My live orchestral score for Cappelli Miles' live-action/animated commercial for Acorn Dentistry. Very obviously composed to evoke the rich, joyous vibes of Disney soundtracks and to match the traditional hand-drawn animation. Recorded by the Cape Town Philharmonic at Milestone Studios, with additional guitar and choral samples by me. See the piece being recorded here:  https://youtu.be/o7ipHJiRP5Y

"A Magical Place" - Acorn Dentistry, 30s (live orchestra TV spot)

One of 8 15s orchestral cues I composed for Cappelli Miles' "Over the Moon" campaign for The Mattress Company. The 8 cues all followed the same musical framework, with different sections or instruments highlighting different moods. This, my favourite, evokes a child's wonder at the stars.

"Over the Moon" - The Mattress Company (orchestra, 15s TV spot 3)

Another of my "Over the Moon" cues. This was the only substantially different one, where the client requested the orchestral music slowed down significantly with a solo violin (recorded by Leos Strings) soaring over the top.

"Over the Moon" - The Mattress Company (orchestra & live violin, 15s TV spot 6)

An unhappy piano piece. Mockup with Spitfire Audio LABS' Soft Piano.

Forgetting (Dave Dexter)

A wonderful live recording of my setting of the Robert Frost poem. This piece was composed for Lux in 2020 and premiered by them in their "Traditions Renewed" concert in Jan 2023.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (performed by Lux Choir 1/7/23) - Dave Dexter

Two short tracks composed for "FLOAT3RS", by Joseph Roberts and Karl Poyzer. One piece of blissful spa vibes, and an arrangement of Technicolour's theme in a similar feel. Get relaxed.

Floaters

FLOAT3RS - Credits (arranged from Technicolour's theme)

FLOAT3RS - Spa Vibes

Frontier-folk-western-stomp-acoustic-guitar-thing trailer music (and pretty much one of the gameplay themes) to TerraTech.

TerraTech Trailer Theme

Stripped down guitar-only music for those moments in TerraTech where you're not smashing your rivals into chunks.

TerraTech Exploration Music

TerraTech's christmas update music, featuring jingly things and many acoustic fiddles.

TerraTech Christmas Music

My most played track! NOW I MAY EAT

One of the variants on the background music that plays when enemies and danger get too near. Based on the trailer theme with a few extra bits.

TerraTech Danger Music  (acoustic, western, frontier-folk)

Another collapsed game; Lifeless was a zombie MMO that offered the chance to record some pretty cool dark acoustic/folk rock.

Lifeless (acoustic, dark folk, alt rock)

See me playing it here! Because why wouldn't you want that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Hl-2-xKWU

Amazing Grace (Solo Bouzouki Arrangement)

A guitar/bouzouki arrangement of John Williams' Star Wars music - force theme, imperial march and main titles/overture - mixed in with The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun". Enjoy me playing all this live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05JfqDCvtfA

The idea came from my long-overdue working out of the force theme chords and realising that it shares a whole bunch with House of the Rising Sun. I arranged a minor version of the main theme that would work over it (as well as a cheeky slipping in of the original melody when the piece returns to E major) and pretty much accidentally figured the imperial march section backed onto the force theme. That bouzouki part is horrible to play; the transition to the F is far more difficult than it should be. There's also a wonderful bluesy transition from C to E at 1:12 which I lifted entirely from a LSO orchestral arrangement.

GO FALCONS

Force of the Rising Suns (A guitar/bouzouki tribute to John Williams, Star Wars and The Animals)

The recording session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek4OZ3eG2t8

One of my earlier orchestral pieces that I adapted into a cue featuring as many of my preferred styles as I could put together without getting too much; an uplifting brass-led theme, mysterious woodwind interlude and than a crashing, dark and dramatic tutti.

The purpose was to check that how I write, and how I orchestrate, would work in the real world and prove my ability to take a project from mockup to score, parts and performance myself. And also because I've been wanting to hear my music played by an orchestra for years.

Elaborate Revenge Strategies (heroic, fantasy, adventure)

Whimsical gypsy-jazz arrangement of the main theme. Also featuring my first ever recording with a cello (that I didn't play someone else to play, that is).

Hangry Bunnies From Mars (Original Soundtrack)

Lapins Furieux de la Planetè Rouge (Gypsy jazz menu theme, extended)

Intro music playing as the game sets you up for action.

Disintrogration (Intro theme)

The relatively staid score for Wave 1, in which the player is barely challenged and the music restrains itself. Doesn't mean there was no room for demented circus music, though. Because there was.

A Collocation Of Conies (Wave 1 theme)

A four-part (moving to six in places) choral octet piece exploring the pain of leaving your childhood home and the memories of your parents.

Look, I can write a piece about how great cakes are, but you need to pay me.

Sopranos: Fleur Smith & Sarah Mansfield
Altos: Bernadette Johns & Sacha Fullerton
Tenors: Marco Galvani & Paul Stapley
Basses: Matthew Clark & Greg Bannan

Leaving the House (SSAATTBB choral elegy)

The piece that I'll always think of as my first "real" orchestral writing. Deeply textured orchestration moving through several dramatic themes.

Recorded at Smecky Studios with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, November 14th, 2018. Cond. Richard Hein.

  Composed, orchestrated and mixed by Dave Dexter.
 Mastered by Nimrod Sound.

Icebreaker (thematic, adventure)

A whimsical piece, led by woodwinds and strings, that's either Christmassy or when the vicar did something scandalous.

Recorded at Smecky Studios with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, November 14th, 2018. Cond. Richard Hein.

  Composed, orchestrated and mixed by Dave Dexter.
 Mastered by Nimrod Sound.

Concerns of a Small Town (festive, whimsical, sparkling)

Descendentem Sicut Columbam is an SATB setting of Matthew 3:16-17, concerning the baptism of Christ. Not having the opportunity to record with a choir, the piece works wonderfully for string quartet with almost no major rearranging; the medieval harmonies and commitment to avoiding parallel 5ths and octaves made this a full, sonorous piece. It was composed to span a range of choral orchestration - beginning and ending with simple, near-unembellished homophony, with a section of solo, duo and trio voices building to the work's centrepiece of dramatic, endlessly-moving interlocked polyphony.

Recording by Brookspeare Music (formerly Leos Strings, who've produced several of my quartet pieces). Engineered by Richard Brooker, mixed and mastered by me.
Violin 1 - Elaine Ambridge
Violin 2 - Elise Harper
Viola - Sophie Broadbent
Cello - Rachel Shakespeare

Descendentem Sicut Columbam (chorale arranged for string quartet) - Dave Dexter

A four-part (moving to six in places) choral octet piece exploring the pain of leaving your childhood home and the memories of your parents, and written to deal with both. In all honesty, the piece I'm proudest of and most attached to, though I hesitate to check the score too closely now as it's probably full of parallels.

Recorded in 2017, this version mastered 2020 by Seán Mac Erlaine.

Sopranos: Fleur Smith & Sarah Mansfield
Altos: Bernadette Johns & Sacha Fullerton
Tenors: Marco Galvani & Paul Stapley
Basses: Matthew Clark & Greg Bannan

"In relinquens domum, in relinquens vos.

 In leaving the house, I left you too 
The soil you laid and the plants you grew will hold you now  
 If I could take these walls, I would
The floors and corners, all I could
 In leaving the house, I leave your lives
 And all of you left behind      
His fingers worked in wood and stone 
Until you worked alone.   
And the ocean he shared with you all his days
 Has carried you both far away.   
In leaving the house, I leave your lives.

In relinquens domum, in relinquens vos.
A biit in mare, sed non ex corde."

Leaving The House - remastered 2020 (Seán Mac Erlaine)

The second of my pieces for the Wentworth's: The Musical campaign. The reference this time was Stephen Sondheim's orchestral style, again with oversight as MD to compose an orchestral track and arrange the supplied copy for our two singers. In addition to the sample-based orchestral work, I composed choral score which can be heard towards the end of the spot. There's also a recording of me singing the melody as a guide, which only lawsuits would compel me to make public.

"Wentworth's: The Musical" radio ad (spot B - orchestral)

I was commissioned for two 60s radio spots advertising Wentworth's Wilsonville Chevrolet, with the overall direction of being distinct, condensed musical numbers. This is the first, in which I was given Hairspray, Grease & 60s pop as a musical reference with oversight as MD to compose and arrange the supplied copy for our two singers, finally evolving into a track with more of a surf rock influence. Aside from sampled drums and main vocals, the track was recorded by me in entirety - electric and acoustic guitars, bass, handclaps and backing vocal harmonies.

"Wentworth's: The Musical" radio ad (spot A - 60s surf rock)

My orchestral track without main vocals, allowing the orchestration and the virtual choir created by the singers to shine.

"Wentworth's: The Musical" (spot B - orchestral) instrumental

I was commissioned to produce two tracks for Bi-Mart, a retail chain in the American Northwest. Rather than creating entirely new music, my task was to arrange new and updated versions of one of their established themes. Working from the supplied track, I built up and re-recorded the music from scratch with a more acoustic, folk-country rock feel, playing all instruments.

Bi-Mart ad jingle, 30s (TV and radio spots)

My setting of the Robert Frost poem, arranged for string sextet, recorded by Leos Strings. More information soon, including probably a new mix.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening (SSATBB choral setting, string arrangement)

A fast and loose dive into the world of fauxbourdon, a form of medieval choral harmonisation. In this case, the upper voice establishes melody, the middle voices follows in parallel 4ths and the lower voice harmonises the upper voice in 6ths. But with a string quartet, so there's an added cello to add beef and lots of points where I broke rank and did something else. 

Recorded by Leos Strings @ Brookespeare Music

Relics (fauxbourdon for string quartet)

“Hiraeth” is a Welsh word for homesickness - not only for a home you’ve left, but a home you cannot return to or never existed at all. Having moved house shortly before I began composing the work, and being prone to crippling nostalgia for places not just months but decades in my past, this concept of extreme homesickness immediately caught my attention. Thus Hiraeth became a tone poem for my old homes and haunts, trees and rivers - places I’ve walked and never will again.

 

Compositionally, Hiraeth is centred round a five-note theme first established (0.45) after the work’s ominous, divided low strings opening. At first played without harmonic support, bass and cello divisi are introduced before the theme’s darker four-note variant is introduced (1.12), both joining for the piece’s crescendo (4.38). A second, more romantic and mournful theme acts as a counter to the bitter triumph of the first, played initially by violas and cellos (1.52) and returned to later with double bass, cello and finally unison violin octaves (3.46). The piece closes as it opens, ending with a flourishing if slightly dissonant swell.

 

A highly tonal piece, the orchestration is appropriately traditional - themes often played in unison across octaves between either cellos and violas, or violins I & II, with the other sections providing harmonic support. To achieve the wide, lush sound I love in string music, these supporting sections are generally divided; tremolo is often used for texture in quieter moments, and themes are passed between sections to be explored and evolved.

Mastered album audio, uploaded privately for review.

Hiraeth - Dave Dexter

Dave Dexter is a composer, orchestrator and multi-instrumentalist, specialising in classical, choral and orchestral writing for live players.

His string quartet piece "St Clement's Isle" was recently played on Classic FM on Jessica Curry's "High Score" show, and his works "Descendentem Sicut Columbam" and "Leaving the House" on BBC Radio York & 3 respectively. His choral setting of "I Sing Of A Maiden" was chosen for recording by ORA Singers and Suzi Digby in 2019 as part of their Christmas Gift scheme.

It's always risky to find an epoch one feels best represents music as a whole and state "This. This is what I want to do", but Dave certainly prefers the more traditional approach to scoring and composing. He'll work with samples if he has to, but the best moments come from hearing great musicians planting a glorious flag in the earth of a piece and making it their own. His music ranges from the beautiful and intimate, the achingly sad, the whimsical and the thunderously exciting; if not watched like a hawk he'll probably attempt to combine all four.

Dave is writing in the third person but is totally a cool guy and not arrogant in the slightest.

DaveDexterMusic

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