|
''Nocturne'', Op. 60, is a song cycle by Benjamin Britten, written for tenor, seven obbligato instruments and strings.〔Britten himself used the spelling "obligato".〕 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.〔("Alma in the music of other composers – Benjamin Britten: ''Nocturne'', Op. 60 (Dedicated to Alma) ), short analysis〕 ''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 under Rudolf Schwarz.〔("Britten's Complete Works" ) by Scott Eric Smith〕 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'〔'rocking' as in "Rock the baby to sleep"〕 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. == Structure == The piece sets eight sections of poetry to music, each accompanied by strings and (with the exception of the first) by an obbligato instrument: # Shelley – "On a Poet’s Lips I Slept" from ''Prometheus Unbound'' # Tennyson – "The Kraken", with bassoon # Coleridge – "Encinctured with a twine of leaves" from ''(The Wanderings of Cain )'', with harp # Middleton – "Midnight Bell" from ''Blurt, Master Constable'', with French horn # Wordsworth – "But that night when on my bed I lay" from ''The Prelude'' (1805), with timpani # Owen – "The Kind Ghosts", with cor anglais # Keats – "Sleep and Poetry", with flute and clarinet # Shakespeare – Sonnet XLIII, with all the obbligato instruments 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nocturne (Britten)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|