Farewell To Stromness

[Dagger Gordon]

I've been working on an arrangement for 10 string mandolin of this delighful piece by the late English composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who spent much of his life on the island of Hoy, in Orkney, Scotland.

Does anyone else here play it?

Here is a nice piano version by Adrian Lord (with fabulous Scottish West Coast scenery)





And The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's take on it.

[Bren]

Thanks. Don't think I've heard it before.
I might have a go at it.

This shot is from the track down into Stromness from our shared house. Orkney Folk festival 2018 I think.

Hoy is looming in the distance.

[Dagger Gordon]

Hi Bren,

There are a few classical guitar versions that I've heard. It would probably suit a mandolin duet quite well, I think.

Here is a version on mandolin/mandocello by Harmon Gladding.

Cheers Dagger

[Beanzy]

Adding the version played by the composer.



You can really hear the mood changes in his playing as he portrays the emotions of the people he imagines forced to leave their homes. I think many orchestral interpretations mistake it for a sentimental rather than troubled expression of empathy. I feel the piano or plucked instruments have an advantage here.

He seemed to find pleasure in the way people took the tune as their own.
“My little piano piece Farewell to Stromness has almost become a folk tune. People just say, ‘I like that piece’, and they don’t know who wrote it. It gets played an awful lot at funerals these days. And that’s very unusual, for a so-called serious composer, to write a piece that people like so much, and they don’t care who it’s by.”