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.

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

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.

Peter Maxwell Davies' 1979 work for mezzo-soprano baritone and orchestra commissioned by the Philharmonia Orchestra who gave the first performance in May 1992 at the Royal Festival Hall with Simon Rattle conducting.The'Black Pentecost' is the coming of uranium mining which was a threat to Orkney when the work was written. The text tells of the destruction of old ways of life the eclipse of the human by the technological. Davies sets it as agripping dramatic cantata which is also a four-movement symphony with the songs for imperious baritone and lyrical mezzo-soprano linked by orchestral transitions. The work is a lament and at the same time a fiercely arguedprotest.Score. Duration c. 40mins.

Peter Maxwell Davies' 1990 work for unaccompanied SATB choir written for the BBC singers. Words by George Mackay Brown.'Written for the BBC Singers this piece requires a high level of choral expertise in its rhythms intricate textures (though nearly always in four parts) wide-ranging vocal lines and characteristically dark but luminous harmony impregnated with tritones and seconds. Not for the first time Davies and George Mackay Browfollow the Stations of the Cross though the fourteen sections are joined into a continuous slow-fast-slow musical movement and the references to the events of Holy Week are oblique.Vocal score with piano accompaniment forrehearsal purposes.

Advent Calendar by the Master of the Queen's Music Peter Maxwell Davies sets the text of the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams .  The work for SATB and Organ was commissioned by The Choirbook Trust for inclusion in the Choirbook for the Queen published to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen in 2012.

Scored for a small chamber group this is the miniature study-score edition of a pair of short pieces that celebrate the best in Australian wines! The pieces were written by Peter Maxwell Davies for the Elder New Music Ensemble ofAdelaide concerning the excellent wines the composer enjoyed during his visit to the Barossa Festival in 2000. The works were first performed by the group in Barossa and Orkney respectively.

Peter Maxwell Davies' Sonatina For Violin Alone for solo Violin. This instrumental work was commissioned by Fenella Humphreys as part for the Bach to the Future project. The first performancetook place on 20th June 2015 at St. Magnus' Cathedral Kirkwall by Fenella Humphreys. Duration: approx. 11 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

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.

Parts for Peter Maxwell Davies 'Economies Of Scale'. A separate score is also availalbe on sale.