Episode 16: Joseph Davies

Dear friends, hope you’re all well.

Another very special episode here for you. I recorded a podcast with my previous composition module supervisor when I was in my penultimate year at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. I am not the most talented composer and I have immense respect for creatives who can do it well and for a large scale. Hats off!

I still remember the pieces I composed for Joseph back in the day - a three-movement piano sonata (inspired by Scriabin’s Third) and a string quartet playing around with the philosophy of Serialism. I never liked to use the music notation programme Sibelius for my drafts, much preferring the tangibility and the uniqueness of your own handwriting on manuscripts.

Please enjoy this episode with the wonderful Joseph Davies!

Timestamps: 

(0:41) Teaching Composition 

(5:59) Compositional pastiches 

(11:50) Composition students

(13:20) The elements of music when starting to compose 

(21:37) Failure in composition and as a composer 

(25:48) Studying at Oxford and RAM

(30:42) Music and Literature 

(39:12) Asking someone in History one question