Peter Maxwell Davies then set these poems to music and devised them as a semi-theatrical work for Male Vocalist, Piano, Violin, Cello, Flute, Clarinet, and Percussion. The songs are to be understood as the King's monologue while listening to his birds perform, and incorporate some sentences actually spoken by George III.
The resulting work, Eight Songs for a Mad King, was completed in 1969 and stands as one of the mostdistinctive, and arguably one of the most disturbing musical works from the twentieth century.
This is the vocal score which includes a Piano accompaniment.