Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016)

[foxandpeng]

I'm a big fan of Psappha, and they have done some impressive livestreams over the last few years.

There are now quite a few performances on YouTube. I just found two recent ones:

The Playground Ensemble, at the Metropolitan State University of Denver (Warning: This version has a political bent, which may be a plus or a minus, depending on your point of view.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-k0_Wn24qo&t=1789s

Ensemble Les Noces, from the Péniche Opéra, Paris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PxODIs14vA

And in any performance, I'm not sure how the seventh scene ("Country Dance") plays out in audio only. Seeing it adds a great deal.

--Bruce

Cheers, Bruce! I will click with interest 

[Spotted Horses]

Listened to the 6th symphony. I found this comment by Luke very helpful:

...I was outside PMD's house on Sanday, Orkney, when I was unexpectedly invited in by the current owner, who was PMD's carer in the last years of his life. The house was virtually unchanged, amazing to see, but it was the people who made it the deeply humbling and moving experience which I discuss properly in the book. But re the 6th: this very gentle and thoughtful man was devoted to Max, but he didn't like the big public events which came with it at all. He recalled attending a concert at the Cadogan Hall in London in which the 6th was performed, of how the music was met with general consternation in musically knowledgeable critics and listeners, whilst he, musically untrained, knew precisely what the symphony was doing: every twist and turn it takes is the musical equivalent of an event, a new view, a change of direction, a change of gradient etc. on the walks the composer used to take around Orkney. So, whilst sitting feeling somewhat socially awkward in the crowded concert hall, he was able to escape in his mind's eye back to a precise walk upon his remote home islands.

It seems to me that the apparent "formlessness" of Davies symphonies can be understood this way, as reflecting a journey though a (real of figurative) landscape where there may be surprises at every turn of the path.

[Luke]

It is generally accepted that this is how he composed much of his music, so even if we don't know the exact places, we can use imagination at least to understand what sort of thing is going on. He would analyse a landscape, or a seascape, and then find musical analogies for his conclusions - for instance, in A Mirror of Whitening Light, he considered the way the sun reflected off the sea beneath the window of his croft on Hoy; in the Second Symphony he  analysed the way the waves of two different seas, meeting below that same window, would interact (a photo I took of this view last month, below). These observations lead him on to more musical thoughts...

[Maestro267]

Apologies if I'm repeating myself but I sense the sea in a lot of PMD's music. It's how I managed to unlock Worldes Blis for myself, especially the lengthy opening section, is to see it like the sea, with the constant bubbling of little motifs being like the water or waves and the very slow overall moving of the piece towards a climax like the tide, the entire edifice very slowly building up and enveloping the space.

[foxandpeng]

Enjoying reading these reflections. Any pointers to enhance understanding and appreciation of PMD's symphonies are greatly valued. Thank you, and do keep them coming!

[Luke]

Apologies if I'm repeating myself but I sense the sea in a lot of PMD's music. It's how I managed to unlock Worldes Blis for myself, especially the lengthy opening section, is to see it like the sea, with the constant bubbling of little motifs being like the water or waves and the very slow overall moving of the piece towards a climax like the tide, the entire edifice very slowly building up and enveloping the space.

The sea was certainly vital in the conception of his music and - I was told - he was even more fascinated with the sounds of the environment (wind, rain, storm, sea, birds, all very present on Orkney...) than its awe-inspiring look. When it comes to Worldes Blis (and of course whatever way works for you is great) the history re landscape is complex and interesting (I traced it all for my book). It begins when he was a teenager on holiday with his parents in the Lake District. On the side of Helvellyn he got lost, and found himself surrounded by mists and experiencing some kind of aural hallucination 'some kind of fairy music coming out of the mist.' He realised at the time that it was the sound of the orchestral music he would write in the future, but then forgot about it. After he had composed Worlde's Blis (late 60s) he realised that he had been trying to compose that sound; when he moved to Hoy in the early 70s he realised that the Helvellyn experience was really a premonition of the music of the bleak, rolling landscape behind his house there. My picture of the kind of thing below.

[foxandpeng]

The sea was certainly vital in the conception of his music and - I was told - he was even more fascinated with the sounds of the environment (wind, rain, storm, sea, birds, all very present on Orkney...) than its awe-inspiring look. When it comes to Worldes Blis (and of course whatever way works for you is great) the history re landscape is complex and interesting (I traced it all for my book). It begins when he was a teenager on holiday with his parents in the Lake District. On the side of Helvellyn he got lost, and found himself surrounded by mists and experiencing some kind of aural hallucination 'some kind of fairy music coming out of the mist.' He realised at the time that it was the sound of the orchestral music he would write in the future, but then forgot about it. After he had composed Worlde's Blis (late 60s) he realised that he had been trying to compose that sound; when he moved to Hoy in the early 70s he realised that the Helvellyn experience was really a premonition of the music of the bleak, rolling landscape behind his house there. My picture of the kind of thing below.

Sounds like buying the book is on the cards. Hopefully you'll let us know the details when it is available.

Again, Appreciate reading these snippets 🙂

[Luke]

I have slightly got that wrong (it's complex!): he composed WB without thinking of the Helvellyn experience, then moved to Hoy, then recognised that in WB he had been trying to write the Helvellyn music, but that really the Helvellyn music had itself been a premonition of his future life on Hoy.

[Luke]

Sounds like buying the book is on the cards. Hopefully you'll let us know the details when it is available.

Again, Appreciate reading these snippets 🙂

Certainly will   

[relm1]

I have very special memories of PMD.  I sent an email to him that he was visiting my city and I had aspirations of becoming a composer.  I immediately received a response from his manager that PMD would love to meet with me and a personal invitation to the rehearsal of a premiere of his he would be conducting!  I was the only person in the entire concert hall aside from the orchestra on stage.  I don't think I had yet been to a rehearsal of a professional orchestra and was very out of place.  As soon as the music ended, PMD turned around looking for me and invited me backstage to the conductor's suite.  He was drenched in sweat and very, very kind.  I think I said something very stupid like "Sir Peter, you're the first knight I've ever met!" He responded with a gentle almost timid smile, "please, call me Max". His voice never raised above a whisper as he poured over my very early student music with thought and care.  He said, "being a composer is a very difficult thing.  If it's something you really want to pursue then it's not going to be an easy life".  I was too young and stupid to understand but in hindsight, it just makes me realize if he spent that much time and had so much personal care of me, a nobody, he must be like this to everyone. 

[vers la flamme]

I have very special memories of PMD.  I sent an email to him that he was visiting my city and I had aspirations of becoming a composer.  I immediately received a response from his manager that PMD would love to meet with me and a personal invitation to the rehearsal of a premiere of his he would be conducting!  I was the only person in the entire concert hall aside from the orchestra on stage.  I don't think I had yet been to a rehearsal of a professional orchestra and was very out of place.  As soon as the music ended, PMD turned around looking for me and invited me backstage to the conductor's suite.  He was drenched in sweat and very, very kind.  I think I said something very stupid like "Sir Peter, you're the first knight I've ever met!" He responded with a gentle almost timid smile, "please, call me Max". His voice never raised above a whisper as he poured over my very early student music with thought and care.  He said, "being a composer is a very difficult thing.  If it's something you really want to pursue then it's not going to be an easy life".  I was too young and stupid to understand but in hindsight, it just makes me realize if he spent that much time and had so much personal care of me, a nobody, he must be like this to everyone. 

Wow!

Stories like this make me very interested to hear some of his music. I haven't heard a note of it. As prolific as he is I need to ask, what are some of the standouts?

[Luke]

I have very special memories of PMD.  I sent an email to him that he was visiting my city and I had aspirations of becoming a composer.  I immediately received a response from his manager that PMD would love to meet with me and a personal invitation to the rehearsal of a premiere of his he would be conducting!  I was the only person in the entire concert hall aside from the orchestra on stage.  I don't think I had yet been to a rehearsal of a professional orchestra and was very out of place.  As soon as the music ended, PMD turned around looking for me and invited me backstage to the conductor's suite.  He was drenched in sweat and very, very kind.  I think I said something very stupid like "Sir Peter, you're the first knight I've ever met!" He responded with a gentle almost timid smile, "please, call me Max". His voice never raised above a whisper as he poured over my very early student music with thought and care.  He said, "being a composer is a very difficult thing.  If it's something you really want to pursue then it's not going to be an easy life".  I was too young and stupid to understand but in hindsight, it just makes me realize if he spent that much time and had so much personal care of me, a nobody, he must be like this to everyone. 

Fabulous story! And I must say - I didn't meet him, I just met some of the people who loved him, who now live in the wake he left behind, and I left that beautiful, remote place feeling an overwhelmingly powerful sense of kindness and love. It actually changed the whole course of the project I was on, that sense of love. Extraordinary - and yet also, movingly, so ordinary. Thanks for sharing your memories 

[Luke]

Wow!

Stories like this make me very interested to hear some of his music. I haven't heard a note of it. As prolific as he is I need to ask, what are some of the standouts?

For the full-on Max-at-his-best experience: try his chamber opera The Lighthouse - it's such an intense listen, complex and compelling, full of all the things he did best, including some fabulous and suggestive pastiches, but mostly deeply atmospheric, eerie, pictures of inner and outer turmoil - of storms at sea and of madness. One of the 20th century's great works of musical expressionism.

But there are also other works which make for easier introductions such as - most obviously - the Orkney Wedding with Sunrise. There's the Classic FM favourite, too, Farewell to Stromness - it's a gorgeous and fully tonal piece, a strathspey whose enormous popularity is unsurprising but also deserved. It's not a good idea to put Max's music into pigeonholes - 'hardcore modernism' 'folk influenced' 'pastiche' 'tonal/popular' as they exist on a continuum which he can move along easily.

[Karl Henning]

I left that beautiful, remote place feeling an overwhelmingly powerful sense of kindness and love. It actually changed the whole course of the project I was on, that sense of love.

Makes me think of Huey Lewis, "The Power of Love." Less irreverently, clearly I need to give the sixth symphony, at the very least, a listen.

[Maestro267]

Shame we're missing commercial recordings of Symphonies 7-9.

[Iota]

Hi, I'm yet to connect with PMD's music in any meaningful way. The only thing that ever really grabbed me was Eight Songs for a Mad King, and that was when I was at school about 45 years ago. Since then I'm afraid  all visits  have been far more muted experiences. Having just read the last page or two of the thread though has inspired me to try again, probably with the sixth symphony mentioned above.
While I'm here I should also say I'm very impressed with Fox and Peng's tenacity and eventual breakthrough with his music, not something I could ever imagine doing from such a standing start, must be very rewarding.  : )

But I didn't come here to bore you with these insubstantial thoughts, it's just that if I have it right, Luke is putting together a book on PMD, and I thought I'd mention that I know that the composer Richard Barrett worked with him on his scores (transcribing perhaps, not sure?) when he was younger, and may have something interesting to say on the subject, as he's a highly articulate and enlightening writer on music himself. Here are a couple of links for him should you wish to investigate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Barrett_(author)
https://richardbarrettmusic.com/

Good luck with the book, and thanks for the interesting discussion above.

 

[Luke]

That's very kind of you indeed, thanks for the idea - and Barrett's a great figure in his own right, too! Actually I'm not writing a book specifically on PMD, and I'm certainly no expert on him. My book is about various composers' interaction with place (or Place, capital-P), and my visits to those places, so that it contains a travel/autobiographical element too. So, for PMD I visited the childhood home in inner-city Salford (Manchester) which was hit by a bomb whilst the boy hid beneath the stairs; I climbed halfway up Helvellyn (for the reason given above); and, on Orkney I went to Rackwick, where he lived on Hoy, and to the Holms of Ire, outside his house on Sanday, into which I then got unexpectedly invited - a meeting which overwhelmed me, as I say.

[foxandpeng]

Hi, I'm yet to connect with PMD's music in any meaningful way. The only thing that ever really grabbed me was Eight Songs for a Mad King, and that was when I was at school about 45 years ago. Since then I'm afraid  all visits  have been far more muted experiences. Having just read the last page or two of the thread though has inspired me to try again, probably with the sixth symphony mentioned above.
While I'm here I should also say I'm very impressed with Fox and Peng's tenacity and eventual breakthrough with his music, not something I could ever imagine doing from such a standing start, must be very rewarding.  : )

But I didn't come here to bore you with these insubstantial thoughts, it's just that if I have it right, Luke is putting together a book on PMD, and I thought I'd mention that I know that the composer Richard Barrett worked with him on his scores (transcribing perhaps, not sure?) when he was younger, and may have something interesting to say on the subject, as he's a highly articulate and enlightening writer on music himself. Here are a couple of links for him should you wish to investigate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Barrett_(author)
https://richardbarrettmusic.com/

Good luck with the book, and thanks for the interesting discussion above.

That's really kind, thank you. I've found that a good deal of the music that I now love most has been won through persevering when I initially have felt a bit perplexed or unimpressed. I appreciate that may not be everyone's journey, but I know that my inexperience requires a bit more effort than some need to exercise. PMD isn't the only composer that has made me feel that way, but he's probably the most rewarding because of his seeming complexity.

[Iota]

That's very kind of you indeed, thanks for the idea - and Barrett's a great figure in his own right, too! Actually I'm not writing a book specifically on PMD, and I'm certainly no expert on him. My book is about various composers' interaction with place (or Place, capital-P), and my visits to those places, so that it contains a travel/autobiographical element too. So, for PMD I visited the childhood home in inner-city Salford (Manchester) which was hit by a bomb whilst the boy hid beneath the stairs; I climbed halfway up Helvellyn (for the reason given above); and, on Orkney I went to Rackwick, where he lived on Hoy, and to the Holms of Ire, outside his house on Sanday, into which I then got unexpectedly invited - a meeting which overwhelmed me, as I say.

A fascinating idea, and very fertile territory I imagine! The Britten/Aldeburgh connection has always been a very visceral one for me, but I know there are many others. I'll be very interested to see your book when it appears.  : )

[Iota]

That's really kind, thank you. I've found that a good deal of the music that I now love most has been won through persevering when I initially have felt a bit perplexed or unimpressed. I appreciate that may not be everyone's journey, but I know that my inexperience requires a bit more effort than some need to exercise. PMD isn't the only composer that has made me feel that way, but he's probably the most rewarding because of his seeming complexity.

I applaud you, and it's certainly inspired me to take another shot at PMD's music, so thanks for that.