There follow 13 variations in which each instrument is in turn a soloist. Having taken the orchestra apart, Britten puts it back together in an ebullient fugue.
Rossini published his Soires Musicales, a volume of songs and duets, in 1835. Exactly a century later, Britten's arrangements of items from this collection formed the basis of his own Soires Musicales, using in addition a march from Rossini's opera William Tell, and a tarantella transformed from a sacred chorus. Matines Musicales was composed while Britten was staying in the USA. It was written to be combined with Soires into a large-scale ballet with choreography by George Balanchine. Matines follows exactly the same pattern as Soires - another march from William Tell, three pieces from Rossini's original Soires Musicales, and a final "Moto perpetuo" based on a set of vocal exercises.
The Courtly Dances are drawn from Gloriana, Britten's opera set in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, composed in 1953 in honor of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The dances refer to the forms and idioms of Elizabethan music and all occur during Act II, scene iii of the opera, a great ball at the Palace of Whitehall. In addition to the formal dances of the court, there is a march attending the queen in state and a Morris Dance.
