Availability
Score and part 0-571-50584-8 on sale
Programme Notes
Autumnal was composed in 1976-77, being adapted from sketches for an abandoned chamber piece which I made in Serenak in 1975. It forms the first panel of my Triptych (the other two being Sonya’s Lullaby, for piano, and the Cantata, for oboe and string trio). Autumnal is dedicated to the memory of Benjamin Britten, who died while I was composing it, and the two movements, which are quite restrained and austere in manner, are named after his two song cycles, Nocturne and Serenade. The piece lasts about eight minutes.
© Oliver Knussen