List of compositions by Benjamin Britten

This list of compositions includes all the published works by English composer Benjamin Britten with opus number.

Benjamin Britten in 1968

By genre

Operas

Paul Bunyan, Op. 17:

  • Operetta in two acts, 114'.
  • Libretto by W. H. Auden, after the American folktale.
  • Premiered on 5 May 1941 at Brander Matthews Hall, New York.
  • Published by Faber Music.

Peter Grimes, Op. 33:

The Rape of Lucretia, Op. 37:

Albert Herring, Op. 39:

  • Comic opera in three acts, 137'.
  • Libretto by Eric Crozier, loosely after the short story Le Rosier de Mme. Husson by Guy de Maupassant.
  • Premiered on 20 June 1947 at Glyndebourne.
  • Published by Boosey & Hawkes.

The Beggar's Opera, Op. 43:

Let's Make an Opera (The Little Sweep), Op. 45:

  • An Entertainment for Young People, 130'.
  • Libretto by Eric Crozier.
  • Premiered on 14 June 1949 at Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Festival.
  • Published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Billy Budd, Op. 50:

  • Opera in four acts, 162'.
  • Libretto by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, after the novella by Herman Melville.
  • Premiered on 1 December 1951 at the Royal Opera House, London.
  • Published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Billy Budd (revised):

  • Opera in two acts, 158'.
  • Premiered on 9 January 1964 at the Royal Opera House, London.
  • Published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Gloriana, Op. 53:

  • Opera in three acts, 148'.
  • Libretto by William Plomer, after Elizabeth and Essex by Lytton Strachey.
  • Premiered on 8 June 1953 at the Royal Opera House, London.
  • Published by Boosey & Hawkes.

The Turn of the Screw, Op. 54:

Noye's Fludde, Op. 59:

  • Music-theatre for community performance, 50'.
  • Libretto after the Chester Miracle Play as published in English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Interludes
  • Premiered on 18 June 1958 at Orford Church, Aldeburgh Festival.
  • Published by Boosey & Hawkes.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 64:

  • Opera in three acts, 144'.
  • Libretto by the composer and Peter Pears, after the play by Shakespeare.
  • Premiered on 11 June 1960 at Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Festival.
  • Published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Owen Wingrave, Op. 85:

  • Opera for television in two acts, 106'.
  • Libretto by Myfanwy Piper, after the short story by Henry James.
  • Premiered on 16 May 1971 in a BBC2 TV broadcast. First staged on 10 May 1973 at the Royal Opera House, London.
  • Published by Faber Music.

Death in Venice, Op. 88:

Church parables

Ballets

Orchestral

Concertante

  • Rondo Concertante for piano and strings (1930)
  • Double Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra (1932). "Instrumentation...virtually 100% Britten" (Matthews, Erato sleeve note, 1999 – Colin Matthews realised the orchestration).
  • Piano Concerto (1938; rev. 1945, the original third movement – Recitative and Aria – replaced by an Impromptu)
  • Violin Concerto (1939; rev. 1958)
  • Young Apollo for piano, string quartet and string orchestra (1939)
  • Diversions for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra (1940; rev. 1954)
  • Scottish Ballad for two pianos and orchestra (1941)
  • Clarinet Concerto (incomplete: 1st movement only, 1942/3, orch. by Colin Matthews, who later added two further movements from 1940s Britten sketches, incl. Sonata for Orchestra; resulting work, Movements for a Clarinet Concerto, first published 2008)
  • In memoriam Dennis Brain (c. 1958), unfinished sketch for four horns and orchestra.
  • Cello Symphony (1963)

Vocal/choral orchestral

  • Quatre Chansons Françaises for soprano and orchestra (1928)
  • Two Psalms for chorus and orchestra (1931)
  • Our Hunting Fathers for soprano or tenor and orchestra (words by W. H. Auden and others; 1936)
  • The Company of Heaven for speakers, soloists, chorus and orchestra (BBC, September 1937, not performed again until 1989)
  • The World of the Spirit for speakers, SATB soloists, chorus and orchestra (BBC, May 1938)
  • Ballad of Heroes, Op. 14, for tenor or soprano, chorus and orchestra (words by W. H. Auden and Randall Swingler; 1939)
  • Les Illuminations for soprano or tenor and strings (words by Arthur Rimbaud) (1939; three further songs, not included in the cycle, also exist — another setting also called 'Phrase', and 'Aube' and 'A une raison'; they have been orchestrated by Colin Matthews; there also exists a sketch for a further Rimbaud setting)
  • Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943)
  • The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard for male voice choir and piano (1943)
  • Saint Nicolas for tenor soloist, children's chorus, chorus, and orchestra (1948)
  • Spring Symphony for soprano, contralto, and tenor soloists, mixed chorus, boys' choir and orchestra (1949)
  • Nocturne for tenor, seven obbligato instruments and strings (1958)
  • Cantata academica for soloists, chorus and orchestra (1959)
  • War Requiem for soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, chamber ensemble, boys' chorus, mixed chorus, and orchestra (1961)
  • Cantata misericordium for tenor and baritone soloists, small chorus, string quartet, string orchestra, piano, harp, timpani (1963)
  • Phaedra for mezzo-soprano, cello, harpsichord, percussion, and string orchestra (words by Robert Lowell; after Jean Racine's Phèdre; 1975)
  • Praise we great men for soloists, chorus and orchestra (words by Edith Sitwell; 1976. Completed by Colin Matthews, 1985)
  • Welcome Ode for young people's voices and orchestra (1976)

Vocal

Choral

Solo piano

  • Five Waltzes, for piano (1923–25, rev. 1969)
  • Three Character Pieces, for piano (1930)
  • Twelve variations on a theme, for piano (1930)
  • Holiday Diary for piano (1934)
  • Sonatina romantica for piano (rejected by the composer; 1940)
  • Night-Piece (Notturno) for piano (written for Leeds International Pianoforte Competition; 1963)
  • Variations for piano (1965)

Two pianos

  • Two Lullabies for two pianos (1936)
  • Introduction and Rondo alla burlesca for two pianos (1940)
  • Mazurka elegiaca for two pianos (written as part of the collaborative album Homage to Paderewski; 1941)

Organ

String quartet

Violin and piano

  • Suite for Violin and Piano (1935)
  • Reveille, Concert Study (1937, published 1983)

Viola and piano

  • Reflection for viola and piano (1930)
  • Lachrymae for viola and piano, after "If my complaints could passions move" by John Dowland; for William Primrose; 1950)
  • There is a willow grows aslant a brook (1932), an arrangement of the orchestral poem by Frank Bridge. The title is taken from Shakespeare, and the arrangement by Britten is dedicated to Bridge.

Violin, viola and piano

  • Two Pieces (1929; first performance 2003)[5]

Solo viola

  • Etude (1929)
  • Elegy (1930)

Cello and piano

Solo cello

Oboe and piano

  • Two Insect Pieces for oboe and piano (1935)
  • Temporal Variations for oboe and piano (1936)

Oboe and strings

Solo oboe

Flute, violin and piano 4-hands

  • Gemini Variations for flute, violin, and piano four hands (1965)

Solo timpani

  • Timpani Piece for Jimmy, timpani solo (1955) for James Blades

Three trumpets

Guitar

Harp

  • Suite for Solo Harp (1969)

Film & drama music

  • Night Mail (1936), with words by W. H. Auden
  • The Agamemnon of Aeschylus (1936), play by Louis MacNeice
  • Out of the Picture (1937), play by Louis MacNeice
  • The Sword In The Stone (1939), six-part radio drama[lower-alpha 1]
  • The Dark Tower (1946), radio play by Louis MacNeice

By opus number

Notes

  1. An adaptation of the T. H. White novel The Sword In The Stone. A single surviving 25-minute episode Wart and the Hawks, is available to stream.[6]

References

  1. "Tit for tat". LiederNet. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  2. "Tit for Tat". brittensongs.org. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  3. "Tit for Tat". Hyperion Records. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  4. "Benjamin Britten – Fish in the Unruffled Lakes". Boosey & Hawkes. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  5. Anderson, Martin (October 2006). "London, St. John's Smith Square: Britten and David Matthews premières". Tempo. 57 (226): 69. doi:10.1017/S0040298203240365. S2CID 145557734.
  6. "The Sword in the Stone, Wart and the Hawks". BBC Radio 4. BBC. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  7. Oliver 1996, p. 215.

Sources

  • Diane McVeagh, ed. (1986). English Masters. New Grove Composer Biography. Grove Publications. ISBN 0-333-40241-3.
  • Oliver, Michael (1996). Benjamin Britten. Phaidon 20th Century Composers. Phaidon. ISBN 0714832774.
  • Britten Thematic Catalogue
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