 |
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CH CBE
(1934–2016)
|
The death has been announced of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, former Master of the Queen's Music, at
the age of 81 years.
Sir Peter, or Max as he was known to many, was born in
Salford, Lancashire and was something of a child prodigy. He took piano lessons
and composed from an early age. After education at Leigh Boys Grammar School, Max
studied at the University of Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of
Music (amalgamated into the Royal Northern College of Music in 1973), where his
fellow students included Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Elgar Howarth
and John Ogdon. Together they formed New Music Manchester, a group committed to
contemporary music. After graduating in 1956, he studied in Rome before working
as Director of Music at Cirencester Grammar School from 1959 to 1962.
In 1962, he secured a Harkness Fellowship at Princeton University
where he studied with Roger Sessions, Milton Babbitt and Earl Kim. He then
moved to Australia, where he was Composer in Residence at the Elder
Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide from 1965–66. After returning
to Britain, he moved, in 1971, to the Orkney Islands, initially to Hoy, and
later to Sanday. Orkney hosts the St Magnus Festival founded by Sir Peter in
1977.
Many of his works from this period were performed by the
Pierrot Players which Max founded with Harrison Birtwistle in 1967 and later reformed
as the Fires of London.
Sir Peter was made a CBE in 1981 and knighted in 1987. He
was appointed Master of the Queen's Music in March 2004. Max was a prolific
composer whose compositions included opera, choral music, ten symphonies, concertos
including the ten Strathclyde Concertos, chamber music including ten Naxos
Quartets and piano music.
Although in his early days Max was influenced by the
European avant-garde his music from the late 1960s moved towards experimental
music such as Revelation and Fall and
the music theatre pieces Eight Songs for
a Mad King and Vesalii Icones.
His opera Taverner shows an interest
in Renaissance music. After his move to Orkney, Max’s music took on the
influences of the landscape and the Orcadian writer George Mackay Brown.
Other influences were Italian churches, in particular the architecture
of Brunelleschi, and magic squares as a source of musical materials and
structure.
In the 2014 New Year Honours List he was made a Member of
the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to music and last month was
awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, the highest accolade the
society can bestow.
Max’s most recent work was an opera for children called The Hogboon, which will be premiered by
the London Symphony Orchestra on 26 June 2016.
See also:
No comments:
Post a Comment