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The Music of Taverner
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2010
Extract
The newcomer to Peter Maxwell Davies's music may well be bewildered by a Stravinskian profusion of widely differing styles. Stravinsky's stylistic progress was at one time misunderstood and severely criticized; but as audiences grew increasingly familiar with the whole of his musical output, the consistency of his musical concerns became obvious. Perhaps because of the more sympathetic view of Stravinsky's music, Davies has been better understood in this respect, even though over the seventeen years or so of his acknowledged output, the disparities of style are at least as great as they were with Stravinsky.
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References
page 20 note 1 Chanan, Michael, ‘Dialectics in Peter Maxwell Davies’, TEMPO 90 (Autumn 1969)Google Scholar
page 21 note 1 . eg: Alma Redemptoris Maser (1957), Ricercar and Doubles (1959), String Quarter (1961)Google Scholar, Sinfonia (1962), Frammenti di Leopardi (1962)Google Scholar, the gwo Fantasias on an In Nomine of John Taveraer (1962 and 1964)Google Scholar, Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969)Google Scholar, St. Thomas Wake (1969), Vesalii Kones (1969), Worldes Blis (1966–69), Cauda Pavonis (1969), and Sub Tuam Protectionem (1970)Google Scholar, If the definition includes plainsong, we should add St. Michael (1957), Te Lucis Ante Terminum (1961)Google Scholar and Veni Sancte Spiritus (1963).Google Scholar
page 21 note 2 Prolation, and St. Michael (1957) suggest another kind of ‘unmocking’ imitation—that of the recent past. The rigorous control of pitch, rhythm, tempi and formal divisions in these works, derived as it may be from medieval practices, shows, nevertheless, Davies's awareness of, indeed, debt to, the attempts of the European avant-garde of the day (notably Boulez) to develop a new language of music which had a logical and aural cohesion comparable to that of tonal music.
page 21 note 3 This and the following quotation are from the composer's programme note for the first performance of Vesalii Icones (Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 9 12 1969).Google Scholar
page 22 note 1 For music examples, see pages 30–39.
page 23 note 1 Rose's aria (bars 261 – 310) has both A and B sections repeated, however.
page 24 note 1 Berger, Arthur, ‘Problems of Pitch Organization in Stravinsky’ in Perspectives on Schoenberg and Stravinsky, ed. Boretz, and Cone, (Princeton University Press, 1968)Google Scholar; Perle, George, ‘The Musical Language of Wozzeck’ in The Music Forum, vol. 1, ed. Mitchell, and Salzer, (Columbia University Press, 1967).Google Scholar
page 24 note 2 The entries of the canon theme are marked in the example with letters (P, R and 1) indicating Prime, Retrograde and Inversion, and numbers indicating transpositional level as determined by the distance in semitones of the initial pitch from the tone centre of Bb. The rhythmic proportions are marked in the normal notation.
page 25 note 1 Mulliner Book (Musica Britannica, vol.1, p.42): Blitheraan, Eterne rerum (iii); Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, vol.2, P.359: William Byrd, Coranto.Google Scholar
page 28 note 1 Berlioz, Hector, Memoirs, trs. Cairns, David (London, 1969), p.479Google Scholar; quoted by Edward T. Cone in ‘Inside the Saint's Head: The Music of Berlioz’ (The Musical Newsletter, New York, vol.1 no.4).Google Scholar
page 29 note 1 Other extended correspondences with the Fantasia include the orchestral transition between the second and third scenes of Act 1: cf. the Fantasia, bars 1–27. Indeed these orchestral transitions—which occur between every scene apart from the third and fourth of Act I—have much in common with the music of the Fantasia.
page 29 note 2 The manuscript addition to Ex. 1 shows the plainsong transposed up a semitone. The first and last three notes are exchanged, so that the excerpt closes on D#.