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List of compositions by Benjamin Britten

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Benjamin Britten in 1968

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

By genre

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Operas

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Paul Bunyan, Op. 17:

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

Peter Grimes, Op. 33:

The Rape of Lucretia, Op. 37:

Albert Herring, Op. 39:

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

The Beggar's Opera, Op. 43:

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

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

Billy Budd, Op. 50:

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

Billy Budd (revised):

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

Gloriana, Op. 53:

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

The Turn of the Screw, Op. 54:

Noye's Fludde, Op. 59:

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

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 64:

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

Owen Wingrave, Op. 85:

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

Death in Venice, Op. 88:

Church parables

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Ballets

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Orchestral

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Concertante

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  • Rondo Concertante for piano and strings (1930)
  • Double Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra (1932). "Instrumentation...virtually 100% Britten" (Matthews, Erato sleeve note, 1999 – Colin Matthews realised the orchestration).
  • Piano Concerto, Op. 13, (1938; rev. 1945, the original third movement – Recitative and Aria – replaced by an Impromptu)
  • Violin Concerto, Op. 15, (1939; rev. 1958)
  • Young Apollo, Op. 16, for piano, string quartet and string orchestra (1939)
  • Diversions for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra, Op. 21, (1940; rev. 1954)
  • Scottish Ballad, Op. 26, for two pianos and orchestra (1941)
  • Clarinet Concerto (incomplete: 1st movement only, 1942/3, orch. by Colin Matthews, who later added two further movements from 1940s Britten sketches, incl. Sonata for Orchestra; resulting work, Movements for a Clarinet Concerto, first published 2008)
  • In memoriam Dennis Brain (c. 1958), unfinished sketch for four horns and orchestra.
  • Cello Symphony, Op. 68, (1963)

Vocal/choral orchestral

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  • Quatre Chansons Françaises for soprano and orchestra (1928)
  • Two Psalms for chorus and orchestra (1931)
  • Our Hunting Fathers, Op. 8, for soprano or tenor and orchestra (words by W. H. Auden and others; 1936)
  • The Company of Heaven for speakers, soloists, chorus and orchestra (BBC, September 1937, not performed again until 1989)
  • The World of the Spirit for speakers, SATB soloists, chorus and orchestra (BBC, May 1938)
  • Ballad of Heroes, Op. 14, for tenor or soprano, chorus and orchestra (words by W. H. Auden and Randall Swingler; 1939)
  • Les Illuminations, Op. 18, for soprano or tenor and strings (words by Arthur Rimbaud) (1939; three further songs, not included in the cycle, also exist — another setting also called 'Phrase', and 'Aube' and 'A une raison'; they have been orchestrated by Colin Matthews; there also exists a sketch for a further Rimbaud setting)
  • Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31, (1943)
  • The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard for male voice choir and piano (1943)
  • The Rescue of Penelope for voices and orchestra (1943)
  • Saint Nicolas, Op. 42, for tenor soloist, children's chorus, chorus, and orchestra (1948)
  • Spring Symphony, Op. 44, for soprano, contralto, and tenor soloists, mixed chorus, boys' choir and orchestra (1949)
  • Nocturne, Op. 60, for tenor, seven obbligato instruments and strings (1958)
  • Cantata academica, Op. 62, for soloists, chorus and orchestra (1959)
  • War Requiem, Op. 66, for soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, chamber ensemble, boys' chorus, mixed chorus, and orchestra (1961)
  • Cantata misericordium, Op. 69, for tenor and baritone soloists, small chorus, string quartet, string orchestra, piano, harp, timpani (1963)
  • Phaedra, Op. 93, for mezzo-soprano, cello, harpsichord, percussion, and string orchestra (words by Robert Lowell; after Jean Racine's Phèdre; 1975)
  • Praise we great men for soloists, chorus and orchestra (words by Edith Sitwell; 1976. Completed by Colin Matthews, 1985)
  • Welcome Ode, Op. 95, for young people's voices and orchestra (1976)

Vocal

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Choral

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  • A Hymn to the Virgin for chorus and soli (1930; revised 1934)
  • Christ's Nativity for unaccompanied chorus (1931)
  • A Boy Was Born, Op. 3, for treble voices and choir (1933; revised 1955)
  • Jubilate Deo in E-flat for chorus and organ (published posthumously; 1934)
  • Te Deum in C for treble solo, chorus, trumpet, and organ (1934)
  • Friday Afternoons, Op. 7, for children's voices and piano (1935)
  • Advance Democracy for unaccompanied choir (1938)
  • A.M.D.G. (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam), seven settings of Gerard Manley Hopkins for unaccompanied SATB (1939)
  • Hymn to St Cecilia, Op. 27, for unaccompanied choir (poem by W. H. Auden; 1942)
  • A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28, for treble voices and harp (1942); an alternative arrangement for mixed voices and harp (or piano) is popular as well
  • Rejoice in the Lamb, Op. 30, for four soloists, choir, and organ (text by Christopher Smart; 1943)
  • Festival Te Deum, Op. 32, in E for chorus and organ (1944)
  • A Wedding anthem 'Amo Ergo Sum' , Op. 46, for soprano, tenor, SATB and organ (1949)
  • Five Flower Songs, Op. 47, for SATB (1950)
  • Hymn to St Peter, Op. 56a, for treble soloist, SATB and organ (1955)
  • Antiphon, Op. 56b, for SATB and organ, (1955)
  • Missa Brevis, Op. 63, for boys' voices and organ (1959)
  • Jubilate Deo for chorus and organ (1961)
  • A Hymn of St Columba for chorus and organ (1962)
  • Voices for Today, Op. 75, for boys' voices, chorus and organ ad lib, (1965)
  • The Golden Vanity, Op. 78, for five boy soloists, treble chorus and piano (1966)
  • The Building of the House, Op. 79, for chorus or organ or brass and orchestra (1967)
  • Children's Crusade, Op. 82, for nine boy soloists and chorus, percussion, organ and two pianos (text by Bertolt Brecht, trans. Hans Keller; 1968)
  • Sacred and Profane, Op. 91, for SSATB (1974–5)

Chamber/instrumental

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Solo piano

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  • Five Waltzes, for piano (1923–25, rev. 1969)
  • Three Character Pieces, for piano (1930)
  • Twelve variations on a theme, for piano (1930)
  • Holiday Diary, Op. 5, for piano (1934)
  • Sonatina romantica for piano (rejected by the composer; 1940)
  • Night-Piece (Notturno) for piano (written for Leeds International Pianoforte Competition; 1963)
  • Variations for piano (1965)

Two pianos

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  • Two Lullabies for two pianos (1936)
  • Introduction and Rondo alla burlesca, Op. 23/1, for two pianos (1940)
  • Mazurka elegiaca, Op. 23/2, for two pianos (written as part of the collaborative album Homage to Paderewski; 1941)

Organ

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String quartet

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Violin and piano

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  • Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 6, (1935)
  • Reveille, Concert Study (1937, published 1983)

Viola and piano

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  • Reflection for viola and piano (1930)
  • Lachrymae, Op. 48, for viola and piano, after "If my complaints could passions move" by John Dowland; for William Primrose; 1950)
    • arranged for viola and string orchestra, Op. 48a, (for Cecil Aronowitz; 1976)
  • There is a willow grows aslant a brook (1932), an arrangement of the orchestral poem by Frank Bridge. The title is taken from Shakespeare, and the arrangement by Britten is dedicated to Bridge.

Violin, viola and piano

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

Solo viola

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  • Etude (1929)
  • Elegy (1930)

Cello and piano

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Solo cello

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Oboe and piano

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

Oboe and strings

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Solo oboe

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Flute, violin and piano 4-hands

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  • Gemini Variations, Op. 73, for flute, violin, and piano four hands (1965)

Solo timpani

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

Three trumpets

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Guitar

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Harp

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  • Suite for Solo Harp, Op. 83, (1969)

Film & drama music

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By opus number

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Notes

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

References

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

Sources

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