Run Time: Approx. 26 minutes

In 1942, a somewhat dismayed Benjamin Britten and his partner, the renowned tenor Peter Pears, returned to England after spending the previous three years in America. As committed pacifists, they, along with other artists, had hoped to avoid becoming involved in the burgeoning conflict in Europe. However, as their time in America went on, Britten faced increasing criticism for failing to contribute to the national war effort, and ultimately felt a responsibility to return home.

Upon their return, Britten and Pears were met with less ire than expected. They officially registered as conscientious objectors, which enabled them to fulfill their duties musically. Britten was an excellent pianist, so the pair embarked on a series of public recitals across England, offering consolation and moral support to the nation as it coped with the Blitz. After the war, Britten went on to perform with Yehudi Menuhin for survivors of concentration camps.

Shortly after returning home, Britten was introduced to the horn player Dennis Brain, a virtuoso and beloved figure in the history of the instrument. Britten was fascinated by the horn and spent considerable time with Brain being shown its workings and learning its unique history. He learned its range, its sonic possibilities, extended techniques, and, perhaps most importantly, its origins as a hunting instrument. All of his discoveries found their way into the Serenade.

One of the most notable examples is Britten’s employment of the natural horn—the instrument played without the use of its valves. The two horn calls that open and close the piece are written for natural horn, creating a melody that is intentionally out of tune with traditional Western total practices. Some of its notes lie between the standard notes of the Western scale, producing an unsettling, wild sound that evokes the modern horn’s ancestors.

Britten’s pacifism went beyond simply opposing war. He was deeply troubled by all forms of human violence and exploitation, and though he was a devout Christian, he was disturbed by practices within the church that contributed to human suffering. On the surface, Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings takes the listener on an ethereal journey through the night, guided by the words of great English poets. The works of Ben Johnson, Charles Cotton, William Blake, John Keats, and Lord Tennyson, form a path from the first shadows of evening that cast the world into a surreal state, through the mythical Greek figures of night, like the huntress Diana, to the dangers that dwell in the darkness.

But Britten’s selected poetry also delves into the horrors of human cruelty—the very injustices that weighed heavily on him during this turbulent political era. While many of the texts explore some of humanity’s darkest deeds, Britten offers redemption through a clever palindromic form. The work is built outward around the two central songs, Elegy and Dirge—the darkest two in the bunch— each movement reflected by a twin. Nocturne and Hymn, for example, both concern the hunt, while Pastoral and Sonnet offer moments of respite. The whole work is framed by twin horn calls that form the Prologue and Epilogue. By laying the work out in this way, Britten descends first into the darkest, most desolate corners of humanity, and climbs back out, framing the argument for one of his most sincerely held beliefs: that, despite the darkness, there is hope for the redemption of humanity.