Composed in 2003 The Kestrel Road was jointly commissioned by forty-seven choirs all of which are members of Music Making a national society that links several thousand amateur choirs and orchestras. This work wascommissioned as a tribute to mark the seventieth birthday of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and was performed nationwide throughout the 2004/5 season.The Kestrel Road is a song-cycle for SATB Choir and Piano settings ofpoems by the ‘Bard of Orkney’ George Mackay Brown (1917-96). The poems are highly evocative of Orkney life history and folklore with shepherds crofters fisher folk a laird a scarecrow King Barleycorn and the timeless figureof Ikey the Tinker who passes through many of Brown’s poems seemingly linking past and present. According to Maxwell Davies the music is suggestive of the ‘elusive land and seascapes’ of the islands and is much influenced bythe local folk music.

Il Rozzo Martello for unaccompanied choir SATB by Peter Maxwell Davies was commissioned by BBC Radio 3. It was first performed on 14th August 1997 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall London by the BBC Singers conducted by StephenCleobury.A Michaelangelo sonnet lies at the heart of Il Rozzo Martello - a contemplation on the process of artistic creation and the role of inspiration within it the sculptor's ‘crude hammer’; of the title in Davies'swords ‘a pale echo of the creative efforts of exploring the same theme and similar imagery’. This introduction is distinguished from the setting of Michaelangelo's test by adopting a plainsong style although it builds to aclimax with progressively rich harmony Duration: c 12 minutes.

Advent Calendar by the Master of the Queen's Music Peter Maxwell Davies sets the text of the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams .  The work for SATB and Organ was commissioned by The Choirbook Trust for inclusion in the Choirbook for the Queen published to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen in 2012.

Music-theatre works-The poems which form the basis of this work were inspired by a miniature mechanical organ playing eight tunes once the property of George III. A scrap of paper sold with it explains that 'This Organ was George the Third for Birds to sing'.Peter Maxwell Davies then set these poems to music and devised them as a semi-theatrical work for Male Vocalist Piano Violin Cello Flute Clarinet and Percussion. The songs are to be understood as the King's monologue while listening to his birds perform and incorporate some sentences actually spoken by George III. The resulting work Eight Songs for a Mad King was completed in 1969 and stands as one of the mostdistinctive and arguably one of the most disturbing musical works from the twentieth century.This is the vocal score which includes a Piano accompaniment.

This work was commissioned by Alistair Grant to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the second Jacobite rising (1745-6). It was first performed on 15th October 1997 at the City Halls Glasgow conducted by Peter Maxwell Davies. Scored for Soprano Alto Tenor and Bass solo Chorus and orchestra. Duration c.40 minutes. Vocal score on sale Conductor's score and orchestral parts on hire.

Ave Maria Hail Blessed Flower (Op. 17) was written in 1961 and premiered at Cirencester Grammar School. It is a simple Christmas carol for unaccompanied SATB choir. It uses the image of the Virgin Mary as a delicate flower without sin reinforced by close-knit ethereal harmonies.Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (b. 1934) is a British composer and conductor who served as Master of the Queen’s Music from 2004 to 2014. He has developed from an enfant terrible in the 1960s to become one of the leading figures of the British musical establishment. In the intervening years he has revolutionised contemporary music and helped re-define Britishmusic.

A haunting setting of four elegies from the writing of George Mackay Brown composed by Peter Maxwell Davies. Completed in 1998 this powerful and unsettling work is based upon four short verses that explore the more sinister tragic and even supernatural qualities of the oceans and tides. Composed for soloists mixed chorus and Orchestra the work was commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The work wasfirst performed in December 1998 at Queen's Hall Edinburgh conducted by the composer. The vocal score is available using product code CH61504.

Peter Maxwell Davies' 1994 work for unaccompanied SATB choir using text from George Mackay Brown's 1971 poem A Hoy Calendar.A girdle round the year in five minutes. In twelve clear simple images George Mackay Brown'spoem turns through the months of Orkney life and as it turns so the modal music for a modestly able school or amateur choir moves it on its way with images of matching lucidity.Vocal score with piano accompaniment forrehearsal purposes.

Job (Vocal Score)-A substantial work for four soli SATB chorus and orchestra using text from the translation of Stephen Mitchell's The Book Of Job. Like Vaughan Williams in his Job: A Masque for Dancing Davies was inspired inpart by William Blake's 21 engravings for the Book of Job. His oratorio however is less dependent on find parallels for Blake's visual details given the direct poetry in David Lemon's adaptation of the Stephen Mitchelltranslation from the biblical original it is hardly surprising that the spotlight should be so much on Job's suffering litany. The baritone has the lion's share of the setting though the other soloists occasionally reinforce hisplea and chorale-like episodes universalize his predicament. Davies frames with work with two seminal plainsong-like passages; there is also plenty of dramatic contrast both within Job's monologues and in the vivid orchestralwriting for the smarmy Comforters the initially shrill God who finally appears out of a dazzling orchestral whirlwind and the animal life he uses to illustrate the wonders of creation to a humbled Job.Commissioned by theUniversity of British Colombia it was first performed in May 1997 by Valdine Anderson (soprano) Linda Maguire (mezzo soprano) Paul Moore (tenor) and Kevin McMillan (baritone) with the Vancouver Bach Choir and the CBC VancouverOrchestra conducted by the composer.Vocal score with piano reduction of the orchestral score. Duration c. 70mins.

This Christmas cantata is an uncanny recapture by Maxwell Davies of a relatively simple modal style: luminous sometimes plaintive sometimes rapturous. A linked series of George Mackay Brown settings designed to give pleasure (ifsometimes strenuous pleasure) to a non-professional choir. A spiritual mystery is glimpsed in an Orcadian setting. Commissioned by the London Symphony Chorus to commemorate its 30th anniversary with additional funds from theArts Council of Great Britain.The first performance was given in October 1995 by the London Symphony Chorus and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox.Vocal score.

The task: to write a piece that could involve children as players singers and composers alongside a professional symphony or chamber orchestra. The solution: a peace-cry for the biosphere in which the collaborative nature of theenterprise is a metaphor for a wished-for human enlightenment to the ways of the natural world. Davies provides five musical elements and five ways of development and uses these to illustrate five branches of life on earth:water-plants trees fish birds and mammals (including man). There is a space for answers from children's instrumental groups and then a larger space in which the children can develop the given ideas perhaps with members of theorchestra. Davies returns as composer to depict through an excess of development creation turned sour. Finally everyone comes together with a unison hymn with orchestra and instrumental groups celebrating the turn of thetide.This work for young instrumentalists children's chorus and orchestra was commissioned by the Association of British Orchestras as the centrepiece of an education project which coincided with the implementation of theNational Curriculum for music in schools in England and Wales echoing similar developments in Scotland and Northern Ireland.Score. Duration c. 25mins.

There are seven songs and an instrumental interlude making all together an entertainment that provides opportunity for very simple stage action and dancing: nothing at all elaborate is needed in the way of scenery and costumes.The voices are in unison throughout and their part is always doubled by instruments which should make it relatively easy for quite young children to learn their way into Davies's delightful tunes. The references to Hoy areincidental and could possibly be adapted to suit the locality of a particular performance. In any event most of these tall stories and rhymes will appeal to children everywhere.Full score for this set of songs for children'svoices recorders piano guitars and percussion.Sets of parts also available.

This is the sacred comedy among Manwell Davies' pieces of music-theatre. Brought on by a children's wind band in a 7/8 march the juggler presents himself at an abbey and is accepted by the abbot the only singing character.The other monks are the clarinettist percussionist and flautist all of whom play 'duets' with the juggler as he is put to mundane tasks; sweeping preparing food washing clothes all done with much horseplay. The same threemonks then present their offerings to the Virgin in the form of flamboyant instrumental arias. Left alone the juggler offers his own skills to the accompaniments of Renaissance dances for piano with cello (who also providesupport and commentary throughout). The other members of the community return and are appalled but the image of the Virgin suddenly springs to life as a violinist who plays her own solo acceptance. The abbot acknowledges herjudgement and the juggler is escorted boisterously out by the band.

There are seven songs and an instrumental interlude making all together an entertainment that provides opportunity for very simple stage action and dancing: nothing at all elaborate is needed in the way of scenery and costumes.The voices are in unison throughout and their part is always doubled by instruments which should make it relatively easy for quite young children to learn their way into Davies's delightful tunes. The references to Hoy areincidental and could possibly be adapted to suit the locality of a particular performance. In any event most of these tall stories and rhymes will appeal to children everywhere.Set of 20 chorus parts.