Prolongation in the choral music of Benjamin Britten

Much of the debate over post-tonal prolongation has focused on non-triadic music, with less written about the triadic post-tonal repertory. Britten's music presents special challenges for prolongational analysis: it often features a triadic surface organized around one central pitch, but its nonfunctional harmonic motion and free alterations of diatonic and non-diatonic scalar material create tonal ambiguity. In this article I will examine three pieces by Britten which employ surface-level triads to prolong middleground symmetrical interval cycles. These cycles, in turn, prolong pitches and structures, which help establish centricity.