Alasdair Nicolson
Magnus IV Orpheus in his Cottage
Duration: 5'
Solos:
piano
Magnus IV Orpheus in his Cottage
Sample pages
Work introduction
This work was written as a memorial piece for Peter Maxwell Davies who was a friend, colleague and my predecessor as director of St Magnus Festival in Orkney. The work was commissioned by Rolf Hind, who gave its premiere, and first performed at Sound Festival in Aberdeen in the autumn of 2016. The work is part of a series of small piece written for various occasions and based around the music of the medieval hymn to St Magnus. This piano piece plays on the idea of grace notes and the inflections of that kind of ornamentation which is redolent of much of Scottish folk music. The pedal is left down for large sections of this piece to allow for a resonant backdrop to develop.
What is necessary to perform this work?
Piano