Maxwell Davies's Symphony—an introduction

Extract

Even given that the birth of a first full-fledged symphony must be a symbolic moment in the life of any composer, Peter Maxwell Davies has approached the word ‘symphony’ with an impressive caution not unreminiscent of his illustrious predecessor Johannes Brahms. The fact that few composers are writing symphonies these days does not in itself explain his delay in using the term, since he has given us numerous works of symphonic weight and proportions. Nor is it simply a case of taking a ‘trial run’. It is one thing to have tested the water with the Second Taverner Fantasia but quite another to have tested it with the Fantasia and then Worldes Blis, St. Thomas Wake and Stone Litany. Since the Second Taverner Fantasia is a symphony in everything but the name, we are left with a double question: why is the new symphony called a symphony and why is the Second Taverner Fantasia not called one?