David Fanshawe (born 1942 in Devon, England) is an English composer and ethnomusicologist. His work is situated at the crossroads of traditional and modern music. 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Devon is a large county in South West England, bordering on Cornwall to the west, Dorset and Somerset to the east. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Ethnomusicology (from the Greek ethnos = nation and mousike = music), formerly comparative musicology, is the study of music in its cultural context, cultural musicology. ... Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and for the common people. ... Modern music is music that is part of either the movement of musical modernism or the era of 20th century music, or is contemporary music. ...

Life

Educated at St George's Choir School and Stowe School he started his career as a musician and producer for documentary films. He studied composition under John Lambert at the Royal College of Music. He became widely known with composition of choral works. Besides vocal pieces, he also composed the score for more than 50 films and TV productions. Stowe School is a well known British public school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire. ... See: John Lambert, Parliamentary general in the English Civil War. ... // The Royal College of Music from Prince Consort Road, London The Royal College of Music is a prestigious music school located in Kensington, London. ...

During a ten-year odyssey across the islands of the Pacific Ocean begun in 1978, he collected several thousand hours of indigenous music, and documented the music and oral traditions of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia in journals and photographs. Carving from the ridgepole of a Māori house, ca 1840 Look up Polynesia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

He currently lives in Wiltshire in England. Wiltshire (abbreviated Wilts) is a large southern English county. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq...

Work

Fanshawe's best-known work is a mass, African Sanctus. In this piece, the Latin Mass is juxtaposed with live recordings of traditional African music, which the composer had recorded himself. The work consists of 13 movements and follows the journey of the composer through Africa. The recordings are from Egypt, the Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the fixed portions of the Eucharistic liturgy (principally that of the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, generally known in the US as the Episcopal Church, and also the Lutheran Church) to music. ... Sanctus is the Latin word for holy, and is the name of an important hymn of Christian liturgy. ... The term Latin Mass has several meanings: The traditional Latin Rite Mass of the Roman Catholic Church, generally known as the Tridentine Mass, promulgated by the Council of Trent and subsequently revised on various occasions, culminating in the Roman Missal of 1962. ... Africa is a large and diverse continent, consisting of dozens of countries, hundreds of languages and thousands of races, tribes and ethnic groups. ... For other uses, see Africa (disambiguation). ...

Works (selection)

• African Sanctus, a work for choir, soloists, percusssion and tapes
  • from which The Lord's Prayer is also performed separately
• Dona Nobis Pacem - A Hymn for World Peace
• Dover Castle
• Requiem for the Children of Aberfan
• The Awakening
• Planet Earth - Fanfare and March
• Serenata

Aberfan (in Welsh the f is pronounced like a v in standard English) is a small village 5 miles (8 km) south of Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. ...

External links

• Composer's website
• African Sanctus website
• Biography of Fanshawe