Composer and conductor Carl Davis CBE passed away on 3 August 2023 in Oxford at the age of 87. A true musical polymath, Davis created soundtracks for some of Britain's best-loved screen dramas. He was the driving force behind the reinvention of silent movies in concert, and composed a substantial body of internationally acclaimed ballet and concert works.

Born in New York, Davis rose to prominence as co-author of the 1959 revue “Diversions”, which won an off-Broadway Emmy and subsequently travelled to the 1961 Edinburgh Festival. Success there led to a commission for the BBC’s “That Was The Week That Was” (1962-3). More commissions followed and Davis soon found himself at the heart of the UK’s theatre, television, and film scene. His work included scores for the National Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as television series “The World at War” (1973), “Goodnight Mister Tom” and “Pride and Prejudice” (1995).

One of many artistic triumphs was his score for Abel Gance’s 1927 silent epic “Napoléon”. The performance at the Empire Leicester Square in 1980, conducted by Davis himself, stimulated a global revival of silent film performance with live orchestra. Davis would create over 50 silent movie scores ranging from Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton to DW Griffiths’ masterpiece “Intolerance”. Particularly notable among numerous international performances of these scores Davis conducted was a decades-long partnership with the Cinémathèque de la Ville de Luxembourg and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.

Davis’ stage works reflected a lifelong love affair with ballet. His collaborations with Robert Cohan included “A Christmas Carol” (1992) and “Aladdin” (2000), both written for Scottish Ballet. Aladdin was later taken up by Sir David Bintley for Tokyo’s New National Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet. Collaborations with Derek Deane included “Alice in Wonderland” (1995), based on themes by Tchaikovsky and commissioned by the English National Ballet, and later “The Lady of the Camellias” (2008).

In 2016 Davis explored new ground with Ethel & Ernest, his first score to an animated film (after the book by Raymond Briggs). The most recent focus of his creative energies, though, was four full-length dance works: “Nijinsky” (2016) “Chaplin, The Tramp” (2019), “The Great Gatsby” (2019) and, finally, “Le Fantôme et Christine” which premiered at the Shanghai Ballet in May 2023.

Tributes to Carl Davis

“I was very sad to hear that my friend Carl Davis had passed away. Carl and I wrote the 'Liverpool Oratorio' together. It was my first full-length classical venture and I really enjoyed working with him to make it happen…His enthusiasm was extremely infectious.” (Sir Paul McCartney)

“In working with Carl over the years, nothing can rival the experience of Abel Gance’s ‘Napoléon’, whose 5½-hour score needed the assistance of Christopher Palmer, my brother David and myself…Carl knew exactly what he wanted in terms of orchestration, and I quickly learned how to make textures that sounded complex but took as little time as possible to rehearse.” (Colin Matthews)

“I used to meet Carl at his house and he would play through a section of his score on the piano, calling out orchestration hints: “do a Richard Strauss here” or “this should sound like Tchaikovsky”...I learned so much about orchestration from this work, it was a such a valuable experience. Carl was a delight to be with: his enthusiasm lit up the room. He made the world seem a more interesting and exciting place.” (David Matthews)

“If you were to ask me to name three of the most important artistic experiences of my life, I’d say: hearing Carl Davis conduct his score for Abel Gance’s ‘Napoléon’ in 2004, hearing Carl Davis conduct his score for Abel Gance’s ‘Napoléon’ in 2013, and hearing Carl Davis conduct his score for Abel Gance’s ‘Napoléon’ in 2016…His music shows a deep understanding of the relationship between sound and image.” (Matthew Sweet, BBC Radio 3)

Faber Music
(from “[t]akte” 2023)