This dynamic and imaginative setting of eight medieval lyrics is the final work that Britten wrote for professional unaccompanied voices (1974-5), which is reflected in his harmonically complex style and the artistic demands – both technical and expressive – he makes of his singers. Originally composed for the five voices of the Wilbye Consort, directed by Britten’s partner Peter Pears, it is now more often performed by a full chamber choir, which enhances its high drama and emotional intensity – though possibly at the expense of the vocal intricacy and intimacy.
Returning to the medieval texts with which he demonstrated such a connection in his early Hymn to the Virgin, Britten here keeps them unmodernised: with such a sensitive ear for poetry, he clearly relishes the expressive sounds of Middle English, which form a crucial part of the work’s effect – and its challenge.
The eight settings intentionally juxtapose the sacred and secular in a manner characteristic of the medieval period, but although there are nominally four sacred texts and four profane, Britten ensures that these delineations are not so stark. He mischievously applies a more ‘profane’ style to some of the sacred texts: in the otherwise straight and fervent opener, St Godric’s hymn, there are a few cheeky vocal slides, and the direction for the sixth song, Carol, is ‘Flowing – with parody’, sending up the religious symbolism of the pastoral tale. This light-hearted and folksy setting lies between two searing contemplations of Christ on the cross.
Britten is always alert to the expressive possibilities of the words, which leads to surprising shifts of mood and temperature. For example, in the second song, I mon waxe wod, which is ostensibly secular but has been interpreted as having religious significance, the nimble pastoral riff established in the soprano parts is repeatedly punctuated by the soulful lamentation of the altos – the speaker’s mouthpiece – as he descends into madness. The third setting, Lenten is come, is apparently an uncomplicated welcome of the joys of spring, but concludes with a bleak vision of the consequences if the speaker should be disappointed in love, captured in an interweaving of the lowest voices that dwindles to nothing. It would be most remiss of me to conclude without mentioning the splendid finale, which is effectively a ‘yah boo sucks’ to Death: a grim and graphic description of physical disintegration abruptly switches into a jaunty little jig in the face of mortality, proclaiming defiantly that the speaker gives not a jot for the whole world.
Britten’s vivid settings bring the medieval texts leaping off the page in all their joy and pain, both heavenly and earthly. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Concert details 21 October 2023
Alice Stainer