Peter Maxwell Davies, Selected Writings

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.

Nicholas Jones is a Senior Lecturer in Music at Cardiff University. He is co-editor of and contributor to Peter Maxwell Davies Studies (Cambridge, 2009), The Cambridge Companion to Michael Tippett (Cambridge, 2013) and Harrison Birtwistle Studies (Cambridge, 2015). He has written a number of significant journal articles on Davies for Music and Letters, Tempo and The Musical Times.