Beware! Three Early Songs
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.[1] 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.[2] 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1926.[1] Rudyard Kipling's "Fuzzy Wuzzy", composed between 1922 and 1923, was revised at the same time, but remains unpublished.[3]
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".[4] 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".[5]
"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.[6]
Songs
The songs are:
- "Beware"
- "O that I had ne'er been Married"
- "Epitaph: The Clerk"
A complete performance takes about 3 minutes.[7]
References
- ^ a b "3 Early Songs". Britten Songs. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
- ^ "Britten Songs Volume 1" (PDF). Britten Songs Volume 1 liner notes. Chandos Records. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
- ^ "BTC21 Fuzzy Wuzzy". Britten Thematic Catalogue. Britten Thematic Catalogue. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
- ^ David Matthews (15 October 2013). Britten: Centenary Edition. Haus Publishing. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-908323-41-5.
- ^ Graham Johnson (musician) (3 October 2017). Britten, Voice and Piano: Lectures on the Vocal Music of Benjamin Britten. Taylor & Francis. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-351-21820-7.
- ^ "BTC41 O That I'd Ne'er Been Married". Britten Thematic Catalogue. Britten Thematic Catalogue. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
- ^ Benjamin Britten – Beware!, 3 early songs for voice & piano at AllMusic. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
- v
- t
- e
- Paul Bunyan (1941)
- Peter Grimes (1945)
- The Rape of Lucretia (1946)
- Albert Herring (1947)
- The Little Sweep (1949)
- Billy Budd (1951)
- Gloriana (1953)
- The Turn of the Screw (1954)
- Noye's Fludde (1958)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960)
- Owen Wingrave (1971)
- Death in Venice (1973)
- Curlew River (1964)
- The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966)
- The Prodigal Son (1968)
- Plymouth Town (1931)
- Night Mail (1936)
- The Prince of the Pagodas (1956)
- Sinfonietta (1932)
- Simple Symphony (1934)
- Soirées musicales (1937)
- Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937)
- Mont Juic (1937)
- Sinfonia da Requiem (1940)
- Matinées musicales (1941)
- The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946)
- Piano Concerto (1938, rev. 1945)
- Violin Concerto (1939, rev. 1958)
- Young Apollo (1939)
- Diversions for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra (1940 rev. 1954)
- Cello Symphony (1963)
- Our Hunting Fathers (1936)
- The Company of Heaven (1937)
- Les Illuminations (1939)
- Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943)
- Saint Nicolas (1948)
- Spring Symphony (1949)
- Nocturne (1958)
- Cantata academica (1959)
- War Requiem (1961)
- Cantata misericordium (1963)
- Children's Crusade (1969)
- Phaedra (1975)
- Beware! Three Early Songs (1922–26)
- Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940)
- The Holy Sonnets of John Donne (1945)
- Britten's Purcell realizations (1945)+
- 5 Canticles (1947–75, including Canticle I: My beloved is mine and I am his, Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac (1952), Canticle III: Still falls the rain (1954) and Canticle IV: The Journey of the Magi (1971)
- A Charm of Lullabies (1947)
- Winter Words (1954)
- Songs from the Chinese (1957)
- Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente (1958)
- Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (1965)
- The Poet's Echo (1965)
- Who Are These Children? (1969)
- A Birthday Hansel (1975)
- Friday Afternoons (1932–1935)
- A Boy was Born (1933)
- Te Deum in C (1934)
- Advance Democracy (1938)
- A Ceremony of Carols (1942)
- Hymn to St Cecilia (1942)
- Festival Te Deum (1944)
- Rejoice in the Lamb (1943)
- Five Flower Songs (1950)
- Hymn to St Peter (1955)
- Missa Brevis (1959)
- A Hymn of St Columba (1962)
- The Golden Vanity (1966)
- Children's Crusade (1968)
- Sacred and Profane (8 medieval lyrics) (1974)
- Jubilate Deo (1961)
- String Quartet in D major (1931)
- Phantasy Quartet (oboe quartet, 1932)
- String Quartet No. 1 (1941)
- String Quartet No. 2 (1945)
- Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria (organ, 1946)
- Six Metamorphoses after Ovid (oboe, 1951)
- Fanfare for St Edmundsbury (three trumpets, 1959)
- Cello sonata (1961)
- Nocturnal after John Dowland (guitar, 1963)
- Cello suites (1964, 1967, 1972)
- String Quartet No. 3 (1975)
- Homage to Paderewski (1941)
- Variations on an Elizabethan Theme (1953)
- War Requiem (1989 film)
- Benjamin Britten (train)
- Benjamin Britten Academy
- Britten Inlet
- Britten Hall
- Britten Sinfonia
- Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century
- Britten's Children
- Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
- English Opera Group
- The Dark Tower
- Scallop (2003)