Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings - Definition

The Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings is a piece of classical music written in 1943 by Benjamin Britten.

It was written at the request of the French horn player Dennis Brain. Composed during the dark days of World War II, it is a selection of six poems by British authors on the subject of death. The horn plays with the strings to accompany the songs, which are framed by a prologue and an epilogue, which are horn solos. Here, Britten asks for the horn player to play the instrument without using its valves—some of the resulting notes of the harmonic series are out of tune with the normal chromatic scale, giving these movements a distinctive character. Britten also calls, elsewhere, for the hornist to execute glissandi.

The piece is considered one of Britten's finest pieces, and has become a central part of the repertoire of both horn players and tenors. Britten's lifelong companion Peter Pears was the singer in the first performances, and the recording made by them with Brain is considered one of the best.

The eight movements of the work are:

• "Prologue" (horn solo)
• "Pastoral", on the poem by Charles Cotton (1630-1687)
• "Nocturne", on "Blow, bugle, blow" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
• "Elegy", on the poem by William Blake (1757-1827)
• "Dirge", on an anonymous 15th century poem
• "Hymn", on the poem by Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
• "Sonnet", on the ode "To Sleep" by John Keats (1795-1821)
• "Epilogue" (horn solo)