David John Lang has been a composer for as long as he can remember. He formed an early attachment to the family piano and record player, and, from the age of about five, he and a friend from up the street co-wrote a series of Percussion Compositions, making use of various kitchen utensils. A few years later he began learning the piano and trumpet.
David attended Marryatville High School as a Special Interest Music Student. This meant he studied music as a double-subject and was involved in many orchestras, choirs and jazz groups. He loved it so much that, despite the protestations of his chemistry teacher, he resolved to pursue music as a career.
He went on to study a Bachelor of Music Studies (majoring in Composition) at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, graduating with First Class Honours in 2012, supervised by Graeme Koehne. His other teachers here included David Harris, John Polglase and Charles Bodman Rae. He attended three of the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camps during this time (twice as a composer and once as a writer), and in July 2012 he participated as a composer in the four-week Atlantic Music Festival, held in Waterville, Maine, USA. What he gets up to next is anyone’s guess, but David knows that it will involve writing a lot more music, as this is what he loves doing most of all.
David’s composition work takes many forms, from ambitious orchestral projects to late-night songwriting with his cousin Emma. He has written for choirs, orchestras, short films, theatre, fun and friends.
When not writing music, David loves writing about music and is well-known in Adelaide as a writer of concert program notes. He also works in a music library.
To escape from music, David enjoys walking in the Adelaide Hills (although sometimes composition follows him up there), reading, and eating Haigh’s chocolate.
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David's notes on Harry's Fugue:
Harry’s Fugue was written in January 2014, and is my first attempt at a “proper” fugue – one of the trickiest forms in music. The theme started out as a flute melody: a birthday present for my friend Harry (hence the title). But then I realised that it would be much better suited to the four saxes of Rhapsodie Sax Quartet. You will hear what I mean – it’s quite a robust, jazzy sort of theme, accompanied by finger-clicking and foot-stomping. It gets the full “fugue” treatment: the four saxes fight each other for the theme, which is unravelled, knotted together, tangled up and untied, over and over again. Eventually they wrestle it together into a unison C.
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You can hear Harry's Fugue along with many other great pieces at 'Sax to the Max'. Purchase tickets here!