Benjamin Britten

Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria

Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria is a work for solo organ composed by Benjamin Britten in 1946. It was commissioned for St Matthew's Church, Northampton and first performed on 21 September

Background#

The English composer Benjamin Britten was asked to write the Prelude and Fugue for St Matthew’s Church, Northampton. It was first performed there on St Matthew’s Day (21 September) 1946, three days after it was composed. There is a story that he wrote it in bed one morning before breakfast. The Prelude and Fugue was one of two pieces based on themes by other composers that Britten wrote in 1946; the other was the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, which was based on a piece by Henry Purcell.

Structure#

Both sections of the piece are based on a theme from a motet, Ecce sacerdos magnus (“Behold a great priest”), by the Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (or “Vittoria”, 1548–1611). Vittoria’s theme is also used (with little development) as the subject of the fugue. This section is in time (three crochets to a bar) and is marked “Andante con moto” (“at a walking pace, with movement”). The whole piece lasts about five minutes.

Assessment#

The piece has had a mixed reception. Even one of its supporters says that “players do not seem to like it much”, The American musician Luther Noss reviewed the piece upon its publication by Boosey & Hawkes in 1952, stating that it was “well written for the organ” and “remarkably free” of some of the problems found in other modern organ music. It was included in a concert at St Clement Danes, London, in November 1963 that honoured Britten’s fiftieth birthday with performances of some of his lesser-known works. The review in The Times remarked favourably on the Te Deum in C and the Six Metamorphoses after Ovid for solo oboe. Of the organ piece, though, the critic said that it was “a contrived attempt to make bricks without straw.” The organist Alan Harverson describes it as “excellent” and notes its “orthodox layout and textures”, in comparison to the organ writing of Rejoice in the Lamb and the Festival Te Deum (1944). The organist Timothy Bond disagrees with the piece’s “bad press” and the “dismissive” comments made about it by Brett and others. According to Bond, this “fresh and vital” work is “a finer, more accomplished piece than it sometimes sounds in performance.” He notes the difficulty of finding the best registration – no registration suggestions are given – and the best organ to perform the piece on, since it seems to require steady and considerable changes in volume without changes in the tone quality produced by the organ yet also demands neoclassical “brightness and clarity”, a combination of requirements that it is difficult for organs to meet. On the right organ, however, Bond says that the piece can sound “particularly striking” and “harmonically bold and telling, if occasionally gauche”, as it moves through passages that are “serene”, “creepy”, “vigorous”, “nostalgic” and finally “serene”, albeit with a “rather pedestrian” cadence.

External links#

*Performance by Iain Farrington (2000)

Composer: Benjamin Britten