Three Early Pieces

Three Early Pieces by Peter Maxwell Davies showcases his youthful compositional voice, reflecting both nineteenth-century influences (such as Chopin and Liszt) and an early awareness of modernist techniques. The set includes Incantations (1947), which explores chromaticism and contrapuntal textures, The River, a tempestuous piece marked by Scotch-snap rhythms and modal inflections, and The Cloud, reminiscent of a Chopin nocturne with impressionistic pentatonic harmonies. These works hint at Davies’s later style, demonstrating his early experimentation with thematic manipulation and distinctive harmonic language.