- Written in 1980, Farewell to Stromness is a short, meditative piece for piano. Davies wrote the piece as a protest against the construction of a uranium mine in the Orkney Islands near Stromness (where Davies lived).
- In an interview, Davies said the following about the piece:
- “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. 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.'”1
- While known today as a standalone piece, Farewell to Stromness was originally written as one of two piano interludes in a larger work called The Yellow Cake Revue, a sequence of cabaret songs and recitations.2
Sources
- David Le Page, Notes in accompanying booklet, Labyrinths performed by the Orchestra of the Swan conducted by Daniele Rosina, Signum 694, 2021, compact disc.
- Wikipedia contributors, “The Yellow Cake Revue,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (2024), accessed March 18, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Yellow_Cake_Revue&oldid=1242341141.
Cut IDs
21445 14614 28009