Peter Maxwell Davies, "Psalm 124"

-- Liner Notes from L'Oiseau Lyre DSLO 12 --

The Fires of London
Peter Maxwell Davies, director
Mary Thomas, soprano
Judith Pearce, flute/alto flute
Alan Hacker, basset clarinet/bass clarinet/folk clarient
Duncan Druce, violin/viola
Jennifer Ward Clarke, baroque cello
Stephen Pruslin, piano/harpsichordlglockenspiel/drone
Gary Kettel, percussion
with Timothy Walker, guitar

Bosendorfer piano, Goble harpsichord

PETER MAXWELL DAVIES was born in Manchester in 1934. He now holds an international reputation as the leading British composer of his generation, with major works to his credit in every medium. His opera, Taverner, attracted enormous attention when it was first produced at the Royal Opera House. Covent Garden in 1972. Important recent performances include the orchestral works Worldes Blis and Stone Litany, the virtuoso chamber works, Hymn to Saint Magnus and Ave Maris Stella, and the music theater work, Miss Donnithorne's Maggot. Maxwell Davies is currently working on several major orchestral commissions, chamber works for the Fires, and is planning a second opera. He is in constant demand as a lecturer and teacher, but he now devotes himself principally to composition, on a remote Orkney island, and to his appearances with the Fires of London.

This work has three sections, linked by guitar solo recitatives. The first section uses the melody of Psalm 124 (after David Peebles), the second, a line of '0 God Abufe' (after John Fethy), and the third, an outline from 'All Sons of Adam' (after an anonymous sixteenth century motet). The work's formal shape is based on the chorale-prelude, and it in fact originated as an organ work, written for Elizabeth Bevan, organist at Stromness Church, Orkney. The 'originals' are again to be found in Kenneth Elliott's 'Early Scottish Music. 1500-1750'.