Peter Maxwell Davies

Peter Maxwell Davies. A superb cycle of 7 songs depicting the hero/heroine’s stay on Grandma’s farm somewhere in the Orkneys one summer. The songs tell of the farm chores nature and ghosts and are arranged for unison voices piano recorders and pitched or unpitched percussion. The songs can be used individually to link in with topic work or performed as an attractive concert item. 18 mins.

The solo group consists of a sextet of the woodwind instruments which are normally doubled with more regular members of the orchestra: these six strangers now brought to the fore are piccolo alto flute cor anglais clarinet inEb bass clarinet in Bb and contrabassoon. They make a motley group diverse in colour as in register and one of the tasks of the piece sets itself is to have them blend and cohere both together as an ensemble and in partnershipwith the string orchestra (which itself is used with unusual variety and subtlety). Another evident task of the work is to provide fine solos for each member of the woodwind sextet: bright dances for the piccolo recitativesfor the alto flute a stoical song from the contrabassoon in the extreme bass. The work is cast as a single movement which begins in the composer's first-movement style of rapid regeneration. This is interrupted by slowinterventions including one for divided strings which gives rise to a sextuple cadenza for the soloists. Out of this comes a slow movement or sequence of short slow movements followed by a dancing finale with its own slowepisodes. Altogether this is music of songs and dances heavily tinged with Scottish rhythms and tonalities: one might think of a magic bagpipe having six chanters and a drone of variegated string texture.

Music-theatre works-The poems which form the basis of this work were inspired by a miniature mechanical organ playing eight tunes once the property of George III. A scrap of paper sold with it explains that 'This Organ was George the Third for Birds to sing'.Peter Maxwell Davies then set these poems to music and devised them as a semi-theatrical work for Male Vocalist Piano Violin Cello Flute Clarinet and Percussion. The songs are to be understood as the King's monologue while listening to his birds perform and incorporate some sentences actually spoken by George III. The resulting work Eight Songs for a Mad King was completed in 1969 and stands as one of the mostdistinctive and arguably one of the most disturbing musical works from the twentieth century. This is the Hawkes Pocket or Study Score Edition.

Peter Maxwell Davies wrote this set of six short pieces in 1993 as a gift for a friend (a double bass player and composer from the BBC Philharmonic)who was celebrating the birth of his daughter. Despite the reason for writing thembeing most ‘occasional’ these pieces are certainly not lacking in musical substance as one might expect an ‘occasional’ piece to be. These pieces are ideal works for young performers to introduce them to playing modern music oreven as an introduction to the broad range of Maxwell Davies's work

This work was commissioned by Alistair Grant to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the second Jacobite rising (1745-6). It was first performed on 15th October 1997 at the City Halls Glasgow conducted by Peter Maxwell Davies. Scored for Soprano Alto Tenor and Bass solo Chorus and orchestra. Duration c.40 minutes. Vocal score on sale Conductor's score and orchestral parts on hire.

Hawkes Pocket Scores HPS 1119-Study Score - Hawkes Pocket Score 1119. Davies Pm.

Work for Solo Double Bass first premiered in June 2001 at the St.Magnus Church festival in Orkney by Duncan McTier.

In Kirkwall the first red St Magnus stones-Part of the Hawkes Pocket Scores Series

Hawkes Pocket Scores HPS 1350-Study Score - Hawkes Pocket Score1350. Maxwell Davies

Chamber opera in a prologue and one act. A ghost story telling of the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers in the Hebrides. This is a mystery story in the form of a chamber opera. The prologue is set as acourt of enquiry into the unexplained disappearance of the three keepers from a lighthouse. Questions are posed by a solo horn which may sound from among the audience and three officers give answer. Gradually they move fromstraight testimony into fantastical imaginings of evil during a 'flashback' to the lighthouse; but then we snap back to the courtroom. In the main act the three singers become the vanished keepers. They have been together formonths long enough to be fully aware of each other's weaknesses; petty bickerings suggest a relationship which is stable but liable to become highly unstable at any moment. They sing songs to reduce the tension Blazes beginningwith a rough ballad of street violence accompanied by violin and banjo. Sandy's song with cello and out-of-tune upright piano is a thinly disguised description of sexual bliss and Arthur's with brass and clarinet is atub-thumping hymn. But the songs serve only to resurrect in their minds ghosts from the past and as the fog descends each of the keepers becomes convinced that he is being claimed by the Beast. They prepare to meet its dazzlingeyes which become the lights of the relief vessel and the three men reappear as officers met at the lighthouse only by an infestation of rats. They leave and at the end the last hours of Blazes Sandy and Arthur begin to playover again.Study Score. Duration c. 1h 25mins.

A work for SATB soli SATB chorus and orchestra using a variety of texts selected by Alistair Grant who commissioned the work to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Jacobite rising (1745-6). It was first performed inOctober 1997 in Glasgow by Lisa Tyrrell (soprano) Margaret McDonald (mezzo soprano) Neil Mackie (tenor) and David Wilson-Johnson (baritone) the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus (chorus master Ben Parry) and the ScottishChamber Orchestra conducted by the composer.Vocal score with piano reduction of the instrumental score. Duration c. 40mins.