Benjamin Britten: This Little Babe: Children's Choir: Vocal Score

Benjamin Britten is widely held to be one of the greatest opera composers of the 20th century. His works are regularl performed in opera houses throughout the world and many of the arias have become essential repertoire for students and professional singers.This second book includes arias from the famous operas The Little Sweep The Turn of the Screw and A Midsummer Night?s Dream. The German singing translations are also included.

In preparing for publication the 1935 orchestral version of Britten's Te Deum in C it became clear that there were a number of discrepancies between the manuscript and the original 193 vocal score. Some of these were minor:different articulation and dynamic markings something Britten was later very fussy about but perhaps left unchanged on proof because of his relative inexperience at this stage of his career with the processes of musicpublishing. Others were more important: wrong pedal notes for example which Britten failed to notice on proof and which have been perpetuated in performances and recordings for nearly seventy years. These have been corrected inthe new edition of the vocal score and in the orchestral score (Britten clearly used the published vocal score to prepare his orchestral version). The two versions have been made consistent in other details - rehearsal cues andbar numbers for example - since Britten intended choristers to use the vocal score to perform the orchestral version. This would have been an easy task for these is little discrepancy in essential details between versions (arare departure occurs in bars 53 to 56 where the works 'Lord God of Sabaoth' are unaccompanied in the orchestral version but doubled by Organ in the original). Sustained Organ chords are often filled out with arpeggiated stringwriting while the spacing of chords is frequently much wider in the string version with melodies transposed into different octaves. Although harmony in both versions is identical voice leading is sometimes altered in the latterto make it better suited to the idioms of the instruments concerned.So although in essence the two versions are the same the soundworld explored in each is quite distinct. Britten's orchestral version should neither beviewed as an occasional piece nor considered solely a liturgical work like many of his choral pieces from the 1930s and 1940s it is equally at home in church and concert hall.

Timeless Cornish Melodies Cooked Up For Hungry Brass Players-As I sit myself down to write this brief foreword I ask myself can there be music more stirring than these old Cornish folk melodies? Though not Cornish myself (I confess to being born a little further up the road in Bristol) I feel I have spent sufficient time in these 'ere parts to resonate with the sturdy brass band tradition that continues to permeate this incomparably beautiful rugged county. One can almost detect a French 'accent' when listening to the piano music of Debussy and likewise speaking as a lapsed brass player there is undoubtedly something of the Cornish twang about Trelawny when played on a cornet or euphonium. Then again one gets a different yet entirely convincing effect upon hearing these melodies rendered on woodwind instruments; hence with a little gamesmanship on my part I am pleased to see my collection of these fifteen delectable ditties come to fruition in the form of arrangements for treble clef brass instruments (in B flat and E flat) trombone and tuba (bass clef) horn in F flute clarinet and bassoon.While many will find themselves humming the likes of Going up Camborne Hill Lamorna or The Helston Furry Dance even before they have turned to the first page - for these are indelibly intertwined with Cornish culture - I wonder if I might draw your attention to The Cornish Squire The Pool of Pilate and Cold Blows the Wind Today Sweetheart which are quite simply sublime melodies perhaps needing that extra bit of help in bringing them to mind nowadays. In the best tradition of musical hand-me-downs Cornish folk music works equally ideally sung and played and only by doing so on a regular basis can such traditions hope to continue forward with vigour and authority. A legitimate way of achieving this is to revitalise the harmonic scheme of these ancient tunes and bring them up to date for a modern audience; after all it was such an approach that fuelled the imagination of Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams in decades past while skilfully paying homage to the

Timeless Cornish Melodies-As I sit myself down to write this brief foreword I ask myself can there be music more stirring than these old Cornish folk melodies? Though not Cornish myself (I confess to being born a little further up the road in Bristol) I feel I have spent sufficient time in these 'ere parts to resonate with the sturdy brass band tradition that continues to permeate this incomparably beautiful rugged county. One can almost detect a French 'accent' when listening to the piano music of Debussy and likewise speaking as a lapsed brass player there is undoubtedly something of the Cornish twang about Trelawny when played on a cornet or euphonium. Then again one gets a different yetentirely convincing effect upon hearing these melodies rendered on woodwind instruments; hence with a little gamesmanship on my part I am pleased to see my collection of these fifteen delectable ditties come to fruition in the form of arrangements for treble clef brass instruments (in B flat and E flat) trombone and tuba (bass clef) horn in F flute clarinet and bassoon.While many will find themselves humming the likes of Going up Camborne Hill Lamorna or The Helston Furry Dance even before they have turned to the first page - for these are indelibly intertwined with Cornish culture I wonder if I might draw your attention to The Cornish Squire The Pool of Pilate and Cold Blows the Wind Today Sweetheart which are quite simply sublime melodies perhaps needing that extra bit of help in bringing them to mind nowadays. In the best tradition of musical hand-me-downs Cornish folk music works equally ideally sung and played and only by doing so on a regular basis can such traditions hope to continue forward with vigour and authority. A legitimate way of achieving this is to revitalise the harmonic scheme of these ancient tunes and bring them up to date for a modern audience; after all it was such an approach that fuelled the imagination of Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams in decades past while skilfully paying homage to the

Good work for examinations and recitals by an important British composer. Duration c.6'. AMEB (Australian Syllabus) 2004. Programme notes as follows:Lennox Berkeley was born in 1903 and died in 1989. After reading modern languages at Oxford he had no intention of becoming a composer until he met Ravel in 1926 who encouraged him to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He stayed in Paris until 1932 developing his own musical language. In 1936 after the death of his mother he went to Barcelona for the International Society for Contemporary Music festival where he met Benjamin Britten. The two lived together at Snape in Suffolk for a while until the outbreak ofwar before Berkeley moved back to London to work for the BBC. Here he met his future wife Freda Bernstein. He taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1946 until 1968 where his pupils included Richard Rodney Bennett Nicholas Maw and John Tavener among others. He was knighted in 1974. In early February 1971 I was playing in a concert at St. John's Smith Square London then only relatively recently restored as a superb venue for music. The programme which I believe was being broadcast included Berkeley's Serenade Op.12. It was a work I had always enjoyed playing and was standard string orchestra repertoire at the time. There was initially no platform at St. John's and so the audience sat virtually on top of the performers. So close were they on this occasion that I had to ask for a little more room in order to play. At the end of the piece the orchestra acknowledged the applause and the gentleman who I had all but practically decapitated with my over-enthusiastic playing stood up and took a bow. I had been almost playing in Lennox Berkeley's lap! The opportunity was too good to miss and I wasted little time in introducing myself. Mr Berkeley said that he had been fascinated by my playing and asked me to write to him about a possible commission.This I did on 6 February mentioning that

Piano Duets edited by Michael Aston-An attractive and varied collection of 20th-century Piano duets by British composers. The album includes a reprint of Lambert's classic and witty work 'Trois piéces nègres pour les touches blanches' as well as new arrangements of Walton's 'Popular Song' and Vaughan Willliams's beautiful but little know 'The Lake in the Mountains'. This collection will be of interest to Piano duettists everywhere and an ideal introduction to the medium for students of grades 6-8 standard.Contents:York Bowen: Serenade Op.90 No.3Benjamin Britten: Playful Pizzicato from Simple SymphonyBenjamin Britten: Sentimental Saraband from SimpleSymphonyEdward Gregson: Four Pictures Nos. 3 and 4Constant Lambert: Trois pièces nègres pour les touches blanches (Aubade; Siesta; Nocturne)Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Lake in the MountainsWilliam Walton: Touch her soft lips and part from Henry VWilliam Walton: Popular Song from Façade

Britten ' A Ceremony of Carols ' est certainliy une des pièces chorales plus populaires pour le temps des fêtes. Sa magnifique collection d'airs de Noël a été composée à l'origine pour voice(s) élevé et harpe. En raison de sa grande popularité Boosey and Hawkes a pu / Choeur Mixte (SATB) Et Harpe (Ou Piano)