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David Harvey: Guitarist, composer, arranger 

New!

Arrangements and original works now available for sale here (and some are free!)

Prehistory: Academia 

I graduated in music at Oxford University in 1980, and stayed on to produce a doctoral thesis on the music of Elliott Carter. This was submitted and accepted in 1986, and subsequently published in the USA by Garland Press Inc. I taught for various Oxford colleges from 1983 to 1986, and held a temporary lectureship at the University of Reading, 1984-85. I specialised in music theory and analysis, presenting courses in analytical method, publishing articles and reviews on twentieth century music, and running the Oxford University seminar on musical analysis for a couple of terms. 

Performance 

My first professional appearance as a guitarist was at the age of 15, with the North-West based contemporary music ensemble Normedia (Dick Witts, where are you now...). I studied guitar with Gordon Crosskey and later with Carlos Bonell, and achieved honours in the ARCM performers' examination in 1981. 

In the 1980s I performed a great deal as a solo guitarist and ensemble player, in particular in contemporary music ensembles. I enjoyed a long association with Music Projects London, played with the Koenig Ensemble on occasion and was a regular member of the Almeida Festival Ensemble. I ran an ensemble Mandala, consisting of guitar, violin/viola, flutes(piccolo to bass) and keyboard. 

Both as a soloist and with these groups I participated in many world, European and UK premiers. I am particularly proud to have been the dedicatee and first performer of Bayan Northcott's extroardinary Fantasia for guitar, one of the most striking contributions to the instruments repertoire in the past half-century. It is published by Stainer and Bell, and has been recorded by David Starobin on his Bridge label. If you are at all interested in the guitar's new repertoire, you should check it out. 

Nowadays, I have less energy to devote to recitals, but I still play three or four times a year, often with other musicians. Having been given the guitar part of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranuez by my father when I first started playing, oh - way back, I finally got around to performing it in 1995, with the Misbourne Orchestra. Before long the following will link to some sample programmes and repertoire: 

  • Solo recitals 
  • Guitar duet 
  • Flute and Guitar 
  • Guitar and Harpsichord 

Compositions 

I've composed since my schooldays. Getting involved in the world of computers since the mid-1980s has slowed this down too, but recently the music has come back on tap. My list of compositions not surprisingly includes music for guitar solo, duet and chamber music, but there are also many works for other instrumental combinations. The list now includes pieces to print and play. 

Arrangements 

The abiding vice of guitarists. An annotated list of arrangements, with extracts, is under preparation: this includes 
  • J.S. Bach: Partita no.1 BWV 825, for two guitars 
  • J.S. Bach: Preludes and fugues from the '48', book 1: No 9 (original E major) and 13 (F# major), for two guitars 
  • Debussy: La puerta del vino (Preludes, book II), for two guitars 
  • Handel: Sonata in C, Op 1 no 7, for flute and guitar 
  • Elgar: Chanson du Matin, for violin and guitar 
Many of these arrangements and selected original works now available to view annd buy using Sibelius Scorch here.

Midi files 

I'm now the proud owner of a Yamaha SW60XG soundcard, and very impressive it is too. As time goes on I'll be adding to this on-line collection of midi files. 
  • Original compositions

    • Selected works, some also available in score. 
  • The Purcell Project

    • In progress, a representative selection of works by the master of the English Baroque. Also links to other Purcell pages around the world. 

Links to other musical sites 

Guitar 

Lute

Software 

  • Sibelius professional music notation.
  • KeyKit is a programming environment for midi. Based around an awk-like language with object-oriented extensions (and featuring an extensible gui environment written in the language itself) it's a great playground for exploring midi and algorithmic composition. And it's free, too.

Midi

Links 

  • The Sibelius Academy in Finland has pointers to many other resources.
  • Arto Wikla maintains a large and eclectic collection of links with an early-music bias.
  • CPCC - a virtual composers' collective (it's the collective that's virtual, not the composers...)

Other 

  • As a sometime scraper of the ill-famed doom-box, I can relate to the web archive of Viola Jokes. 
  • The Naxos CD catalog is fast becoming the most interesting and varied of any label. The early music in particular is superb. 
I'm always looking for new musical links. Mail me if you run an interesting site!. 
Contact
Created 25 June 1996 
Last modified 5 April 2004