A Birthday Hansel
A Birthday Hansel, Op. 92, is a song cycle for 'high voice' and harp composed by Benjamin Britten and set to texts by Robert Burns.[1] The last song cycle that Britten wrote, it was composed in honour of the Queen Mother's 75th birthday, at the request of her daughter, Elizabeth II.[2][3] (The Queen Mother was patron of the Aldeburgh Festival.)[4]
Composed in March 1975,[4][5] the piece was given its debut performance in January 1976 by Britten's life partner Peter Pears and harpist Osian Ellis.[2] It was the last piece which Britten wrote for Pears, and one of his very last works.
In recognition of the Queen Mother's Scottish ancestry, Britten chose seven poems by Burns, sung in the Scots language, and performed without a break. 'Hansel' is a Scots word meaning welcome gift or present. At Britten's request, Colin Matthews arranged four of the songs for voice and piano; these were published separately as Four Burns Songs in 1978.[2]
Songs
The songs are:[6]
- "Birthday Song"
- "My Early Walk"
- "Wee Willie Gray"
- "My Hoggie"
- "Afton Water"
- "The Winter"
- "Leezie Lindsay"
A complete performance takes about 18 minutes.[7]
Musicologist Peter Evans has analysed the cycle. It is through-composed, with the harp supplying transitions from the mood of one poem to the next. As befits a birthday gift, it does not attempt to point out morals nor to invite deep reflection. The songs do not explicitly utilise Scottish musical forms, but are flavoured by echoes of them. Although the texts are all by a single poet, the cycle does not have a sense of the cumulative illumination of the poet's creative character as is found in other such cycles by Britten. It is "delightful but undemanding".[5]
References
- ^ Walter Bernhart; Werner Wolf; David L. Mosley (2001). Word and Music Studies: Essays on the Song Cycle and on Defining the Field : Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Word and Music Studies at Ann Arbor, MI, 1999. Rodopi. pp. 224–. ISBN 978-90-420-1575-3. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
- ^ a b c "A Birthday Hansel". Britten-Pears Foundation. Archived from the original on 25 December 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
- ^ "Liner notes to Who Are These Children?". eclassical.com.
- ^ a b Carpenter, Humphrey (1992). Benjamin Britten: A Biography. Faber and Faber. p. 572. ISBN 0-571-14324-5.
- ^ a b Evans, Peter (1979). The Music of Benjamin Britten. London, Melbourne and Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. pp. 392–394, 414, 415. ISBN 0-460-04350-1.
- ^ "A Birthday Hansel". lieder.net. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- ^ Benjamin Britten – A Birthday Hansel, song cycle for tenor & harp, Op. 92 at AllMusic. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- "Listening to Britten – A Birthday Hansel, Op.92". goodmorningbritten.wordpress.com. 17 February 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- v
- t
- e
- Paul Bunyan (1941)
- Peter Grimes (1945)
- The Rape of Lucretia (1946)
- Albert Herring (1947)
- The Little Sweep (1949)
- Billy Budd (1951)
- Gloriana (1953)
- The Turn of the Screw (1954)
- Noye's Fludde (1958)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960)
- Owen Wingrave (1971)
- Death in Venice (1973)
- Curlew River (1964)
- The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966)
- The Prodigal Son (1968)
- Plymouth Town (1931)
- Night Mail (1936)
- The Prince of the Pagodas (1956)
- Sinfonietta (1932)
- Simple Symphony (1934)
- Soirées musicales (1937)
- Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937)
- Mont Juic (1937)
- Sinfonia da Requiem (1940)
- Matinées musicales (1941)
- The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946)
- Piano Concerto (1938, rev. 1945)
- Violin Concerto (1939, rev. 1958)
- Young Apollo (1939)
- Diversions for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra (1940 rev. 1954)
- Cello Symphony (1963)
- Our Hunting Fathers (1936)
- The Company of Heaven (1937)
- Les Illuminations (1939)
- Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943)
- Saint Nicolas (1948)
- Spring Symphony (1949)
- Nocturne (1958)
- Cantata academica (1959)
- War Requiem (1961)
- Cantata misericordium (1963)
- Children's Crusade (1969)
- Phaedra (1975)
- Beware! Three Early Songs (1922–26)
- Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940)
- The Holy Sonnets of John Donne (1945)
- Britten's Purcell realizations (1945)+
- 5 Canticles (1947–75, including Canticle I: My beloved is mine and I am his, Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac (1952), Canticle III: Still falls the rain (1954) and Canticle IV: The Journey of the Magi (1971)
- A Charm of Lullabies (1947)
- Winter Words (1954)
- Songs from the Chinese (1957)
- Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente (1958)
- Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (1965)
- The Poet's Echo (1965)
- Who Are These Children? (1969)
- A Birthday Hansel (1975)
- Friday Afternoons (1932–1935)
- A Boy was Born (1933)
- Te Deum in C (1934)
- Advance Democracy (1938)
- A Ceremony of Carols (1942)
- Hymn to St Cecilia (1942)
- Festival Te Deum (1944)
- Rejoice in the Lamb (1943)
- Five Flower Songs (1950)
- Hymn to St Peter (1955)
- Missa Brevis (1959)
- A Hymn of St Columba (1962)
- The Golden Vanity (1966)
- Children's Crusade (1968)
- Sacred and Profane (8 medieval lyrics) (1974)
- Jubilate Deo (1961)
- String Quartet in D major (1931)
- Phantasy Quartet (oboe quartet, 1932)
- String Quartet No. 1 (1941)
- String Quartet No. 2 (1945)
- Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria (organ, 1946)
- Six Metamorphoses after Ovid (oboe, 1951)
- Fanfare for St Edmundsbury (three trumpets, 1959)
- Cello sonata (1961)
- Nocturnal after John Dowland (guitar, 1963)
- Cello suites (1964, 1967, 1972)
- String Quartet No. 3 (1975)
- Homage to Paderewski (1941)
- Variations on an Elizabethan Theme (1953)
- War Requiem (1989 film)
- Benjamin Britten (train)
- Benjamin Britten Academy
- Britten Inlet
- Britten Hall
- Britten Sinfonia
- Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century
- Britten's Children
- Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
- English Opera Group
- The Dark Tower
- Scallop (2003)