Peter Maxwell Davies's compositions have often been interpreted through dialectical criticism. Davies seeks a fundamental truth through the juxtaposition of opposing ideas. In the case of Vesalii Icones, this opposition occurs between Davies's use of a plainsong, Ecce manus tradentis, and portions of Pierre de la Rue's Missa L'homme armé. Scholars tend to read this work as an opposition of good and evil resulting in the eventual triumph of evil manifested in the Antichrist. Davies achieves this conflict through stylistic juxtaposition, parody, stripping the music of any decoration or embellishment in a reverse Schenkerian process, and stylistic transformation of material into a foxtrot parody. Yet, this interpretation of the work ultimately rests on the shoulders of Davies's analysis, his "program" given in the liner notes to the recording of Vesalii Icones, and his attitude toward popular music as inherently untruthful. One can also interpret this composition in terms of deconstruction. Deconstruction, unlike dialectics, attempts to eradicate a closed system of interpretation and resists the urge to use the opposing ideology to reinforce the primary belief. In this composition, the opposing forces are rarely stable enough to produce dominance of one over the other. Instead, what Davies has done is to juxtapose several conflicting ideas through "distortion," "ambiguity," "dissolution," and "fragmentation." Davies borrows from a specific repertoire to undermine that repertoire and distort ideas for which it stands, in an attempt to deconstruct those ideas, but what emerges results is an open composition in which multiple interpretations are possible.

Works: Davies: Vesalii Icones (14-20), Missa super L'homme armé (14).

Sources: Plainsong: Ecce manus tradentis (15-16); Pierre de la Rue: Missa L'homme armé (16).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes