Peter Maxwell Davies

House Of Winter

House Of Winter is a setting of four Christmas poems by George Mackay Brown, for AATBBB or SATBBB a cappella choir. The music is continuous, and though scored for unaccompanied voices, it becomes almost orchestra in its evocation of the calm, frozen stillness of an Orkney winter on the one hand, and the wildness of a December storm on the other.
The setting is largely homphonic, in Davies's 'adult' modal style and with a characteristic inventiveness of vocal scoring, as in the storm sequence, with its whistling upper voices and eruptive bass line.
The first performance took place during the tenth St. Magnus Festival as part of a concert given by The King's Singers in Kirkwall in June 1986.
Vocal score with piano accompaniment for rehearsal purposes.