Welcome to DavidGortonMusic.com, the website for composer David Gorton.
"intricately atmospheric" (The Observer)
“lyrical without being soft, complex without being threatening, cool without being cold. It is intricately crafted, but it wears its intelligence lightly.” (The Rambler)
“combines an acute imagination for delicate timbral invention with a prodigious command of the unfolding of this half-hour ritual drama” (The Independent)
The music of British composer David
Gorton is difficult to pin down and to categorize. While it clearly fits within
what can broadly be described as contemporary classical music, it sits uneasily
with what that might normally imply. Certainly a number of his works are
experimental in outlook, with an interest in microtones and alternative tuning
systems, and a fascination with frenzy, complexity, and virtuosity for its own
sake. Yet other works are fragile, meditative, and transcendent in character,
with a melancholic lyricism and harmonies that, while not tonal in a functional
sense, owe much to the consonance and dissonance of the natural harmonic
series. And while his works are performed by specialist contemporary music
ensembles, and he has a particular interest in building collaborative
relationships with virtuosic performers, he has also written music for beginners,
amateurs, and students to perform. Yet these apparent antinomies cease to be
problematic when viewed from the perspective of 'contradiction' as an artistic endeavor
in its own right; an outlook that derives perhaps from the contradictory
landscapes of the south Lincolnshire fens from where Gorton originates.
David Gorton studied composition with Harrison
Birtwistle and Simon Bainbridge. He teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in
London.