Geoff Smith (born 1961) is a musical performer and composer from

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He was previously a member of the group

Attacco Decente Attacco Decente were a musical group from Brighton, England, active from 1984 to 1996. The band was notable for using unusual acoustic instruments such as hammered dulcimers, Appalachian dulcimers, and tongue drums alongside more conventional ...

. He was a pupil at

Varndean College Varndean College is a sixth form college in Brighton and Hove that serves the needs of sixth form students and adults. Location Varndean College is on Surrenden Road, in the northern part of Brighton. It shares the Surrenden campus with Balfou ...

from 1974. Smith is considered to be one of the world's leading players of the

hammered dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...

. In performance, he plays three custom-built prototype dulcimers sequentially -

diatonic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize Scale (music), scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, Interval (music), intervals, Chord (music), chords, Musical note, notes, musical sty ...

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...

and a

microtonal Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of tw ...

model featuring ' fluid tuning', i.e. such that individual notes may be tuned at (by) precise

intervals. Smith has also designed a revolutionary new addition to the piano - the microtonal tuning mechanism. This innovation enables the use of fluid tuning on the piano. Therefore, a diversity of bespoke tuning layouts can be explored and created separately for each composition, in contrast to the instrument being creatively limited to 'fixed tuning' and therefore the culturally predominant western

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

. Smith's compositions include music for film and dance. His first major solo work was a new soundtrack to

Robert Wiene Robert Wiene (; 27 April 1873 – 17 July 1938) was a film director of the silent era of German cinema. He is particularly known for directing the German silent film ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' and a succession of other German Expressionism, ...

's classic German silent expressionist film ''The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari''. He has performed this soundtrack as a live accompaniment to the film on many occasions. His next project was a new soundtrack to

FW Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter. He was greatly influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer, Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Wil ...

's film ''Faust'', followed by a new soundtrack to

Benjamin Christensen Benjamin Christensen (28 September 1879 – 2 April 1959) was a Danish people, Danish film director, screenwriter and an actor, both in film and on the stage. As a director, he is best known for the 1922 film ''Häxan'' (aka ''Witchcraft Thr ...

's 1922 silent film ''

Häxan ''Häxan'' (, "The Witch"; Danish: ''Heksen''; English: ''The Witches''; released in the US in 1968 as ''Witchcraft Through the Ages'') is a 1922 silent film, silent horror film, horror essay film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. C ...

''.Preview
''Independent'', 11 April 2007. Smith's soundtrack was included on a DVD of ''Häxan'' released in 2007 by

Tartan Films Palisades Tartan is a British/American film distribution company, founded by US-based Palisades Media Group to take over the film library of film distributor Tartan Films after it folded in the summer of 2008. History Tartan Films, established i ...

. Smith's next film music project was a new score for the oldest surviving animated feature film,

Lotte Reiniger Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger (2 June 1899 – 19 June 1981) was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Her best known films are ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'', from 1926, the first feature-length animated fil ...

's ''

The Adventures of Prince Achmed ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'' (known as ''Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed'' in German language, German) is a 1926 German Animation, animated Fairy tale, fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; ...

'' (1926). Smith premiered the score in 2008. Smith has also composed music (''Salome'') for the Japanese dancer Shakti.

Discography

*''Ferocious Tenderness'' (Animato, CD) *''Salome'' (Animato, CD) *''The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari'' (Animato, CD)

References

External links

Geoff Smith (official site)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Geoff 1961 births Living people Hammered dulcimer players Musicians from Brighton and Hove