Poet: Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973)
Source: On This Island
Date of Composition: 1937 (Oct. 12)
Publication: Boosey & Hawkes, 1938
Voice Difficulty Level: Moderately Difficult
Subject: A descriptive picture of the sea.
Range: C4 – Ab5
Tessitura: A4 – Eb5
Tempo: Allegro molto; 4/4
Duration: 02:21
Vocal Characteristics: Long phrases; independent vocal line with plentiful chromaticism; octave leaps; long melisma covers a P12 at the end of a phrase
Piano Difficulty Level: Difficult
Accompaniment Characteristics: Rhythmic figures remain consistent for much of the song with ample chromaticism; syncopated chordal section; hands cross in passing sixteenth patterns
Additional Comments: In ms. 17, the Animato is not indicated in the manuscript, but each set of sixteenth notes has an accent rather than a sf, this recurs throughout the piece; ms. 18, the marcato is not marked in the manuscript, which continues throughout the piece; ms. 21-22, the manuscript does not have the alternate pitches; ms. 27, first Bb in the right hand of the piano is split into two, articulated sixteenth-notes in the manuscript; ms. 30, there is no marking of piu in the manuscript, also the piano dynamic is mf in the piano; ms. 51, the indicated breath mark is Britten’s from the manuscript; ms. 52, the manuscript has a decrescendo rather than a crescendo, and it does not mark the subito in ms. 53;
Britten Thematic Catalog http://www.brittenproject.org/works/BTC836