# TC Listening Club Part 14: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (Britten)



## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

This week's choice by Petwhac.

PURCHASE OPTIONS

Here are some available purchasing options. Any additions to this list welcome:

Britten: Serenade for Horn, Tenor and Strings etc. (Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle, Bostridge) (EMI Classics)
Britten/Finzi: Serenade for Horn, Tenor and Strings/Dies Natalis (Britten Sinfonia, Padmore) (Harmonia Mundi)
Britten/Walton: Serenade for Horn, Tenor and Strings/Facade (English Opera Group, Pears, Britten) (Decca)
Britten: Serenade for Horn, Tenor and Strings (English Chamber Orch., Bedford, Langridge) (Naxos)
Britten: Serenade for Horn, Tenor and Strings (New Symp. Orch., Britten, Pears) (Decca)

YouTube LINKS

For those who require them:





 (Kantanti Ensemble) (Live)




 (Slovak Chamber Orch.)




 (Northern Sinfonia Orch., Mariner) (Part 1)




 (Northern Sinfonia Orch., Mariner) (Part 2)

OTHER INFORMATION

Check out the Wikipedia article on this work (Also contains full lyrics):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenade_for_Tenor,_Horn_and_Strings

The following information was written by Anthony Burton for a performance by the Scottish Chamber Orch. :
*
Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, Op 31*

Prologue
Pastoral (Cotton)
Nocturne (Tennyson)
Elegy (Blake)
Dirge (Anonymous, 15th century)
Hymn (Ben Jonson)
Sonnet (Keats)
Epilogue

The Serenade for tenor, horn and strings was one of the first works which Britten completed after his wartime return from the United States to England. It was first performed at the Wigmore Hall in London in October 1943, with Britten's partner Peter Pears and the great horn player Dennis Brain as soloists, and Walter Goehr (father of the composer Alexander Goehr) conducting. The piece is a "serenade" not in the eighteenth-century tradition of nocturnal outdoor entertainment music, but in being a setting of a selection of English poems on the themes of evening, night and the approach of sleep. But it also embraces the idea of night as (in the words of the work's dedicatee, Edward Sackville-West, who helped to compile the text) "the cloak of evil - the worm in the rose, the sense of sin in the heart of man".

The horn begins the Serenade on its own, with a short fanfare-like Prologue, to be played on natural harmonics (without using the valves). It then partners the solo tenor in each of the first five songs, though in a different relationship to the voice part in each one: shadowing the voice line by line in the "Pastoral" to words by the seventeenth-century poet Charles Cotton; responding appropriately to the refrain in each stanza of Tennyson's Blow, Bugle, blow; framing the declamatory setting of Blake's The sick rose with long, intense solos; providing the climactic statement of the ostinato which underpins the setting of the traditional Lyke Wake Dirge; and leading the chase in the setting of Ben Jonson's Hymn to Diana, the moon goddess. After this, the horn is silent in the last song, a rapt setting of Keats's sonnet To Sleep, allowing the player to station himself offstage for the final repetition of the Prologue as an Epilogue.


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

UPCOMING

The final listening club session will occur next week:

PART 15: Das Lied von der Erde (Mahler) chosen by Stlukesguildohio and starting 18/09/12

OTHER THREADS

You can still participate in past Listening Club threads here:

http://www.talkclassical.com/19793-tc-listening-club-week.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/19883-tc-listening-club-week.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/19986-tc-listening-club-part.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/20078-tc-listening-club-part.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/20189-tc-listening-club-part.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/20318-tc-listening-club-part.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/20413-tc-listening-club-part.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/20541-tc-listening-club-part.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/20697-tc-listening-club-part.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/20858-tc-listening-club-part.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/20971-tc-listening-club-part.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/21082-tc-listening-club-part.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/21235-tc-listening-club-part.html


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## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

Thanks again to crmoorhead for the research.

I came back to this piece recently after not having heard it for some years and it was a revelation. It is such a wonderful piece and really has everything. Tender heart-melting beauty in the _Pastoral_ and _Sonnet_, humour in _Hymn_ and thrills in _Dirge_. I find the word setting always imaginative and inventive as is the string and horn writing.
The harmony is accessible but never obvious. 
The Robert Tear version is a bit of a classic. The Peter Schreier recording I think suffers from the excess vibrato of the solo horn. 
This is as good as it gets for me! ( possible exaggeration there!)


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

This is a really interesting and enjoyable work. I am not usually a fan of poems set to music - there is something slightly cringeworthy to them that I sometimes struggle to overcome. The unusual instrumentation of this, however, makes for a very unique and interesting sound. Based on the sounds alone, I like this piece much better than Elgar's Sea Pictures and the program of the piece is one that I find intriguing. There is a degree of mastery about how Britten uses the three elements of tenor, horn and strings in a variety of differing ways to create the whole gamut of human feeling. It just shows how much colour can be created from such a limited combination of instruments by using all the techniques available to them. The offstage horn at the end works very well in closing the piece as well as fitting in with the program. 

As for the words, I shall have to study them in more detail and relisten a few times. I can't usually make out everything that the singers are saying in vocal/orchestral combinations, so there is a lot in the detail that I am probably missing just now.

I have only dabbled in Britten's musical output so far, yet I have enjoyed all that I have heard by this composer. I look forward to getting to grips with his operas in the future. Certainly one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.  Based on first impressions, I am scoring this as an 8.5/10.


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## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

crmoorhead said:


> This is a really interesting and enjoyable work. I am not usually a fan of poems set to music - there is something slightly cringeworthy to them that I sometimes struggle to overcome. The unusual instrumentation of this, however, makes for a very unique and interesting sound. Based on the sounds alone, I like this piece much better than Elgar's Sea Pictures and the program of the piece is one that I find intriguing. There is a degree of mastery about how Britten uses the three elements of tenor, horn and strings in a variety of differing ways to create the whole gamut of human feeling. It just shows how much colour can be created from such a limited combination of instruments by using all the techniques available to them. The offstage horn at the end works very well in closing the piece as well as fitting in with the program.
> 
> As for the words, I shall have to study them in more detail and relisten a few times. I can't usually make out everything that the singers are saying in vocal/orchestral combinations, so there is a lot in the detail that I am probably missing just now.
> 
> I have only dabbled in Britten's musical output so far, yet I have enjoyed all that I have heard by this composer. I look forward to getting to grips with his operas in the future. Certainly one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.  Based on first impressions, I am scoring this as an 8.5/10.


Yes there is so much colour and imagination in the strings and horn writing. This piece definitely gets better and better with more listens. The fluttering strings under the words "Blow bugle blow" in Nocturne and the way the horn crashes in at the climax of Dirge. Dirge is also interesting in that the vocal phrase just repeats over unchanged throughout while the strings work themselves up into a contrapuntal frenzy.
Also the fact that it is a natural horn makes the tuning a little 'off' and adds flavour.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Probably one of my favourite works by Britten. After I listen to it again I'll post a more in-depth reply.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Is this Tenor a voice instead of instrument in this Sextet?
Seems interesting, but I don't like the 'Tenor' part. If it was Bass or Contralto I would be interested! I have a Baritone voice and I prefer heavier voice than mine in music


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## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

Arsakes said:


> Is this Tenor a voice instead of instrument in this Sextet?


Not sure what you mean by that.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Love it. Dynamic phrasing of the horn is excellent. High horn notes in "Elegy" are sick! Just really effective horn use. Thank you for a reason to listen to this song cycle which, according to Wiki, was composed at the request of horn great Dennis Brain.












> As for the words, I shall have to study them in more detail and relisten a few times. I can't usually make out everything that the singers are saying in vocal/orchestral combinations, so there is a lot in the detail that I am probably missing just now.


Good luck with this. I am hearing the voice as just another instrument. Even if you had the words in front of you it might not help. Better for setting the mood, which the selected poems do very well.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

I didn't have it, so I listened to something similar from Britten around a week ago: Nocturne for tenor, 7 obligato instruments & strings Op.60 
It was .. somewhat good. 6.8/10


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## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

Lunasong said:


> I am hearing the voice as just another instrument. Even if you had the words in front of you it might not help. Better for setting the mood, which the selected poems do very well.


I agree that it's not essential to have the text and just enjoy the voice as an instrument but it does add another dimension to the experience. The 'word painting' is really excellent and the easier to appreciate for being in English (unless of course that's not your mother tongue) Ian Bostridge has very good diction if a little too good sometimes but I like the Robert Tear.


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