David Harries

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David John Harries (24 March 1933 – 25 December 2002) was a Welsh composer and lecturer.

David Harries
File:DavidJohnHarries.jpg File:DavidJohnHarries.jpg Welsh Composer
Born	David John Harries (1933-03-24)24 March 1933 Portsmouth, England
💀Died	25 December 2002(2002-12-25) (aged 69) Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales25 December 2002(2002-12-25) (aged 69)
💼 Occupation	Composer
🏢 Organization	Welsh College of Music & Drama
👩 Spouse(s)	Alwena Evans (m. 1976)
👶 Children	5
👴 👵 Parents	John (Jack) Harries (father) Elizabeth Thomas (mother)
👪 Relatives	Ethel Jessie Harries (sister)

Biography

Harries, although born in England in 1933, described himself essentially as a Welsh composer. He insisted, however, that he was a composer who happened to be Welsh, rather than a Welshman who happened to be a composer!

Educated at Pembroke Grammar School and University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, he graduated in 1954 and obtained the higher doctorate (D.Mus.) in 1964. After some years of school teaching in Staffordshire and Pembrokeshire, Harries returned to Aberystwyth in 1963, first as a lecturer and then senior lecturer in Music. In 1975 he moved to Penarth and had been at the Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, for the first ten years as Head of Performer’s Course and then as Composer-in-residence and Head of Composition until he retired in 1993. He was described as one of Wales’ most talented composers of his generation.

In addition to this, he was Chief Examiner in Music at Advanced Level for the Welsh Joint Education Committee for a number of years, and also an External Examiner in Music at Bangor Normal College.

Harries was known mainly as a composer, and his major works include an opera, a symphony, concertos for piano, violin and clarinet, as well as much chamber, choral and solo vocal music. His works were frequently broadcast and had appeared in most major festivals, including the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. He was also a pianist and conductor. Harries’ works can be found at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth having been donated by his family in 2017.

As an adjudicator, Harries served many times at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the Newport Piano Competition, the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Competition for Welsh Youth, the Amoco-Dyfed Instrumental Festival and numerous competitions for composers. He was also a member of the Welsh Arts Council’s panel for Awards to Young Artists and on the selection panel of the European Community Youth Orchestra. Before Harries retired he was an adjudicator for many years for the Texaco Young Musician of Wales.

Some works which received wide acclaim include: ‘The Sleeping Lord’ for tenor & piano quintet (Swansea Festival, 1983); ‘Myfyrdod’ for orchestra (based on the Stuttgart stained glass at St David’s Hall, Cardiff); ‘Carillons’ for harp (for Caryl Thomas and the North Wales Music Festival); Piano Sonata No.2 (Fishguard Festival, 1986, also played by Cardiff pianist Simon Shewring which was aired on Radio 3)

A concert in Neuadd Dewi Sant, Cardiff on 13 December, 1985 included the first performance of his ‘Hymn to the Virgin’ for female voices (the Grace Williams Singers) and harp (Elinor Bennett) – a setting of the oldest extant poem in English by a Welshman, dating from 1470.

With the help of Ty Cerdd, recordings of Harries’ works can be heard, one of which was performed by Cantorion John S. Davies Singers titled ‘O Come, Let us Sing unto the Lord, Op.24 No.2’ and the other ‘Piano Quintet, Op.20’.

‘Prolegomena’, as the opus number suggests, is a very early piece, dating from 1959, when the composer was a mere 26 years of age and had just completed the then compulsory national service! At that stage of his life he was very convinced of the relevance of serialism in music (but had since, he insisted, mellowed considerably). The title itself derived from the composer’s deep interest at that time in philosophy (one of his subjects while at university), and was used in its sense of ‘introductory studies’. Thus, the work was intended as a set of introductory studies for the players in both string technique and in contemporary idioms. It was first performed by the strings of the Hallé Orchestra under Maurice Handford in 1961.

Harries took early retirement to concentrate on composition.

He died at his home in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan and is buried at St Lawrence Churchyard, Lavernock, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.

List of works

Op.1 Introduction & Allegro for String Quintet (1952) National Eisteddfod Prize

Op.2 String Quartet No.1 (1953)

Op.3 Two Comments on the Tragedy of Antigone for Chamber Orchestra (1953)

Op.4 Missa Brevis for Chorus & Orchestra (1954)

Op.5 Piano Sonatina (1955)

Op.6 Sonata for Percussion (1956)

Op.7 Victimae Paschali Motet for Chorus SATB (1956)

Op.8 Three Stanzas for Harp (1956) Published by Stainer & Bell/Galaxy Inc, USA

Op.9 Sinfonia da Camera for twelve instruments (1956-59)

Op.10 Canticle No.1 for tenor & piano (1956-61) Seven settings for Anglo-Welsh poets

Op.11 Prolegomena variations for String Orchestra (1959)

Op.12 Epithalamium for two violins (1960)

Op.13 String Quartet (withdrawn) (1960)

Op.14 Noctuary No.1 for Chorus & Strings (1961) Five settings of Gerard Manley Hopkins poems, BBC Commission

Op.20 Piano Quintet (1964) Commissioned by Aberystwyth Arts Festival - I. Moderato; II. Lento; III. Vivo

Op.41 Hwiangerdd (Blodeugerdd) (1976) three pieces of guitar

References

This article "David Harries" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:David Harries. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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