SKU: HL.14020995
ISBN 9780711961920.
Study score of The Three Kings, A Christmas Cantata for SATB soli, chorus and orchestra. Texts by George Mackay Brown and mediaeval, anonymous. This work was commissioned by the London Symphony Chorus to commemorate its 30th anniversary. First performed on 15th October 1995 at the Barbican Hall, London. Duration 50 minutes. Vocal Score also available for sale. Conductor's score and orchestral parts are available for hire.
SKU: HL.14008428
8.25x11.75x0.06 inches.
These are all arrangements of sixteenth-century Scottish church music, beginning with Psalm 124 by David Peebles, which gains an athletic counterpoint of Davies's own. Then comes John Fethy's O God Abufe played straight, and finally an anonymous motet, All Sons of Adam, again infiltrated by a modern voice.
SKU: HL.14008433
ISBN 9780711968936.
This is effectively a work in three movements - Allegro, Andante cantabile and Presto - which Davies likens to 'three obstacle courses, bristling with technical difficulties'. However, as he goes on to say, 'young people are naturally gifted with extraordinary rhythmic skills which normally remain untapped'. Given the opportunity, older children have here the material for a highly arresting piece of music-making. Scoring also includes a small wood block, a small temple block and a small suspended cymbal. The xylophones are one each of the following: concert, soprano, alto and bass. The two glockenspiels are soprano and alto and the metallophones are bass and deep bass (a vibraphone may be used instead of the latter). These studies will provide a challenge to all percussionists, for whom there is a distinct shortage of suitable studies. Duration c. 5mins.
SKU: HL.14020997
ISBN 9780711959910. UPC: 884088440558. 12.0x9.0x0.25 inches.
This Christmas cantata is an uncanny recapture by Maxwell Davies of a relatively simple modal style: luminous, sometimes plaintive, sometimes rapturous. A linked series of George Mackay Brown settings designed to give pleasure (if sometimes strenuous pleasure) to a non-professional choir. A spiritual mystery is glimpsed in an Orcadian setting. Commissioned by the London Symphony Chorus to commemorate its 30th anniversary, with additional funds from the Arts Council of Great Britain.The first performance was given in October 1995 by the London Symphony Chorus and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Hickox. Vocal score.
SKU: HL.14020975
UPC: 884088860066. 8.75x8.25 inches.
Chamber opera in a prologue and one act. A ghost story telling of the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers in the Hebrides. This is a mystery story in the form of a chamber opera. The prologue is set as a court of enquiry into the unexplained disappearance of the three keepers from a lighthouse. Questions are posed by a solo horn, which may sound from among the audience, and three officers give answer. Gradually, they move from straight testimony into fantastical imaginings of evil during a 'flashback' to the lighthouse; but then we snap back to the courtroom. In the main act the three singers become the vanished keepers. They have been together for months, long enough to be fully aware of each other's weaknesses; petty bickerings suggest a relationship which is stable, but liable to become highly unstable at any moment. They sing songs to reduce the tension, Blazes beginning with a rough ballad of street violence, accompanied by violin and banjo. Sandy's song, with cello and out-of-tune upright piano, is a thinly disguised description of sexual bliss, and Arthur's with brass and clarinet, is a tub-thumping hymn. But the songs serve only to resurrect in their minds ghosts from the past, and as the fog descends each of the keepers becomes convinced that he is being claimed by the Beast. They prepare to meet its dazzling eyes, which become the lights of the relief vessel, and the three men reappear as officers, met at the lighthouse only by an infestation of rats. They leave, and at the end the last hours of Blazes, Sandy and Arthur begin to play over again. Libretto only. Duration c. 1h 25mins.
SKU: HL.14008396
ISBN 9780711921337. 8.5x12.0x0.533 inches.
This work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to celebrate its 40th birthday. The first performance took place in June 1986 at St. Magnus' Cathedral, Kirkwall, as part of the tenth St. Magnus Festival. Written for and first performed by Isaac Stern, Davies's Violin Concerto brings together two streams in his music: symphonism and folk-fiddling. In its strongly developed substance, it asks to be measured in the company of Beethoven, Brahms and Sibelius, while there is also, particularly in the middle movement, a strong element of the Scots lament. The orchestra is generally muted in colour, though there is a dramatic role for the timpanist. There are three movements, played without a break - this is only one of many connections with the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Duration c. 30mins.
SKU: HL.14008367
ISBN 9780711975422. 8.25x11.75x0.105 inches.
Piccolo and Piano Reduction. This work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first performed on 23 April 1997, by Stewart McIlwham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer. The three movements should be played without a break. The piccolo may have obvious limitations as a solo instrument, but Davies is not one to shirk a challenge. What he does is to play with the stereotypical modes of the instrument, so that the military pipe and drum effect is hinted at near the beginning of the third movement, while the jaunty manner is recalled at the close of the first, but as through a veil. A potentially comic partnership with the bass clarinet is also dignified when the two instruments engage in meditative dialogue in the second movement. Duration c. 15 minutes. Study Score on sale. Conductor's score and orchestral parts are available on hire.
SKU: HL.14008366
ISBN 9780711975415. 5.5x7.5x0.164 inches.
Orchestral study score. This work was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first performed on 23 April 1997, by Stewart McIlwham and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer. The three movements should be played without a break. The piccolo may have obvious limitations as a solo instrument, but Davies is not one to shirk a challenge. What he does is to play with the stereotypical modes of the instrument, so that the military pipe and drum effect is hinted at near the beginning of the third movement, while the jaunty manner is recalled at the close of the first, but as through a veil. A potentially comic partnership with the bass clarinet is also dignified when the two instruments engage in meditative dialogue in the second movement. Solo part and piano reduction on sale. Conductor's score and orchestral parts are available on hire.
SKU: HL.49018422
ISBN 9790220132391. UPC: 884088614515. 8.25x11.75x0.232 inches.
Maxwell Davies' 'Das Rauschende der Farbe' (The Sound of Colour) is a reflection on the life and work of the German artist Paula Modersohn-Becker who died aged 31 in 1907. Maxwell Davies first got to know the artist's work whilst on a school exchange in Hamburg in 1951 and the composer has since written that Modersohn-Becker's work has influenced the way that he views the relationship between art and the landscape in which it is produced. This is a particularly significant statement for a composer whose music is often a response to the land and seascape of his adopted home in the Orkney Isles. Commissioned by the Bremer Philharmoniker and first performed by them in 2007, the 30 minute orchestral work in three movements is one of the key works by Maxwell Davies in recent years.
SKU: HL.14008404
UPC: 884088435356. 8.75x11.75x0.406 inches.
Chamber opera in a prologue and one act. A ghost story telling of the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers in the Hebrides. This is a mystery story in the form of a chamber opera. The prologue is set as a court of enquiry into the unexplained disappearance of the three keepers from a lighthouse. Questions are posed by a solo horn, which may sound from among the audience, and three officers give answer. Gradually, they move from straight testimony into fantastical imaginings of evil during a 'flashback' to the lighthouse; but then we snap back to the courtroom. In the main act the three singers become the vanished keepers. They have been together for months, long enough to be fully aware of each other's weaknesses; petty bickerings suggest a relationship which is stable, but liable to become highly unstable at any moment. They sing songs to reduce the tension, Blazes beginning with a rough ballad of street violence, accompanied by violin and banjo. Sandy's song, with cello and out-of-tune upright piano, is a thinly disguised description of sexual bliss, and Arthur's with brass and clarinet, is a tub-thumping hymn. But the songs serve only to resurrect in their minds ghosts from the past, and as the fog descends each of the keepers becomes convinced that he is being claimed by the Beast. They prepare to meet its dazzling eyes, which become the lights of the relief vessel, and the three men reappear as officers, met at the lighthouse only by an infestation of rats. They leave, and at the end the last hours of Blazes, Sandy and Arthur begin to play over again. Study Score. Duration c. 1h 25mins.
SKU: HL.14041934
ISBN 9781495076572. 8.75x11.75x0.735 inches.
The opera consists of three interlocking stories of students involved in political action in three different situations: protestors of the National Socialist government in 1942-3 Germany, individuals on opposite sides of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and James Meredith's Oxford Revolution against segregation and racial prejudice resulting in his becoming the first black student at the University of Mississippi.
SKU: HL.14008401
0.268 inches.
A cantata for tenor and chamber orchestra, with words from The Well by George Mackay Brown and a German translation by Gunther Bauer Schenk. The centre-piece of a chamber orchestra trilogy (see also Sinfonia Concertante and Sinfonietta Accademica) and is a symphonic song-cycle in five continuous movements. The text ponders the influence of modern times on ancient ways of life. Into The Labyrinth is the second of a set of three works for chamber orchestra written in 1982-3, and is the only one using voice. The first performance took place in June 1993 in St. Magnus' Cathedral, Orkney, as part of the St. Magnus Festival. It was given by Neil Mackie and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by James Conlon. Score (miniature). Duration c. 31mins.
