Canticles

Series of five works by Benjamin Britten: no. 1 My beloved is mine (text by F Quarles), for high voice and piano, first performed at Aldeburgh, England, on 1 November 1947; no. 2 Abraham and Isaac (text from Chester miracle play), for alto, tenor, and piano, first performed in Nottingham, England, on 21 January 1952; no. 3 Still falls the rain (text by Edith Sitwell), for tenor, horn, and piano, first performed in London on 28 January 1955; no. 4 The Journey of the Magi (text by T S Eliot), for countertenor, tenor, baritone, and piano, first performed at Aldeburgh on 26 June 1971; no. 5 The Death of Narcissus (text by Eliot), for tenor and harpsichord, first performed at Schloss Elmau on 15 January 1975.

Britten later quoted the music from the second canticle, Abraham and Isaac in his War Requiem, this time to set Wilfred Owen's anti-war metaphorical re-working of the story.