Queen Elizabeth's Royal Composer Gives Her a New Christmas Carol
"It is a celebratory piece, and I think George would probably have a wry smile that it has ended-up a Royal Christmas carol, because he was celebrating the religious significance rather than the secular."
Davies is Orcadian, meaning he lives on Orkney Island in a village called Sanday, and this year's carol is based on another Orcadian: the renowned poet George Mackay Brown.
Said Sir Peter: "The poem is set in Orkney and I was thinking of Orkney when I wrote the music...Christmas was one of his [Mackay Brown's] passions and inspirations. He never lost the childlike wonderment of Christmas?especially an Orkney Christmas."
According to a report in the BBC, Archie Bevan, the literary executor of Mackay Brown's estate, said: "George was fascinated by...the rhythm of the Christian calendar in general," adding that the poem refers to "Stromness Beach on the fringe of the cemetery which had a monastery in medieval times. It is a celebratory piece, and I think George would probably have a wry smile that it has ended-up a Royal Christmas carol, because he was celebrating the religious significance rather than the secular, and he was a devout Catholic."
