Peter Maxwell Davies, Selected Writings

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.

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.