Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): The Sword in the Stone: Concert Suite for Chamber Ensemble

In May 1939 Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears left England and headed towards North America. They spent a few weeks in Canada where Britten wrote Young Apollo, Op.16 for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.  He also began work on the Canadian Carnival Overture, Op.19. Earlier that year he had been commissioned by the BBC to write the incidental music for a six-part adaptation by Marianne Helway of T.H. White’s Arthurian novel The Sword in the Stone.

This book, which was written in 1938, is a standalone novel but subsequently became the first part of what was eventually issued as The Once and Future King. The story of The Sword in the Stone tells of a young boy called Wart, who came to realise that he was King Arthur. He is instructed under Merlyn’s guidance in the rituals and activities of the medieval royal court and is found worthy to be king.  The title refers to the famous sword that was magically set in a stone: it could only be removed by the true King Arthur, the rightful heir to the British throne.

Britten completed the score on arrival in Canada and posted it back to London. It was subsequently broadcast during June and July 1939.

The incidental music for The Sword in the Stone score was written for a chamber ensemble including winds brass, harp and a vast array of percussion. In 1983 some ten of the original fifteen ‘sections’ of this music were compiled into a concert suite by Oliver Knussen and Colin Matthews.  The suite, which was first performed at the Aldeburgh Festival of that year was organised into six movements: -

1. Introduction and Boys Tune
2. Merlyn’s Tune and Tree Music
3. Merlyn’s Spell and Witch Tune
4. Bird Music
5. Lullaby
6. Water Theme and End Music

One of the interesting things to look out for in this music is the ‘witty borrowings’ from Richard Wagner’s operas which Britten indulges in.  The Prelude to Rhinegold is alluded to in Merlyn’s Tune and the use of the ‘Sword’ motif played on the trumpet. The fourth movement creates its effect by utilising several musical birds taken from the works of various composers including Wagner, Beethoven, Strauss and Delius. The scoring is excellent with various instruments being used to highlight characters and events in T.H White’s story.

It cannot be argued that this work contains the best of Britten’s music or even prefigures what achievements were to follow. However, it a Suite that is full of youthful energy and has an undeniable ‘enchanting’ quality.

Contemporary reports suggest that the atmosphere of the wireless adaptation was complimented by Benjamin Britten’s music, which "brilliantly sharpened the word-pictures’.

In 1996, Hyperion included Britten’s The Sword in the Stone: Concert Suite for Chamber Ensemble on a remarkable CD. Other works included a concert realisation of Night Mail with Nigel Hawthorne as narrator, the cantata Phaedra, Lachrymae for viola and piano (1950) and the Sinfonietta (1950). It was played by the Nash Ensemble supported by several instrumentalists.  

It has also been issued in the Naxos Label (8.573446) featuring the Ohio State University Wind Symphony. 

Thanks to the English Music Festival where much of this post was first published.