Britten Thematic Catalogue

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Cabaret song for voice and piano
Composition date: Summer 1939
First performance: [Summer] 1939 >>
Type of performance: Concert performance
Location: Southwold High School, Long Island, New York.
Performance details:

Peter Pears ten, Benjamin Britten pf.

Genre: Solo vocal
Text: W.H. Auden
Duration: 2'

Notes

Written for the singer Hedli Anderson and published as number 4 of Cabaret songs in 1980. The other cabaret songs are: 1 Tell me the truth about love (Jan 1938), 2 Funeral blues and 3 Johnny (May 1937).

Two other cabaret songs were written around the same time, with text by W.H. Auden and also for Hedli Anderson, but the scores have been lost. These are: Give up love and I'm a jam tart both from May 1937.

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