Composer

Biography

Denis Smalley was born in New Zealand in 1946. He studied music at the University of Canterbury and the Victoria University of Wellington (Mus.B. and B.Mus honours) prior to studying in Paris with Messiaen, and with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (Diplôme de Musique Electroacoustique et de Recherche Musicale, Paris Conservatoire). He then moved to England, living initially in York where he completed a doctorate in composition at the University of York. Until 1994 he was Senior Lecturer in Music and Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studio at the University of East Anglia. He is now Professor of Music at City University, London.

Denis Smalley been active as a composer of electroacoustic music for thirty years, and his works have been widely acclaimed, winning a number of international awards including the Prix Ars Electronica in 1988. He has made original contributions to thinking about electroacoustic music, in particular his investigations into the listener’s perception of electroacoustic music, and his development of the notion of spectromorphology (the shaping of sound spectra through time). His most recent major writing was published in Organised Sound (12) 1: Space-form and the Acousmatic Image.

His music first appeared on CD in the Wergo Computer Music Currents series – both Wind Chimes and Clarinet Threads were included. Three CDs of his music are available: Valley Flow, Piano Nets, Clarinet Threads, Wind Chimes, and Darkness After Time’s Colours on the Empreintes Digitales label (Canada); Névé on Effects Input (Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Marseille); and Base Metals, Empty Vessels,,Tides and Pentes on Empreintes Digitales.