Musician and composer (1913–1983)
Cedric Thorpe Davie OBE (30 May 1913 – 18 January 1983) was a musician and composer, most notably of film scores such as The Green Man in 1956. A high proportion of his film and documentary music and his concert pieces have a Scottish theme.[1]
Life
He was born in Lewisham in south London,[2] the son of Thorpe Davie, a music teacher and choir master.[3] The family moved to Glasgow early in his life and he attended the High School of Glasgow.[4]
He studied at the Scottish National Academy of Music in Glasgow and the Royal Academy of Music in London. In London he studied piano with Egon Petri and Harold Craxton, and horn by Aubrey Brain. His composition teachers were Ralph Vaughan Williams and Dr R. O. Morris. In 1935 he travelled to both Helsinki and Budapest for further training under Yrjo Kilpinen and Zoltán Kodály, returning to Glasgow in 1936 where he began lecturing in music.[5] Early works include the Piano Trio in C minor (1932), the Phantasie Quartet (1935), the one act opera Gammer Gurton's Needle (1936) and the Concerto for Piano and Strings (1944).[3]
In the Second World War he served in the National Fire Service covering the Glasgow docklands (an area of intense bombing). His Symphony in C major “In Honour of My Brother” was entered for the Daily Express symphony competition of 1945, coming second to the Symphony of Liberation by Bernard Stevens. It was first performed at the Royal Albert Hall on 7 July 1946, conducted by Constant Lambert. After the war Davie moved to St Andrews University as Master of Music, being raised to full Professor of Music in 1973.[6]
He was involved in the newly created Edinburgh Festival in the 1950s, and oversaw production of important new Scottish musical works such as Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaites.[5] He was fond of putting Scottish literary works to music, including: Sunset Song, Cloud Howe, The Beggar's Benison, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, and Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd.[7] The Diversions on a theme of Thomas Arne was played at the Last Night of the Proms in 1955. He also wrote the music for the Edinburgh Gateway Company's production of Robert Kemp's musical Marigold in 1955.[8]
In 1955 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).[4] In 1978, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir Thomas Malcolm Knox, J. Steven Watson, Sir Norman Graham, Norman Gash, GWS Barrow and Anthony Elliot Ritchie.[4]
He lived in St John's Town of Dalry, Kirkcudbrightshire and died there on 18 January 1983.[9]
Davie also wrote a book on musical form: Musical Structure and Design (1953). A substantial collection of his manuscripts and scores is held by the University of St Andrews.[10] Few of his works have been recorded: an exception is the Royal Mile Coronation March of 1952.[11] In 2013, St Andrews University held a special event to mark the centenary of Davie's birth.
Family
In 1937, he married Margaret Russell Brown. She died on 1 October 1974. They had two sons: Anthony John Thorpe Davie (17 November 1939 – 8 January 2003); and Stephen William Thorpe Davie (born 8 April 1945).[2]
