''Variations on an Elizabethan Theme'' (also seen as ''Variations on Sellinger's Round'') is a set of variations for string orchestra, written collaboratively in 1952 by six English composers:

Lennox Berkeley Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley CBE (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer. Biography Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James ...

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

, Arthur Oldham,

Humphrey Searle Humphrey Searle (26 August 1915 – 12 May 1982) was an English composer and writer on music. His music combines aspects of late Romanticism and modernist serialism, particularly reminiscent of his primary influences, Franz Liszt, Arnold Sch ...

Michael Tippett Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten as o ...

and

William Walton Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the cantat ...

. Imogen Holst also played an important role in orchestrating the overall work, but she did not write a variation of her own. The variations were written to celebrate the forthcoming coronation of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

in June 1953. (Benjamin Britten also wrote his opera '' Gloriana'' in honour of this occasion.)

Background

At the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July 1952, Benjamin Britten had attended the premiere of '' La guirlande de Campra'', a collaborative work by seven French composers, and this gave him the idea of inviting several English composers to join him in each writing a variation on a theme from the time of the first Queen Elizabeth to honour her modern-day successor.Letters from a life: The selected letters of Benjamin Britten 1913–1976
/ref>

and

all readily accepted Britten's invitation.

Alan Rawsthorne Alan Rawsthorne (2 May 1905 – 24 July 1971) was a British composer. He was born in Haslingden, Lancashire, and is buried in Thaxted churchyard in Essex. Early years Alan Rawsthorne was born in Deardengate House, Haslingden, Lancashire, to ...

declined outright. Edmund Rubbra initially agreed, but pulled out of the project at the eleventh hour, at which time Arthur Oldham and

were brought in. The theme was ''Sellinger's Round'' or ''The Beginning of the World'', an Irish dance tune, as harmonised for the keyboard by

William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He i ...

, the leading composer from the time of Elizabeth I. It was orchestrated for the occasion by Imogen Holst, but she did not provide a variation of her own.

Structure

The work was structured as follows: * Theme (anon; harmonised by William Byrd; arranged for string orchestra by Imogen Holst) * Variation 1: ''Allegro non troppo'' (Arthur Oldham) * Variation 2: A Lament, ''Andante espressivo'' (Michael Tippett) **The variation begins and ends with a transcription of 'Ah Belinda!' from

Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: ; September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer of Baroque music, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, Dido and Aeneas, ''Dido and Aeneas''; and his incidental music to a version o ...

's ''

Dido and Aeneas ''Dido and Aeneas'' (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque music, Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncer ...

'', over which a solo violin plays a decorated version of the theme. Tippett's variation later became well known as part of his separate piece, ''Divertimento on Sellinger's Round'' * Variation 3: ''Andante'' (Lennox Berkeley) * Variation 4: ''Quick and Gay'' (Benjamin Britten) * Variation 5: Nocturne, ''Adagio'' (Humphrey Searle) **Britten considered this the most original of all the variations * Variation 6: Finale, Fuga à la gigue, ''Presto giocoso'' (William Walton) **Walton starts with an inversion of the theme, and concludes with the inversion combined with the original theme.

Premieres

The public premiere was held on 20 June 1953, as part of the Coronation Choral Concert at the 1953

Aldeburgh Festival The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk and is centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall. History of the Aldeburgh Festi ...

. However, it was also broadcast live on the BBC Third Programme four days earlier, 16 June. Both performances were conducted by Benjamin Britten.Britten-Pears Foundation
/ref> The public performance was recorded and has been released on CD. William Walton proposed that each variation include a brief

quotation A quotation or quote is the repetition of a sentence, phrase, or passage from speech or text that someone has said or written. In oral speech, it is the representation of an utterance (i.e. of something that a speaker actually said) that is intro ...

from another work by the same composer. His own quotation was from his '' Portsmouth Point'' Overture.Music Web International
/ref> Britten's quotation was his "Green leaves we are" theme from ''Gloriana''. The audience at the Aldeburgh Festival premiere was not told which composer wrote which variation, but were invited to participate in a guessing competition to raise funds for the festival. Nobody correctly guessed all the names.Stephen Lloyd, William Walton: Muse of Fire
/ref> As part of the 2013 season of

The Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

, two more variations were commissioned by the BBC from John Woolrich and

Tansy Davies Tansy Davies (born 29 May 1973, Bristol) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. She won the BBC Young Composers' Competition in 1996 and has written works for ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orc ...

, being inserted in that order before Walton's concluding variation. The new sequence of eight variations was given its premiere by the

English Chamber Orchestra The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. With a limited performance size, the orchestra spe ...

, conducted by Paul Watkins, in the

Cadogan Hall Cadogan Hall is a 950-seat capacity concert hall in Sloane Terrace in Chelsea, London, Chelsea in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. The resident music ensemble at Cadogan Hall is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ( ...

, London, on 24 August 2013."PSM 4: English Chamber Orchestra"
BBC, retrieved 8 August 2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Variations On An Elizabethan Theme Collaborations in classical music 1952 compositions Compositions for string orchestra Compositions by Lennox Berkeley Compositions by Benjamin Britten Compositions by Humphrey Searle Compositions by Michael Tippett Orchestral compositions by William Walton Elizabethan Theme