David Fanshawe
| David Fanshawe | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 19 April 1942 |
| Died | 5 July 2010 |
| Occupation | English composer, ethnomusicology and self-styled explorer |
David Arthur Fanshawe (19 April 1942 – 5 July 2010) was an English composer, ethnomusicologist and self-styled explorer. His best-known composition is the 1972 choral work African Sanctus.
Fanshawe was born in Paignton in Devon in 1942. His father was a successful officer in the Royal Artillery who played a central role in the planning of D-Day. His stories of military service in India fired his son's enthusiasm for travel and adventure. David Fanshawe's first ambition was to be an explorer but when he attended St George's School, Windsor Castle and Stowe School he discovered a love of music. However, his severe dyslexia prevented him from reading a musical score and becoming a chorister.
At Stowe School he spent much of his spare time learning to play the piano, and when he was 17 he was discovered by the mother of a schoolfriend, a French baroness, who tutored him in the piano even after he left the school in 1959. He started his adult career as a musician and film editor for a small production company in Wimbledon in London who made documentary films. In 1965 Fanshawe won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition under John Lambert. During his holidays he continued to travel widely in Europe and the Middle East. During a summer spent hitchhiking in Afghanistan he heard Islamic music for the first time and was immediately attracted to its beauty. During further travels in Iraq and Bahrain he recorded the traditional music he heard.
On completing his studies in 1969 Fanshawe travelled up the Nile from the Mediterranean Sea, visiting Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya over a three-year period before finally reaching Lake Victoria. He brought a small stereo tape recorder on his journey and would persuade local musicians to play for him. Returning to the United Kingdom in 1972 with several hundreds of hours of recordings made during his travels, Fanshawe used the material to compose what became his best known work, African Sanctus. After this work he became widely known for the composition of choral works. Besides vocal pieces, he also composed the score for films and television, including films such as Tarka the Otter (1979) and Dirty Weekend (1993), and TV productions such as the BBC's Softly, Softly: Taskforce and When the Boat Comes In, and ITV's The Feathered Serpent, Flambards and The Good Companions. His ethnic field recordings have featured in countless TV documentaries, including Musical Mariner and Tropical Beat, as well as various feature films including Mountains of the Moon, How to Make an American Quilt, Seven Years in Tibet and Gangs of New York.
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