Maxwell Davies's ‘The Shepherds' Calendar’

The Shepherds' Calendar, which was commissioned for the UNESCO Conference on Music in Education in Sydney in 1965, was performed there for the first time on May 20 of that year. As the circumstances of its commissioning suggest, the work is designed for a chorus and orchestra of young people, and the forces were chosen not only with a view to what might be expected to be available in a large school, or group of schools, but also as being suitable for illustrating and commenting upon the words of the text. There are two main groups of performers, disposed on opposing sides of the stage: Group 1, consisting of the chorus, attended by 3 clarinets and bassoon and 3 percussion players, on one side; and Group 2, consisting of solo string quartet, flute, oboe, trumpet, trombone, with two further clarinets, 6 recorders and seven percussion players, on the other side. A further small group, consisting of treble soloist accompanied by glockenspiel and handbells, is placed as far as possible from the two main groups, preferably in an elevated position. The reason for this will appear when we come to discuss the text and the manner in which it is treated. But before leaving the subject of the instruments, it should perhaps be mentioned, as just one example of Maxwell Davies's by now well-known practical attitude towards music-making by children, that many of the percussion instruments can be home-made, and not a few of the percussion parts are capable of being played by children with little musical knowedge but with just three essential qualifications: a strong rhythmic feeling, a lively imagination and plain common-sense.