Dave Smith (born August 19, 1949 in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England) is an English composer, arranger and musical performer. Since 1971 he has been associated with the English school of

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

Life and career

After attending

Solihull School Solihull School is a coeducational Independent school (UK), independent day school in Solihull, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Founded in 1560, it is the oldest school in the town and is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmi ...

, he read music at

Magdalene College Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

, Cambridge. In the 1970s, Smith was a member of the

Scratch Orchestra The Scratch Orchestra was an experimental musical ensemble founded in the spring of 1969 by Cornelius Cardew, Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton. In the draft constitution published in the ''Musical Times'' of June 1969, Cardew defines a scrat ...

and a participant in several composer/performer ensembles. The first of these was a keyboard duo with John Lewis which played

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

and systemic works by British and American composers (notably including early works by

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

) as well as by themselves. Several concerts with Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton featured at this time, as did a short-lived five-piano group (with Lewis,

Michael Nyman Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his length ...

Orlando Gough Orlando Gough ( ; born 1953 in Brighton, Sussex) is a British composer, educated at Oxford, and noted for projects written for ballet, contemporary dance and theatre. Collaborators have included Siobhan Davies, Alain Platel, Shobana Jeyasingh ...

and

Benedict Mason Benedict Mason, born on 23 February 1954, is a British composer. Mason was educated at King's College, Cambridge (1971–75) and took a degree in film-making at the Royal College of Art (1975–78). He did not turn to composition until his early ...

) and an involvement with the

People's Liberation Music The Peoples' Liberation Music (PLM) was a political music group, playing folk and agit-pop, founded in 1972 by Laurie Scott Baker, John Marcangelo and John Tilbury. After Tilbury left in 1973 Cornelius Cardew and Keith Rowe joined with Vicky Silv ...

group of

Laurie Scott Baker Laurie Scott Baker (1943 - 16 November 2022) was a British composer and musician of Experimental and Electronic music. He was a pioneer of live electronics and graphic scores from the 1960s. Life and career He was born 1943 in Sydney, Aust ...

Cornelius Cardew Cornelius Cardew (7 May 193613 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, ...

and others. From 1977 he played in John White's Garden Furniture Music Ensemble alongside Mason and

Gavin Bryars Richard Gavin Bryars (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, avant-garde, and experimental music. Early life and career Born on 16 January 1943 in ...

: his close association with the music of White, Bryars and Cardew has continued ever since. In the 1980s he was a founder-member of the English Gamelan Orchestra and Liria, the first British groups to specialise in, respectively, Javanese classical and Albanian folk musics. Up to 1977 his music was largely

(

process music Process music is music that arises from a process. It may make that process audible to the listener, or the process may be concealed. Primarily begun in the 1960s, diverse composers have employed divergent methods and styles of process. "A 'music ...

or systems music). His style quickly developed into a highly eclectic pool of ideas ranging musically from the abstract to the markedly referential and which on occasion is informed by a commitment reminiscent of the later Cardew. His acknowledged "influences" range from Alkan, Ives and Szymanowski to Albanian folk music, Duke Ellington,

Tom Dissevelt Thomas Dissevelt (4 March 1921, Leiden – 1989) was a Dutch composer and musician. He is known as a pioneer in the merging of electronic music and jazz. He married Rina Reys, sister of Rita Reys, in 1946. Tom Dissevelt was also known as bass ...

and those with whom he has worked. The range of ideas is most clearly chronicled in a series of recital-length solo Piano Concerts, works which encompass an entire concert with varieties of styles. Many of his piano works have been encouraged and performed by

John Tilbury John Tilbury (born 1 February 1936) is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM. Early life and education Tilbury st ...

. Smith has taught at

Finchley Catholic High School (''Grant that we may be truly wise'') , established = 1926 , closed = , type = Voluntary aided school , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic , president = , head_label = Headmistress , head = Niamh Ar ...

(1971–73), Kingsway-Princeton College (1973–84),

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...

(1980–97) and the

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...

(1997–2021). His work with students has resulted in a large number of arrangements, particularly for tuned percussion groups, as well as performing versions of Grainger's ''Random Round'', Reich's ''

Music for 18 Musicians ''Music for 18 Musicians'' is a work of minimalist music composed by Steve Reich during 1974–1976. Its world premiere was on April 24, 1976, at The Town Hall in New York City. Following this, a recording of the piece was released by ECM New ...

'' and several works by

Carla Bley Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936) is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera '' Escalator over the Hill'' ...

. Other arrangements include a solo piano version of Holst's ''

The Planets ''The Planets'', Op. 32, is a seven- movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1917. In the last movement the orchestra is joined by a wordless female chorus. Each movement of the suite is name ...

'' and reductions for violin and piano of a number of Albanian works for violin and orchestra. He is a member of CoMA (Contemporary Music-making for All) for whom he has composed works for large, flexible ensembles such as ''Murdoch or Fred West – which is best? Reconsidered'' (2000), and ''Whiskies of Islay'' (2006).

Selected works

* ''Continuum'' (with John Lewis) for at least two pianos (1970) * ''Swings'' for two pianos (1974) * ''Diabolus maximus'' for five pianos (1976) * ''Diabolus apocalypsis'' for 2 electric organs, piano and electric piano (1976) * ''Moderation in nothing'' for sopranino recorder/electric piano, ocarina/guitar, wine glasses/bell/voice and electric organ/cymbals (1976) * ''Albanian summer'' for alto saxophone and piano (1980) * ''Aragonesca'' for soprano/alto saxophone, bass clarinet, violin and cello (1987) * ''Kaivopuisto'' for cello or bass clarinet and piano (1996) * ''Alban lament'' for eight instruments and eight voices (1996/8) * ''Murdoch or Fred West – which is best? Reconsidered'' for large flexible ensemble (2000) * ''A propos de rien'' (arranged by Rhodri Davies) for solo harp (1999/2004) * ''Whiskies of Islay'': eight movements for varied flexible ensembles (2006) * ''Natural selections'' (String quartet no. 2) (2009/10) * ''Cuban quartet'' (String quartet no.1) (1990/2014) * ''African mosaic'' (String quartet no.3) (2014) * ''Around and about'' for string quartet and piano (2014) * ''The myth of Sisyphus'' (String quartet no.6) (2014/8) * ''Off-peak octet'' for 8 bass clarinets (2018) * ''Hunter of stories'' for speaker and piano (texts by

Eduardo Galeano Eduardo Hughes Galeano (; 3 September 1940 – 13 April 2015) was a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist considered, among other things, "global soccer's pre-eminent man of letters" and "a literary giant of the Latin American left". Galean ...

) (2018–9)

Piano concerts

* ''1st piano concert'' – "24 sonatas in all the keys" (1985–6) * ''2nd piano concert'' – "Ireland one and Ireland free" (1984–93): includes ''Ireland one and Ireland free'', ''I fought a monster today'' (spoken text by

Bobby Sands Robert Gerard Sands ( ga, Roibeárd Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh; 9 March 1954 – 5 May 1981) was a member (and leader in the Maze prison) of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze ...

), ''Michael Collins amongst the mapmakers'' (spoken text by John Mackie) and ''The Armagh women'' (spoken text by

Margaretta D'Arcy Margaretta Ruth D'Arcy (born 14 June 1934, London) is an Irish actress, writer, playwright, and activist. D'Arcy has been a member of Aosdána since its inauguration and is known for addressing Irish nationalism, civil liberties, and women's r ...

) * ''3rd piano concert'' (1983–92): includes ''Toccantella'', ''Al contrario'' and ''Guaracha'' * ''4th piano concert'' (1988–98): includes ''African mosaic'' * ''5th piano concert'' – "Alla reminiscenza" (1993–4): 1 movement * ''6th piano concert'' (1994–7): includes ''Ogives 1, 2 + 3'' and ''Beyond the park'' * ''7th piano concert'' (1999–2004): includes ''Inter alia'', ''Zytnia'' and ''Number seven's done a runner'' * ''8th piano concert'' (2002– ): includes ''ABC'', ''Nails'' and ''Frivolous and vexatious'' * ''9th piano concert'' (2003–4): 3 movements – ''On the virtues of flowers'', ''On the virtues of forests'' and ''On the virtues of wild birds'' * ''10th piano concert'' – "75 one-minute pieces" (2005–12) * ''11th piano concert'' (2002– ): includes ''... and with thy daring folly burn the world'', ''Being born in Gaza is not a crime'', ''In support of the Intifada'' and ''3 Kerala song arrangements'' * ''12th piano concert'' (2014– ): includes ''The myth of Sisyphus''

Publications

*Smith, Dave, “Following a straight line: La Monte Young”, Contact, 18, winter 1977–8; republished in the Journal of Experimental Music Studies at

*Smith, Dave, “The Piano Sonatas of John White”, Contact, 21, autumn 1980; republished in the Journal of Experimental Music Studies at

*Smith, Dave, “Albus Liber: Exploits and Opinions of John White, Composer Volume I” (Journal of the London Institute of 'Pataphysics), Atlas Press, 2014.

Recordings online

from 1st Piano concert (1985–6) *Ramble on themes from Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess'' �

*Nocturne �

*Bossa Nova �

*Biguine �

*Afterhours �

from Whiskies of Islay (2006) *Caol Ila �

*Lagavulin �

from Aragonesca (1987) *1 - Tempo di Son

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Experimental Music Catalogue
*Diabolus apocalypsis (1976) *Moderation in nothing (1976) *Frivolous and vexatious (2002/14) from 8th Piano concert See also
Dave Smith (composer)
on Soundcloud {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Dave 1949 births 20th-century classical composers English classical composers Experimental composers English experimental musicians 21st-century classical composers Academics of De Montfort University Academics of the University of Hertfordshire Living people Gamelan musicians Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge English male classical composers 20th-century English composers 21st-century English composers 20th-century British male musicians 21st-century British male musicians

Life and career

Selected works

Piano concerts

Publications

Further reading

Recordings online