CARL DAVIS

(28 October 1936 - 3 August 2023)

The American-born British conductor and composer Carl Davis, who has died following a brain haemorrhage at the age of 86, was a highly creative musician who wrote over 200 scores for films and TV. He was a fine composer of orchestral and concertante works for musicals, dramas and dance. His film output was phenomenal, covering classic silent movies such as Abel Gance’s Napoleon, D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance, Fred Niblo’s Ben-Hur, Chaplin’s City Lights and Von Stroheim’s Greed. But there was much more.

Carl Davis was born in Brooklyn to Jewish parents, Isadore and Sara Davis. His studies included musical composition and he attended Bard College in New York state. He began conducting with New York City Opera and the Robert Shaw Chorale. In 1959 he co-authored a revue which came to the Edinburgh Festival and led him to write for the BBC’s late-night show That Was the Week That Was. His BBC work also included writing the intro for The Wednesday Play series and Play for Today. This led to the TV series Pride and Prejudice, inspired by classical themes. Much TV work followed with The Naked Civil Servant, Private Schultz, Oppenheimer, Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, The Hound of the Baskervilles and Upstairs, Downstairs (2010). He also wrote the theme for the coverage of the 2000 Fifa World Cup, and for Thames TV he wrote his memorable score for The World at War.

After Kevin Brownlow and David Gill commissioned Davis to write music for Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film in 1980, Davis wrote for the silent classics (see above). There never were ‘silent’ films because they were always accompanied by mood music on a piano or by a small group. But Davis’s scores for silent pictures gave them an extra boost and grandeur. He also scored documentaries on Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and some of the silent films were issued on DVD, giving them a brand-new life.

Davis also wrote for modern feature films, including The Bofors Gun, Up Pompeii and Up the Chastity Belt, Man Friday, Champions, Scandal and The Rainbow. He wrote dance music for performances of Nijinsky and Chaplin, the Tramp for Bratislava National Ballet, The Great Gatsby for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, The Phantom and Christine for Shanghai Ballet, Aladdin for Scottish Ballet, Cyrano for Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Lady of the Camellias for Croatian National Ballet. Among other works was The Liverpool Oratorio, a collaboration with Paul McCartney, a vast choral piece to mark 150 years of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

Carl Davis was married to the actress Jean Boht and they have two daughters, Hannah Louise and Jessie Jo, who are both filmmakers. With the passing of Carl Davis, the film industry, the theatre world and the concert hall have all lost a musical genius.

MICHAEL DARVELL