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Benjamin Britten’s

Song Catalogue

An indexed repository of all Britten’s published songs,
made available for singers and instrumentalists of all abilities

Welcome

Welcome to the Britten song catalogue! Benjamin Britten was one of the most prolific song composers of the twentieth century, setting the words of over 100 poets in his 15 song cycles, 8 volumes of folk songs and many other individual settings.

Explore the huge wealth of vocal music written by the composer from his very early days (some of the songs here were composed when he was no more than 9 years old) through to the final years of his life.

Much of the music was written for his partner, the tenor Peter Pears, and there are some truly wonderful cycles for the tenor voice. But there are also many, many other songs for all voice types and for many different types of accompaniment, including piano, harp and guitar.

Click on the links below to find out about the songs, the accompaniments, where to get the music, and much, much more. Happy singing!

Brittens Song Catalogue

You can browse Britten’s Song Catalogue in three different ways. If you know a key word or title from any song cycle, movement or individual song then use the Search too. If you are looking for a range of songs that fit your specific requirements then use the Refine tool where you can select from a number of options. If you just want to view what songs are available within different categories then use the Explore tool.

Which ever way you choose, we hope you find what you’re looking for.

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Search

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Refine

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Explore

View every available song, indexed into categories darr

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If you would like to see a range of songs that meet your specific criteria then select from the options below to see all results that match.

Date:

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To:

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Maximum in minutes:

Published In:

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View all of the available songs by clicking the category you would like to explore

The Folk Songs+
+ The Ash Grove (2)
+ At the mid hour of night (2)
+ Avenging and bright (crooghan a venee) (2)
+ La belle est au jardin d'amour [Beauty in love's garden] (3)
+ The brisk young widow (2)
+ Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn (I was lonely and forlorn) (3)
+ Ca' the yowes (2)
+ Come you not from Newcastle? (3)
+ The Crocodile (2)
+ David of the white rock (Dafydd y garreg wen) (3)
+ The deaf woman's courtship (2)
+ Dear harp of my country (Kate Tyrrel) (2)
+ Dink's Song (2)
+ Early one morning (2)
+ 'The foggy, foggy dew' (2)
+ Greensleeves (2)
+ The holly and the ivy (2)
+ How sweet the answer (The Wren) (2)
+ I wonder as I wander (2)
+ Il est quelqu'un sur terre [There's someone in my fancy] (2)
+ The last rose of summer (Groves of blarney) (2)
+ The Lincolnshire poacher (2)
+ The Miller of Dee (2)
+ The Minstrel Boy (The Moreen) (2)
+ La noel passee [The Orphan and King Henry] (3)
+ O the sight entrancing (Planxty sudley) (2)
+ Oft in the stilly night (2)
+ Pray Goody (2)
+ Quand j'etais chez mon pere [Heigh ho! Heigh hi!] (3)
+ Rich and rare (Summer is coming) (2)
+ Le Roi s'en va-t'en chasse [The King is gone a-hunting] (3)
+ 'Sail on, sail on' (The humming of the ban) (2)
+ Sally in our alley (2)
+ Soldier won't you marry me (1)
+ The stream in the valley [Da unten im tale] (2)
+ Sweet Polly Oliver (2)
+ There's none to soothe (2)
+ Tom Bowling (2)
+ The trees they grow so high (2)
+ Voici le printemps [Hear the voice of spring] (2)