Britten Thematic Catalogue
Beta Version
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Title under which the score was recorded and later published.
Work on the film score began in April and much of the music was completed between 1st and 6th of the month, but composition was suspended when the project was postponed. The film was revived at the end of the summer and Britten wrote some additional music between 9 and 28 September 1936.
The score (also entitled 'Village harvest') uses the tune 'The bottom of the punch bowl', which is in fact Scottish (the same tune was used in an unfinished piano duet from ca. 1941-42: Untitled piece). It was composed as the title music for a documentary film of the same name (by Marion Grierson and Evelyn Spice) made for the Travel and Industrial Development Association and released in 1937.
Britten also used melodies later arranged as folk songs for voice and piano: see Early one morning, (April 1957) and The plough boy (1945).
The soundtrack of the film was recorded on 21 October by an ensemble of 16 'slap-up' players conducted by Britten, and a commercial recording of the Irish reel conducted by Charles Brill was made by Decca on 9 November 1937. At some later date Britten revised the scoring.