pieces from the late 1960s combine these ideas with expressionism and a violent character, for example "eight songs for a mad king" which is about king george iii. written for a singer and a small group of instruments the singer has to shout and screech at times, and also act. he wrote an opera "taverner" about the renaissance composer john taverner. the orchestral piece "st thomas wake" (1969) uses many different styles of music, including foxtrots (played by a twenties-style dance band), a pavan by john bull and davies's own modern style. many works from this period were performed by the pierrot players which davies founded with harrison birtwistle in 1967 (they were reformed as the fires of london in 1970 and stayed together until 1987).