Britten Thematic Catalogue

Beta Version

BTC860 NOT TO YOU I SIGHED [MISSING]

For voice and piano
Composition date: Jan 1939
Date notes

Britten refers to this setting ('the Spender one') in a letter to Wulff Scherchen on 22 Jan 1939, and Scherchen himself mentioned it in a letter to the composer on 19 Jan 1939. There is also an account of a performance of this setting by William Coldstream, quoted in full in Letters from a life, volume 2, p. 1337. Coldstream recalls enough of the text of the poetry to make its identification possible.

Genre: Solo vocal
With piano
Text: Stephen Spender (1909-1995)

Notes

The manuscript of this song was in Pears's possession, but appears to be lost.

All content copyright (C) Britten-Pears Foundation 2012 unless stated. Please note all BTC numbers are provisional at this stage.