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Peter Maxwell Davies

 
Artist: Peter Maxwell Davies
 
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Peter Maxwell Davies
  • Period: Contemporary (1950- )
  • Country: England/Scotland
  • Born: September 08, 1934 in Manchester, England
  • Genres: Ballet, Chamber Music, Choral Music, Concerto, Keyboard Music, Miscellaneous Music, Opera, Orchestral Music, Symphony, Music Theater, Vocal Music

Biography

Known to his friends simply as Max, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is one of the most prolific and frequently performed of British composers. His several hundred compositions draw from an eclectic array of influences, from Indian music to serialism to Renaissance polyphony. Davies has also worked tirelessly in the area of music education and as an environmental activist.

The precocious Davies made his musical debut in a BBC broadcast at age eight. His education continued at Leigh Grammar School and from 1952 at Manchester University, where he received an M.A. in 1957. He also attended the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1952 to 1956, where he and fellow musicians Sir Harrison Birtwistle, John Ogdon, Alexander Goehr, and Elgar Howarth formed New Music Manchester -- a group devoted to the performance of twentieth century works. The Italian government provided Davies with a scholarship in 1957, allowing him to study in Italy for a year with Goffredo Petrassi.

From 1959 to 1962, Davies was director of music at the Cirencester Grammar School, where he developed a teaching method based on musical performance. Since then he has written often for children, and continues to devote significant time to education. He spent the next two years in the United States, studying at Princeton University's graduate school with Roger Sessions and Earl Kim on a Harkness Fellowship. He wrote The Shepherd's Calendar (1965) for young singers and instrumentalists for the 1965 UNESCO Conference on Music in Education in Sydney, Australia, and was a visiting composer at Adelaide University in 1966.

Back in England in 1967, Davies formed the Pierrot Players with Birtwistle. The Players specialized in performances of contemporary music, and Davies wrote many works for them, including his infamous Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969). He took over sole directorship of the Players in 1970, reforming them as the Fires of London (which he continued to lead and compose for until he disbanded the group in 1987). During the 1960s, Davies became interested in John Taverner, the sixteenth century English composer. In 1962, he wrote the award-winning First Fantasia on an In Nomine of John Taverner, and started work on his first opera, Taverner, which was premiered in 1972.

In 1970, Davies relocated to the Orkney Islands; Orcadian subject matter, in particular, the writings of George Mackey Brown and the Orcadian St. Magnus became a significant part of his music. Brown's writings have inspired works like Black Pentecost (1979) and the massive Orkney Saga project (the first two of its proposed fourteen parts appeared in 1997). In 1977, Davies organized the St. Magnus Festival, which he directed until 1986. The Yellow Cake Revue for singers and piano (1980) features a text by Davies criticizing proposed uranium mining in the Orkneys and is just one of his compositions reflecting his environmental concerns.

Davies received his knighthood in 1987. Two years earlier, he became the Associate Composer-Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, an association which led to the Strathclyde Concerto Project, a set of ten concertos for various instruments written over the years 1987 to 1996. His interest in children's music continued with the frequently performed The Turn of the Tide (1992), in which Davies' music is combined with compositions by school children. Among his numerous commissioned works are An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise (1984), written for the centennial of the Boston Pops; The Doctor of Myddfai (1995), his second full-scale opera, written for the fiftieth anniversary of the Welsh National Opera; and the Symphony No. 8, "Antarctic" (2000), commissioned by the Philharmonia Orchestra. ~ Chris Morrison, All Music Guide

Discography

Maxwell Davies: Symphony No. 2

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Peter Maxwell Davies: A Celebration Of Scotland

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Davies: Carolísima; Concerto for six woodwind instruments No9

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Peter Maxwell Davies: Trumpet Concerto; Symphony No. 4

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Peter Maxwell Davies: Strathclyde Concerts 7 & 8/MacDonald Dances

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Peter Maxwell Davies: The Lighthouse

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Peter Maxwell Davies: Strathclyde Concertos No. 3; Strathelyde Concertro No. 4

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Peter Maxwell Davies: Strathclyde Concertos No. 3; Strathelyde Concertro No. 4

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Maxwell Davies: Symphony No.1

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Davies: Symphony No. 3

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
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(born Sept. 8, 1934, Manchester, Eng.) British composer. He studied in England, Italy, and the U.S. He cofounded the contemporary ensemble The Fires of London and was its musical director (1970 – 87); he wrote many of his works for the group. In 1970 he moved to Scotland's remote Orkney Islands. He wrote many musical theatre works and conducted orchestras worldwide. His most famous compositions are Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969) and An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise (1985); his other works include Miss Donnithorne's Maggot (1974); the operas Taverner (1968), The Martyrdom of St. Magnus (1976), and The Lighthouse (1980); eight symphonies; and numerous concerti.

For more information on Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, visit Britannica.com.

 
Dictionary of Dance: (Sir) Peter Maxwell Davies
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Davies, (Sir) Peter Maxwell (b Manchester, 8 Sept. 1934). British composer. He has written dance scores for W. Louther's Vesalii Icones (London, 1970) and for F. Flindt's Salome (Copenhagen, 1978) and Caroline Mathilde (Copenhagen, 1991). His concert music has also been used by others, including B. Moreland in Journey to Avalon (London Festival Ballet, 1980) and R. Alston in Bell High (1980) and Hymnos (1988—both for Ballet Rambert).

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
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Davies, Sir Peter Maxwell (dā'vĭs) , 1934–, English composer and conductor, b. Salford. He was co-founder (1967) of the Pierrot Players instrumental ensemble, later reinvented as the Fires of London (1970–87), which he directed and for which he wrote many pieces, e.g., the highly emotional Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969), probably his best-known work. He has composed in numerous idioms and moods, from early expressionist works to later more lyrical and reflective pieces; his interest in medieval and Renaissance music is clear in Shakespeare Music (1964) and other compositions. Extremely prolific, Davies has written choral works, e.g., O magnum mysterium (1960); operas, e.g., The Lighthouse (1980) and The Doctor of Myddfai (1996); several symphonies, e.g., Antarctic Symphony (2002); and numerous concerti, vocal works, chamber music, theater pieces, and many others. He has served as conductor/composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Glasgow (1985–94), the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London (1992–2000), and the BBC Philharmonic, Manchester (1992–2001); in 2004 he was appointed Master of the Queen's Musick. He was knighted in 1987.

Bibliography

See biography by M. Seabrook (1994) and bio-bibliography by C. Smith (1995); studies by S. Pruslin, ed. (1979), P. Griffiths (1981), R. McGregor, ed. (2001), and S. Craggs, ed. (2003).

 
Dictionary: Davies,
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Sir Peter Maxwell Born 1934.

British composer whose avant-garde choral, vocal, and instrumental works draw on medieval and Renaissance traditions and are noted for their shocking, violent style.


 
Quotes By: Peter Davies
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Quotes:

"Motivation is like food for the brain. You cannot get enough in one sitting. It needs continual and regular top up s."

 
Wikipedia: Peter Maxwell Davies
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Cover of Maxwell Davies' recording of his Fifth Symphony.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE (born 8 September 1934), is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.

Contents

Biography

Davies was born in Salford, Greater Manchester. He took piano lessons and composed from an early age. After education at Leigh Boys Grammar School, Davies studied at the University of Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music (amalgamated into the Royal Northern College of Music in 1973), where his fellow students included Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Elgar Howarth and John Ogdon. Together they formed New Music Manchester, a group committed to contemporary music. After graduating in 1956, he briefly studied with Goffredo Petrassi in Rome before working as Director of Music at Cirencester Grammar School from 1959 to 1962.

In 1962, he secured a Harkness Fellowship at Princeton University, with the help of Aaron Copland and Benjamin Britten[1], where he studied with Roger Sessions, Milton Babbitt and Earl Kim. He then moved to Australia, where he was Composer in Residence at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide from 1965-66.

He then returned to the United Kingdom and moved to the Orkney Islands, initially to Hoy in 1971, and later to Sanday, where he lives with his partner Colin Parkinson. Orkney (particularly its capital, Kirkwall) hosts the St Magnus Festival, an arts festival founded by Davies in 1977. He frequently uses it to premiere new works (often played by the local school orchestra).

Davies was Artistic Director of the Dartington Summer School from 1979 to 1984 and has held a number of posts. From 1992 to 2002 he was associate conductor/composer with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and he has conducted a number of other prominent orchestras, including the Philharmonia, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. In 2000 Davies was Artist in Residence at the Barossa Music Festival when he presented some of his music theatre works and worked with students from the Barossa Spring Academy. Davies is also Composer Laureate of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, for whom he wrote a series of ten Strathclyde Concertos.[2]

He has been awarded a number of honorary doctorates, at various institutions. He has been President of Making Music (The National Federation of Music Societies) since 1989. Davies was made a CBE in 1981 and knighted in 1987. He was appointed Master of the Queen's Music for a ten-year period from March 2004. Oxford University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Music degree in July 2005. On November 25, 2006, Sir Peter was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University at a service in Canterbury Cathedral. He is also a visiting professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music.[3]

Davies was one of the first classical composers to open a music download website, MaxOpus, (in 1996). The site has been unavailable since the arrest in June 2007 of Michael Arnold (one of MaxOpus's directors) on fraud charges arising from money missing from Davies's business accounts.[4] In October 2008 Arnold and his wife Judith (Davies' former agent) were charged with the theft of almost £450,000.[5] According to Davies' publishers, Boosey and Hawkes, Maxopus.com "will be relaunched shortly."[6]

Davies was known as an 'enfant terrible' of the 1960s, whose music frequently shocked audiences and critics. One of the last of his overtly theatrical and shocking pieces was Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969). It was written at the same time as Jimi Hendrix's version of the "Star Spangled Banner" and utilised 'musical parody', in much the same way Hendrix had. In Eight Songs for a Mad King, Davis took a canonical piece of music, Handel's Messiah, and subverted it to suit his own needs, just as Hendrix had subverted the US National Anthem.

Davies has a keen interest in environmentalism. He wrote The Yellowcake Revue, a collection of cabaret-style pieces that he performed with actress Eleanor Bron, in protest at plans to mine uranium ore in Orkney. It is from this suite of pieces that his famous instrumental chanson triste interlude Farewell to Stromness is taken. The slow, walking bass line that pervades the Farewell portrays the residents of the village of Stromness having to leave their homes as a result of uranium contamination. The Revue was first performed at the St. Magnus Festival, in Orkney, by Bron, with the composer at the piano, in June 1980. Stromness, the second largest town in Orkney, would have been two miles from the uranium mine's core, and the center most threatened by pollution, had the proposed development been approved.

Davies is openly gay. In 2007, a controversy arose regarding his intended civil partnership when he was told that the ceremony could not take place on the Sanday Light Railway.[7] He later abandoned his plans.[8]

Davies is known informally as "Max", after his middle name "Maxwell". A reporter for The Independent humorously recalled the confusion this brought about when Davies was staying in Las Vegas. No one seemed able to locate him at any hotel, despite trying "Maxwell Davies", "Davies", "Max", "Sir Peter" and every other imaginable permutation. It was finally discovered that the hotel had registered him as "Mavis", which inspired the composer to produce the orchestral piece Mavis in Las Vegas.[9]

Music

Davies is a prolific composer who has written music in a variety of styles and idioms over his career, often combining disparate styles in one piece.

Early works include the Trumpet Sonata (1955), written while he was at college, and his first orchestral work, Prolation (1958), written while under the tutelage of Petrassi. Early works often use serial techniques (for example Sinfonia for chamber orchestra, 1962), sometimes combined with Mediaeval and Renaissance compositional methods. Fragments of plainsong are often used as basic source material to be adapted and developed in various ways.

Pieces from the late 1960s take up these techniques and tend towards experimental and a violent character - these include Revelation and Fall (based on a poem by Georg Trakl), the music theatre pieces Eight Songs for a Mad King and Vesalii Icones, and the opera Taverner. Taverner again shows an interest in Renaissance music, taking as its subject the composer John Taverner, and consisting of parts resembling Renaissance forms. The orchestral piece St Thomas Wake (1969) also shows this interest, and is a particularly obvious example of Davies's polystylism, combining, as it does, a suite of foxtrots (played by a twenties-style dance band), a pavane by John Bull and Davies's "own" music (the work is described by Davies as a "Foxtrot for orchestra on a pavan by John Bull"). Many works from this period were performed by the Pierrot Players which Davies founded with Harrison Birtwistle in 1967 (they were reformed as The Fires of London in 1970, disbanded in 1987).

Davies is known for his use of magic squares as a source of musical materials and as a structural determinant. In his work Ave Maris Stella (1975) he used a 9x9 square numerologically associated with the moon, reduced modulo 9 to produce a Latin square, to permute the notes of a plainsong melody with the same name as the piece and to govern the durations of the notes.[citation needed]

Worldes Blis (1969) indicated a move towards a more integrated and somewhat more restrained style, anticipating the calm which Davies would soon find at his new home in Orkney. Some have drawn a comparison[weasel words] between this later style and the music of Jean Sibelius. His present style is regarded as much more accessible, to the point where Harrison Birtwistle no longer regarded him as a modernist.[10]

Since his move to Orkney, Davies has often drawn on Orcadian or more generally Scottish themes in his music, and has sometimes set the words of Orcadian writer George Mackay Brown. He has written a number of other operas, including The Martyrdom of St Magnus (1976), The Lighthouse (1980, his most popular opera), and The Doctor of Myddfai (1996). The ambitious, nihilistic parable Resurrection (1987), which includes parts for a rock band, was nearly twenty years in gestation.

Davies also became interested in classical forms, completing his first symphony in 1976. He has written eight numbered symphonies since—a symphonic cycle of the Symphonies Nos.1–7 (1976–2000), a Symphony No.8 titled the 'Antarctic' (2000), a Sinfonia Concertante (1982), as well as the series of ten Strathclyde Concertos for various instruments (pieces born out of his association with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, 1987–1996). In 2002, he began work on a series of string quartets for the Maggini String Quartet to record on Naxos Records (the so-called Naxos Quartets). The whole series was completed in 2007, and is viewed by the composer as a novel in ten chapters.[cite this quote]

Davies's lighter orchestral works have included Mavis in Las Vegas and Orkney Wedding, With Sunrise (which features the bagpipes), as well as a number of theatre pieces for children and a good deal of music with educational purposes. Additionally he wrote the scores for Ken Russell's films The Devils and The Boy Friend.

Maxwell Davies's short piano piece Farewell to Stromness entered the Classic FM Hall of Fame in 2003, his first ever entry, and was at that time the fastest-rising new entry in the chart's history.[citation needed]

He also writes with particular affinity for young and non-professional performers; for example, his Fanfare: A salute to Dennis Brain is targeted at players of grade 6 standard or above,[11] and he has composed several children's operas including A Selkie Tale, The Great Bank Robbery and The Spider's Revenge. Other children's works include Chat Moss and A Hoy Calendar both written for first performance by the children of St Edward's College Liverpool.

A Hymn to the Spirit of Fire was commissioned by the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Concerts Society as the culmination of the city's Capital of Culture year 2008 and was given its world premiere at the Cathedral on Saturday 13 December.[citation needed]

His Violin Concerto no 2 is due to receive its UK premiere on Tuesday 8 September 2009 (the composer's 75th birthday) in the Royal Albert Hall. London, as part of the 2009 season of the BBC Proms.

Career highlights

Selected compositions

  • Fantasias on an In nomine of John Taverner (1962; For a large orchestra dividing into several chambers ensembles to be performed)
  • Eight Songs for a Mad King (1968; for singer/narrator/actor and chamber ensemble)
  • Missa super l'homme armé (1968, rev. 1971; for male or female speaker or singer and ensemble)
  • Ave Maris Stella (1975; chamber ensemble)
  • The Door of the Sun for Viola Solo, J.132 (1975)
  • Symphony No. 1 (1976-77; orchestra)
  • The Martyrdom of St Magnus (1977; chamber opera)
  • The Lighthouse (opera) (1979; chamber opera)
  • Cinderella (1980; children's opera)
  • Image, Reflection, Shadow (1982; ensemble)
  • Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1985; dedicated to Isaac Stern who gave the first performance on June 21, 1986 at the St. Magnus Festival in the Orkney Islands)
  • Caroline Mathilde (1991; ballet)
  • Strathclyde Concerto No.5 for Violin, Viola and String Orchestra, J.245 (1991)
  • A Spell for Green Corn: The MacDonald Dances (1993; violin, orchestra)
  • The Doctor of Myddfai (1996; opera)
  • Job (1997; singers, orchestra)
  • Mr Emmet Takes a Walk (2000; chamber opera)
  • Naxos Quartets (2001-2007; string quartet)
  • Midhouse Air for Violin and Viola

Selected recordings

Notable students

External links

References

  1. ^ Guardian profile
  2. ^ "Peter Maxwell Davies Biography". Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.. http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2695&ttype=BIOGRAPHY&ttitle=Biography/. Retrieved on 2008-08-14. 
  3. ^ "Royal Academy of Music, composition department's staff list". http://www.ram.ac.uk/study/selectadepartment/Composition/Composition+staff.htm. Retrieved on 2008-11-22. 
  4. ^ Husband of Peter Maxwell Davies's Manager Arrested in Connection with Disappearance of £500,000, Playbill Arts, May 2007
  5. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5033657.ece
  6. ^ http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2695&
  7. ^ Orkney Council moves to quell civil partnerships row- from Pink News
  8. ^ Orkney composer cancels ceremony plans- from Pink News
  9. ^ Mavis in Las Vegas (CD liner notes), Collins Classics
  10. ^ Mr. Unstoppable, The Guardian, 2004
  11. ^ The Horn Player, magazine of the British Horn Society, April 2007
  12. ^ The Homertonian, Newsletter of Homerton College No 13, May 2009, p.2
Court offices
Preceded by
Malcolm Williamson		 Master of the Queen's Music
2004–2014		 Succeeded by
Current Incumbent

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ® , a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Dictionary of Dance. The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Copyright © 2000, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Quotes By. Copyright © 2008 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Peter Maxwell Davies".  Read more

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