Title: The Nightingale and the Rose
Poet: Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837)
Source: The Poet’s Echo
Date of Composition: 1965 (Aug. 23)
Publication: Faber Music Ltd., 1967*
Voice Difficulty Level: Difficult
Subject: A tale of impossible love.
Range: D#4 – A5
Tessitura: E4 – E5
Tempo: Tranquillo; 4/4
Duration: 03:35
Vocal Characteristics: High lying, soft phrases; strong high outbursts; high, broken melismas; leap of a Maj. 10;
Piano Difficulty Level: Difficult
Accompaniment Characteristics: In seconds, mimicking the call of the nightingale; rhythmic complexity; sixteenth note scalar passages in seconds; sextuplet flourishes;
Additional Comments: Meter changes; Markings in parenthesis of dynamic are not editor’s markings, but Britten’s; they do appear in the manuscript; *Translations in the Faber score by Pears; Britten Thematic Catalog http://www.brittenproject.org/works/BTC1123