David Blake (born 2 September 1936) is an English composer and founder member of the Department of Music at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

Early life and education

Blake was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Following

national service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

, he learnt

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

and spent one year in Hong Kong. He went on to read music at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

, where his teachers were

Patrick Hadley Patrick Arthur Sheldon Hadley (5 March 1899 – 17 December 1973) was a British composer. Biography Patrick Sheldon Hadley was born on 5 March 1899 in Cambridge. His father, William Sheldon Hadley, was at that time a fellow of Pembroke Coll ...

, Peter Tranchell and Raymond Leppard. He was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship for Composition in 1960, and, uniquely for a British composer of his generation, he went to

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

to study with

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

's pupil, the

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

composer

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was a German-Austrian composer. He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The ...

, as a Meisterschüler of the GDR Akademie der Künste (

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts () is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The academy's predecessor organization was founded in 1696 by Elector F ...

). During this time, he composed the first of his acknowledged compositions – the Variations for Piano and the String Quartet No. 1.Profile
Chesternovello.com

Career

In 1963, he was awarded the Granada Arts Fellowship at the newly opened

, and the following year, with Wilfrid Mellers and Peter Aston, he founded the Department of Music there. He was Lecturer in Music in the Department until 1976 and then succeeded Wilfrid Mellers as Professor. His first important commission came in 1966, from the York Festival, for his Chamber Symphony. Subsequent commissions included ''Lumina'' (soloists, chorus and large orchestra) for the 1970

Leeds Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading, Berkshire, Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend ...

; the Violin Concerto for the 1976

BBC Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

; ''Toussaint'', an opera in three acts for the

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is a British opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in E ...

, first produced in 1977 (and revived 1983); ''Rise Dove'' (solo bass and orchestra) for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

; ''The Plumber's Gift'', an opera in two acts for the English National Opera, first produced in 1989 with libretto by John Birtwhistle; and the Cello Concerto, commissioned by the BBC for the 1993 Cheltenham Festival. He also went on to found the University of York Music Press – known as UYMP – in 1995 with Bill Colleran, with a purpose to promote new and established composers with a range of aesthetic backgrounds. He retired from the University of York in 2001, but remains on the board of UYMP.

Selected list of works

His extensive output, which includes operas and orchestral works, is published by Chester Novello (to 1994) and by UYMP (after 1994).Paul Conway (October 2013). David Blake: From note-rows to musical numbers. ''

Tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

'' 67 (266): 2–17

Operas and stage works

* ''It's a Small War'', musical for schools (1962) * ''Toussaint'', opera in 3 acts (1974–77) * ''The Plumber's Gift'', opera in 2 acts (1985–88, rev, 1990). * '' Scoring A Century'' (1999) First Performance 4 March 2010 in Birmingham

Chorus and orchestra

* ''Lumina'' (words by

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

) for soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra (1969) * ''Three Ritsos Choruses'' for chorus and orchestra without violins (1993 riginal for men's voices and guitars, 1992 * ''The Fabulous Adventures of Alexander the Great'' for soloists, young people's choir and orchestra (1996)

Unaccompanied chorus

* ''Three Choruses on Poems of Robert Frost'' (1964) * ''Four Songs of Ben Jonson'' (1965) * ''What is the Cause?'' (1967)

Orchestra and chamber orchestra

* Chamber Symphony (1966) * ''Metamorphoses'' (1971) * Violin Concerto (1976) * ''Sonata alla marcia'' for chamber orchestra (1978) * ''Scherzi ed intermezzi'' (1984) * ''Pastoral Paraphrase'' for bassoon and small orchestra (1988) * Cello Concerto (1992) * ''Nocturne'' for string orchestra (1994) rrangement of A Little More Night Music for saxophone quartet, 1990

Brass band

* ''Mill Music'' (1990) * ''Winelands'' for symphonic wind ensemble (1997)

Voice with orchestra or chamber accompaniment

* ''The Bones of Chuang Tzu'' (Chang Heng, trans. Arthur Waley), cantata for baritone and small orchestra (1972, orch. 1973 riginal version baritone and piano) * ''In Praise of Krishna'' (from the Bengali) for soprano and 9 instruments (1973) * ''From the Mattress Grave'' (

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

) for high voice and 11 instruments (1978) * ''Change is Going to Come'' (various S. African poets), cantata for mezzo, baritone, chorus and 4 players (1982) * ''Rise Dove'' (

Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He ...

) for bass and orchestra (1983) * ''The Griffin's Tale'', legend for baritone and small orchestra (1994) * ''The Shades of Love'' ( Cavafy) for bass baritone and small orchestra (2000) * ''Rings of Jade'' (

Ho Chi Minh (born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...

, ''Prison Diary'') for medium voice and orchestra (2005)

Voice and piano

* ''Beata l'Alma'' (Herbert Read), cantata for soprano and piano (1966)

Chamber music

* String Quartet No. 1 (1962) * Nonet for wind instruments (1971, rev. 1978) * String Quartet No. 2 (1973) * ''Cassation'' for wind octet (1979) * Clarinet Quintet (1980) * ''Capriccio'' for 7 players (1980) * String Quartet No. 3 (1982) * ''Seasonal Variants'' for 7 players (1985) * ''Diversions on themes of Hanns Eisler'' for saxophone and piano (1995) * ''Four Intermezzi'' for violin and piano (1995) * String Quartet No. 4 (2004)

Solo instrumental

* ''Variations'' for piano (1960) * ''Scenes'' for solo cello (1972) * ''Arias'' for solo clarinet (1978) * ''Fantasia'' for solo violin (1984)

References

External links

David Blake
– Publisher's profile (Chester Novello)

– Blake founded UYMP
David Blake
– Staff profile, University of York

– Interview and Article with David Blake and Keith Warner for Scoring A Century {{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, David 1936 births 20th-century English classical composers 21st-century English classical composers English opera composers English male opera composers Living people Composers from London Academics of the University of York 20th-century English male musicians 21st-century English male musicians