Britten: Chamber Works

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Explore the complete catalog of Chamber compositions by Britten. This curated list includes composition years, historical Wikipedia context, and interactive audio to add specific tracks directly to your listening queue.

Title Year Actions
3 Divertimenti for String Quartet

String Quartet No. 3 in G major, Op. 94, by English composer Benjamin Britten was his last completed major work, and his last completed instrumental work. It was written in October – November 1975 during his final illness: the first four movements at his home, The Red House, Aldeburgh, and the fifth during his last visit to Venice, at Hotel Danieli. It was dedicated to the musicologist Hans Keller. In December 1975, brothers Colin and David Matthews performed it privately for the composer in a piano duet arrangement. During September 1976, Britten worked on it with the Amadeus Quartet; who premiered it on 19 December 1976 at The Maltings, Snape, two weeks after the composer's death.

Alla marcia, for string quartet

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

Cello Sonata in C major, op. 65

The Cello Sonata, Op. 65, is a work by the English composer Benjamin Britten. It was premiered in July 1961 at the Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk. The work is in five movements:

Elegy, for solo viola

The viola ( vee-OH-lə, () Italian: [ˈvjɔːla, viˈɔːla]) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. The viola is slightly larger than the violin and has a lower sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the violin family, between the violin (which is tuned a perfect fifth higher) and the cello (which is tuned an octave lower). The strings from low to high are typically tuned to C3, G3, D4, and A4. In the past, the viola varied in size and style, as did its names. The word viola originates from the Italian language. The Italians often used the term viola da braccio, meaning, literally, 'of the arm'. "Brazzo" was another Italian word for the viola, which the Germans adopted as Bratsche. The French had their own names: cinquiesme was a small viola, haute contre was a large viola, and taile was a tenor. Today, the French use the term alto, a reference to its range. The viola was popular in the heyday of five-part harmony, up until the eighteenth century, taking three lines of the harmony and occasionally playing the melody line. Music notation for the viola differs from most other instruments in that it primarily uses the alto clef. When viola music has substantial sections in a higher register, it switches to the treble clef to make it easier to read. The viola often plays the "inner voices" in string quartets and symphonic writing, and it is more likely than the first violin to play accompaniment parts. The viola occasionally plays a major, soloistic role in orchestral or chamber music. Examples include the symphonic poem Don Quixote, by Richard Strauss, the 13th Quartet by Dmitri Shostakovich, and a symphony with a main viola line: Harold en Italie, by Hector Berlioz. In the earlier part of the 20th century, more composers began to write for the viola, encouraged by the emergence of specialized soloists such as Lionel Tertis and William Primrose. English composers Arthur Bliss, Edwin York Bowen, Benjamin Dale, Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten, Rebecca Clarke and Ralph Vaughan Williams all wrote substantial chamber and concert works. Many of these pieces were commissioned by, or written for, Tertis. William Walton, Bohuslav Martinů, Tōru Takemitsu, Tibor Serly, Alfred Schnittke, and Béla Bartók have written well-known viola concertos. The concerti by Bartók, Paul Hindemith, Carl Stamitz, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Walton are considered major works of the viola repertoire. Hindemith, who was a violist, wrote a substantial amount of music for viola, including the concerto Der Schwanendreher.

Etude, for viola

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

Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury, for trumpets in multiples of 3

Britten Pears Arts is a large music education organisation based in Suffolk, England. It aims to continue the legacy of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, singer Peter Pears, and to promote the enjoyment and experience of music for all. It is a registered charity. The charity manages two historic locations on the Suffolk coast: Snape Maltings Concert Hall, a converted Victorian malting building on the edge of the River Alde in the village of Snape, Suffolk, and The Red House, the former home of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. The organisation was founded by Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and Eric Crozier in 1947 as an organisation to present the first Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts in 1948. Each year Britten Pears Arts promotes the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts, the Snape Proms, concert series at Easter and October, together with a year-round performance programme at Snape Maltings Concert Hall and other venues on the Snape site. The Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, formerly known as the Britten–Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, provides development opportunities for musicians early in their professional lives, between the ages of 18 and 25. Aldeburgh Young Musicians offers a programme of music mentoring for "promising young musicians" aged 10–18. Aldeburgh Education offers an annual programme of work involving the wider community, while Aldeburgh Residencies provides opportunities for established artists to develop their creative talents.

Gemini Variations, for flute, violin, and piano, 4 hands, op. 73

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

Lachrymae: Reflections on a Song of Dowland, op. 48a

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

Miniature Suite for String Quartet

String Quartet in D major (with neither an official number or an opus number) by English composer Benjamin Britten was written in 1931. He revised it during his final illness, and it was first published in 1974.

Phantasy Quartet in F minor, for oboe and string trio, op. 2

Phantasy Quartet, Op. 2, is the common name of a piece of chamber music by Benjamin Britten, a quartet for oboe and string trio composed in 1932. In the composer's catalogue, it is given as Phantasy, subtitled: Quartet in one movement for oboe, violin, viola, violoncello. It was first performed in August 1933 as a BBC broadcast.

Prelude and Fugue, for 18 strings, op. 29

In classical music, a fugue (, from Latin fuga, meaning 'flight' or 'escape') is a contrapuntal, polyphonic compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches), which recurs frequently throughout the course of the composition. It is not to be confused with a fuguing tune, which is a style of song popularized by and mostly limited to early American (i.e. shape note or "Sacred Harp") music and West Gallery music. A fugue usually has three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a final entry that contains the return of the subject in the fugue's tonic key. Fugues can also have episodes, which are parts of the fugue where new material often based on the subject is heard; a stretto (plural stretti), when the fugue's subject overlaps itself in different voices, or a recapitulation. A popular compositional technique in the Baroque era, the fugue was fundamental in showing mastery of harmony and tonality as it presented counterpoint. In the Middle Ages, the term was widely used to denote any works in canonic style; however, by the Renaissance, it had come to denote specifically imitative works. Since the 17th century, the term fugue has described what is commonly regarded as the most fully developed procedure of imitative counterpoint. Most fugues open with a short main theme, called the subject, which then sounds successively in each voice. When each voice has completed its entry of the subject, the exposition is complete. This is often followed by a connecting passage, or episode, developed from previously heard material; further "entries" of the subject are then heard in related keys. Episodes (if applicable) and entries are usually alternated until the final entry of the subject, at which point the music has returned to the opening key, or tonic, which is often followed by a coda. Because of the composer's prerogative to decide most structural elements, the fugue is closer to a style of composition rather than a structural form. The form evolved during the 18th century from several earlier types of contrapuntal compositions, such as imitative ricercars, capriccios, canzonas, and fantasias. The Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), well known for his fugues, shaped his own works after those of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621), Johann Jakob Froberger (1616–1667), Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706), Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583–1643), Dieterich Buxtehude (c. 1637–1707) and others. With the decline of sophisticated styles at the end of the baroque period, the fugue's central role waned, eventually giving way as sonata form and the symphony orchestra rose to a more prominent position. Nevertheless, composers continued to write and study fugues; they appear in the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), as well as modern composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) and Paul Hindemith (1895–1963).

Quartettino for String Quartet

String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, by English composer Benjamin Britten, was written in the U.S. in 1941.

Reflection, for viola and piano

Reflection is a composition for viola and piano by Benjamin Britten, composed in 1930. It was published by Faber & Faber.

Reveille, for violin and piano

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

Russian Funeral, for brass and percussion

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include the opera Peter Grimes (1945), the War Requiem (1962) and the orchestral showpiece The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945). Britten was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, the son of a dentist. He showed talent from an early age. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London and privately with the composer Frank Bridge. Britten first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to international fame. Over the next 28 years, he wrote 14 more operas, establishing himself as one of the leading 20th-century composers in the genre. In addition to large-scale operas for Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden, he wrote chamber operas for small forces, suitable for performance in venues of modest size. Among the best known of these is The Turn of the Screw (1954). Recurring themes in his operas include the struggle of an outsider against a hostile society and the corruption of innocence. Britten's other works range from orchestral to choral, solo vocal, chamber and instrumental as well as film music. He took a great interest in writing music for children and amateur performers, including the opera Noye's Fludde, a Missa Brevis, and the song collection Friday Afternoons. He often composed with particular performers in mind. His most frequent and important muse was his personal and professional partner, the tenor Peter Pears; others included Kathleen Ferrier, Jennifer Vyvyan, Janet Baker, Dennis Brain, Julian Bream, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Osian Ellis and Mstislav Rostropovich. Britten was a celebrated pianist and conductor, performing many of his own works in concert and on record. He also performed and recorded works by others, such as Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, Mozart symphonies, and song cycles by Schubert and Schumann. Together with Pears and the librettist and producer Eric Crozier, Britten founded the annual Aldeburgh Festival in 1948, and he was responsible for the creation of Snape Maltings concert hall in 1967. In 1976, he was the first composer to be given a life peerage. He died shortly afterwards, aged 63.

Solo Cello Suite no. 1, op. 72

The cello suites by Benjamin Britten (Opp. 72, 80, and 87) are a series of three compositions for solo cello, dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich. The suites were the first original solo instrumental music that Britten wrote for and dedicated to Rostropovich, but Britten had earlier composed a cadenza for Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major, for Rostropovich, in 1964. Rostropovich gave the first performances of each work, and recorded Suite No. 1 and 2 commercially.

Solo Cello Suite no. 2, op. 80

The cello suites by Benjamin Britten (Opp. 72, 80, and 87) are a series of three compositions for solo cello, dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich. The suites were the first original solo instrumental music that Britten wrote for and dedicated to Rostropovich, but Britten had earlier composed a cadenza for Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major, for Rostropovich, in 1964. Rostropovich gave the first performances of each work, and recorded Suite No. 1 and 2 commercially.

Solo Cello Suite no. 3, op. 87

The cello suites by Benjamin Britten (Opp. 72, 80, and 87) are a series of three compositions for solo cello, dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich. The suites were the first original solo instrumental music that Britten wrote for and dedicated to Rostropovich, but Britten had earlier composed a cadenza for Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major, for Rostropovich, in 1964. Rostropovich gave the first performances of each work, and recorded Suite No. 1 and 2 commercially.

String Quartet in D

String Quartet in D major (with neither an official number or an opus number) by English composer Benjamin Britten was written in 1931. He revised it during his final illness, and it was first published in 1974.

String Quartet in F

String Quartet No. 2 in C major, Op. 36, by English composer Benjamin Britten, was written in 1945. It was composed in Snape, Suffolk and London, and completed on 14 October. The first performance was by the Zorian Quartet in the Wigmore Hall, London on 21 November 1945, in a concert to mark the exact 250th anniversary of the death of English composer Henry Purcell (1659–95). The work was commissioned by and is dedicated to Mary ("Mrs J. L.") Behrend, a patron of the arts; Britten donated most of his fee towards famine relief in India. The Zorian Quartet made the first recording of the work, in October 1946. It occupies seven sides of a four-disc 78rpm album. On the eighth side is Purcell's Fantasia upon One Note Z.745, with Britten playing the sustained middle C drone on second viola; the only recording on which he played viola, his favourite string instrument. Broadcaster and classical music critic John Amis (1922–2013), husband of Olive Zorian 1948–55, recalled of the first rehearsals:Ben[jamin Britten] and me had to sit on the floor in me and my wife’s flat following the score of his second string quartet in rehearsals because me and my wife only had four chairs and the quartet had to use them.

String Quartet no. 1 in D major, op. 25

String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, by English composer Benjamin Britten, was written in the U.S. in 1941.

String Quartet no. 2 in C major, op. 36

String Quartet No. 2 in C major, Op. 36, by English composer Benjamin Britten, was written in 1945. It was composed in Snape, Suffolk and London, and completed on 14 October. The first performance was by the Zorian Quartet in the Wigmore Hall, London on 21 November 1945, in a concert to mark the exact 250th anniversary of the death of English composer Henry Purcell (1659–95). The work was commissioned by and is dedicated to Mary ("Mrs J. L.") Behrend, a patron of the arts; Britten donated most of his fee towards famine relief in India. The Zorian Quartet made the first recording of the work, in October 1946. It occupies seven sides of a four-disc 78rpm album. On the eighth side is Purcell's Fantasia upon One Note Z.745, with Britten playing the sustained middle C drone on second viola; the only recording on which he played viola, his favourite string instrument. Broadcaster and classical music critic John Amis (1922–2013), husband of Olive Zorian 1948–55, recalled of the first rehearsals:Ben[jamin Britten] and me had to sit on the floor in me and my wife’s flat following the score of his second string quartet in rehearsals because me and my wife only had four chairs and the quartet had to use them.

String Quartet no. 3, op. 94

String Quartet No. 3 in G major, Op. 94, by English composer Benjamin Britten was his last completed major work, and his last completed instrumental work. It was written in October – November 1975 during his final illness: the first four movements at his home, The Red House, Aldeburgh, and the fifth during his last visit to Venice, at Hotel Danieli. It was dedicated to the musicologist Hans Keller. In December 1975, brothers Colin and David Matthews performed it privately for the composer in a piano duet arrangement. During September 1976, Britten worked on it with the Amadeus Quartet; who premiered it on 19 December 1976 at The Maltings, Snape, two weeks after the composer's death.

Suite for Violin and Piano, op. 6

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

Suite in C major, for harp, op. 83

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

Tema 'Sacher,' for solo cello

The cello suites by Benjamin Britten (Opp. 72, 80, and 87) are a series of three compositions for solo cello, dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich. The suites were the first original solo instrumental music that Britten wrote for and dedicated to Rostropovich, but Britten had earlier composed a cadenza for Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major, for Rostropovich, in 1964. Rostropovich gave the first performances of each work, and recorded Suite No. 1 and 2 commercially.

Temporal Variations for Oboe and Piano

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

Valse in B major, for violin and piano

This is a list of musical compositions for keyboard instruments such as the piano, organ or harpsichord and orchestra. See entries for concerto, piano concerto, organ concerto and harpsichord concerto for a description of related musical forms.

Young Apollo, for piano, string quartet, and strings, op. 16

String Quartet No. 3 in G major, Op. 94, by English composer Benjamin Britten was his last completed major work, and his last completed instrumental work. It was written in October – November 1975 during his final illness: the first four movements at his home, The Red House, Aldeburgh, and the fifth during his last visit to Venice, at Hotel Danieli. It was dedicated to the musicologist Hans Keller. In December 1975, brothers Colin and David Matthews performed it privately for the composer in a piano duet arrangement. During September 1976, Britten worked on it with the Amadeus Quartet; who premiered it on 19 December 1976 at The Maltings, Snape, two weeks after the composer's death.