Benjamin Britten
Nocturnal op. 70
RCA: LSC 2964 - B
Duration: 19:49
Sleevenote:
Britten's Nocturnal, written at Aldeburgh in 1963, is one of
a group of pieces reflecting the composer's preoccupation
with sleep and the world of dreams. The work is a set of
variations that instead of departing from a theme works
toward it - No. 20 in Dowland's First Book of Songs or
Ayres of Four Parts (1597).
But the theme and its previous variations are incomplete.
Each mood of night fancyings is characterized; the variations
are marked Musingly, Very Agitated, Restless, Uneasy,
Marchlike, Dreaming, and Gently Rocking, which leads into
a Passacaglia based on the alto part of the original air.
When this comes, it is like a calm resolution of all the busy
invention that has whirled in our minds; but as we draw
near the close of the tune, it thins out into a single line
and fades into silence. We may suppose that with the song
unfinished, oblivion and peace have intervened.
J. Warrack
Lyrics:
1
Come, heavy Sleep the image of true Death;
And close up these my weary weeping eyes:
Whose spring of tears doth stop my vital breath,
And tears my heart with Sorrow's sigh-swoll'n cries:
Come and possess my tired thought-worn soul,
That living dies, till thou on me be stole.
2
Come shadow of my end, and shape of rest,
Allied to Death, child to his black-fac'd Night:
Come thou and charm these rebels in my breast,
Whose waking fancies do my mind affright.
O come sweet Sleep, come or I die for ever:
Come ere my last sleep comes or come never.
Lute part:
***
-t
-f
{Come, heavy sleep/John Dowland 1597}
b
c
1aac a
2 c
3 e
x c
2 a c
x d
x c
x d
x c
x aac
x b
x d
b
0aac a
2.acd a
3 c
2a e
x b
1aa c
2 e
xa
b
2 efec
1. /a
1aacc
2 a
x d
x cd a
x c
x e
3 a b
x d
b
b
2 cc
x a
xa
xc
xea c
x a
xce c
x c
2.aa c e
3 e
2 c a
xa
b
x efec
1. /a
2 deec
2. c
3 a
2 d
1 c e
2 cc c
x d
b
1acc e
2 e g e
x g
0 cc e
1 acc
3aac
x c
x b
x e
b
1 efec
3aa c
x e
2. cd a
3 e
xa e
x c
x c
x f e
x e
x d
0aac a
b
b
b
