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.
His one act Russian opera The Zaporogues (based on Taras Bulba) was premiered at the Theatre Royale in Birmingham with amateur performers on 7 May 1895, receiving mixed reviews.
[8] There were also substantial orchestral scores, including an early Legend: Hero and Leander for bass solo and orchestra, the Coronation March (1902), Variations and Finale (1905), the suite Miniatures (performed at The Proms in 1905)[9] and a symphonic ballad The Cenci.
73, premiered in Bournemouth by his friend the Dutch soloist Jacques van Lier in 1921, was overshadowed by Elgar's near contemporary Cello Concerto.
[4] The Birmingham Philharmonic String Orchestra performed and broadcast several of his works, including the three movement Petite Suite Symphonique in 1936.
The latter was extracted from the Suite on Londonderry Air (1908), a collaborative commission from the Hambourg String Quartet with separate movements composed by Davis, York Bowen, Frank Bridge, Eric Coates and Hamilton Harty.