Friday Afternoons
Friday Afternoons, Op. 7 is a collection of 12 songs for children of Benjamin Britten. He added interludes 1933 and 1935.
Composition and lyrics
The songs are designed for boys' choir with piano accompaniment. Almost all are held in unison, only the last song, Old Abram Brown, is a four -part canon.
Many of the songs are taken from the published recently by Walter de la Mare poem collection Tom Tiddler 's Ground. The songs cover a width of moods from: the song Old Abram Brown grapples with the death; however, the song A Tragic Story with a text by William Makepeace Thackeray an English paraphrase of the humorous poem Tragic story of Adelbert von Chamisso. Many are traditional English children's poems are about life in nature or animals. So for instance based Cuckoo! on the nursery rhyme Cuckoo, cuckoo, what do you do? the poet Jane Taylor.
Genesis
1933, shortly after completing his training at the Royal College of Music, began the then 19 -year-old Britten, set to music a number of children's poems. In May 1934, he spent some time with his older brother Robert HM Britten, who was headmaster of Clive House School, Prestatyn at this time. There, Benjamin Britten were sports and music lessons, which inspired him to the children's songs to resume his work, which he finally finished in 1935.
The work is dedicated to Robert HM Britten and the pupils of Clive House School. The title "Friday Afternoons " refers to the time in which the school is usually held the singing lessons.
Songs
Afterlife
Two of the songs, Cuckoo! and Old Abram Brown are - among other compositions Britten - part of the soundtrack of the 2012 released movie Moonrise Kingdom.
For Britten's 100th birthday on 22 November 2013, the organization Aldeburgh Music, the "Friday Afternoons project" called into life. On this day the work was performed by over 100,000 children. In addition, diverse materials were made available on the internet, including texts, notes and arrangements, including the song lyrics in Braille and sign language, to make them as accessible as possible to many children.