Name: Voinea Dorian

Candidate Number: 7087

NOCTURNAL after John Dowland for Guitar Op. 70

Completed in 1963, Benjamin Britten’s Nocturnal Op. 70 for solo guitar was premiered by the dedicatee,
Julian Bream at the Aldeburg Festival of 1964.
The piece is presented as a sort of reverse theme and variations based on "Come, Heavy Sleep" from
John Dowland's First Book of Songs. Rather than beginning the piece with the main theme followed by
its variations, the theme appears in its original form at the very end. All variations contain fragments
from Dowland's theme, most notably the use of the perfect fourth interval. The variations move
progressively closer to the Dowland song concluding the piece.
    Nocturnal shows aspects of Britten’s writing interest in several aspects: his pre-occupation with night
sleep and dreams and his interest in variation technique. Britten’s Nocturnal for solo guitar is a set of
eight variations on the Dowland song, “Come, heavy Sleep,” in which Dowland’s original theme is stated
at the conclusion of the eight contrasting movements.
Generally, Britten has concentrated mainly on developing materials from the theme, however,
occasionally he uses some accompaniment figures. Especially for those figures, is the manner in which
he uses the descending motif (picked from the alto line in the first bar of the theme) as the basis of the
Passacaglia, the final variation.     

         
This is the original setting of “Come, heavy Sleep”:

    
I    Musingly (Meditativo)

In this opening movement, Britten refers to all of Dowland’s music, phrase by phrase. An improvisatorial
quality is maintained throughout, as the melodic line searches for a point of rest.
In bars 1-2, Britten ornaments the first phrase of the theme, while retaining its basic shape. Dowland’s
intervals are preserved, except for the final note where Dowland falls a tone, Britten chooses a semitone.

In the first recording, Julian Bream phrases the theme from Dowland's song by fallowing the path of the
notes. Bream starts the piece with a full and rounded “sul tasto” sound on the first note that I believe is
played with the “P” finger. I say so because the sound is strong but at the same time sweet, round and
quiet.    When I first heard the recording of Julian Bream, I was impressed by the sounds and the colours
he experiments.
I tried to find his sounds because he must be the reference for this piece by the fact that Britten write
this piece for him and they met and discussed interpretative and technical aspects for the composition.

After I decided which sounds to use, I started playing the piece thinking of the night atmosphere and the
idea of insomnia and dream world. When I think of the “night atmosphere” I imagine the empty streets
after 12 o'clock at night lighted by the electricity poles that have a blurry yellow colour and a persistent
coolness accompanied by the darkness and nothingness.

My interpretation is similar to Julian Bream but I think this movement should be played slower. On the
score we observe written: “Musingly”, “meditativo”, “pp very freely’’ and “molto liberamente”. From
what I understand, this movement is very freely and is very mysterious. At the same time the music
should be meditative and quiet.

In my opinion this variation is entirely based on the Dowland’s song. I even experimented by singing the
Dowland’s song over this variation and I was so impressed by the fact that all the phrases from the first
variation are exactly like the Dowland’s song. After I took note of this information, I came to the
conclusion that the tempo of this variation (beside the fact that is not marked and the composer write
‘’very freely’’ with no tempo indication) is the same tempo of the Dowland’s song. When I start this
piece, I make sure that when I get to the end of the piece (where is the Dowland’s theme) I will have the
same tempo. Unfortunately, the recordings Marcin Dylla do not present this.
 Julian Bream plays the first bar starting in ‘’pp’’ and performs a decrescendo on the semiquaver triplets
and ‘’falls’’ on the ‘’A’’ note and immediately do a crescendo which fade away on the ‘’F#’’. In my opinion
this phrasing is exactly like a wave. This reminded me the fact that Britten lived in a seaside country and
he was very influenced by the seascape. The sea atmosphere can be easily sense when you play this
piece, as I will present you later in the fallowing variations. After listening to Bream’s recording, I added
to my knowledge that this piece should present to the audience the ‘’wave feeling’’ together with the
night’s mystery.
Bream plays the second bar louder but still in ‘’pp’’. After I experimented with the sounds, I discovered
that the notes from this bar should be played with ‘’half meat half nail’’ in order to result a similar sound
like Bream. I play this bar more like an answer for the first bar which ends on ‘’F#’’, that express
incompleteness (played at the same time very quiet). Marcin Dylla plays very precise the score but in my
opinion is too fast
The third bar is player much louder than the previous ones but soon after, from bar four, the music
starts to move downwards and decrescendo is present until the staccato notes from bar 8.
Unfortunately, Bream is not doing the staccato notes. I tried to explain why is not doing the staccato
(because he discussed with the composer) and I came to the conclusion that the composer might putted
the staccato notes more just for the feeling of staccato. I say so because this music is very experimental
and in my opinion we shouldn’t play the score perfect as the notations(because the music will sound
boring and repetitive) we should understand the notations and their purposes of being there and try to
play the feeling that emerge from that passage.
In bar 11(below), I believe that when is the dotted quaver ‘’E flat’’ is the same passage as the fragment
from the fourth variation (Uneasy) which starts the same, with three staccato quavers and continues
with a trill.
At the same time the three staccato quavers from the first variation will dictate the beginning of every
phrase of the third variation (Restless) but played as a crotchet.

                                                              First variation

                                                                Forth variation                                                       
       
                                                                    Third variation
In bar 11, both Bream and Dylla do a crescendo and an accent on the note ‘’B natural’’ as the
destination of that ‘’sentence’’. Again, in bar 12 we can observe the similarities from the fourth variation
and from this bar from the Passacaglia movement.

                                                                      Passacaglia movement
 In conclusion, when I play the first movement, I play it very soft with a searching on anxious feelings
together with singing in my head the lyrics of the original song and try to perform every phrase with the
balance from the Dowland`s song.
At the end of every motifs, Britten marker a coma to inform the player that after every phrase he needs
to breath. I believe the reason for this is that Britten wanted to include in his variation the balance of the
Dowland’s song. I play those 10 bars of the first variation with the sound of Julian Bream and with the
correctness of Marcin Dylla and with more pause after each phrase.
Marcin Dylla plays to rapid with a very small rest between each phrase which attenuates the balance of
the Dowlands song. Is an interesting way to play it like that, because the atmosphere is very sinister and
express insecurity. This version is not wrong because on the score is written to play “very freely (molto
liberamente)” and “meditativo”. It is definitely a version that is worth listening to and that shows a
different vision of the score. I took from this recording the fact that you need to play sometimes faster in
order not to bore the public which is never made of guitarist that know the score and have the mentality
to play it perfectly from the score.
I tend to appreciate more Bream’s version because he fallows the composers writing but at the same
time it gives his belief of the score which produce an alive performance that’s captivates all kinds of
publics.

I believe a musician is not a person which plays the score perfect with all the instruction from it, but a
person who reads and assimilates the composer’s instruction and try to play the piece from his
interpretation of the composers thinking which can be decoded from the score by the interpreter's
intuition and the score writing. By doing so the music will always evolve and will avoid to stagnate in the
same position that the score shows, compared to what the composer really wanted to write. I say so
because I consider that the score is limited in contrast with the real vision of the composer. At the same
time, the interpret will never play the piece perfect even if he plays the score with all the notations
because everybody interpret different the nuances. For example: if the composer writes “ppp”, the
original vision of the composer can be slightly different from the notation from the score because of the
composer idea and interpretation of that nuance. I believe that music cannot be perfect, like anything
from this life, but should always look for perfection. In conclusion the interpret should play his
understanding of the score which is based on the score writing, story of the piece and intuition.

I also learn that this piece needs to have a flow in order to captivate the public and always be played
different to give the best feeling because the piece lasts 20 minutes. I tried to make an idea for every
movement destination and which character is suited better for every movement.
We can observe in this passage the similarities to the Dowland’s song. Bream is not doing the staccato.
In this passage I prefer Marcin Dylla’s version because he is presenting the similarity elements between
Britten and Dowland’s song.
                                                                    Britten’s song

                                                                    Dowland’s song     
At the end of this variation we can see the word ‘’attacca’’ which means to go to the next variation
without hesitating.
                 

Julian Bream is staying more on the ‘’C’’ note and then goes to the next variation. He breath more
between the variation to build suspense. We can also see on the score a crown on the ’’C’’. Marcin Dylla
goes directly to “Very Agitated’’. I play something in between but I tend to like more Bream’s version
because of the suspense that the silence builds.
III      Restless

The ‘’restless’’ character for this movement is achieved by its dissonant harmonic language, and the use
of polyrhythm (melody in duple time, accompaniment in triple meter). Britten selects key notes from
Dowland’s phrases to form small melodic figures.

                                 
    I play this movement thinking of a sea side atmosphere. In my opinion, every three crotchet that are at
the beginning of each musical phrase should be played in ‘’crescendo’’ or ‘’decrescendo’’ and
‘’accelerando’’ or ‘’decelerando’’ to express a feeling of flow, just like a wave. This is my vision for this
part.    Both recordings are not close to my vision, they play more scholastic and focus on playing very
insistent the crotchets which is a nice version but considering that the whole movement is based on the
three crotchets, it becomes to repetitive and boring. They play the crochet repetitive and more
‘’grotesque’’ to present the audience an atmosphere of fear that never ends and persists.

I came to my interpretation because on the score is written after every ‘’introduction bar of 3 crotchet’’,
‘’Solo’’ and ‘’esapress.’’    From this I understood that Britten wants the player to perform two different
atmospheres on the phrase. I believe the three crotchets are like an introduction to the next phrase that
comes. In addition, if you play the crotchets with this interpretation you can give the feeling of waves. At
the same time I don't want to make a mistake in the score and exaggerate    so I came to the conclusion
that the 3 crotchets must be sung perfectly in time but have ‘’crescendo’’ or ‘’decrescendo’’ giving the
feeling of waves and the phrases that comes after must be different.
As you can see on the score the main melody is either in low of high register. I came to the conclusion
that Britten wanted two different characters on the melody. I play the phrase almost like ‘’two persons
arguing’’. When the melody is in low register I play close to ‘’Ponticelo’’ and I press the string before
playing to give a richer sound (I am imagining a male voice). When the melody is in high register, I play
the music softer and closer to ‘’la boca’’. At the same time I need to control my nuances because the
destination is at bar 26 where Britten wrote ‘’f’’. But the overall feeling of this movement based on what
the composer wrote is ‘’pp’’.
I think I am doing a correct interpretation for this variation. I looked at the way the score is written and I
remembered that Britten lived in a seaside country and his music is influenced by sea atmosphere. I
believe this passage needs to be played with the feeling of a seaside view in a quiet night.
  

        The final phrase appears in inversion (with modification), in bars 50-5     

In this variation, Britten inverts the theme (first and second motifs) and presents it as double octaves,
played on the guitar’s most distant strings. From what I know, this movement is inspired by the fear of
Britten on the start of another war. If you listen to the music, the character of this movement is a sinister
fear who seems to be aware of the situation but does not know what to do to avoid it. It is like an
inevitable fear, as if you know it will happen somewhere in the future and part of you accepts it and part
of you do not believe it. This variation is really sad considering the current situation.
In the recording, Bream is not doing a ‘’staccato’’ and ‘’markando’’ sound on the open strings all the
time. It is sometimes close to impossible to do it because of the interference between the octaves and
the nature of the guitar. Marcin Dylla dose a very good job on playing the open strings staccato.
I think this variation is played better from all the points by Marcin Dylla. He respects the score and he
dose the ‘’March like’’ sound by doing the staccato all the time. At bar 11 where is noted ‘’mf’’ Marcin
Dylla dose a crescendo to a ‘’ponticelo’’ sound. I like his dialogue between the ascending three quavers
from bar 11 and the descending quavers from bar 18. He is doing different nuances that relates from the
note’s placement (bar 11 ponticelo, bar 18 less ponticelo). His staccato notes are giving a wry sensation.   
                               

In bar 20 Britten makes vague reference to the theme. Transposed open string chords, falling
chromatically, return the phrase to the security of the previously heard open string harmony.     
I like how Bream finishes this variation and goes to the next one. He breath more on the rest which give
a sense of relief when continues with the next variation. Unfortunetly Bream mistakes the score by doing
a quaver rest instead of a crotcher rest. Marcin Dylla respects the score but the rests are a little to short.