John David Davis

John David Davis (22 October 1867 – 20 November 1942), often known as J D Davis, was an English composer, born in Edgbaston, near Birmingham. Career Although born into a musical family, Davis was sent to Frankfurt to train for an intended commercial career, but instead began studying music under Hans von Bulow. Davis completed his education in Germany a decade ahead of the more famous Frankfurt Group of English-speaking composers, who studied with Iwan Knorr at the Hoch Conservatory in the late 1890s. He later continued his music studies in Brussels under Léopold Wallner, Arthur De Greef and Maurice Kufferath. He returned to Birmingham in 1889 to teach, and from 1893 to 1904 taught music at the Birmingham and Midland Institute (most of that in the pre Granville Bantock era). From 1905 he was a professor of harmony and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and was also Professor of Solfège at the International Conservatoire in London. Personal life Davis married Helen Winifred Juta (born 1886), daughter of the South African judge Henry Juta, in 1919. They lived at 26 Trebovir Road, Earls Court until 1936, when they sailed for Lisbon. He died in Estoril, Portugal six years lat