Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge op. 10

First publication of Colin McPhee’s piano duo arrangement of Britten’s early string orchestra masterpiece. The preface, by Nicholas Clark (Librarian at the Britten–Pears Foundation) gives the background to Britten’s original 1937 score, a tribute to his first composition teacher, Frank Bridge, and its immediate international success in performances at the Salzburg Festival and a Radio Hilversum broadcast.

Britten first met the Canadian ethnomusicologist McPhee (1900–64) through his American hosts William and Elizabeth Mayer during his three-year residence in the USA at the outbreak of the Second World War. McPhee’s piano duo arrangement was used as the accompaniment to a new ballet, Jinx, performed by the Dance Players at the National Theater, New York, in 1942. Britten did not witness this use of his music as by then he had embarked on his return voyage to England, and little is known of the extent of Britten’s involvement in the arrangement.

As only a single leaf of manuscript for the Moto Perputuo exists, extensive editorial work on this variation was undertaken for the present publication by Colin Matthews.