Jones, Nicholas  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7098-6114
2025.
Composing community: Peter Maxwell Davies's operas for children.
Presented at: RMA 61st Annual Conference,
Southampton, UK,
12 September 2025.
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Abstract
Speaking in 1965, Peter Maxwell Davies made the following comment: ‘I think the most basic thing about composing for young people is this: that there must be absolutely no difference in the essential quality of your work for children and your work for professionals and adults. Both must be tackled with absolute seriousness.’ Composing for children was extremely important to Davies, and the works he produced in this area reflected a deep desire on his part to create something significant, non-patronising and appropriately challenging. Over the course of his long and distinguished career, Davies (1934–2016) wrote nearly ninety works for children and amateurs, ten of which were children’s operas and music-theatre works. Given the importance that Davies himself attached to his children’s works, it is surprising that the operas and music-theatre works have received very little scholarly attention. This paper focuses on the first three stage works, written between 1978 and 1981 for the St Magnus Festival, Orkney. Davies had first visited the Orkney Islands in 1970. He immediately became infatuated with the place – its seascape and landscape, its tranquillity and isolation, its folklore and folk music, and its people. He set up permanent residence on the Island of Hoy in 1974, and this move to the remote archipelago functioned as a catalyst for the creation of many new works for children. The Orkney community was extraordinarily important to him, and he integrated himself within it with tremendous enthusiasm. These early stage works demonstrate his profound commitment to his role as community composer – a role that he occupied for over forty years.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Other) |
|---|---|
| Status: | Unpublished |
| Schools: | Schools > Music |
| Subjects: | M Music and Books on Music > M Music |
| Related URLs: | |
| Last Modified: | 22 Sep 2025 14:45 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/181077 |
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