Music Webmaster Len Mullenger
Dr David Wright was born on the Isle of Wight on 21 June 1946. He read medical law at Portsmouth and was an external student at the Royal College of Music, London studying with Humphrey Searle and Sir Adrian Boult. He has composed a great deal of music, the earlier works having been performed by the RCM orchestra. Of particular interest is his Cello Concerto written for a Vietnamese student who died tragically shortly after the work's first performance.
Since the late 1980s, Dr Wright has devoted his musical energies to writing about, and promoting British and Irish composers. There are about thirty biographies so far, which Music on the Web (UK) is making available on the Internet. His tireless efforts have had some success and, in addition, several composers actively seek his advice. One composer, John Veale, has dedicated his Symphony No.3 to Dr Wright and another, Reginald Smith Brindle admits to 'being inspired to compose again owing to Dr Wright's encouragement'.
As a practising Christian, 'twice lapsed and twice restored', he has written a great amount of moral and theological works including, The Unacceptable Face of Christianity, and Righteousness. In fact, he has been called an 'intellectual moralist' by which is meant that the close observation of the ten commandments and other Biblical teaching will result in far less crime and emotional and mental pain.
He is a member of the Fritz Reiner Society, the British Music Society and an active campaigner against all forms of child abuse about which he has written extensively. His outspoken exegeses have not endeared him to everyone and he has been branded a controversialist whereas, in fact, he is a dissenter, a person who openly disagrees with immorality and amorality. He has received various awards and degrees from both sides of the Atlantic and in 1997 achieved his Doctor of Philosophy degree by research.
He has two daughters by his first wife.
David is a major contributor to this web site. His ever-growing list of biographies and articles is as follows:
(updated Sept 2002. Any not highlighted will gradually become available)Autobiography (extract)
Denis ApIvor
Richard Arnell
Agnes Baltsa
Samuel Barber
David Barlow
Walter Beckett
Ludwig van Beethoven
Lennox Berkeley
Boris Blacher
Luigi Boccherini
Johannes Brahms
Reginald Smith Brindle
James Brown
John Buckley
Amélie-Julie Candeille
Rhona Clarke
Muzio Clementi
Aaron Copland
Robert Crawford
Fiona Cross
Cedric Thorpe Davie
Edgar Deale
Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf
Franco Donatoni
David Dorward
Andrew Downes
Paul Dukas
Antonin Dvorak
(Elgar Symphony No.3) Whose Symphony is it?
Rosalind Ellicott
Irving Fine
Aloys Fleischmann
Peter Racine Fricker
John Gardner
Don Carlo Gesualdo
Ruth Gipps
Richard Hall
Iain Hamilton
Karl Amadeus Hartmann
Josef Haydn
Gustav Holst
Mary Howe
Peter Katin
John Larchet
Jean Marie Leclair
Locatelli and the Early Italians
Elizabeth Lutyens
Sergei Lyapunov
Elizabeth MacConchy
Marin Marais
William Mathias
Frederick May
Miaskovsky
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Luigi Nono
Sean O'Riada
Ian Parrott
Paul Patterson
Quincy Porter
Sergey Prokofiev
Joachim Raff
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Josef Rheinberger
Joseph Guy-Ropartz
Ned Rorem
Hans Rott
Francis Routh
Albert Roussel
Humphrey Searle
Matyas Seiber
Roger Sessions
Reginald Smith Brindle
Ethyl Smyth
Patric Standford
Jane Stirling
Michael Tippett
Joan Trimble
Fartein Valen
John Veale
Gerard Victory
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Melinda Wagner
Richard Wagner
William Walton
Anton Webern
Ralph Vaughan Williams 4th Symphony
Grace Williams
James Wilson
Hugo Wolf
Philip Wood
David Wynne
Articles on Musicians
Michelangeli
Bryden Thomson .. an obituary
An Interview with Peter Katin
Fiona Cross - a portrait
Judith Buckle ... a portrait
George Weldon
Andy Anson
Miscellaneous Articles
Vaughan Williams and his Fourth SymphonyWhat makes a Great composer?
What makes a Great Conductor?
The Friendship of Myaskovsky and Prokofiev
The film music of John Veale
Music Critics and Writers
Opinion orFact?
Singing and Vocal Technique
THE HISTORY OF MUSIC 1. Earliest times to the Renaissance
HISTORY OF MUSIC Part 2 Music of the Renaissance and Reformation Periods
HISTORY OF MUSIC 3. Approaching the Baroque era
HISTORY OF MUSIC 4. Early American Music (1620-1800)
HISTORY OF MUSIC AMERICAN MUSIC OF THE NINETEEN CENTURY Dr David C F Wright
Book Reviews
Vagn Holmboe. Experiencing Music
Dallapiccola on Opera
Letters of Villa Lobos
The BDP Music Society
Behind the Facade ... Lady Walton
Jacqueline DuPré by Carol Easton
Music of Vivian Fine
Reviews by Linda Karen Dowson
Lily Pons book review
Fanny Mendelssohn book review
Callas, the Greek Years book review
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