Nocturnal, after Benjamin Britten

Composition


Dwyer, B. 2015. Nocturnal, after Benjamin Britten. Contemporary Music Centre Ireland.
Title of workNocturnal, after Benjamin Britten
CreatorsDwyer, B.
Description

Nocturnal, after Benjamin Britten is, of course, inspired by Britten’s work for solo guitar – his famous Nocturnal, after John Dowland, Op. 70. Britten’s guitar masterpiece is a set of variations and an extended passacaglia based on Dowland’s lute song, Come Heavy Sleep. One of the most special features of the work is that the variations and passacaglia precede the theme, which emerges only at the very end of the work after the music has gone through many transformations and explorations.
I decided to pay homage to Britten in my piece by employing a theme from his opera Gloriana – the Second Lute Song of the Earl of Essex (from Act I, scene ii). However, this work is only Britten’s through appropriation, as it is itself based on a madrigal by the English composer Thomas Wilbye (1574-1638) called ‘Happy, Oh Happy He’ from his Second Book of Madrigals (1608). So my Nocturnal functions structurally and thematically like a kind of palimpsest in that if you scrape away at the score you discover older music (Britten’s), and if you continue scraping you find even older music again (Wilbye’s). On one level, my Nocturnal is a kind of archeological dig into English music.

Output mediaPDF
Research GroupMusic group
Publisher or commissioning bodyContemporary Music Centre Ireland
Publication process dates
Deposited27 May 2020
Completed03 Aug 2015
Output statusPublished
Web address (URL)https://www.cmc.ie/composers/benjamin-dwyer
LanguageEnglish
Permalink -

https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/88x77

Restricted files

Publisher's version

  • 58
    total views
  • 0
    total downloads
  • 0
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

six residua (after Beckett)
Dwyer, B. 2019. six residua (after Beckett). Contemporary Music Centre Ireland.
Eleven reflections on Beckett, music and silence [CD Booklet essay]
Dwyer, B. 2020. Eleven reflections on Beckett, music and silence [CD Booklet essay]. Dublin, Ireland Diatribe Records.
imagines obesae et aspectui ingratae
Dwyer, B. 2013. imagines obesae et aspectui ingratae. Contemporary Music Centre Ireland.
Writing through an instrument: Benjamin Dwyer [Interview]
Dwyer, B. and Rudeloff, W. 2015. Writing through an instrument: Benjamin Dwyer [Interview]. Chamber Music Notes - The LCMS Magazine 2015/2016.
Gierador
Dwyer, B. and Griffith, D. 2015. Gierador.
five disjecta (after Beckett)
Dwyer, B. 2019. five disjecta (after Beckett). Contemporary Music Centre Ireland.
what is the word [CD]
Dwyer, B. 2020. what is the word [CD].
Hommage à Ligeti
Dwyer, B. 2020. Hommage à Ligeti. Contemporary Music Centre Ireland.
Scenes from Crow
Dwyer, B. 2009. Scenes from Crow. Contemporary Music Centre Ireland.
HAG
Dwyer, B. 2019. HAG. Contemporary Music Centre Ireland.
what is the word (triptych with interludes)
Dwyer, B. 2019. what is the word (triptych with interludes). Contemporary Music Centre Ireland.
Joycean aesthetics and mythic imagination in the music of Frank Corcoran
Dwyer, B. 2019. Joycean aesthetics and mythic imagination in the music of Frank Corcoran. The Musical Times. 160 (1948), pp. 33-48.
Teleology or transcendence? Perspectives on Ligeti’s collusion with automatism
Dwyer, B. 2019. Teleology or transcendence? Perspectives on Ligeti’s collusion with automatism. in: Dwyer, B. and Marx, W. (ed.) New Perspectives on György Ligeti University of Rochester Press.
KnowingUnknowing
Gomes, P., Dwyer, B. and Kindred, H. 2018. KnowingUnknowing.
KnowingUnknowing and the Corporeal
Kindred, H., Dwyer, B. and Gomes, P. 2018. KnowingUnknowing and the Corporeal.
KnowingUnknowing
Dwyer, B. and Kindred, H. 2019. KnowingUnknowing.
Transcendence Interrupted: Composing 'Scenes from Crow'
Dwyer, B. 2014. Transcendence Interrupted: Composing 'Scenes from Crow'. Diatribe Records. https://doi.org/DIAC017
The stain upon the silence
Dwyer, B. 2019. The stain upon the silence. Farpoint Records.
Umbilical—the story of Oedipus, the story of Jocasta…
Dwyer, B. 2017. Umbilical—the story of Oedipus, the story of Jocasta…. Diatribe Records.
Innocence and Experience: The life and music of James Wilson, Mark Fitzgerald [Book Review]
Dwyer, B. 2018. Innocence and Experience: The life and music of James Wilson, Mark Fitzgerald [Book Review]. The Musical Times. 159 (1943), pp. 109-118.
Sheela-na-gigs and an ‘Aesthetics of Damage’
Dwyer, B. 2018. Sheela-na-gigs and an ‘Aesthetics of Damage’. Enclave Review.
Britten and the guitar: critical perspectives for performers
Dwyer, B. 2016. Britten and the guitar: critical perspectives for performers. Dublin Carysfort Press.
Barry Guy’s Time Passing...
Dwyer, B. 2016. Barry Guy’s Time Passing... Music & Literature.
Knowing/Unknowing
Dwyer, B. and Kindred, H. 2016. Knowing/Unknowing. Middlesex University London Mar 2016
Theodor Adorno & Alban Berg: correspondence: 1925–1935, edited by Henri Lonitz, review
Dwyer, B. 2007. Theodor Adorno & Alban Berg: correspondence: 1925–1935, edited by Henri Lonitz, review. The Musical Times. 148 (1899), pp. 89-102.
Constellations – the life and music of John Buckley
Dwyer, B. 2011. Constellations – the life and music of John Buckley. Dublin Carysfort Press.
Transformational ostinati in György Ligeti's sonatas for solo cello and solo viola
Dwyer, B. 2011. Transformational ostinati in György Ligeti's sonatas for solo cello and solo viola. in: Duchesneau, L. and Marx, W. (ed.) György Ligeti – Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds Woodbridge Boydell & Brewer. pp. 19-50
Dios los cría...
Dwyer, B. 2014. Dios los cría... Music & Literature.
Joycean aesthetics, ethnic memory and mythopoetic imagination in the music of Frank Corcoran
Dwyer, B. 2014. Joycean aesthetics, ethnic memory and mythopoetic imagination in the music of Frank Corcoran. Colony.
Different voices: Irish music and music in Ireland
Dwyer, B. 2014. Different voices: Irish music and music in Ireland. Germany Wolke.
Imagines
Dwyer, B., Campanello, K. and Creasy, J. Creasy, J. (ed.) 2015. Imagines. Dublin New Dublin Press.
Umbilical
Dwyer, B. 2011. Umbilical.
Transformational ostinati in Gyorgy Ligeti’s sonatas for solo cello and colo viola
Dwyer, B. 2011. Transformational ostinati in Gyorgy Ligeti’s sonatas for solo cello and colo viola. in: Duchesneau, L. and Marx, W. (ed.) György Ligeti: of foreign sands and strange sounds Woodbridge, Suffolk Boydell Press. pp. 19-50
Constellations: the life and music of John Buckley
Dwyer, B. 2011. Constellations: the life and music of John Buckley. Carysfort Press.
SacrumProfanum
Dwyer, B., Griffith, D., Campanello, K. and Creasy, J. 2013. SacrumProfanum.
Within it lie ancient melodies: Dowland’s musical rhetoric and Britten’s songs from the Chinese
Dwyer, B. 2012. Within it lie ancient melodies: Dowland’s musical rhetoric and Britten’s songs from the Chinese. The Musical Times. 153 (1919), pp. 87-102.
From the Celtic to the abstract: shifting perspectives in the music of John Buckley
Dwyer, B. 2010. From the Celtic to the abstract: shifting perspectives in the music of John Buckley. The Musical Times. 151 (1913), pp. 7-21.