Benjamin Britten’s Passacaglia, Op. 33b, is an orchestral interlude drawn from Act II of his opera Peter Grimes, Op. 33. Britten extracted it as an independent concert work shortly after the opera’s 1945 premiere, creating a companion piece to the Four Sea Interludes, Op. 33b, available here.

The music is based on the Baroque passacaglia principle of continuous variations over a recurring bass line. Within this framework, Britten builds a steadily intensifying sequence of variations that combines formal discipline with dramatic expression. In the opera, the Passacaglia accompanies a scene change and serves as a psychological bridge, reflecting the growing tension surrounding Peter Grimes rather than depicting external action.

As a concert work, the Passacaglia stands effectively on its own, demonstrating Britten's mastery of variation form and orchestral architecture. Its cumulative structure, expressive restraint, and carefully controlled development make it one of the finest examples of the passacaglia in twentieth-century orchestral literature and a central work in Britten's orchestral output.