Peter Maxwell Davies, Selected Writings

A varied and wide-ranging collection in which the celebrated post-war composer Peter Maxwell Davies presents his work and his opinions.

Peter Maxwell Davies (Author), Nicholas Jones (Edited by)

9781316610534, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 May 2020

348 pages, 3 b/w illus. 8 music examples
17 x 24.5 x 2 cm, 0.61 kg

This book brings together an extensive and varied collection of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's written and spoken-word items for the first time. Spanning the composer's entire career, this compendium offers a balanced selection of Davies's articles and essays, speeches and lectures, interviews, radio broadcasts, programme notes, tributes and letters to newspapers. A number of items are published for the first time, including a new article from Davies himself (commissioned specially for this book), and several BBC radio broadcast interviews and talks from the 1960s. The structure of the book is chronological and divided into three parts, allowing readers to trace the development of Davies's thought and work over time, and to place each item in its biographical and historical context. The introduction and notes by Nicholas Jones place the writings in context, making this volume invaluable for those interested in the music and wider culture of post-war Britain.

Part I. From Manchester to Hoy, 1934–1970: 1. Maxwell Davies, composer
2. Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, Op. 1
3. Webern: Variations for Piano, Op. 27
4. Nikos Skalkottas: Sonatina and Tender Melody for Cello and Piano
5. The young British composer
6. Indian classical music
7. Musical life in Italy
8. Problems of a British composer today
9. St Michael – Sonata for Seventeen Wind Instruments
10. Prolation
11. Realizing the 'aural vision' of Prolation
12. Composing music for school use
13. First Fantasia on an 'In Nomine' of John Taverner
14. Sinfonia
15. Echoes of the past in the present
16. In defence of compositional technique
17. The young composer in America
18. Second Fantasia on John Taverner's 'In Nomine'
19. Seven In Nomine
20. Where our colleges fail
21. Musical innovation
22. Antechrist
23. Sets or series
24. Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie
25. Manipulating time and immoral realizations
26. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
27. St Thomas Wake
28. Worldes Blis
29. Eight Songs for a Mad King
30. Vesalii Icones
31. The orchestra is becoming a museum
32. Revelation and Fall
33. Taverner
Part II. From Hoy to Sanday, 1971–1997: 34. Two early Orkney works
35. 'Pax Orcadiensis'
36. Benjamin Britten: a tribute
37. Symphony
38. Safer 'out' than in
39. The Lighthouse
40. Symphony No. 2
41. Michael Tippett: a tribute
42. Darkening our civilization
43. St Magnus festival – one decade on
44. Symphony No. 4
45. The Arts Council and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
46. London's needs for all its orchestras
47. Cheltenham Music Festival: a tribute
48. Remembering Darmstadt
49. Symphony No. 6
50. The late Strathclyde Concertos
51. The influence of Aboriginal music
52. Renaissance architecture, symphonic precedents and historical resonances
53. Notes from a cold climate
Part III. Sanday, 1998–2016: 54. A Roma, con amore
55. Mr Emmet Takes a Walk
56. Music to our ears
57. A composer's point of view (I): on music, mathematics and magic squares
58. A composer's point of view (II): on parody, references and meaning
59. A composer's point of view (III): on religion
60. A composer's point of view (IV): on the composition of 'light' and 'serious' music
61. Symphony No. 7
62. The Naxos Quartets
63. Studying with Petrassi
64. Master of the Queen's music
65. Will serious music become extinct?
66. A disorientating ruckus
67. Bearing witness
68. A conducting lesson with Leonard Bernstein
69. Kommilitonen! (Young Blood!)
70. Beacons of light: in praise of music's benevolence
71. A symphony for troubled times
72. In search of Borromini
73. Indivisible parameters and spirit-stirring amalgams
74. Calling us to our sleep.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH], 20th century & contemporary classical music [AVGC6], Music reviews & criticism [AVC]