Sinfonietta Op.1

Towards the end of his time as a student at the Royal College of Music Britten won a travelling scholarship which, he hoped, would enable him to further his studies with Alban Berg in Vienna – a project promptly blocked by the college authorities in a move to protect him from what was regarded as “not a good influence.” It was too late, however. The Sinfonietta he had written a few months earlier, in 1932 clearly shows that he had already absorbed subversive tendencies from Vienna – though not so much from Berg as from Schoenberg, whose Chamber Symphony Op.9 was clearly a model for the young composer.

The rising fanfare uttered by the horn on its first entry in the Sinfonietta clearly signals an allegiance to Schoenberg, whose Chamber Symphony features a similarly significant horn call at an even earlier stage. Just about all the material of the Sinfonietta is is contained in the opening bars. They are recalled at the beginning of the Andante lento, which takes the form of a series of variations on the theme introduced by the two violins in counterpoint high on their E-strings. Following without a break, the Tarantella is designed as an impulsive moto perpetuo leading irresistibly to a climactic recall of all the main themes of the work, including the Schoenbergian horn call just before the prestissimo coda.

Towards the end of his time as a student at the Royal College of Music Britten won a travelling scholarship which, he hoped, would enable him to further his studies with Alban Berg in Vienna. The idea was greeted with horror by the college authorities, who prevailed upon him to avoid what was regarded as “not a good influence.” It was too late, however. The Sinfonietta he had written a few months earlier, in 1932, clearly shows that he had already absorbed subversive tendencies from Vienna – though not so much from Berg as from Schoenberg, whose Chamber Symphony Op.9 was clearly a model for the young composer.

It is true that the Chamber Symphony is scored for a bigger ensemble than Britten’s, with ten rather than five wind instruments, and that it is cast in one long movement rather than three short ones. On the other hand, the rising fanfare uttered by the horn on its first entry in the Sinfonietta clearly signals an allegiance to Schoenberg, whose Chamber Symphony features a similarly significant horn call at an even earlier stage. At the same time, like Schoenberg, Britten builds his structure not so much on tonal harmony, although he is far from rejecting it, as on thematic integration. Just about all the material of the Sinfonietta is is contained in the opening bars. That this does not imply melodic uniformity is clear enough from the first movement, which most effectively contrasts the fragmented phrases of the first subject with the extended lyrical line, presented by flute, of the second subject. Any doubts abut their compatibility are banished by their simultaneous recapitulation – first subject on wind, second subject on strings – in the accelerated closing bars.

Both those themes are recalled at the beginning of the Andante lento, which takes the form of a series of variations on the theme introduced by the two violins in counterpoint high on their E-strings. As the variations pass from horn to oboe and then to flute and oboe in canon with violins and clarinet, before the theme is recalled in its original form on horn and bassoon, there are constant reminders of the main thematic motifs of the first movement. Following without a break, the Tarantella is designed as an impulsive moto perpetuo leading irresistibly – by way of a daringly interpolated slower episode that retains no more than a faint reminder of the scampering 6/8 impulse in pizzicato harmonics on double bass – to a climactic recall of all the main themes of the work, including the Schoenbergian horn call just before the prestissimo coda.