MS Mus. 1778/3/1

Drafts and sketches for various early works, none of which are published. Arranged in approximate chronological order. Some retrospectively signed and roughly dated by the composer.

(1). ff. 1-2. ‘Pantomime: Choreographic Sketch for Three Mime Dancers and Unaccompanied Clarinet’, c. 1945. Complete score, marked ‘very slow’. Musical language uses extended tonality (often modal), with some chromatic scalic passages. Neatly written-out title page, signed by Birtwistle at the time.

(2). ff. 3-8. Two versions of a setting of ‘Nicholas Nye’ by Walter de la Mare. Likely from the mid-late 1940s. One version has simple melody and accompaniment, with piano embellishments and occasional word painting. The second version is almost identical, with minor additions and embellishments to the piano part, suggesting it may be the later attempt. Both neatly written out; the outer folio of the second version contains unrelated verbal and musical jottings and short melodic sketches.

(3). f. 9. Two songs; date unknown, likely from late 1940s.

• ‘Come Lovers Bring Your Cares’: sketch of a short song for voice, flute and possibly clarinet in C. Words not fully set; loosely atonal musical language.
• ‘Love a thousand sweet distilling’: 18 bars extant, no text given. Appears incomplete, as if missing a page.

(4). ff. 10-11. 'Dance of the Pendle Witches' and 'Pendle Mystery'. Dated retrospectively by Birtwistle as 1949. 14 bars of 'Dance of the Pendle Witches' and c. 45 non-continuous bars of 'Pendle Mystery', both for piano.

(5). ff. 12-16. 'Suite for 2 Clarinets', with 3 movements titled ‘March’, ‘Romp’, an ‘Epilogue’. 5 loose folios of manuscript paper. Includes two poems: ‘Nod’ by Walter de la Mare, and ‘Feet’ by Irene F. Pawsey.

(6). ff. 17-21. 'Motet for 3 Voices'. Neatly copied out draft of a piece for flute, clarinet and bassoon. Appears to be missing its ending. Includes loose notes from Birtwistle (f. 17): ‘The opening became the model for Refrains and Choruses. Written c. 1955’. Provides important insight into Birtwistle’s compositional activity during his time as a student in Manchester, and into his earliest published work.

(7). ff. 22-23. Untitled serial piece for oboe and piano: written-out draft of 19 bars. Minimal performance directions or annotations and entirely in 4/4, perhaps suggesting the work was a technical exercise in serial writing. Pencil sketches show the derivation of pitches from a rhythmic series (12-tone and 12-duration); this does not, however, appear to be related to the oboe sketch. Other pitch and melodic sketches also seem unrelated.