Add MS 60605

Opera in three acts, in short score. Autograph music manuscript, in pencil.

Britten's initials appear on the title page to Act II (f. 39), and the manuscript is dated, in Britten's hand, at the end of the score: 'Sketches finished Good Friday 1960' (f. 110v). The folios following contain additional related material, including two brief passages (dated 1971) in a copyist's hand.

The volume comprises:

• buff paper front cover, entitled 'MSND' (f. i);
• 'MSND Act I Sketches' (ff. 1-37);
• f. 38 is not used, but f. 38v contains untitled draft notation (beginning on the bottom stave, the manuscript page having been turned upside-down);
• 'MSND Act II Sketches BB' (ff. 39-73v);
• 'MSND Act III Sketches' (ff. 74-110v);
• redrafted Lion's solo sung by Snug (f. 111);
• redrafted Lion's solo sung by Snug (ff. 112-112v, struck-through);
• unidentified passages in draft (ff. 113v-115v), including 'ill met by moonlight' (f. 113v);
• passage from Act I (measure 6) beginning 'Or I mistake your shape and meaning quite' (ff. 116-116v), identified in pencil at the foot of f. 116;
• brief passage ('comes from our debate, from our dissention') from Act I, two bars after measure 14 (f. 117, identified in pencil at the foot);
• passage from Act I, measure 77, beginning 'Thro' the forest I have gone' (ff. 118-119), all struck-through;
• passage (partially struck-through) from Act I, 2 bars after measure 97 (f. 119v, identified in pencil at the foot);
• passage (struck-through) beginning 'lulla, lulla, lullaby' from Act I, preceding measure 98 (f. 120, identified in pencil at the foot);
• Act III, 6 bars after measure 93 (f. 121, identified in pencil at the foot);
• 'last few bars of Bottom's Dream (concert version)' (f. 122);
• 'Act I Performance adjustments': measure 86 (ff. 123-123v);
• in a copyist's hand, additional string parts (two bars) for Act II measure 34, and Act III measure 12, folio headed 'boosting the single harpist, Sept. 2/3 1971' (f. 124).