Farewell to Stromness
Op. 89/1
In Farewell to Stromness, an elegant melody transports us to a quiet town in the Scottish isles. Peter Maxwell Davies wrote the work in the late 1970s as part of a cabaret set, The Yellow Cake Revue. This was a protest against plans to open a uranium mine near the town of Stromness, on the Orkney Islands, where the composer lived (“yellow cake” is a name for uranium ore). In the revue, Farewell to Stromness appears as an interlude between the songs. The composer compared it to a strathspey, a kind of folk dance, and the distinctive ornaments of Scottish folk music are heard throughout the melody. The work was originally composed for solo piano, but it has been arranged for many different ensembles, as well as for solo guitar. A version for string orchestra was played for King Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles at the blessing of their marriage in 2005.
