This work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first performed on 2nd May 2000 at the Barbican Centre London conducted by Peter Maxwell Davies. Duration c.23 minutes. Peter Maxwell Davies: The hornwriting is extremely virtuoso throughout not least in exploring the full range of the horn from the deepest notes in the bass normally exclusive to an orchestral fourth horn player to the highest most exposed sostenuto of afirst horn soloist presenting here challenges of embouchure and sheer stamina I should think fairly unprecedented.Solo part and piano reduction on sale (CH61758) Conductor's score and orchestral parts available for hire.

Commissioned to write a piece for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Davies provided a musical General Assembly of his own: a bright overture based on an Australian aboriginal song which gives rise to 'national anthems'of various kinds and instrumental colourings. Finally the 'anthems' are combined 'if not triumphantly' Davies says 'at least in a manner whereby they get along together'.The first performance took place in June 1995 inNottingham. It was given by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Peter Maxwell Davies.Score (miniature). Duration c. 14mins.

The string parts for Peter Maxwell Davies’ fourth in a series of ten string quartets commissioned by the Naxos Recording company.

Fanfare; Portsmouth is a work for Brass Ensemble composed by Peter Maxwell Davies. Commissioned by the New Theatre Royal Portsmouth to celebrate its re-opening it was first performed there on 11thMarch 2016. These are the Parts and a full performance lasts around 5 minutes.

The Full Score for Peter Maxwell Davies’ fourth in a series of ten string quartets commissioned by the Naxos Recording company first performed by the Maggini Quartet on 20th August 2004 at the Chapel of the Royal Palace Oslo Norway as part of the Olso Chamber Music Festival. Composer Note: The fourth Naxos quartet was written in January and February of 2004 with the intention of producing something lighter and much less fierce than itspredecessor an unpremeditated and spontaneous reaction to the illegal invasion of Iraq.I returned to the well-known Brueghel picture of children's games (1560 now in Vienna) which had been the inspiration for my sixthStrathclyde Concerto for flute and orchestra. These illustrations liberated my musical imagination but I feel it would limit the listener's perception to be too specific about which game relates to exactly which section of thework. Suffice it to say that there is vigorous play - leap-frog bind the devil with a cord truss wrestling - alongside quieter pastimes - masks guess whom I shall choose courting odds and evens. The single movementjuxtaposes these activities as abruptly and intimately as they occur in Brueghel. Rather as the eye is taken into different perspectives and proportions of scale within the picture taking liberties which would never be presentin for instance Brunelleschi architectural drawings so here with a constant sequence of transformation processes I have distorted the neat precise implications of modal progression expressed in the unison opening phrase(from F to B through A sharp/B flat) so that the ear is led en route into the sound equivalents of strange passageways and closed rooms: sicut exposition ludus. As work on the quartet progressed I became aware that Iwas reading into and behind the games adult motives and implications concerning aggression and war with their consequences. It was impossible to escape into innocent childhood fantasy. The nature of the F to B

A work for solo violin and orchestra commissioned by Donald McDonald for the 21st birthday of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the 60th birthday of the composer. It was first performed in November 1993 in Glasgow by JamesClark and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maxwell Davies.The spell is one quoted by George Mackay Brown in his book An Orkney Tapestry: 'Let not plough be put to acre except a fiddle cross first the furrow.'Davies's dancing concerto imagines the fiddler following a route from field to field from dance to dance accompanied by a bunch of companions in the form of an orchestra. As the music goes on so it gets brighter and livelier moving from the dark colouring of clarinets bassoons and strings to full ensemble with prominent brass and (solo) tuned percussion as if the dancers as much as the fields were beginning to glow with new life.Score(miniature). Duration c. 20mins.

Work for 2 Trumpets 2 Horns and 2 Trombones premiered in the Museum of Scotland in 1998 by members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Maxwell Davies has relished incorporating brilliant tuckets and alarms for brass in his larger-scale scores too much to write a perfunctory fanfare; a seminal influence was the statue of St. Michael on the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome where he studied in the late 1950s generator of high trumpet fanfares throughout his output which resurface in apocalyptic style towards the end of his orchestral work Roma Amor. Score available: CH61567

The set of parts for Maxwell Davies's Naxos Quartet Six for strings. This work was commissioned by the Naxos Recording Company and is the sixth in a series of ten quartets. It was first performed on 26th April 2005 at the PurcellRoom London by the Maggini Quartet.

The No. 11 Bus is a music-theatre work in which musicians dancers and mime all play an equal part. It has been described as an apocalyptic comedy and both comic and terrifying elements should be exploited as far aspossible. The setting is a mythical journey of the No. 11 bus in London which runs between Liverpool Street and Hammersmith. This can be adapted to suit the needs of the particular group that is performing it.Words andmusic by Maxwell Davies with German translation by Gunther Bauer-Schenk. Duration c. 48mins.

Spinning Jenny is a portrait of Leigh Lancashire circa 1948 and one of a series of occasional pieces inspired by Davies' youth in Salford. Spinning Jenny Street was a noisy hazardous street clangerous with industry andactivity when davies was at Grammar school in 1945. A modest work but one which reflects many aspects of the place period and people it was inspired by. Commissioned by the BBC it was first performed on 21st July 199 as partof the BBC promenade concert at the Royal Albert Hall by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Davies himself. This is the miniature format of the full orchestral score..

Davies discovers aspects of himself in examining one of his most troubled predecessors. That discovery can take place either on his home ground (in the mezzo-soprano version writen for The Fires of London) or with chorus singingGesualdo's O Vos Omnes and repeatedly falling silent so that the musical argument may continue on a different plane that of Davies's four meditations for sextet murmuring darkly about Gesualdo's ideas. The viola doublesthe violin and the glockenspiel doubles the marimba. The harpsichord is doubled by the celeste chamber organ or harmonium. Duration c. 20mins.

This is the sacred comedy among Manwell Davies' pieces of music-theatre. Brought on by a children's wind band in a 7/8 march the juggler presents himself at an abbey and is accepted by the abbot the only singing character.The other monks are the clarinettist percussionist and flautist all of whom play 'duets' with the juggler as he is put to mundane tasks; sweeping preparing food washing clothes all done with much horseplay. The same threemonks then present their offerings to the Virgin in the form of flamboyant instrumental arias. Left alone the juggler offers his own skills to the accompaniments of Renaissance dances for piano with cello (who also providesupport and commentary throughout). The other members of the community return and are appalled but the image of the Virgin suddenly springs to life as a violinist who plays her own solo acceptance. The abbot acknowledges herjudgement and the juggler is escorted boisterously out by the band.