Temporal Variations (1936)

Theme – Oration – March – Exercises – Commination –

Chorale – Waltz – Polka – Resolution

When Britten’s Temporal Variations were first performed they were programmed as a Temporal Suite    – which, since each variation is presented as a separate movement with its own heading, is an appropriate alternative title. The opening Theme, where the oboe introduces the germinal intervals and rhythmic motifs (rather than a theme in the conventional sense) as the piano grumbles more or less vehemently below it, is characteristic of the not always congenial relationship between the two instruments. Oration, which is a dramatic recitative for the oboe, scarcely brings them together. At least, in March, they can unite against a common enemy and in Exercises take equal shares in the physical jerks and the more sustained melodic material that goes with them. Commination, which is scored in basically the same way as Theme, sets them violently apart again. But after Chorale, where the piano takes the contrite lead while the oboe quietly and fragmentarily alludes to the two salient intervals of the theme, they dance together in grotesque versions of a Waltz and a Polka and find Resolution in a final recall, the piano now tolling heavily dissonant bells, of the opening thematic material.   

Theme - Oration - March - Exercises - Commination -

Chorale - Waltz - Polka - Resolution

When the Temporal Variations were first performed, in the Wigmore Hall in 1936, they were programmed as a Temporal Suite - which, since each variation is presented as a separate movement with its own heading, is an appropriate alternative title. Commissioned by Adolph Hallis, the pianist who accompanied the oboist Natalie Caine on that occasion, the score presents the two instruments as quite distinct characters - the oboe passionately eloquent, the piano equally passionate but significantly less coherent - and they are by no means always in agreement.

The opening Theme, where the oboe introduces the germinal intervals and rhythmic motifs (rather than a theme in the conventional sense) as the piano grumbles more or less vehemently below it, is characteristic of their relationship. Oration, which is a dramatic recitative for the oboe, scarcely brings them together. At least, in March, they can unite against a common enemy and in Exercises take equal shares in the physical jerks and the more sustained melodic material that goes with them. Commination, which is scored in basically the same way as Theme, sets them violently apart again. But after Chorale, where the piano takes the contrite lead while the oboe quietly and fragmentarily alludes to the two salient intervals of the theme, they dance together in grotesque versions of a Waltz and a Polka and find Resolution in a final recall, the piano now tolling heavily dissonant bells, of the opening thematic material.

Theme - Oration - March - Exercises - Commination -

Chorale - Waltz - Polka - Resolution

The Temporal Variations were first performed by the oboist Natalie Caine with the pianist Adolph Hallis (who had commissioned them) in the Wigmore Hall on 15 December 1936, only three days after they were completed. On that occasion, incidentally, the work was programmed as a “Temporal Suite” - which, bearing in mind that each variation is presented as a separate movement with its own heading, is an appropriate alternative title. Although, according to a diary entry, the composer was happy with the piece, it was never performed again in his lifetime and it remained unpublished until 1980.

The score is dedicated to Montagu Slater, the future librettist of Peter Grimes and at that time a journalist and a left-wing playwright with whom Britten had already collaborated by writing incidental music for Theatre Left productions of Easter 1916 and Stay Down Miner. Whether their political sympathies had anything to do with the inspiration of the Temporal Variations it is impossible to say but, clearly, there is more to the work than an ingenious exercise in variation technique.

The two instruments have quite distinct personalities - the oboe passionately eloquent, the piano equally passionate but significantly less coherent - and they are by no means always in agreement. The opening Theme, where the oboe introduces the germinal intervals and rhythmic motifs (rather than a theme in the conventional sense) as the piano grumbles more or less vehemently below it, is characteristic of their relationship. Oration, which is a dramatic recitative for the oboe, scarcely brings them together. At least, in March, they can unite against a common enemy and in Exercises take equal shares in the physical jerks and the more sustained melodic material that goes with them. Commination, which is scored in basically the same way as Theme, sets them violently apart again. But after Chorale, where the piano takes the contrite lead while the oboe quietly and fragmentarily alludes to the two salient intervals of the theme, they dance together in grotesque versions of a Waltz and a Polka and find Resolution in a final recall, the piano now tolling heavily dissonant bells, of the opening thematic material.