Born on April 19, 1942, in Paignton, Devon, England, David Fanshawe was a musician, composer and ethnomusicologist best known for the 1972 choral masterpiece African Sanctus. The son of an officer that played a key role in planning D-Day, David Fanshawe originally wanted to be an explorer but discovered his love of music while attending St. George’s School, Windsor Castel in London and Stowe School, where he learned to play the piano. After leaving school, he continued to study the piano and started his career as both a musician and film editor. He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1965 and studied composition. He would spend his summers traveling the world, which he continued to do after graduating in 1969. During his journeys through Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda, he brought a tape recorder and captured the music of local musicians, building up hundreds of hours of recordings that he then took home and composed his own Mass entitled African Sanctus (1972). The album earned him a nomination for an Ivor Novello Award. Other albums that followed a similar formula included Kenya & Tanzania Witchcraft & Ritual Music (1975), South Pacific: Island Music (1981), Spirit of Polynesia (1995), East Africa: Ceremonial & Folk Music (2002), and Spirit of Melanesia (2010). Outside of his own albums, David Fanshawe also worked on scores for films (1979’s Tarka the Otter and 1993’s Dirty Weekend) and TV shows including Softly, Softly: Taskforce (1969-1976), When the Boat Comes In (1976-1981), The Feathered Serpent (1976-1978), Flambards (1979), and The Good Companions (1980). His field recordings have also been used in TV documentaries and films. David Fanshawe died from a stroke on July 5, 2010, at the age of 68.
