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