Simple Symphony op. 4

for string orchestra (or string quartet)

Dedication

'Dedicated to Audrey Alston (Mrs Lincolne Sutton)'

Publisher

OUP 1935 [March: see OUP file]

Formats and Availability

Study score, parts on sale; full score, parts for hire

Movements/songs

1 Boisterous Bourrée 2 Playful Pizzicato 3 Sentimental Saraband 4 Frolicsome Finale

Performance Information

First performance

6 March 1934, Stuart Hall, Norwich. The Norwich String Orchestra, Benjamin Britten cond

First broadcast

25 May 1935, BBC Regional. Boyd Neel Orchestra, Boyd Neel cond [Almost certainly an earlier broadcast (inter 03.1934-31.03.1935) as fee paid to OUP: see corr file]

Britten recording

1968 (Decca). ECO, Benjamin Britten cond

Notes

Britten's note states that 'this "Simple Symphony" is entirely based on material which the composer wrote between the ages of nine and twelve. (The actual sources are given in footnotes to each movement.)'. In fact Britten's references are rather brief and imprecise; the sources (with their original opus numbers) are: Boisterous Bourrée (a) 'From Suite No. 1 (for piano) - 1926': Suite No. 1 in E, op. 24 no. 1 (18 October 1925), second movement (Bourrée: Allegro vivace) (b) 'Song - 1923': A Country Dance ('Now the King is home again'), text from Tennyson's The Foresters, for voice and piano ([1923]) Playful Pizzicato (a) 'Scherzo (piano) 1924': Sonata for Piano in B flat major, op. 5 ([probably summer 1925]), Scherzo and Trio (Molto vivace) (b) 'Song - 1924': The Road Song of the "Bandar-Log" ('Here we go in a flung festoon', text by Rudyard Kipling), for voice and piano ([1923?]) Sentimental Saraband (a) 'From Suite No. 3 (for piano) - 1925': Suite No. 3, in F# minor, for piano, op. 25 (October 1925), Prelude (Allegro di molto) (b) 'Waltz for piano - 1923': [Waltz in B major for piano] (1923), (Tempo di valse) Frolicsome Finale (a) 'From Piano Sonata No. 9 - 1926': Piano Sonata No. 9, in C# minor, op. 38 (March 1926), Finale (b) 'Song - 1925': not identified. The only dates in the composition draft are 'Jan 20^th 1934' (no. 4) and 'Feb. 10^th 1934' (no. 1); from Britten's diary it appears that work on the Symphony began with the scherzo (23 December-17 January).

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