Format : Sheet music
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.
SKU: HL.14021000
ISBN 9780711959927. 5.5x7.5x0.2 inches.
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 in Nottingham. It was given by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Peter Maxwell Davies. Score (miniature). Duration c. 14mins.
SKU: HL.14021025
ISBN 9780711986138. 5.5x7.5x0.164 inches.
Miniature Score. This work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first performed on 13th May 1998 London. This piece is based on a genuine old tune 'Maxwell's Strathspey' which the composer found in an 1824 collection of Scottish melodies, and which unfolds at the start of the piece on solo cello. Variations and a bold up-tempo to the quick dance we know as a reel ultimately yield to the magic that has been promised right at the start: the northern lights take over at the end of the piece. Its inspiration comes from a walk to a community event in Hoy Hall, during which Davies saw the lights in the sky pulsing in and out of time with the sounds coming from the hall. Duration 12 minutes. Conductor's score and orchestral parts are available on hire.
SKU: HL.14020995
ISBN 9780711961920.
Study score of The Three Kings, A Christmas Cantata for SATB soli, chorus and orchestra. Texts by George Mackay Brown and mediaeval, anonymous. This work was commissioned by the London Symphony Chorus to commemorate its 30th anniversary. First performed on 15th October 1995 at the Barbican Hall, London. Duration 50 minutes. Vocal Score also available for sale. Conductor's score and orchestral parts are available for hire.
SKU: HL.14020963
9.0x12.0x0.5 inches.
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 a gripping 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 argued protest. Score. Duration c. 40mins.
SKU: HL.14008386
ISBN 9780711927797. UPC: 884088447434. 7.0x10.0x0.051 inches.
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 Brow follow 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 for rehearsal purposes.
SKU: HL.14008415
UPC: 884088808242. 8.5x11.0x0.261 inches.
This work, written by Maxwell Davies in 1983 for chamber orchestra, was commissioned to celebrate the quartercentenary of Edinburgh University. The first performance was given by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Edward Harper in October 1983. Duration c. 29mins. This work was thought through in outline following a visit to the ruined pre-Reformation church of Hoy in Orkney, on a fine Spring afternoon after Maxwell Davies had played the harmonium for the tiny congregation in its large bleak Victorian replacement. The old church was surrounded by the graves of centuries, the more recent ones with familiar names, largely of people who lived in houses now ruinous - crofters, fishermen, clerics, sea-captains. Next to it stood the chief farmhouse, the Bu, going back to Viking times. He thought of the lives and deaths encompassed there, expressed through hundreds of years of music in the church, and in the big barn of the farm. The plainsongs 'Dies Irae' and 'Victimae Paschali Laudes' are used throughout the work - the first concerning the Day of Judgement, from the Mass for the Dead, the second particular to Easter Sunday and the Resurrection. These are subject to constant transformation - the intervallic contour slowly changes from one into the other, and their notes are made to dance through Renaissance astrological 'magic square' patterns. The orchestra consists of double woodwind, two horns, two trumpets and strings.
SKU: HL.14008374
ISBN 9781846096150. UPC: 884088435202. 8.25x11.75x0.105 inches.
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 its predecessor, 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 sixth Strathclyde 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 the work. 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 movement juxtaposes 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 present in, 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 I was 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 progression underlying the whole construction derives from a passage in the development of the first movement of Mahler's Third Symphony, and the opening of Schoenberg's Second String Quartet. However, unlike in these models, here a real - if temporary - sense of resolution occurs at the close of the quartet: as when the curtain falls on the reconciled Count and Countess in 'Figaro' one wonders how long the F/B truce will hold, and games break out again. The quartet is dedicated to Giuseppe Rebecchini, Roman architect, and friend since the nineteen-fifties.
SKU: HL.14020976
UPC: 888680020262. 8.25x11.75x0.106 inches.
Challenging work for solo trumpet, which was commissioned by the International Trumpet Guild. It was first performed on the 23rd of June, 1999 at St. Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, Orkney at the St. Magnus Festival by John Wallace. Engravings are spread across double sheets so the player does not have to turn the page frequently. Duration: 11 minutes.
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SKU: HL.14020983
This consists of five short movements. They were written for the Sunday lunchtime magazine programme, 'Not Now, I'm Listening' and were first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 6 November 1977. The work was first performed in concert by the Fires of London at the 1978 Edinburgh Festival.
SKU: HL.49030540
ISBN 9790220123986. UPC: 884088109431. 8.5x11.75x0.088 inches. English.
During his time as Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies wrote a new carol for Her Majesty the Queen each Christmas. Lullay, My Child, and Weep No More was the first in this series, written for Christmas 2004. All 10 carols are published in the Schott Royal CollectionA setting of the traditional fifteenth century text for soprano solo, SATB choir and organ, Lullay, My Child, and Weep No More was first performed in St. James's Palace by the choir of the Chapel Royal at the end of the 2004/2005 Christmas period.
SKU: HL.14021038
ISBN 9780711991248. 5.5x7.5x0.148 inches.
Peter Maxwell Davies' Swinton Jig was inspired by his youth spent in Salford. These variations on a traditional melody portray the community spirit during wartime and the impromptu concerts and dances held within the air shelters. The instrumentation reflects this, with banjos, bells, bones and horns, and even an out of tune upright piano! This work was commissioned by the BBC and first performed in November 1998 by the BBC Philharmonic. In miniature pocket score format.
SKU: HL.49018273
ISBN 9790220131721. 8.25x11.75x0.052 inches. Latin.
During his time as Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies wrote a new carol for Her Majesty the Queen each Christmas. Ave, Plena Gracia , written for Christmas 2009, was the fifth in this series after An Heavenly Song, Wonder Tidings, The Yule-tide Bell and Kings and Shepherds all of which are published in the Schott Royal Collection.First performed in St. James's Palace by the choir of the Chapel Royal on the Epiphany at the end of the 2009/2010 Christmas period, Ave, Plena Gracia is a short and traditional Latin setting that would be perfect for amateur choirs looking for new repertoire.
SKU: HL.49017923
ISBN 9790220131141. UPC: 884088567217. 9.0x12.0x0.125 inches.
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is universally acknowledged as one of the foremost composers of our time and as he reaches his 75th birthday in 2009 he remains prolific.The sonata for violin and piano was written for the virtuoso violinist, Ilya Gringolts and first performed at the St Magnus Festival in Orkney in 2008. The work is principally concerned with Italian architecture and the music takes both performers and audience across an imaginary walkway over Rome as proposed by the architect Giuseppe Rebecchini. Starting at the 17th Century Chiesa Nuova the exceptional journey passes Renaissance churches, exhibition spaces, the river Tiber, glass facades, sculptures and even a prison where a Lazio folk tune can be heard echoing from behind the walls. The journey ends 15 minutes later at Gianicolo, an area where one can take in breathtaking views over the whole city.
SKU: HL.14021007
ISBN 9781844492893. 8.5x11.0x0.088 inches.
A Choral Suite for Two Part (Soprano and Alto) Children's Chorus setting the text of George Mackay Brown. This enchanting 12-minute cycle is typical of the subtle and delicate way Maxwell-Davies approaches writing for children: straightforward, tender, affectionate, yet with just a hint of the complexity found in challenging 'adult' works like the cycle Westerlings. George Mackay Brown's poetry with its haiku-like short stanzas and pointilliste allusive imagery leaves you constantly intrigued : who is the boy 'lost on the hill till sundown', and why is time 'a bird with white wings?' Is this perhaps the poet himself playing a bit of holiday truant?
SKU: HL.49017760
ISBN 9790220125379. UPC: 884088656720. 8.5x11.75x0.078 inches.
The Fall of the Leafe is based on a piece for virginal from the Fitzwilliam collection and is characterised by a descriptive descending scale which imitates leaves falling in autumn. The piece has further resonance for Maxwell Davies who lives in Orkney where there are very few trees so his opportunities to experience this time of year are confined to visits elsewhere in the country or his imagination.
SKU: HL.14020971
ISBN 9780711928756. 6.75x9.75x0.039 inches.
This work was commissioned for the choir of St. Paul's Old Church, Edinburgh, who gave the first performance on the 11th of June 1989 at St. Giles' Church, Edinburgh, conducted by Leslie Shankland. This is a setting in Scots of the passage in the Apocalypse where St. John hears a voice from the throne, that voice appearing here as soprano-alto duets from a distance, building, as Davies has said, ' fine bridge' from the time of the Edinburgh church to the present. Both vocal groups sing in translucent modal harmony with organ support.
