Donald Romain Davis (born February 4, 1957) is an American composer, conduc… Read Full Bio ↴Donald Romain Davis (born February 4, 1957) is an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator. Best known for his work on The Matrix franchise, he has worked on numerous television and film scores, collaborating with directors including The Wachowskis, Ronny Yu, and Joe Johnston in film genres ranging from horror, to action, to comedy. He is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards and four BMI Film Music Awards.
Davis was born in Anaheim, California. After graduating from high school, Davis enrolled at UCLA. He continued his study of musical composition with tutor Henri Lazarof. Additionally, he learned orchestration from Albert Harris. During their orchestration lessons, Harris introduced Davis to the TV composer Joe Harnell, who supported Davis during his search for work—his first job was working for composer Mark Snow's TV show Hart to Hart. He has worked as an orchestrator and conductor for Michael Kamen, Alan Silvestri, James Horner, and Randy Newman.
Davis won Emmys in 1990 for Beauty and the Beast and 1995 for SeaQuest DSV. He wrote scores mostly for television series up until 1995, in which he wrote a few of the cues for the animated Disney motion picture A Goofy Movie. He continued to score television series until the two then young directors, the Wachowskis, hired him to score their neo-noir film Bound. It was reasonably successful at the box office. Bound was the film which led Davis into becoming the composer for the entire Matrix trilogy. Subsequently, Davis has composed scores for films such as Jurassic Park III (recommended to the filmmakers by John Williams, the composer of the scores for the first two films in the series), House on Haunted Hill, Behind Enemy Lines, and The Unsaid. In 2004, he produced the music score for the BBC science fiction documentary series Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets, released as Voyage to the Planets and Beyond in the United States.
Davis' magnum opus is Matrix franchise: The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, and The Animatrix. It was set apart from other film scores of its time for its atonality and avant garde style of composition, with influences from polytonal minimalist works like John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine and cluster-like as well as aleatoric techniques prominent in the works of composer Witold Lutosławski.
Don Davis' dark opera, Río de Sangre, received its premiere at the Florentine Opera Company on October 22, 2010. Previously, excerpts from the opera were performed in Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Master Chorale on November 6, 2005, and the New York City Opera on May 13, 2007.
Davis was born in Anaheim, California. After graduating from high school, Davis enrolled at UCLA. He continued his study of musical composition with tutor Henri Lazarof. Additionally, he learned orchestration from Albert Harris. During their orchestration lessons, Harris introduced Davis to the TV composer Joe Harnell, who supported Davis during his search for work—his first job was working for composer Mark Snow's TV show Hart to Hart. He has worked as an orchestrator and conductor for Michael Kamen, Alan Silvestri, James Horner, and Randy Newman.
Davis won Emmys in 1990 for Beauty and the Beast and 1995 for SeaQuest DSV. He wrote scores mostly for television series up until 1995, in which he wrote a few of the cues for the animated Disney motion picture A Goofy Movie. He continued to score television series until the two then young directors, the Wachowskis, hired him to score their neo-noir film Bound. It was reasonably successful at the box office. Bound was the film which led Davis into becoming the composer for the entire Matrix trilogy. Subsequently, Davis has composed scores for films such as Jurassic Park III (recommended to the filmmakers by John Williams, the composer of the scores for the first two films in the series), House on Haunted Hill, Behind Enemy Lines, and The Unsaid. In 2004, he produced the music score for the BBC science fiction documentary series Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets, released as Voyage to the Planets and Beyond in the United States.
Davis' magnum opus is Matrix franchise: The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, and The Animatrix. It was set apart from other film scores of its time for its atonality and avant garde style of composition, with influences from polytonal minimalist works like John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine and cluster-like as well as aleatoric techniques prominent in the works of composer Witold Lutosławski.
Don Davis' dark opera, Río de Sangre, received its premiere at the Florentine Opera Company on October 22, 2010. Previously, excerpts from the opera were performed in Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Master Chorale on November 6, 2005, and the New York City Opera on May 13, 2007.
A Look at the Tape
Don Davis Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by Don Davis:
"Matrix Reloaded" Suite [INSTRUMENTAL]…
I Out among the stars I sail, way beyond the moon In…
In My Head Every other way Nothing Fades away Listen to the mission I'…
Main Title instrumental…
Maintitle [INSTRUMENTAL]…
Navras Asato ma sad gamaya tamaso ma jyotir gamaya mrtyor mamrtam g…
Neodämmerung asato ma sad gamaya tamaso ma jyotir gamaya mrtyor mamrtam g…
No More Nebuchadnezzar Out among the stars I sail, way beyond the moon In…
The Matrix Every other way Nothing Fades away Listen to the mission I'…
Trinity Dream instrumental…
You My love must be a kind of blind love I can't…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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Ben Of The North
I used to look over the paintings of the massive space stations for so many hours as a kid in awe, and still today when I see them I get nostalgic. Wonderful documentary, thank you.
Clindar
So happy you enjoyed! Definitely check out the Rick Guidice film if you want more massive space settlements!
Lord Mon
What a wonderful video. And Don Davis seems like such a nice person.
Clindar
He truly is!
Delver Rootnose
Saw these paintings in a book in my high school library in the late 1970s. The quality of the paintings really let my imagination run wild. Prior to this, all I remember seeing are fanciful but not wholey accurate drawings and concepts from Disney, Science fiction films and comics. This really brought to mind the immensity of the engineering problems and how far we were, as of 1978, from achieving any of the goals of the High Frontier Society. Today, while somewhat closer to the goal of such orbitals, it appears farther and farther away economically :(.
Delver Rootnose
@Clindar date matches. It would have been my first coffee table book had I been able to steal it. The thing is, I think this introduced me to all the 1980s and beyond, art books for science fiction covers.
Clindar
@Delver Rootnose certainly sounds like The High Frontier!
Delver Rootnose
@Clindar hi. I believe it was by the eponymous Gerard K. O'Neill himself. 'The High Frontier' I am not certain. There was quite a bit of technical detail. Sectional drawings, artist plates and deep descriptions of the various types of O'Neill Colonies. Many authors took these concepts and ran with them. From Allen Steel to G Harry Stein.
Clindar
Any idea which book it was?
tomturner14
Great video, impressive how committed to realism and how detailed Don makes his paintings. not to mention he seems like a great guy too, thanks for sharing his work!