Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

Biography

Peter Maxwell Davies was born on September 8, 1934 in Salford of Greater Manchester, England. He attended the Royal Manchester College of Music and Manchester University. Among his classmates at RMCM were Harrison Birtwistle and Alexander Goehr. One of his first compositions, Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, was premiered by another R.M.C.M. classmate, Elgar Howarth, in 1955. He studied in Rome with Goffredo Petrassi and later attended Princeton University, studying with Roger Sessions, Earl Kim, and Milton Babbitt. Davies composed a number of pieces for the Pierrot Players, a group founded along with Birtwistle. He has served as associate conductor for the B.B.C. Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic and has also conducted the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra,the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and the San Francisco Symphony. In 2004 he earned the position Master of the Queen’s Music. Among performers he has composed for are the B.B.C. Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, and Isaac Stern. His works include eight symphonies, 10 Strathclyde Concertos, and the frequently performed orchestral work An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise (1985), commissioned by the Boston Pops Orchestra.

Works for Winds

• Almas Redemptoris Maler – wind sextet
• Beacons of Hope
• Crossing Kings Peach – mostly winds with a few strings
• De Assumtione Beatae Mariae Virginis – mostly winds with a few strings
• Ecce Manus Tradentis - chorus and winds
• Fanfare : Musis Aurora Benigna – brass sextet
• Leopardi Fragments
• Linguae Ignis (Tongues of Fire) – solo cello accompanied by mostly winds with a few strings
• Mishkenot – mostly winds with a few strings
• Ricercar and Doubles – mostly winds with a few strings
• Shakespeare Music
• St Michael - Sonata for seventeen wind instruments
• Suite from The Boy Friend – mostly winds with a few strings
• Suite from The Devils – mostly winds with a few strings
• Thaw – mostly winds with a few strings

References

• Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - Official Website
• Cummings, D. M. (1998). International who’s who in music and musician directory. Cambridge, England: International Biographical Centre.
• Henderson, R. (1961). Peter Maxwell Davies. The Musical Times Vol. 102 (1424), p. 624-626.
• Henderson, R. (1965). Peter Maxwell Davies’s Shakespeare Music. Tempo, New Series 72, p. 15-18.
• Warnaby, J. (n.d.). Peter Maxwell Davies. [Electronic version]. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Retrieved on February 12, 2009 from http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/ article/grove/music/07299