I'm obviously very keen on the theater and I think it's inevitable that some of the orchestral and chamber pieces have got dramatic elements which might even suggest an unspecified dramatic plot of some kind or other, even though it's not in my mind at the time.

He later abandoned his plans. On 13 October 2009 his string sextet The Last Island was performed for the first time by the Nash Ensemble at Wigmore Hall in a 75th birthday concert for the composer. Fragments of plainsong are often used as basic source material to be adapted and developed in various ways.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CBE (born 8 September 1934) is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.