The Music of Peter Maxwell Davies by Nicholas Jones and Richard McGregor (review)

Reviewed by: The Music of Peter Maxwell Davies by Nicholas Jones and Richard McGregor Trevor R. Nelson The Music of Peter Maxwell Davies. By Nicholas Jones and Richard McGregor. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 2020. xiii, 368 p. ISBN 9781783274833 (hardcover), 115; ISBN 9781787446823 (ebook), 29. 95. Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index. Following the Second World War, nearly every aspect of British life and culture underwent a period of upheaval and change as part of postwar reconstruction. The UK government dealt with imperial contraction abroad and the rise of social welfare domestically, while simultaneously, a range of local and global influences shaped art and culture. For example, Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953 inspired a resurgence of sixteenth-century music, leading to what many deemed the "New Elizabethan Age. " Meanwhile, young Britons turned to imported US rock 'n' roll, prompting much anxiety about Britain's place in the global matrix of power. Emerging from this mix of influences was Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016). More so than his Manchester School compatriots Harrison Birtwistle and Alexander Goehr, Davies's music exemplifies the tensions and range of influences found in post-war British music, and his compositions remain some of the most celebrated and performed to this day. Nicholas Jones and Richard McGregor's new volume The Music of Peter Maxwell Davies is the most exhaustive study of the composer's music to date. Jones and McGregor have independently published multiple well-respected analyses of Davies's life and work, making their perspectives here much anticipated and valued. Still, it would be impossible for the pair to describe the over 550 pieces Davies composed over the course of his sixty-year career. Instead, they sought to "provide an encompassing, global view of Davies's entire output" (p. 2). The authors take a thematic approach, tackling an aspect of Davies's unique compositional practice in each of the seven chapters; chapter titles like "Form and Architecture" and "Landscape and Place" clue the reader into the kinds of structural analysis to be found throughout this text. Within each chapter, Jones or McGregor (each chapter was written by a single author, only the introduction was cowritten) draws on representative music examples spanning Davies's career, including well-known vocal pieces like Songs for a Mad King (1969) and Taverner (1972), the ten symphonies, the Naxos string quartets, and multiple works for children. To supplement score study, Jones and McGregor draw extensively on Davies's published and unpublished writings as well as sketches for many of the works. While the book does not have End Page 666 an overarching argument, Jones and McGregor describe their aim "to understand, as fully and as richly as possible, Davies's works in all of their technical and symbolic complexity, and the ways in which they are received and interpreted by the listener" (p. 6). It is through these rich analyses that one comes to better understand the range of influences present in Davies's compositions and thus to appreciate his works more fully. In chapter 1, "Biography, Stylistic Development, Autobiography, " Jones provides a detailed account of Davies's life story and musical growth, from his early appearances on the BBC Program Children's Hour in the late 1940s, to his time as a student at the Royal Manchester College of Music, and beyond to his career as a working composer. Throughout the chapter, Jones draws on pieces representative of Davies's style at moments in his life or on works that became extremely popular. For example, Jones describes how the Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, op. 1, was nearly predetermined to be Davies's breakthrough piece, as it drew on many of the composer's preoccupations upon leaving university, including serialism and Hindustani rhythmic practices. Jones concludes the chapter by reminding readers of Davies's tendency toward referencing his life, friends, and works in his compositions. Jones goes so far as to argue "by acknowledging the imprint of Davies's biography on his music, in all its variegated forms, we add extra layers of rich meaning and significance in our attempt to understand and interpret his works" (p. 50). Jones and McGregor wholeheartedly embrace this quest, and the analyses throughout. . .