catalogue

The origins of this new work list can be traced back to January 2008 when Peter Maxwell Davies asked if we would be interested in converting the ‘J’ numbers – the former numbering system for his works – into opus numbers.¹ This extraordinary commission proved too fascinating to turn down and naturally we accepted. Once the initial euphoria had worn off, however, it soon dawned on us that the project was not going to be as straightforward as we had first envisaged; indeed, a number of difficult decisions lay ahead. The first of these centred upon the following fundamental question: with which work should the opus numbering begin? After much deliberation we agreed that this honour should go to the Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, written in 1955. This made eminent sense to us: not only is it Davies’s first acknowledged piece, it is also the work that has been known as ‘Op. 1’ (Davies’s own appellation) since the year of its composition, so it seemed unwise to try and change that. This decision, though, presented a problem for the wealth of pieces composed before the Trumpet Sonata: how should these works be numbered? Our solution, in consultation with the composer, was to assign them WoO numbers – Werk ohne Opuszahl (‘work without opus number’) – as in Beethoven’s case. This also worked on the whole for the arrangements and realizations, the unfinished pieces, and the smaller and unpublished works that appeared after 1955. The following list is the definitive printed version. It is presented in chronological order with each work identified by opus or WoO number, followed by title and instrumentation, year(s) of composition, and, for conversion purposes, ‘J’ number. The works in italics are unpublished. An unpublished work marked with an asterisk (*) indicates that there is no manuscript currently available; marked with a dagger (†) indicates that it exists in manuscript, in sketch-form or in parts. A WoO or opus number followed by ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ or ‘d’ indicates that the work exists in several versions. For instance, the ballet Caroline Mathilde, Op. 144a, has several ‘spin-off’ pieces: two orchestral suites, Op. 144b and Op. 144c, and two dances arranged for flute and harp, Op. 144d. An opus number followed by ‘a’ or ‘b’ in square brackets indicates that the work exists in two versions, a later published version and an earlier unpublished version, yet the same opus number applies to both. For instance, Stedman Doubles is known as Op. 3, but the published 1968 version is listed as Op. 3 [b], the unpublished 1955 version as Op. 3 [a]. Any speculative dates of composition appear in square brackets. Finally, we would like to express our thanks to the following people: to Stewart Craggs for his work on compiling an integrated list of published and unpublished works (his source book certainly made our job much easier); to Catherine Gibbs and Hannah Waddell, the composer’s agents; to Jonathan Rees who was a willing and able reader of proofs; and last but not least, to Davies himself for responding to our queries and commenting on various drafts.