Carl Davis

Carl Davis，美國的指揮家和作曲家。曾就讀于戴維斯巴德學院，參加紐約市歌劇院比賽并獲得大獎。開始活躍在英格蘭。他是倫敦愛樂樂團的指揮。 作為一個電影作曲家，他一直是音樂廳和電影音樂領軍人物。自70年代以來，他主要是做指揮家
卡爾·戴維斯(Carl Davis) 是二十世紀電影史上的活躍人物之一，大家可能還記得 1991 年 The Beatles 成員 Paul McCartney 曾經創(chuàng)作過一部《利物浦清唱劇》(Liverpool Oratorio)，合作者之一就是 Davis，不過不少評論家認為這部作品最終還是由 Davis 完成的。雖然出生在美國的布魯克林，但是 Davis 在音樂方面的成就卻是在英國取得的。
Carl Davis 1936年出生，大學畢業(yè)后曾任紐約市立交響樂團助理指揮。上世紀50年代與他人合作創(chuàng)作的音樂劇 Diversions 曾獲 Village Voice 雜志 OBIE 獎，1961年攜劇參加愛丁堡戲劇節(jié)時從此開始了在英國的音樂生涯，從此開始在英國發(fā)展。70年代中葉，Davis 為反映第二次世界大戰(zhàn)的文獻紀錄片配樂，被邀請為BBC制作的二戰(zhàn)系列紀錄片 The World at War 配樂（這一系列后來成為歷史及二戰(zhàn)題材乃至整個紀錄片題材中的經典），獲得好評而聲譽鵲起。1981年，因《法國中尉的女人》(The French Lieutenant's Woman) 獲 BAFTA 最佳配樂。
在電影配樂方面的其他重要作品包括 Champions、Scandal 和 Topsy-Turvy，電視配樂方面除了1995版《傲慢與偏見》(Pride and Prejudice) 外，還為數十部 BBC 經典改編劇集和紀錄片配樂。70年代為 BBC 介紹好萊塢默片時代的系列紀錄配樂獲得好評，此后為大量經典默片的還原進行配樂。1980 年為 Channel Four 還原的法國默片大師 Abel Gance 長達5小時的巨制《拿破侖》(Napoléon) 配樂，雖然英國對此片的還原受到法國方面的極力反對，1983年還原版在巴黎上映之后，法國文化部竟然授予 Carl Davis 藝術和文學騎士勛章。除了配樂工作之外，Davis 在創(chuàng)作、指揮和灌制唱片等多方面都有大量的作品和成就。2003年榮獲 BAFTA 終身成就特別獎。并獲得了CBE(Commander of the Order of the British Empire) 頭銜。
Since moving to England in the 1960s, American-born conductor/composer Carl Davis has been a leading figure in both the concert hall and in film music, carving out a unique niche in each. Born in New York City, Davis attended Bard College and later studied composition with Paul Nordoff, Hugo Kauder, and Per Nørgård. He served as a conductor with the New York City Opera and the Robert Shaw Chorale, and earned an award for his 1959 off-Broadway revue Diversions (written in collaboration with Steven Vinaver). He became active in England at the outset of the 1960s with the Edinburgh Festival (where Diversions was performed in 1961), and this led to his being commissioned by producer Ned Sherrin to compose the score for the satiric television series That Was the Week That Was. The success of his work on at series led to further work on British television and, later, commissions from the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Davis first began gaining international recognition in 1973, when he was engaged to write the score for Thames Television's landmark 26-hour documentary series The World at War, which was an immediate hit in the United States and was widely shown for decades after — his grim, often irony-laced scoring was among the most haunting ever heard in a television series.
As a film composer, Carl Davis has worked on notable contemporary movies, most notably The French Lieutenant's Woman, which won him a British Academy Award and an Ivor Novello Award. His most unusual film work, however, has been in the authorship of new scores for such renowned silent films as the European restoration of Abel Gance's Napoleon , Ben-Hur: A Story of the Christ, Phantom of the Opera, and The Thief of Bagdad. Davis has scored more than fifty silent films, earning him the sobriquet "Mr. Silent Movie," and by 2005 Davis had scored all twelve of Charlie Chaplin's Mutual films, key early Chaplin shorts that Chaplin had not scored himself. Davis' score for Napoleon earned him the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture in 1983, and he had the privelege of returning to Napoleon when a new five-and-a-half hour long restoration was unveiled in 2005.
Since the 1970s, Carl Davis has been an active recording artist, principally as a conductor, most notably for EMI with a collection of film music by Sir William Walton and on the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's own imprint with a compilation of his own film music. In 1991, Davis assisted Paul McCartney in the composition of Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio, and subsequntly Davis led the Royal Liverpool Philarmonic's Summer Pops Concert series from 1993 to 2001. Davis has also written concert works, including a symphony, a clarinet concerto; a fantasy for flute, strings, and harpsichord; and a programmatic work entitled A Circle of Stones. Ballet is a form in which Davis is particularly productive, and his ballets include A Christmas Carol, A Simple Man, Alice in Wonderland and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Davis' ballet of Cyrano de Bergerac is slated to appear in the Spring of 2007. Though American born, in 2006 Davis was awarded an honorary CBE from the British government for his contrbutions to music.