Britten: Vocal Works

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Explore the complete catalog of Vocal 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 Two-Part Songs, for boys' or female chorus

Spring Symphony is a choral symphony by Benjamin Britten, his Opus 44. The work is scored for soprano, alto and tenor soloists, mixed choir, boys' choir and orchestra. Britten used texts of several poems related to spring, mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries and also one by W. H. Auden. Britten dedicated the work to Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The work received its premiere in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on 14 July 1949 as part of the Holland Festival

4 Chansons Françaises, for voice and orchestra

Les Illuminations (The Illuminations), Op. 18, is a song cycle by Benjamin Britten, first performed in 1940. It is composed for soprano or tenor soloist and string orchestra, and sets verse and prose poems written in 1872–1873 by Arthur Rimbaud, part of his collection Les Illuminations.

5 Flower Songs, op. 47

In music, Op. 47 stands for Opus number 47. Compositions that are assigned this number include: Albéniz – Suite Española No. 1 Barber – Third Essay Beethoven – Violin Sonata No. 9 Britten – Five Flower Songs Bruch – Kol Nidrei Chopin – Ballade No. 3 Dvořák – Bagatelles Elgar – Introduction and Allegro Ginastera – Sonata for guitar Holst – Egdon Heath Prokofiev – Symphony No. 4 Saint-Saëns – Samson and Delilah Schumann – Piano Quartet Shostakovich – Symphony No. 5 Sibelius – Violin Concerto in D minor (1904, revised 1905) Strauss – Des Dichters Abendgang

6 Choral Dances from Gloriana, for a cappella chorus, op. 53

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.

6 Choral Dances from Gloriana, for chorus, op. 53

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

7 Sonnets of Michelangelo, op. 22

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

8 Sacred and Profane Medieval Lyrics, for SSATB chorus, op. 91

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

A Birthday Hansel, for tenor and harp, op. 92

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

A Boy Was Born, choral variations, op. 3

A Boy Was Born, Op. 3, is a choral composition by Benjamin Britten. Subtitled Choral variations for men's, women's and boys' voices, unaccompanied (organ ad lib), it was originally composed from 1932 to 1933. It was first performed on 23 February 1934 as a BBC broadcast. Britten revised the work in 1955. The composer set different texts related to Christmas to music as theme and variations, scored for an a cappella choir with boys' voices.

A Ceremony of Carols, op. 28

In music, Op. 28 stands for Opus number 28. Compositions that are assigned this number include: Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 15 Britten – A Ceremony of Carols Chopin – Preludes, Op. 28 Danzi – Horn Sonata No. 1 Elgar – Organ Sonata Enescu – Impressions d'enfance Ginastera – Piano Concerto No. 1 Holbrooke – Horn Trio Holst – First Suite in E-flat for Military Band Korngold – Die Kathrin Myaskovsky – Symphony No. 9 Prokofiev – Piano Sonata No. 3 Rachmaninoff – Piano Sonata No. 1 Ries – Piano Trio, Op. 28 Saint-Saëns – Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso Schmitt – Reflets d'Allemagne Schumann – Three Romances for piano Scriabin – Fantaisie in B minor Strauss – Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks Szymanowski – Nocturne and Tarantella Vierne – Organ Symphony No. 3 Waterhouse – Three Pieces for Solo Cello Webern – String Quartet

A Charm of Lullabies, for voice and piano, op. 41

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

A Divine Hymn

"A Hymn to God the Father", also titled "To Christ", is a poem by English poet and clergyman John Donne. It is one of his Divine Poems. Its date of composition is unknown.

A Hymn to the Virgin, for double chorus

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

A Shepherd's Carol, for chorus

A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28 is an extended choral composition for Christmas by Benjamin Britten scored for three-part treble chorus, solo voices, and harp. The text, structured in eleven movements, is taken from The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems, edited by Gerald Bullett. It is principally in Middle English, with some Latin and Early Modern English. It was composed in 1942 on Britten's sea voyage from the United States to England. Britten composed the music at the same time as the Hymn to St. Cecilia and in similar style. Originally conceived as a series of unrelated songs, it was later unified into one piece with the framing processional and recessional chant in unison based on the Gregorian antiphon "Hodie Christus natus est". A harp solo based on the chant, along with a few other motifs from "Wolcum Yole", also serves to unify the composition. In addition, the movements "This Little Babe" and "Deo Gracias" have the choir reflecting harp-like effects by employing a canon at the first in stretto. The original 1942 publication was written for SSA (soprano, soprano, alto) children's choir. In 1943, a SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) arrangement was published for a mixed choir. Many of the movements are written as rounds or call-and-response pieces – lyrically simple for the sake of the children performing. There are three-part divisi in both the tenor and bass parts. Each of these lines individually mirrors a line in either the soprano or alto parts, as though the tenor and bass sections are a men's choir singing the original SSA composition with an SSA choir.

A Wealden Trio: The Song of the Women, carol for female chorus
A Wedding Anthem, for soprano, tenor, chorus, and organ, op. 46

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

A.M.D.G.

Ad maiorem Dei gloriam or Ad majórem Dei glóriam, also rendered as the abbreviation AMDG, is a Latin quotation which can be translated as "For the greater glory of God." It has been used as a rallying cry for Catholics throughout history, especially during the Thirty Years' War, and is currently the motto of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), an order of the Catholic Church.

Advance Democracy, for double chorus

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

Antiphon, for chorus and organ, op. 56b

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

Ballad of Heroes, for high voice, chorus and orchestra, op. 14

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

Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, for male chorus and piano

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

Beware! 3 early songs, for voice and piano

Beware! Three Early Songs is a song cycle for voice and piano composed by Benjamin Britten and set to texts by Herbert Asquith, Robert Burns and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. "Beware!" and "O that I had ne'er been Married" were composed in 1922, and are considered examples of Britten's juvenilia, as they were composed at the age of 10. "Epitaph: The Clerk", is a setting of the first verse of the poem "The Volunteer" by Herbert Asquith. It was composed in 1926. The pieces were revised in 1968 and published in 1985. Britten mistakenly believed that "Epitaph: The Clerk" was written by Walter de la Mare when he was revising Tit for Tat, his setting of five pieces by De La Mare, in 1968. The pieces were compiled into this collection by Britten when he was reviving Tit for Tat and Five Walztes (sic), two early compositions from 1926. Rudyard Kipling's "Fuzzy Wuzzy", composed between 1922 and 1923, was revised at the same time, but remains unpublished. Britten's biographer, David Matthews, wrote of "Beware" and "O that I had ne'er been Married" that it was "a little disconcerting to find the texts of both of these songs are warnings against women". Graham Johnson wrote that of Beware that for an 8 or 9-year-old "to write music that is this direct, this aware of the vocal line and potential of the human voice is almost a Mozartian feat". "O that I had ne'er been Married" was performed by Peter Pears with accompaniment from pianist Roger Vignoles on a Thames Television broadcast from the Britten Pears Foundation on 29 November 1976, though pre-recorded on 20 May that year.

Britain to America, for voice and chorus

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.

Cabaret Songs for Hedli Anderson

Antoinette Millicent Hedley Anderson (1907 – 1990) was an English singer and actor. Known as Hedli Anderson, she studied singing in England and Germany before returning to London in 1934. Anderson joined the Group Theatre, and performed in cabaret and in the initial productions of plays by W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood and Louis MacNeice. She married MacNeice in 1942; the couple had one daughter. They separated in 1960. Among the composers and lyricists who wrote songs for her were Auden, MacNeice, Benjamin Britten, Elisabeth Lutyens and William Alwyn. Auden's "Funeral Blues" (also known as "Stop all the clocks", later to become famous through its use in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral) was originally written for Anderson and set to music by Britten as part of Auden and Isherwood's play The Ascent of F6 (1936), then revised by Auden as a separate poem. In later years she owned, and cooked in, the Spinnaker restaurant in Scilly, Kinsale, County Cork, which specialised in seafood and Mediterranean and North African food.

Cantata academica, for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, op. 62

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

Cantata misericordium, for tenor, baritone, chorus, string quartet, piano, harp, tympani, and strings, op. 69
Canticle 1: My Beloved Is Mine, for high voice and piano, op. 40

Canticle I: My beloved is mine and I am his, Op. 40, is a composition for high voice and piano by Benjamin Britten, the first part of his series of five Canticles. It was composed for a memorial concert. The text is taken from Francis Quarles's poetry based on the biblical Song of Songs. It was published by Boosey & Hawkes under the shorter title Canticle I: My beloved is mine.

Canticle 2: Abraham and Isaac, for alto, tenor, and piano, op. 51

Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, Op. 51, is a composition for tenor, alto and piano by Benjamin Britten, part of his series of five Canticles. Commissioned to be performed as a fundraiser for the English Opera Group, it sets the story of Abraham and Isaac from the Chester Mystery Plays. Britten assigned the tenor voice of Peter Pears to Abraham, the alto of Kathleen Ferrier to Isaac, and both singers singing in homophony to the voice of God. The work was premiered on 20 January 1952 by Pears and Ferrier, with Britten as the pianist. It was published by Boosey & Hawkes in 1952, dedicated to the singers.

Canticle 3: Still Falls the Rain, for tenor, horn and piano, op. 55

Canticle III: Still falls the rain, Op. 55, is a 1954 vocal composition by Benjamin Britten for tenor, horn and piano. It is part of his series Canticles.

Canticle 4: The Journey of the Magi, for countertenor, tenor, baritone and piano, op. 86

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

Canticle 5: The Death of St.Narcissus, for tenor and harp, op. 89

Canticle V: The Death of Saint Narcissus, Op. 89, is a 1974 composition for tenor and harp by Benjamin Britten, the last part of his series of five Canticles. Britten set a poem by T. S. Eliot, beginning "Come under the shadow of this gray rock", published in Early Youth. He wrote it in memory of his friend William Plomer. The work was premiered by Peter Pears and Osian Ellis at Schloss Elmau in Upper Bavaria on 15 January 1975. It was published the following year. The canticle was often recorded, including by the first performers.

Children and Sir Nameless
Children's Crusade, ballad for child voices, percussion, 2 pianos, and organ, op. 82
Chorale on an Old French Carol, for double chorus

The War Requiem, Op. 66, is a choral and orchestral composition by Benjamin Britten, composed mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The War Requiem was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, in the English county of Warwickshire, which was built after the original fourteenth-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid. The traditional Latin texts are interspersed, in telling juxtaposition, with extra-liturgical poems by Wilfred Owen, written during World War I. Britten scored the work for soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, chorus, boys' choir, organ, and two orchestras (a full orchestra and a chamber orchestra). The chamber orchestra accompanies the intimate settings of the English poetry, while soprano, choirs and orchestra are used for the Latin sections; all forces are combined in the conclusion. The Requiem has a duration of approximately 80–85 minutes. In 2019, Britten's 1963 recording of the War Requiem was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Christ's Nativity, Christmas suite for chorus

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

Corpus Christi Carol

The Corpus Christi Carol or Falcon Carol is a Middle or Early Modern English hymn (or carol), first written down by an apprentice grocer named Richard Hill between 1504 and 1536. The original writer of the carol remains anonymous. The earliest surviving record of the piece preserves only the lyrics and is untitled. It has survived in altered form in the folk tradition as the Christmas carol "Down In Yon Forest". The structure of the carol is six stanzas, each with rhyming couplets. The tense changes in the fourth stanza from past to present continuous. While a number of different interpretations have been offered over time, Eamon Duffy writes that "there can be no question whatever" that the carol's "strange cluster of images" are derived "directly from the cult of the Easter sepulchre, with its Crucifix, Host, and embroidered hangings, and the watchers kneeling around it day and night." One theory about the meaning of the carol is that it is concerned with the legend of the Holy Grail. In Arthurian traditions of the Grail story, the Fisher King is the knight who is the Grail's protector, and whose legs are perpetually wounded. When he is wounded his kingdom suffers and becomes a wasteland. This would explain the reference to "an orchard brown". The text may be an allegory in which the crucified is described as a wounded knight. The bleeding knight could be Christ who bleeds for the sins of humanity endlessly. Christ is most probably represented as a knight as he is battling sin and evil by his continual pain. The "orchard brown" to which the knight was conveyed becomes, in this reading, the "orchard" of wooden crosses that covered the hill of Golgotha/Calvary where Christ - along with many others - was crucified, while the "hall... hanged with purpill and pall" could be a representation of the tomb in which Christ was placed after Crucifixion. This allegorical interpretation would tie in with the seven stanzas possibly representing the Seven Deadly Sins. The maiden who is by the knight's side could be Mary. There is religious symbolism throughout the carol. The falcon may have several possible meanings. It may be that, as a bird of prey, it represents those who killed Christ and sent him to heaven. It may also represent a new beginning and freedom, which Christ gained on his death. The colours in the carol are also significant. The purple and gold are signs of wealth, although these were also colours that referred to the Church due to its wealth. The pall (black velvet) probably refers to death. Richard Greene theorized in 1960 that the song refers "to the displacement of Queen Catherine of Aragon by Anne Boleyn in the affections of King Henry VIII", because the falcon was Anne's heraldic badge.

Deus in adjutorium meum, 'Psalm 70' motet for chorus

Psalm 70 is the 70th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Make haste, O God, to deliver me". The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament. In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations of the Bible, this psalm is Psalm 69. In Latin, it is known as "Deus, in adiutorium meum intende". There are 5 verses (6 in the Hebrew verse numbering). The entire psalm is almost identical to the closing verses of Psalm 40. Verse 1 is used as the liturgical opening prayer to every hour of the Liturgy of the Hours. The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies. It has often been set to music, especially in music for vespers which its beginning opens, such as in Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine.

Fancie: Tell me where is fancy bred, for unison chorus and piano
Festival Te Deum, for trumpet, chorus and organ, op. 32

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

Fish in the Unruffled Lakes

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

Hadrian's Wall, for voice and piano

This is a list of Private Passions episodes from 2020 to present. It does not include repeated episodes or compilations.

Hymn of St. Columba, for chorus and organ

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

Hymn to St. Cecilia, op. 27

Hymn to St Cecilia, Op. 27 is a choral piece by Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), a setting of a poem by W. H. Auden written between 1940 and 1942. Auden's original title was "Three Songs for St. Cecilia's Day", and he later published the poem as "Anthem for St. Cecilia’s Day (for Benjamin Britten)". For a long time Britten wanted to write a piece dedicated to St Cecilia for a number of reasons. Firstly, he was born on St Cecilia's day; secondly, St Cecilia is the patron saint of music; and finally, there is a long tradition in England of writing odes and songs to St Cecilia. The most famous of these are by John Dryden ("A song for St. Cecilia's Day" 1687) and musical works by Henry Purcell, Hubert Parry, and George Frideric Handel. Another briefer work by Herbert Howells has the similar title A Hymn for St Cecilia, but was written later in 1960. The first extant reference to Britten's desire to write such a work is from 1935 when Britten wrote in his diary "I’m having great difficulty in finding Latin words for a proposed Hymn to St Cecilia. Spend morning hunting." Britten first met Auden later that year, and subsequently worked with him on a number of large-scale works, including the operetta Paul Bunyan (1941). Britten asked that Auden provide him a text for his ode to St Cecilia, and Auden complied, sending the poem in sections throughout 1940, along with advice on how Britten could be a better artist. This was to be one of the last works they collaborated on. According to Britten's partner Peter Pears in 1980, "Ben was on a different track now, and he was no longer prepared to be dominated – bullied – by Wystan, whose musical feeling he was very well aware of. ...Perhaps he may have been said to have said goodbye to working with Wystan with his marvelous setting of the Hymn to St. Cecilia." Britten began setting Hymn to St. Cecilia in the United States, certainly in June 1941 when a performance by the newly formed Elizabethan Singers was projected to take place in New York sometime later that year. In 1942, the midst of World War II, Britten and Pears decided to return home to England. The customs inspectors confiscated all of Britten's manuscripts, fearing they could be some type of code. Britten re-wrote the manuscript while aboard the MS Axel Johnson, and finished it on 2 April 1942. It was written at the same time as A Ceremony of Carols, which shares the same affect. The text itself follows in the tradition of odes, including an invocation to the muse: "Blessed Cecilia/Appear in visions to all musicians/Appear and inspire". Britten uses this as a refrain throughout piece, whereas it is the last portion of Auden's first section. The piece is in three sections, plus three iterations of the refrain, with slight variations, following each section. The first section is very similar to the refrain, couched in the E Phrygian scale and with the same melody. The second section is a scherzo with a modified fugue form. The third section is more lyrical, with solos in each voice describing a different instrument, traditional in odes to St. Cecilia. The hymn was given its first radio performance in 1942.

Hymn to St. Peter, for trumpet, chorus and organ, op. 56a

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

If it's ever spring again

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.

Jubilate Deo in C major, for chorus and organ

Benjamin Britten's Jubilate Deo is a sacred choral setting of Psalm 100 in English, written in 1961 for St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, "at the request of H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh". Britten scored the joyful music in C major for four-part choir and organ. A late companion piece to his 1934 Te Deum in C, it is also known as his Jubilate in C. It has been performed and recorded often, including on Prince Philip's 80th and 90th birthdays, and for his funeral service on 17 April 2021.

Jubilate Deo in E flat major

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

King Herod and the Cock, for unison chorus and piano

The London Boy Singers were an English boys' choir which formed in 1961. It initially drew its members from the Finchley Children's Music Group. The choir was started at the suggestion of Benjamin Britten, who was its first president. In the beginning the choir was run by a group of three adults: John Andrewes, who also led the Finchley Children's Music Group, Rosamund Strode, a musician, singer and later assistant to Britten, and Jonathan Steele, deputy to George Malcolm at Westminster Cathedral. Steele became the conductor and leader of the London Boy Singers. The choir sang at the Aldeburgh Festival on a number of occasions. It sang in Westminster Abbey in the first London performance of Britten's War Requiem in 1962. The group performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 1964 and 1974. In an attempt to widen the social and geographical mix of the choir, a subsidiary choir was established in Bethnal Green in 1964 but this was eventually merged with the Finchley choir. Many of its singers took part in other events, including performing at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and on tour with them to Manchester and to Lisbon in Portugal, including Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and the premiere of Aston's ballet 'The Dream', both in 1964), Covent Garden, the English Opera Group (including a tour of the USSR in 1964) and many individual operas and other engagements. The choir also sang at the Aldeburgh Festival, gave a concert to the choristers at King's College Cambridge and broadcast A Ceremony of Carols on BBC television (1965). Members of the choir also performed as street urchins in a BBC television production of "La Boheme" (1966). The choir recorded a collection of Christmas Music ('Christmas Music for Boys Voices')for HMV in the Abbey Road Studios, released in 1965. It also recorded 'The happy wanderer' for RCA Victor, and two Christmas songs with the Music Academy (London Jazz Quartet) for CBS which featured on Juke Box Jury. In 1969, the choir toured in Germany and the Netherlands and, in 1971, returned to Germany and also Denmark. Britten wrote 12 Apostles: Choral Octavo and The Bitter Withy for the choir and his arrangement of King Herod and the Cock was dedicated to it. In 1966, Britten severed his relationship with the group. Jonathan Steele remained its director until the choir folded in the mid 1970s. Its last known performance was the theme song from the foreign television series Barbapapa in 1974 alongside Ed Stewart, the theme song was heard in the English-dubbed version of the series that was produced for BBC Television in January 1975 until its run ended in 1978.

Les Illuminations, op. 18

Les Illuminations (The Illuminations), Op. 18, is a song cycle by Benjamin Britten, first performed in 1940. It is composed for soprano or tenor soloist and string orchestra, and sets verse and prose poems written in 1872–1873 by Arthur Rimbaud, part of his collection Les Illuminations.

May, for unison chorus and piano

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

Missa Brevis, for boys' chorus and organ in D major, op. 63

The Missa Brevis in D, Op. 63, is a setting of the Latin mass completed by Benjamin Britten on Trinity Sunday, 1959. Set for three-part treble choir and organ, it was written for London's Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral and was first performed there on 22 July of the same year. Britten admired the singing of the choir under George Malcolm and he completed the work in time to mark the retirement of Malcolm as organist and choirmaster at Westminster: the printed dedication reads "For George Malcolm and the boys of Westminster Cathedral Choir". It remained Britten's only liturgical setting of the mass. Malcolm's live recording, from a service at the cathedral, lasts ten minutes.

Night covers up the rigid land

This list of missing aircraft includes aircraft that have disappeared and whose locations are unknown. According to Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organization, an aircraft is considered to be missing "when the official search has been terminated and the wreckage has not been located". However, there still remains a "grey area" on how much wreckage needs to be found for a plane to be declared "recovered". This list does not include every aviator, or even every air passenger that has ever gone missing as these are separate categories. In the tables below, each missing aircraft is defined (in the Aircraft column) using one or more identifying features. If the aircraft was known by a custom or personalized name (e.g. Pathfinder), that name is presented first (in italics) followed by the aircraft type (in parentheses). The make of aircraft, although not necessarily a unique identifier, is also provided where appropriate. Aircraft registrations began to be used in the early 20th century for individual identification, so this is also included in the later tables (in parentheses).

Nocturne, op. 60

Nocturne, Op. 60, is a song cycle by Benjamin Britten, written for tenor, seven obbligato instruments and strings. The seven instruments are flute, cor anglais, clarinet, bassoon, harp, French horn and timpani. Nocturne was Britten's fourth and final orchestral song cycle, after Our Hunting Fathers (Op. 8, 1936), Les Illuminations (Op. 18, 1939) and Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (Op. 31, 1943). It was dedicated to Alma Mahler. Nocturne was premiered in the Leeds Town Hall at the centenary Leeds Festival on 16 October 1958 by Peter Pears and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rudolf Schwarz. Britten conducted a recording at Walthamstow Assembly Hall in 1960 with Pears, the London Symphony Orchestra and William Waterhouse (bassoon), Alexander Murray (flute), Gervase de Peyer (clarinet), Roger Lord (cor anglais), Osian Ellis (harp), Barry Tuckwell (horn), and Denis Blyth (timpani). The theme of the piece, as its name Nocturne suggests, is sleep and darkness, both in the literal and figurative sense. In this respect, the work is reminiscent of Britten's earlier Serenade. Unlike Serenade, Nocturne is presented as a continuous piece rather than separate movements. This is emphasised by a number of figures which occur throughout, most notably the 'rocking' string motif which opens the work. The conflicting tonal relationship between C and D-flat is also evident throughout, reflecting the contrast between the untroubled and the more perturbed aspects of sleep which are also described by Britten's choice of poems.

Now sleeps the crimson petal, for tenor, horn and strings

The Princess is a serio-comic blank verse narrative poem, written by Alfred Tennyson, published in 1847. Tennyson was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1850 to 1892 and remains one of the most popular English poets. The poem tells the story of a heroic princess who forswears the world of men and founds a women's university where men are forbidden to enter. The prince to whom she was betrothed in infancy enters the university with two friends, disguised as women students. They are discovered and flee, but eventually they fight a battle for the princess's hand. They lose and are wounded, but the women nurse the men back to health. Eventually the princess returns the prince's love. Several later works have been based upon the poem, including Gilbert and Sullivan's 1884 comic opera Princess Ida.

On the Frontier, for choir and ensemble

A choir ( KWIRE), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin chorus, meaning 'a dance in a circle'), is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words is the music performed by the ensemble. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm, hand, and facial gestures. The term choir is very often applied to groups affiliated with a church (whether or not they actually occupy the quire), whereas a chorus performs in theatres or concert halls, but this distinction is not rigid. Choirs may sing without instruments, or accompanied by a piano, accordion, pipe organ, a small ensemble, or an orchestra. A choir can be a subset of an ensemble; thus one speaks of the "woodwind choir" of an orchestra, or different "choirs" of voices or instruments in a polychoral composition. In typical 18th century to 21st century oratorios and masses, 'chorus' or 'choir' implies that there is more than one singer per part, in contrast to the quartet of soloists also featured in these works.

On this Island, op. 11

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.

Our Hunting Fathers, for high voice and orchestra, op. 8

Our Hunting Fathers, Op. 8, is an orchestral song cycle by Benjamin Britten, first performed in 1936. Its text, assembled and partly written by W. H. Auden, with a pacifist slant, puzzled audiences at the premiere, and the work has never achieved the popularity of the composer's later orchestral song-cycles, Les Illuminations, the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and the Nocturne.

Phaedra, dramatic cantata for mezzo-soprano, string orchestra, percussion, and harpsichord, op. 93
Psalm 150, for children's chorus and instruments, op. 67

Psalm 150 is the 150th and final psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary". In Latin, it is known as "Laudate Dominum in sanctis eius". In Psalm 150, the psalmist urges the congregation to praise God with music and dancing, naming nine types of musical instruments. In most versions of the Bible, the Book of Psalms has 150 psalms and Psalm 150 is the final one. However, that is not the case in the Eastern Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox canons, which have 151 and 155 psalms respectively. The Jerusalem Bible describes Psalm 150 as a "final chorus of praise". It is a hymn psalm, forming a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies. As one of the Laudate psalms, it was part of the Lauds, a Catholic morning service. It has been paraphrased in hymns and has often been set to music. Composers have written settings throughout the centuries, in various languages, including Bruckner's German setting, Psalm 150, from 1892; the third movement of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms in Latin; and the third movement, Tehillim, in Hebrew in the Gloria by Karl Jenkins in 2010.

Purcell Realizations from Orpheus Britannicus, 6 Songs for voice and piano

Henry Purcell (, rare: ; c. 10 September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer and organist of the middle Baroque era. He was extremely prolific, having composed more than 100 songs, a tragic opera Dido and Aeneas, and wrote incidental music to a version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream called The Fairy Queen. Purcell's musical style was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Purcell is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers.

Rejoice in the Lamb, festival cantata for trumpet, ATB soloists, chorus, and organ, op. 30
Saint Nicholas, cantata for tenor, choruses, and large ensemble, op. 42

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.

Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, op. 31

The Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31, is a song cycle written in 1943 by Benjamin Britten for tenor, solo horn and a string orchestra. Composed during the Second World War at the request of the horn player Dennis Brain, it is a setting of a selection of six poems by English poets on the subject of night, including both its calm and its sinister aspects. The poets Britten chose to set for the Serenade range from an anonymous 15th-century writer to poets from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Britten's domestic partner – the tenor Peter Pears – and Brain were the soloists at the first performance. They later recorded the work, which has received subsequent recordings by tenors, horn players, orchestras and conductors from Britain, continental Europe, America and Australia.

Songs and Proverbs of William Blake

Songs and Proverbs of William Blake is a song cycle composed by Benjamin Britten (1913–76) in 1965 for baritone voice and piano and published as his Op. 74. The published score states that the words were "selected by Peter Pears" from Proverbs of Hell, Auguries of Innocence and Songs of Experience by William Blake (1757–1827). It was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 1965 by the composer and the German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925–2012). The critic William Mann thought that the cycle would be judged "Britten's deepest and most subtle song-cycle"; and John Warrack wrote in The Daily Telegraph that Britten "has, I feel, here come to terms with the darkness and sense of cruelty that has always stalked his art". The cycle was recorded for Decca by the original performers in December 1965 in the Kingsway Hall, London with John Culshaw as producer and Kenneth Wilkinson as engineer. A recording by Gerald Finley (baritone) and Julius Drake (piano) won the solo vocal Gramophone Award in 2011. The cycle is through-composed, without breaks, but divides into the following sections: "Proverb 1" "London" "Proverb 2" "The Chimney Sweeper" "Proverb 3" "A Poison Tree" "Proverb 4" "The Tyger" "Proverb 5" "The Fly" "Proverb 6" "Ah! Sun-flower" "Proverb 7" "Every Night and Every Morn" "Proverb 7" and "Every Night and Every Morn" are from Auguries of Innocence; the other proverbs are from Proverbs of Hell, and the other poems are from Songs of Experience.

Songs from the Chinese, for high voice and guitar, op. 58

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

Sweet was the Song, carol for female chorus

Rejoice in the Lamb (Op. 30) is a cantata for four soloists, SATB choir and organ composed by Benjamin Britten in 1943 and uses text from the poem Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart (1722–1771). The poem, written while Smart was in an asylum, depicts idiosyncratic praise and worship of God by different things including animals, letters of the alphabet and musical instruments. Britten was introduced to the poem by W. H. Auden whilst visiting the United States, selecting 48 lines of the poem to set to music with the assistance of Edward Sackville-West. The cantata was commissioned by the Reverend Walter Hussey for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the consecration of St Matthew's Church, Northampton. Critics praised the work for its uniqueness and creative handling of the text. Rejoice in the Lamb has been arranged for chorus, solos and orchestral accompaniment, and for SSAA choir and organ.

Te Deum, for trumpet, chorus and organ in C

The Te Deum in C is a sacred choral composition by Benjamin Britten, a setting of the Te Deum on the English text from the Book of Common Prayer. Britten wrote it between 11 July and 17 September 1934. It is scored for a treble solo, four-part choir (SATB) and organ.

The Ascent of F6, for tenor, choir, and ensemble

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.

The Birds

Awake is an American police procedural fantasy drama television series that originally aired on NBC for one season from March 1 to May 24, 2012. The pilot episode had an early release on Hulu on February 16, 2012, two weeks before the series' premiere on television. Kyle Killen, the series' creator, was primarily responsible for the program's concept. Killen and David Slade served as executive producers of the pilot episode, and Killen continued producing the series along with Jeffrey Reiner and Howard Gordon. The show's central character is Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs), a detective who works for the Los Angeles Police Department. In the first episode, Michael, his wife Hannah (Laura Allen), and their son Rex (Dylan Minnette) get into a serious car accident. After the accident, he finds himself switching between two "realities" whenever he goes to bed—one in which Hannah was killed in the accident and one in which Rex died instead—and is unable to determine which reality is true. He uses details from each reality to solve cases in the other. Awake garnered critical praise, particularly for Isaacs' performance. However, its ratings were low, averaging 4.8 million viewers per episode and sitting in 125th place in viewership for the 2011–12 season. The series was canceled after one season.

The Bitter Withy, folk song for tenor, boys' chorus and piano
The Building of the House, overture for chorus and orchestra, op. 79

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

The Company of Heaven

The Company of Heaven is a composition for soloists, speakers, choir, timpani, organ, and string orchestra by Benjamin Britten. The title refers to angels, the topic of the work, reflected in texts from the Bible and by poets. The music serves as incidental music for a mostly spoken radio feature which was first heard as a broadcast of the BBC in 1937.

The Golden Vanity, vaudeville for boys' voices and piano, op. 78

The Golden Vanity is a musical setting of an adaptation by Colin Graham of a traditional folk song, also known as "The Sweet Trinity", for boys' voices (five soloists and chorus) and piano by the English composer Benjamin Britten (1913–76). The composer described it as a vaudeville. The boys act out parts as well as sing; Britten wrote on the score: "The Vaudeville should be given in costume but without scenery ... The action ... should be mimed in a simple way and only a few basic properties, such as telescopes and a rope, are needed ... A drum should be used for the sound of cannon fire". The Golden Vanity was composed in 1966, and premiered on 3 June 1967 at the Aldeburgh Festival by the Vienna Boys' Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben), to whom it was dedicated. Britten's notes on the score indicate that the work came about as a result of a request from the boys of the Wiener Sängerknaben themselves, to perform on their tours. "They particularly asked that they should not have to play girls' parts", Britten wrote. The Golden Vanity was published as his Op. 78. According to Graham, the Vienna Boys Choir gave a "riotous" performance at the premiere; but when they returned to England to perform it at the Royal Festival Hall some months later, they were "absolutely shattered and exhausted" after "one of their interminable world tours". Britten "was furious and lodged a formal complaint with the director of the choir for exploiting and exhausting the boys". The work was subsequently dropped from their repertoire. Britten set one of the darker versions of the song, in which the brave cabin boy is abandoned to drown. John Bridcut has summarised it thus: "It tells the story of a battle at sea, and a cabin-boy who ensures victory for the crew of The Golden Vanity by drilling holes in the pirate ship they are fighting, and sinking it. His captain reneges on his promised reward (the hand of his daughter), and leaves the boy to drown. But the spirit of the boy returns at the end of the piece, just as in Curlew River two years before." The work includes passing literary and musical allusions to Britten's 1951 opera Billy Budd. It falls into four sections: "There Was a Ship Came from the North Country" "Then Up Spake the Cabin-boy" "Casting His Clothes Off He Dived into the Sea" "They Laid Him on the Deck" A typical performance takes about 18 minutes.

The Heart of the Matter, for tenor, narrator, horn, piano

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

The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, op. 35

The Holy Sonnets—also known as the Divine Meditations or Divine Sonnets—are a series of nineteen poems by the English poet John Donne (1572–1631). The sonnets were first published in 1633—two years after Donne's death. They are written predominantly in the style and form prescribed by Renaissance Italian poet Petrarch (or Francesco Petrarca) (1304–1374) in which the sonnet consisted of two quatrains (four-line stanzas) and a sestet (a six-line stanza). However, several rhythmic and structural patterns as well as the inclusion of couplets are elements influenced by the sonnet form developed by English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616). Donne's work, both in love poetry and religious poetry, places him as a central figure among the Metaphysical poets. The nineteen poems that constitute the collection were never published during Donne's lifetime although they did circulate in manuscript. Many of the poems are believed to have been written in 1609 and 1610, during a period of great personal distress and strife for Donne who suffered a combination of physical, emotional and financial hardships during this time. This was also a time of personal religious turmoil as Donne was in the process of conversion from Roman Catholicism to Anglicanism, and would take holy orders in 1615 despite profound reluctance and significant self-doubt about becoming a priest. Sonnet XVII ("Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt") is thought to have been written in 1617 following the death of his wife Anne More. In Holy Sonnets, Donne addresses religious themes of mortality, divine judgment, divine love and humble penance while reflecting deeply personal anxieties.

The Oxen, carol for female chorus and piano
The Poet's Echo, for high voice and piano, op. 76

The Poet's Echo (Russian title: Эхо поэта) is a song cycle composed by Benjamin Britten (1913–76) in August 1965 during a holiday visit with Peter Pears to Dilijan, Armenia, during the “Days of Benjamin Britten” hosted by Soviet Armenia. It consists of settings for high voice and piano of six poems by the Russian poet Alexandr Pushkin (1799–1837), in their original language. It was published as his Op. 76. The cycle is dedicated to his Russian friends Galina Vishnevskaya ("Galya") (soprano) and her husband Mstislav Rostropovich ("Slava") (cellist, pianist and conductor). Britten had previously dedicated several compositions for cello to Rostropovich. He had wanted Vishnevskaya to sing the soprano part in the 1962 premiere of his War Requiem, but the authorities had refused her a visa to travel outside the Soviet Union. The Poet's Echo was first performed in public by the dedicatees at the Moscow Conservatoire on 2 December 1965, by which time the composer had returned to England. A typical performance lasts about 15 minutes. The songs are: "Эхо" ("Echo") "Я думал, сердце позабыло" ("My Heart") "Ангел" ("Angel") "Соловей и роза" ("The Nightingale and the Rose") "Эпиграмма" ("Epigram") "Стихи, сочинённые ночью во время бессонницы" ("Lines Written During a Sleepless Night") Vishnevskaya has said that Britten "had succeeded in penetrating the very heart of the verse" – despite the fact that the composer had little Russian, and was working from a bilingual edition of Pushkin's poetry. She recalled a memorable evening in autumn 1965 when the tenor Peter Pears and Britten tried out the songs at the Pushkin House: "The room was cloaked in semi-darkness – only two candles burned. [...] The moment Ben [Britten] started to play the prelude [of "Lines Written During a Sleepless Night"], which he had written to suggest the ticking of a clock, Pushkin's clock began to strike midnight, and the twelve strokes chimed in synchrony with Ben's music. We all froze. I stopped breathing and felt my scalp prickle. Pushkin's portrait was looking straight at Ben. He was shaken and pale, but didn't stop playing." Pears confirmed the incident is his diary, though in somewhat drier terms: "Pushkin's clock joining in the song. It seemed to strike more than midnight, to go on all through the song, and afterwards we sat spell-bound".

The Sun Shines Down

Ronald Howard (7 April 1918 – 19 December 1996) was an English actor and writer. He appeared as Sherlock Holmes in a weekly television series of the same name in 1954. He was the son of the actor Leslie Howard.

The Sycamore Tree, carol

This article lists major events and other topics related to classical music in 2020.

The Twelve Apostles, for tenor, unison voices, and piano

This is a list of compositions by William Walton sorted by genre, date of composition, title, and scoring.

The World of the Spirit, music for a radio program, for SATB soloists, chorus and orchestra

A choir ( KWIRE), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin chorus, meaning 'a dance in a circle'), is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words is the music performed by the ensemble. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm, hand, and facial gestures. The term choir is very often applied to groups affiliated with a church (whether or not they actually occupy the quire), whereas a chorus performs in theatres or concert halls, but this distinction is not rigid. Choirs may sing without instruments, or accompanied by a piano, accordion, pipe organ, a small ensemble, or an orchestra. A choir can be a subset of an ensemble; thus one speaks of the "woodwind choir" of an orchestra, or different "choirs" of voices or instruments in a polychoral composition. In typical 18th century to 21st century oratorios and masses, 'chorus' or 'choir' implies that there is more than one singer per part, in contrast to the quartet of soloists also featured in these works.

Tit for Tat

Tit for tat is an English saying meaning "equivalent retaliation". Tit for Tat may also refer to: Tit for Tat (play), a 1786 play by George Colman the Elder Tit for Tat (novel), an 1856 novel written anonymously Tit for Tat (1904 film), a French short silent film Tit for Tat (1921 film), a British silent comedy film Tit for Tat (1935 film), a short comedy film starring Laurel and Hardy "Tit for Tat" (7th Heaven), an episode of the TV series 7th Heaven "Tit for Tat (Ain't No Taking Back)", a 1968 Christmas song by James Brown "Tit for Tat", a song by 6lack from his 2023 album Since I Have a Lover "Tit for Tat", a song by Eddy Grant from his 2006 album Reparation "Tit for Tat", a song by Cupcakke from her 2016 mixtape Cum Cake "Tit for Tat" (Tate McRae song), 2025 "Tit for Tat", a story from The Railway Series 1967 book: Small Railway Engines Tit for Tat, a song cycle for voice and piano; see List of compositions by Benjamin Britten#Vocal

To Lie Flat on the Back

Noye's Fludde (Middle English for Noah's Flood) is a one-act opera by the British composer Benjamin Britten, intended primarily for amateur performers, particularly children. First performed on 18 June 1958 at that year's Aldeburgh Festival, it is based on the 15th-century Chester "mystery" or "miracle" play which recounts the Book of Genesis story of Noah's Ark. Britten specified that the opera should be staged in churches or large halls, not in a theatre. By the mid-1950s Britten had established himself as a major composer, both of operas and of works for mixed professional and amateur forces – his mini-opera The Little Sweep (1949) was written for young audiences, and used child performers. He had previously adapted text from the Chester play cycle in his 1952 Canticle II, which retells the story of Abraham and Isaac. Noye's Fludde was composed as a project for television; to the Chester text Britten added three congregational hymns, the Greek prayer Kyrie eleison as a children's chant, and an Alleluia chorus. A large children's chorus represents the pairs of animals who march into and out of the ark, and proceedings are directed by the spoken Voice of God. Of the solo sung roles, only the parts of Noye (Noah) and his wife were written to be sung by professionals; the remaining roles are for child and adolescent performers. A small professional ensemble underpins the mainly amateur orchestra which contains numerous unconventional instruments to provide particular musical effects; bugle fanfares for the animals, handbell chimes for the rainbow, and various improvisations to replicate musically the sounds of a storm. At its premiere Noye's Fludde was acclaimed by critics and public alike, both for the inspiration of the music and the brilliance of the design and production. The opera's American premiere took place in New York in March 1959, and its first German performance occurred at Ettal in May of that year. Since then it has been staged worldwide; the performance in Beijing in October 2012 organised by the KT Wong Foundation was the first in China of any Britten opera. The occasion of Britten's centenary in 2013 led to numerous productions at music festivals, both in the UK and abroad.

Underneath the Abject Willow, for mezzo-soprano, tenor, and piano
Variations on an Elizabethanian Theme, for voice and orchestra
Venite exultemus Domino
War Requiem, for STB soloists, boys' voices, chorus, chamber orchestra, orchestra, and organ, op. 66
Welcome Ode, for young people's chorus and orchestra, op. 95

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

What's in Your Mind?

Terence Ernest Britten (born 17 July 1947) is an English-Australian singer-songwriter and record producer, who has written songs for Tina Turner, Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton-John, Status Quo and Michael Jackson amongst many others. Britten (along with co-writer Graham Lyle) won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1985 for "What's Love Got to Do with It".

When You’re Feeling Like Expressing Your Affection

Limerence is the mental state of being madly in love or intensely infatuated when reciprocation of the feeling is uncertain. This state is characterized by intrusive thoughts and idealization of the loved one (also called "crystallization"), typically with a desire for reciprocation to form a relationship. This is accompanied by feelings of ecstasy or despair, depending on whether one's feelings seem to be reciprocated or not. Research on the biology of romantic love indicates that the early stage of intense romantic love (also called passionate love) resembles addiction, but academics do not currently agree on how love addictions are defined. The psychologist Dorothy Tennov coined the term "limerence" as an alteration of the word "amorance" without other etymologies. The concept grew out of her work in the 1960s when she interviewed over 500 people on the topic of love, originally published in her book Love and Limerence. According to Tennov, "to be in a state of limerence is to feel what is usually termed 'being in love.'" She coined the term to disambiguate the state from other less-overwhelming emotions and to avoid the implication that people who don't experience it are incapable of love. Tennov was inspired to study romantic love after encountering people in her post as a professor who experienced severe heartbreak and personal perils. Tennov's research suggested to her that limerence is normal (although illogical), and a 2025 survey suggested that as many as 50–60% of the population had experienced it. Limerence is a descriptive concept, rather than a diagnosis or disorder; it is not in the DSM. The polysemous nature of love words has led to semantic confusion which Tennov meant to clarify, although there is even still disagreement on how "limerence" is defined. Love research has never adopted a unified terminology or definitions. According to Tennov and others, limerence can be considered intense romantic love, falling in love, love madness, intense infatuation, passionate love with obsessive elements or lovesickness. Limerence and obsessive love are similar, but obsessive love has connotations of possessive and self-defeating behavior. Limerence is also sometimes compared to and contrasted with a crush, with limerence being much more intense and impacting day-to-day functioning more: "when a crush has taken over your life". Love and Limerence has been called the seminal work on romantic love, with Tennov's survey results and the various personal accounts recounted in the book largely marking the start of data collection on the phenomenon.

Who are these Children?, for tenor and piano, op. 84

Who Are These Children? is a song cycle for tenor and piano composed in 1969 by Benjamin Britten (1913–76), and published as his Op. 84. It consists of settings of twelve poems by the Scottish poet William Soutar (1898–1943). It was written to mark the 700th National Galleries of Scotland Concert. It was dedicated to Tertia Liebenthal, honorary organiser of the Edinburgh lunch-hour concerts. The first performance was at Edinburgh on 4 May 1971 by Peter Pears (tenor) and the composer (piano); Liebenthal had by then died, and it was given in her memory. A performance typically takes about 20 minutes. The songs are: "A Riddle (The Earth)" "A Laddie's Sang" "Nightmare" "Black Day" "Bed-time" "Slaughter" "A Riddle (The Child You Were)" "The Larky Lad" "Who Are These Children?" "Supper" "The Children" "The Auld Aik" Four of the poems (Nos. 3, 6, 9 and 11) are in Scottish Standard English; the other eight are in Lowland Scots. The latter comprise five pithy miniatures (which Soutar called "Bairn-Rhymes"), a "Bairn's Song" (No. 12) and two riddles; the former "deal with darker themes, particularly the plight of children in the context of violence and war". The cycle was recorded by the original performers for Decca in November 1972 at The Maltings, Snape. The producer was Ray Minshull and the recording engineer Kenneth Wilkinson.

Wild with passion, song for high voice and piano

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.

Winter Words, for tenor and piano, op. 52

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