David Solomons - composer

British Composers Project
	David W Solomons

David has been composing since 1969, concentrating initially on trios and works for alto and classical guitar, and branching out into many chamber music genres over the last decade.
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Beetle's Wings. This song is based on a poem by Audrey Vaughan and is performed here David himself.

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Biographical Notes

David began his musical career relatively late, taking up the violin at the ripe old age of 14 and the guitar a few years after that. Most of his musical expression in composition has been based on the principle of "learning by doing" liberally seasoned with collaborations with other somewhat more musicologically trained musicians. The first of these collaborations, as far back as 1969, was with two pen-friends in France and Germany, giving rise to several trios for the unusual combination of violin trumpet and piano.

David moved on to Christ Church at Oxford University in 1972, to study French and German and also began to sing on a regular basis, initially vying with the visiting ladies in the College Choir for the top notes, but eventually settling on alto as his preferred range. At Oxford he met lots of great musicians, two of whom had important influences on his compositional style: Chris Benson, who introduced him to the beauties of the cello and also of the Beatles and the guitarist Gerald Garcia, with whom he played the odd duet from time to time.

By the time he had finished his degree and went to Westminster College in 1976 to do teacher training, he had built up a considerable repertoire of songs, and got right into the musical life there as a violinist, guitarist, composer and singer, performing in Fiddler on the Roof (as orchestral guitarist), the Sea Symphony (as a tenor!!) and "Quadrangles", a college concert, which saw the first public performance of his first choral work "Song to Idleness".

His music (including some of his most romantic pieces for cello) continued to develop during his brief language teaching jobs in Strasbourg and Oakham but he finally decided to leave teaching, joined the Civil Service, and moved to London.
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By 1981 his sight-reading had improved enough to sing at a city church and he joined the choir at St Michael's Cornhill. Those were heady days, filled with lots of brain-stretching sight reading, a little match-making (!), lots of champagne buffets at various luxuriously appointed guildhalls, and oodles of concerts to sing in. His own compositions, however, were confined mainly to his own four walls….

In 1991 he had to move up North with his job in the translation service, so he bade farewell to St Michael's and moved quickly into the musical life of Manchester Cathedral, singing alto in its various choirs. The music department there has been supportive to his compositional side over the years also, and various of his pieces have been performed there, including the Manchester Magnificat, a carol called Alleyways and his Mass for men's voices.

His composing has also been supported in various fruitful ways by the North-West Composers Association, Da Capo Music, Tubalaté, Musik Fabrik, and online organisations such as the Classical Music Makers and Kalvos and Damian's Music Bazaar. As a result of this, his compositions have now been heard at many concerts, on CDs, and also online. Many of them have been published by Da Capo Music Ltd, Musik Fabrik and Zimbel Press.

Over this time David's compositional style has developed but he has always remained true to the principle that a good memorable tune is what counts. This is true not only for his works in the more common modes but also for his whole tone, octatonic and atonal compositions.

David has his own website www.dwsolo.com which contains links to his publishers and to a large number of sound files of his works.

Selected Works

published by Musik Fabrik
for full list and audio extracts see www.classicalmusicnow.com/solomonsengl.htm: The Hubbard Saga for adult and children's choirs and chamber orchestra; Henry's Tune for saxophone quartet; Nocturne and Petticoat Lane for clarinet and piano; Rose Fantasia for bass saxophone and strings; Not quite French Suite and My Quiddity for organ solo; Something for luck for recorder trio; Suite for recorder and piano
Works published by Da Capo Music Ltd. These include:
for full list and audio extracts see www.dwsolo.com/dsdacapo.htm: String quartet No 1 and String Quintet No 1; Alleyways a carol for choir; Mass for men's voices and organ; Orientations for violin and piano; Songs of Solomons for countertenor and piano and for countertenor and guitar; Five classical guitar solos; Pieces of Eight and Prayer before the Close of Day for tuba and euphonium quartet
Works published by Zimbel Press
for full list see www.zimbel.com/solomons.html: Prelude on "Gelobt Sei Gott" for organ solo; Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for SATB and organ; Sing a new song to the Lord for SATB (with splits) and organ
Unpublished works
available direct from the composer in Finale format at davidsolomons@composer.co.uk
These include: Suite for 13 part recorder orchestra; Melissanthi settings for alto and guitar
see www.dwsolo.com/melissanthi.htm; 4 German Folksongs arranged for alto, tenor and piano (or classical guitar); Communion Service for choir and congregation; Manchester Magnificat for choir, solos, organ and piano, or the original version for choir, solos and orchestra

More recently David's works have been included in various commercial CDs including:

Tuba quartets performed by Tubalaté Here is the Rag from the octatonic suite Pieces of Eight which appears on the CD Earth and Moon.
Songs for countertenor and piano performed by Stephen Taylor and Jonathan Leonard Haiku. This is part of the Haviranosan No Haiku from that CD
Nursery Rhymes involving animal sounds in collaboration with Lorin Nelson. CD Wildlife in the Nursery

Details of all these CDs (and others, when they appear) are posted on David's CD page www.dwsolo.com/dwscds.htm

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To contact David please e-mail davidsolomons@composer.co.uk.