Chords for Sean Shibe Rant: Farewell to Stromness by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

Over the last few months of 2016 I was preparing for a recording of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies'
guitar works.
Of course, Hill Runes, the original composition for guitar, was included, but
so was Farewell to Strom Ness, which is in fact an arrangement of a piano piece.
It comes
from a series of cabaret-style numbers, altogether called [F] the Yellow Cake Review, and is the
piano solo interlude to what is otherwise a [N] suite for voice and piano.
Farewell to Strom
Ness is also a protest song.
It's protesting what could have happened to a certain part
of Orkney, which was around [G#] two miles from the town of Strom Ness.
Potentially uranium
might have [N] taken place.
This didn't, unfortunately.
This didn't.
_ What I only recently realised,
though, and I had played this piece before in September of 2014 for Peter Maxwell Davies'
[C] celebrations.
I hadn't realised it then, but I realise it now, is that the base ground
[F] to the piece is symbolic of the villagers leaving the town of Strom Ness.
Many of them
wouldn't have left Following Callory.
Many of them would be visibly remote.
But I think
this adds a whole new poignancy to that element of the piece.
I think in certain interpretations
I've heard it [G] quite [F] fast, and even the metronome marking, which I think is 60 on the score
of the guitar arrangement, is really quite an upbeat tempo.
So upon realising that it
was symbolic of this dreaded eviction march, I decided to slightly change the tone of it.
Previously I was going with quite a bright tone of the nail, and perhaps even the nail
only, although [D] ghosting it over the 12th fret between the note that I was playing.
_ [F#] _ [G] _ [A] _ _
[F] Which
I think is fine, but what I wanted was something heavier, something sadder and more weighty.
So I had in mind this [D#] image of a double bassist just playing that on his own before the other
voices started to come in.
[F] And I was much more pleased with the heaviness of this thumb
flesh stroke that I probably warble [G] on about far too much.
[D] _ [F#] _ _ [G] _ [A] _ _
And that, I think [F] in combination with a slower vibrato rather than a shimmering, fast, bright,
joyful one, was something that suits, to me, this suits the character of the piece so much
more.
So I guess this is an example of information which can often seem irrelevant about piece,
but that can, if we let it and we're [G#] imaginative, form part of our [G] interpretation.
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ _ [A] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [F#] _
_ [G] _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ [A] _ [D] _ _
_ [G] _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ [D] _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ [G] _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ [A] _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _