Benjamin Britten’s Nocturne, Op. 60, was composed in August–September 1958 for tenor voice, seven obbligato instruments, and string orchestra. It lasts about 25 minutes, and its first performance was given on 16 October 1958 at Leeds Town...

Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31, was composed in 1943 for tenor, solo horn, and string orchestra and it is one of his most distinctive early wartime works. The work was written for Peter Pears and Dennis Brain, and...

REPRINT SERIES Vaughan Williams’s All hail the power is a 1938 arrangement of the eighteenth-century English hymn tune Miles Lane, traditionally associated with Edward Perronet’s text and the music of William Shrubsole. It is written for...

Jacques Ibert’s Suite Élisabéthaine, composed in 1942 as incidental music for Le Songe d’une nuit d’été (Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), was published in 1945 and is structured in nine...

REPRINT SERIES  Ralph Vaughan Williams’s On Christmas Night is a one‐act masque co-created in 1926 with choreographer Adolph Bolm. Loosely drawing on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, it integrates singing, dancing and mime into a...

Arthur Bliss’s Pastoral: Lie Strewn the White Flocks, F.33, composed in 1928, is a choral-orchestral work lasting approximately 35 minutes. It is scored for SATB chorus, mezzo-soprano soloist, flute, timpani, and strings. The piece sets a sequence...

Gerald Finzi’s orchestral setting of the Magnificat presents a measured, introspective interpretation of the biblical text, rendered through clear and refined orchestration. Unlike the more familiar organ version, this arrangement highlights the...

Stravinsky's Les Noces (1923) is presented here in our new 2025 Revised Edition. This groundbreaking ballet-cantata that captures the raw energy and ritualistic intensity of a Russian peasant wedding. Scored for four pianos, percussion, vocal soloists,...

REPRINT SERIES  Ravel's L'Aurore (The Dawn), composed in 1905, is a choral work for tenor, mixed chorus, and orchestra, originally created as part of his bid for the prestigious Prix de Rome. Set to a French text by Édouard Guinand, the...

REPRINT SERIES  On Wenlock Edge is a song cycle originally composed for tenor, piano, and string quartet in 1909, which Vaughan Williams later orchestrated for tenor and full orchestra. Based on six poems from A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire...

Gerald Finzi’s orchestration of Let Us Garlands Bring, Op. 18, enhances the song cycle’s lyrical beauty with a richer, more expansive texture. Originally composed for baritone and piano, Finzi later arranged it for baritone and string...

REPRINT SERIES   Ralph Vaughan Williams' Magnificat, composed in 1932, is a fascinating and unconventional setting of the biblical text traditionally associated with the Virgin Mary's song of praise. Unlike many settings of the Magnificat, which...

Following the composition of Five Mystical Songs in 1911, Vaughan Williams began to compose a smaller scale piece, which was completed in 1914. However, World War I delayed the presentation of the song cycle until 1920. In setting the four hymns to...

REPRINT SERIES  Though not readily associated with Anglican church music (despite being fully aware of its repertoire), Elgar composed two major extended anthems. The first—Great is the Lord, Op 67, a substantial multi-sectional work, begun...

An Oxford Elegy is a work for narrator, small mixed chorus and small orchestra, written by Ralph Vaughan Williams between 1947 and 1949. It uses portions of two poems by Matthew Arnold, "The Scholar Gipsy" and "Thyrsis". The first performance took place...

REPRINT SERIES The text to both songs comes from one of Prokofiev's favorite poets, Konstantin Balmont. The two choruses in this set were entitled "The White Swan" and "The Wave." The former was premiered in 1910, with the composer conducting a...

REPRINT SERIES Composed during the Second World War (most of it at a Budapest monastery) and completed in 1944, Missa Brevis was first performed in 1945, just after the end of the war, at the Budapest Opera House (where Kodály and his wife had...

Renard: histoire burlesque chantée et jouée, or The Fox: burlesque tale sung and played, is a chamber opera-ballet for four male voices and 16 instrumentalists written in 1916 by Igor Stravinsky. Its original Russian text, by the composer,...