974), Up Pompeii! (1971), The Naked Civil Servant (1975), Man Friday (1975), Langrishe, Go Down (1978), Private Schulz (1980), Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981), The Far Pavilions (1984), Pride and Prejudice (1995), and Coming Home (1998).
To date, Carl Davis conducted the modern rendition with the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Singers intended for the BBC's theme song of the World Cup 2006 in Germany. It is adapted from George Handel's "See the Conquering Hero Comes."
To listen click below
Film music
A number of movie scores including The French Lieutenant's Woman 1981. The haunting opening melody was performed by Kenneth Essex, viola player.
Silent film music
In 1980 Davis was commissioned by documentarians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill to create music for Thames Television's Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film. His association with them continued the same year with Abel Gance's epic silent film Napoléon (originally 1927), which was restored and expanded with Davis' music for cinematic release . There was a similar treatment for D. W. Griffith's Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through The Ages (originally 1916). This had orchestral music originally, but Davis's new score was used instead in 1989.
The Hollywood documentary series was followed by the documentaries Unknown Chaplin in 1982, Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (cf Buster Keaton) in 1987 and Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius (cf Harold Lloyd) in 1989. In the 1980s and 1990s, Davis wrote and conducted the scores for numerous classic silent films released restored and released through Brownlow and Gill's "Thames Silents" series in the UK. By 1993, his reputation made him the number one choice for new scores to silent films. Many DVD releases, including Ben-Hur (1925), Safety Last (1923), Chaplin's City Lights (1931) (re-orchestrated by Davis based on Chaplin's original written score) and Erich von Stroheim's Greed (1924), use Davis's music and an entire re-scoring Clarence Browns Majestic Flesh and the Devil (1927) . In many of these recordings he is the conductor as well the composer. On several occasions he has performed these works live in the cinema, as well as in concert halls as the film is running.
Personal
Davis married the British actress Jean Boht on December 28, 1970. They have two daughters from Boht's first marriage to William P. Boht, Hannah Louise and Jessie Jo. Davis has also composed music for both of his daughter, Hannah's films called Mothers & Daughters and The Understudy
