Kenneth Gloag and Nicholas Jones (eds): Peter Maxwell Davies Studies

October 2009

 

2009 marks the 75th birthday of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, an occasion that presents an opportunity for reflection upon, and appreciation of, a period of compositional achievement that extends from the 1950s to the present. This book (published by Cambridge University Press) forms part of that reflection through a statement of the current condition of research on Maxwell Davies’s music. Detailed analytical discussions of individual works, such as the opera Taverner and the First Symphony, coexist with broader issues and perspectives; including Davies’s own writings about music, his engagement with sonata form, the compositional source, problems of text, and the situating of this music within and in relation to 'modern times'. The book describes selected works from all periods of Davies’s rich and diverse career, resulting in a portrait of the music that, while it may be incomplete, reveals the essence of this remarkable composer and his music.

Contributors

David Beard (Cardiff University), Kenneth Gloag (Cardiff University), Philip Grange, Grenville Hancox, Nicholas Jones (Cardiff University), Rodney Lister, Richard McGregor, Peter Owens, Philip Rupprecht, and Arnold Whittall.