JAVS Fall 1997

17

BENJAMIN BRITTEN'S LACHRYMAE AN ANALYSIS FOR PERFORMERS

by David Sills

B enjamin Britten's Lachrymae: Reflections on a Song ofDowland was composed, as were so many works this century, for the Scottish violist William Primrose. It originated as a polite bribe: Primrose was asked by Britten to play at his Aldeburgh Festival with the inducement "If you'll come, I'll write a piece for you." Primrose replied, "In that case, I'll be there." 1 Lachrymae was duly begun in April 1950, finished on 16 May,Z and first performed by Primrose and Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival on 20 June. 3 In February 1976, Britten arranged the piano part of Lachrymae for string orchestra 4 (with only one violin part, "intended to be played by the Second Violins of the orchestra''). 5 In later years, Primrose was dismayed at the lack of "fantasy, imagination and drama'' in the interpretations of Lachrymae that he was "obliged to listen to" and observed further that the piece too often sounded in performance like a "newspaper editorial." He concluded that "Britten was quite unable, for all his skill, to set down exactly what his wishes were." Primrose went on to suggest that "a comprehensive study and knowledge of [Britten's] style of composi tion, along with a lively imagination, might lead the performers to decorous conclusions." 6 Primrose was one in a distinguished line of great performers who understood that musicians play best the music they understand most fully. Acquiring such understanding is perhaps less a barrier to the interpretation of music from the "common practice" period, the techniques of which have become familiar through extensive exposure and through the study of traditional music theory. It poses a more significant barrier to the performance of twentieth-century music, since such exposure and detailed theoretical attention are far more rare. This is particularly so, ironically, for the sort of mainstream music, like Britten's Lachrymae, that refuses to clothe itself in the panoply of terms that makes up much of twentieth-century music "theory." This leaves performers groping to understand such music, with predictable results. If we are to achieve Primrose's ideal of understanding Britten's "style of composition," analysis will be an indispens able tool. Particularly useful for performers would be help in answering such questions as: Where is the melody? Where is the harmony going? How is it getting there? and so forth. It is with this goal that the present study of Lachrymae has been undertaken. The first aspect of this work that could inspire confusion is its tide. It is very similar to Lachrimae or Seven Teares, the tide of a collection of pieces published by John Dowland in 1604. Dowland's tide relates to a group of seven pavanes that form the main work in the col lection. The tides of these pavanes supply various adjectives for the term lachrimae (tears)- the tide of the first pavane, "Lachrimae Antiquae," meaning "Old Tears," and so on. These seven pavanes have musical connections as well. Each begins with a varied form of the same musical figure, called a "head-motive" because of its position. Dowland's collection is famous enough, and its tide sufficiently unique, that one would be forgiven for supposing the musical content of the Britten work to be related to the contents of these seven pavane$ in some way. Britten might, for example, have based his Lachrymae on one of the Dowland pavanes. Britten was, after all, a student of English music history and had studied the period during which Dowland lived-a period in which English music flourished-- and this would not be the only time Britten had incorporated pieces of English musical history in his works. His children's opera Noye's Fludde, for example, contains settings of three traditional