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Add MS 60614
- Record Id:
- 040-001991556
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001991529
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000393.0x0000f4
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100176882798.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 60614
- Title:
- Benjamin Britten: 'Songs & Proverbs of William Blake', op. 74
- Scope & Content:
-
For baritone and piano. Autograph music manuscript, in pencil, dated, in Britten's hand: 'April 6th 1965' (f. 24).
The title page (f. 1) shows faint traces of the work's original title ('Songs & Sentences') which Britten erased before writing 'Songs & Proverbs'. The texts, from William Blake, were 'selected by Peter Pears'. The title page is also signed by Britten and includes, at the top of the folio, his dedication to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: 'For Dieter - the past and the future'.
The rejected term 'Sentences' is also used (f. 1v) in Britten's list of the the texts, which alternate between passages from Proverbs of Hell (in the final extract, from Auguries of Innocence) and poems from the Songs of Experience.
- 'Sentence[s] I': 'The pride of the peacock...' (f. 2-2v);
- 'London' (ff. 2v-4v);
- 'Sentences II': 'Prisons are built with stones of law...' (f. 4v);
- 'The Chimney-Sweeper' (ff. 4v-6);
- 'Sentences III': 'The bird a nest...' (f. 6v);
- 'A Poison-Tree' (ff. 6v-9), of which ff. 7v-9 are 'discarded' (see pencil notes by Britten-Pears Library at the bottom of each page);
- for the revised section of 'A Poison-Tree', see ff. 10v-14 (of which, f. 13 is scored in blue ink);
- 'Sentences IV': 'Think in the morning...' (f. 14);
- 'The Tyger' (ff. 14v-16v);
- 'Sentences V': 'The tygers of wrath...' (f. 17);
- 'The Fly' (ff. 17v-19);
- 'Sentences VI' (f. 19-19v);
- 'Ah! Sun-flower' (ff. 19v-22);
- 'Sentences VII': 'To see a world in a grain of sand...' (f. 22);
- 'Every Night and every Morn' (ff. 22-24).
- f. 25-25v comprises draft material relating to 'Every Night and every Morn'.
Britten has added a brief footnote to Rosamund [Strode], copyist, on f. 11v.
- Collection Area:
- Music Collections
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001991529
040-001991556 - Is part of:
- Add MS 60593-60626 : Britten Manuscripts: Musical compositions of Benjamin Britten
Add MS 60614 : Benjamin Britten: 'Songs & Proverbs of William Blake', op. 74 - Hierarchy:
- 032-001991529[0014]/040-001991556
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 60593-60626
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume (25 folios)
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100176882798.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1965
- End Date:
- 1965
- Date Range:
- 1965
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
-
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- Physical Characteristics:
- Folio dimensions: 380 x 280 mm (ff. 12 and 13 are smaller insertions). On the following folios, some staves have been extended in blue ink: ff. 3, 4, 4v, 5, 5v, 7, 7v, 8, 8v, 11v, 13 (which is also scored in blue ink), 14, 14v, 17v, 18, 18v, 20, 20v, and 22v.
- Information About Copies:
- Digitised copy available on British Library Digitised Manuscripts: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_60614
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)