Cabaret Songs (1937–9)

Calypso

Johnny

Tell me the truth

Funeral blues

A significant factor in the success of the Auden/Isherwood poetic drama The Ascent of F6 at the Mercury Theatre, London, in 1937 was Britten’s incidental music – not least his setting for two pianos and chorus of ‘Funeral Blues’ (‘Stop all the clocks’). Delighted by the artistry of Hedli Anderson, who had played the part of the Singer in The Ascent of F6, Britten and Auden not only made a solo version of ‘Funeral Blues’ for her but also wrote several similarly idiomatic songs to go with it. Perhaps as many as three of them have disappeared, but the four that survive make a highly attractive set, even though one might argue with the order in which they were presented when they were published by Faber Music as Cabaret Songs in 1980.

Although it was the last of the four songs to be written (and the last in the Faber order), ‘Calypso’ makes an arresting start. Auden sent Britten the words from New York at the same time as he wrote to him of his joy at just having met the 18-year-old Chester Kallman. ‘‘Calypso’ is grand for Hedli’, Britten replied and, in the most animated of his several studies in train rhythms, captured the breathless excitement of its erotic inspiration. More ironic than passionate, ‘Johnny’ is a brilliant study in stylistic caricature, beginning as a folk song and passing through polka rhythms, grand-opera parody, waltz-time romance and funeral march on the way to its sad minor-key ending. The unresponsive Johnny, the cadences of the last line of each stanza seem to suggest, is of Scottish descent, or was before he finally went away.

‘Tell me the Truth about Love, ‘ the most seductive and the most overtly popular in style – it is clearly modelled on Cole Porter – most effectively occupies the third place in the set, between ‘Johnny’ and ‘Funeral Blues.’ Announcing its subject in multilingual speech over piano arpeggios, it proceeds by way of a gradually expanding recitative introduction to a delightfully tuneful, rhythmically ingenious setting of Auden’s wittily fanciful verse. ‘Funeral Blues,’ written originally for a serious purpose in The Ascent of F6 incidental music, retains its seriousness in the solo version. Without a hint of irony, it combines authentic blues harmonies with conventional funeral-music imagery and apparent allusions to Kurt Weill, culminating in a potently expressive ending.

Tell me the truth about love

Funeral Blues

Johnny

Calypso

A significant factor in the success of the Auden-Ishwerwood poetic drama The Ascent of F6 at the Mercury Theatre in 1937 was Britten’s incidental music, not least his setting for two pianos and chorus of Funeral Blues (“Stop all the clocks”). Delighted by the artistry of Hedli Anderson, who had played the part of the Singer in The Ascent of F6, Britten and Auden not only made a solo version of Funeral Blues for her but also wrote several similarly idiomatic songs go with it. Perhaps as many as three of them have disappeared, but the four that survive make a highly attractive set, even though one might argue with the order in which they were presented when they were published by Faber Music as Cabaret Songs in 1980.

As the most seductive and the most overtly popular in style – it is clearly modelled on Cole Porter – Tell me the truth about love might have been more effectively placed third in the the set, after Calypso and Johnny and before Funeral Blues, which is an obvious ending. Even so, as an enquiry into the nature of love, which is what the Cabaret Songs are all about, it also has an appropriate place at the beginning. Announcing its subject in multilingual speech over piano arpeggios, it proceeds by way of a gradually expanding recitative introduction to a delightfully tuneful, rhythmically ingenious setting of Auden’s wittily fanciful verse.

Written orginally for a serious purpose in the Ascent of F6 incidental music, Funeral Blues retains its seriousness in the solo version. Without a hint of irony, it combines authentic blues harmonies with conventional funeral-music imagery and apparent allusions to Kurt Weill, culminating in a potently expressive ending. Irony there is, on the other hand, in Johnny, which begins as a folk song and passes through polka rhythms, grand-opera parody, waltz-time romance and funeral march to it sad minor-key ending. The unresponsive Johnny, the cadences of the last line of each stanza seem to suggest, is of Scottish descent, or was before he finally went away.

The last song in the set, Calypso, was also the last to be written. Auden sent Britten the words from New York, at the same time as he wrote to him of his joy at just having met the 18-year-old Chester Kallman. “Calypso is grand for Hedli,” Britten replied and, in the most animated of his several studies in train rhythms, captured the breathless excitement of its inspiration.

Gerald Larner ©2007