red-figure cup painted by the Euaion Painter, 460–450 BC
Six Metamorphoses is written for solo oboe. George Caird attributes two significant effects to this choice. Firstly, the oboe is comparable with its ancient analog, the
aulos, which was often associated with
Dionysian rites and darker characteristics of ecstasy and impulsiveness, in addition to a connotation of grief from its use in
Greek tragedy; such ancient context establishes a dichotomy between the oboe and string instruments such as Apollo's
lyre, which is associated with healing and therapeutic power. Secondly, the use of a solo instrument emphasizes the importance of relationships between individual characters in Ovid's narratives. Britten is able to outline chords within a single oboe line, giving the effect of having many voices present in the piece while maintaining the instrument's individuality. Vincent Mark Biggam observes two specific techniques by which Britten is able to imply harmony within a solo line:
arpeggiation and use of
diatonic scales. He notes that most of the movements primarily utilize one of these two techniques: "Phaeton", "Niobe", and "Arethusa" use arpeggiation, while "Pan" and "Narcissus" use
scales. Bacchus, which is twice as long as the other movements, is unique in incorporating both. Britten makes the most of the instrument's expressive and technical capabilities. The piece utilizes the oboe's entire range, stretching from its use of the bottom B♭ to represent Phaethon's descent to Earth and a high F at the end of "Bacchus". An account by
Sarah Francis details that Britten asked Boughton for a list of the most difficult techniques and maneuvers for the oboe and specifically made sure to include all of these in his piece. Sheri Lee Mattson notes that Britten makes the most of the oboe's relatively small
tessitura through the use of sonic and
timbral effects specific to the instrument. These include sharp articulations, changes in timbre dependent on volume and range,
vibrato, and loud low notes. In addition to sonic effects specific to the oboe, Britten makes use of a rich variety of musical
imagery through various
motifs. This includes depictions of hiccups in "Bacchus", cascading fountains of notes in "Arethusa", and, notably, use of
musical inversion to portray the reflected image of Narcissus. In each movement, Britten utilizes conventional musical forms, such as
ternary form,
rondo form, and
theme and variations. Of particular relevance is ternary form, which Sotos Djiovanis, elaborating upon Stephen Hiramoto's earlier analysis, argues provides a basic schema for Britten's portrayal of metamorphosis. According to this outline, the A section represents the figure or story before metamorphosis, and the B section represents the physical transformation. The second A section, which always incorporates musical characteristics of the B section, represents a new version of the self having been changed through metamorphosis. Felipe Mora Garzón, on the other hand, views the movements in question as having ABC form rather than ternary, in which the respective sections can be aligned with a
Hegelian thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Much of the music of
Six Metamorphoses is written without a definitive time signature. Nonetheless, according to
Evelyn Rothwell, an oboist and friend of Britten's, the composer was extremely meticulous about the length of his note values, and the performer is expected to portray the music carefully, exactly as written. Initially, Britten did not publish his score with any tempo markings, but he added them in retroactively after he listened to a performance of the piece by
Heinz Holliger and was horrified by the liberties taken.
I. Pan "Pan" features the tempo marking
senza misura and is the only movement with no time signature, emphasizing the movement's free-flowing nature. However, this supposed "free" feeling is created by the oboist's precise adherence to Britten's specific rhythmic choices rather than any
rubato or
ad lib. Bar placements are dictated by the lengths of
phrases, and each phrase features different note and rest durations, lending the feeling that each measure is written with a different tempo. There is disagreement over the structure of the Pan movement. Djiovanis, following Hiramoto, recognizes the prototypical ternary structure, with a free-flowing A section, a B section with rising tension, and a modified A section with an attached coda; he attributes the music to Pan's perspective of Syrinx's metamorphosis. Octavian Velescu notes that since the coda resembles the B section, it is ambiguous whether "Pan" is written in ternary or ABAB form. Velescu associates this ambiguity with a nuanced interpretation of "Pan" in which both characters' perspectives are simultaneously represented: Ternary form represents the course of Syrinx's metamorphosis, with the A section depicting her free spirit, the rigid B section depicting the stasis of the reeds she transforms into, and the modified A section portraying her enduring spirit within those reeds; ABAB form represents an alternation between Pan's human and animalistic nature, respectively. though Mattson dissents. The A section ends in the
Phrygian mode, which Djiovanis, following Hiramoto, connects to Niobe's own
Phrygian origin. The B section, from measures 10 to 20, offers a rhythmically and harmonically complex variation of the opening phrase. Biggam makes notes of increasing harmonic ambiguities in the measures leading up to and at the start of B; these, especially the use of the notes E and G, contribute to the yearning, emotive character of the music. At the end of the B section, the oboe seems to alternate between two melodic lines in a manner reminiscent of the "Narcissus" movement; both of these lines begin in D♭ major and gradually converge on the note C5 in C major. The reprised A section consists of six measures. The first two measures are the same as the beginning of the piece, while the last four measures draw on material from the first phrase rather than other parts of the A section; Djiovanis claims that this sense of stagnation depicts Niobe turning to stone. Meanwhile, Mattson argues that the expressive marking
senza espressione, combined with the decrescendo and
pianissimo, encourages a musical tone that lacks movement, similarly depicting Niobe's transformation. Finally, the music resolves on a high D♭6.
IV. Bacchus "Bacchus" is the longest of all the movements of
Six Metamorphoses, taking up two pages of sheet music instead of one. It is written with time signature, although the time signature is in parentheses. In reality, the number of beats per measure varies, and Biggam sees the frequent juxtaposition of three- and four-beat measures as depicting drunkenness. "Bacchus" is written in an ABACA rondo form, where the final A section functions as a coda, rather than the usual ternary form; the A section takes the form of a
refrain, while the B and C sections represent individual episodes. Likewise, Bacchus is the only movement that does not narrate a single metamorphosis or story, instead painting the broader scene of a
Bacchanal. The A section takes up measures 1–14 and has tempo marking
Allegro Pesante; its main melody consists of a slurred dotted rhythm followed by three upward
marcato sixteenth notes. The section is itself in binary form, and the key of F major is suggested by the melody, which consists of fragments of diatonic scales. Djiovanis and Mattson both interpret the A section as a musical depiction of Bacchus staggering through his party. In particular, Mattson notes that the emphasis in the main theme on the first of the three sixteenth notes, in addition to the absence of the fourth note, makes the music sound unbalanced; this combines with the frequent rests and fermatas to create a drunken effect. The A section is reprised, although truncated, in measures 25–32; one particular moment in measures 30–31 where the music pauses gives the image of a drunk Bacchus pausing and abruptly switching direction. The B section is faster (
Più vivo); its main theme repeats a
staccato motif consisting of two sixteenth notes and three eighth notes and frequently features large jumps. The section is in A major, although the first two measures are harmonically ambiguous. The motif of three sixteenth notes still appears in this section, although the notes are now downward and slurred. Mattson connects the oboe's playful jumps to the playing and "shouting out of boys" mentioned in the epigraph. The C section (
Con moto) is faster and requires the oboe to slur alternating third intervals (with some seconds and fourths) at a high register in sixteenth notes. The alternating thirds broadly outline C major triads, though there are hints of a Lydian raised fourth. Mattson links the back-and-forth texture of the oboe line to the epigraph's "noise of women's tattling tongues," whose conversation would merge into a homogeneous background hum. The coda begins with three low Cs, augmented by fermatas and labeled with the dynamic , an unusual combination of
fortissimo and
forzando. Each of these is followed by a fast, rising
piano arpeggio, with each gesture outlining a distinct chord far away harmonically from C major. Djiovanis and Mattson connect the arpeggios to the sound of Bacchus belching or hiccuping, while Biggam reads the gesture as the "shouting out of boys." The coda then returns to the main theme from A, but in G major, then pivots to C major and A major, thereby harmonically integrating the previous sections. The movement ends with another fermata on low C, followed by an F major "belch" arpeggio ending on a high F6. This gesture is so quick that the listener can hardly perceive the resolution back into the home key of F.
V. Narcissus "Narcissus" (
Lento piacevole) is written in ; It is the only movement of
Six Metamorphoses to have a rigid time signature, which may help portray the rigidity of Narcissus' affection for his reflection.> The music is written in three sections; at the beginning of the second, Britten includes a performance: "From this point the notes with upward stems represent the reflected image of Narcissus, and those with downward stems Narcissus himself." The "Narcissus" movement is notable for its ability to portray a polyphonic structure with only one instrumental line. The first section (1–9) represents Narcissus himself through a descending melody, written in an ambiguous mixture of A♭ major and F minor. The melody features motifs that resemble trills, though these are precisely written out as sextuplets and ought to be played exactly. Mattson argues that these rhythmically regulated trills further portray the rigidity of the pool of water while also preserving the emotional impact of the few moments where the oboe produces genuine trills. These trill figures may also represent sighs or ripples in the water or, later, the larger perturbations that obscure Narcissus' reflection. The melody ascends through a series of regulated trills, culminating with a real trill; Britten leaves the culminating trill unresolved, which Mattson connects with Narcissus' unresolved sexual tension. The second section (10–23) begins by repeating the first section, except each of Narcissus' motifs is now followed by a second line representing his reflection, responding in counterpoint to the melody. Initially, the reflection's line is an exact inversion of Narcissus' melody; however, as the piece goes on, Britten represents reflection harmonically by using
parallel and
relative minors. Each of these reflections either truncates or elongates the melody, possibly mimicking the way in which the reflected pool distorts the image. Mattson connects the first instance of a non-exact inversion to the moment when Narcissus recognizes himself in the pool; after this, he perceives the reflection as himself, and the second line plays echoes and transpositions rather than inversions. The two lines gradually get closer together and converge on a series of thirty-second notes surrounding a B–C♯–D♯–E tetrachord, then a C♯–D♯ trill, at which point they can no longer be distinguished from each other. Then follows a coda with tempo marking
tranquillo. Biggam perceives the coda's key, C major, as the result of the flats of the earlier melody cancelling with the sharps created through the inversion. Rather than being in counterpoint, the two lines now compose different notes in the same single melody. Eventually, the upper voice disappears, leaving behind a dotted rhythm reminiscent of the theme from "Bacchus", possibly representing Narcissus' new existence as a flower.
VI. Arethusa "Arethusa" is written with a strict time signature, occasionally switching to and . The piece is able to maintain a feeling of freedom through tenuto marks, fermatas on rests between phrases, and direction to play
espressivo; the tenuto marks initially emphasize the first note on each measure, but Britten plays with syncopation later in the piece. "Arethusa" is written in ternary form, though Britten includes a short alternate ending after the A section. The A section (
Largamente) is composed of downward cascading arpeggioesque figures, each consisting of six slurred sixteenth notes. Each phrase consists of a bar line, and each individual cascade takes up one measure. The first of these phrases centered about D major, with added sharps hinting at the Lydian mode; the end of this phrase reaches F♯ major, facilitating a modulation into a second B major phrase. Then, a G major phrase, in which the length of each cascade decreases from six notes to three or four or five, quickening the harmonic rhythm. The section culminates with four downward bursts of thirty-second notes. The first of these (an F♯ minor 9th chord) deviates from the established harmony and is left unresolved; the others settle back into D major. Biggam compares these bursts to Arethusa's flight, while Mattson links them, especially the first, to her cries of distress. The B section (
poco più lento) is much more chromatic than the A section and invokes an octatonic scale. The note B♭, along with other flat notes, frequently interrupts the key of D major. The section is composed largely of descending quarter and eighth notes, with trills; Biggam, following Hiramoto, imagines these trills as the trickling of water, while Mattson more specifically imagines Arethusa hiding in a cloud. Between the trills are sixteenth arpeggios reminiscent of the A section, but this time upward and culminating in rests; Mattson describes them as "interrogatory" and imagines Arethusa wondering what is happening to her during her transformation. The reprised A section (
animando) begins with repeated slurred measures of sixteenth notes, but this time the phrases' contours are more complicated; the sixteenth notes bubble up and down rather than descending, which Mattson compares to a fountain. Eventually, this bubbling returns to the original downward motif, and the movement energetically and definitively finishes with a cascade of multi-octave
fortissimo D major arpeggios. This ending is comparable with the endings of
Phantasy Quartet and
Temporal Variations, all finishing on the oboe's fundamental pitch of D. == Recordings ==