Friday Afternoons facts for kids

Friday Afternoons is a special collection of 12 songs written by the famous British composer Benjamin Britten. He created these songs between 1933 and 1935 for the students at Clive House School in Prestatyn, Wales. Britten's own brother, Robert, was the headmaster there.

You might have heard two of these songs, "Cuckoo" and "Old Abram Brown," in the movie Moonrise Kingdom.

How the Songs Were Made

After finishing his studies at the Royal College of Music, Benjamin Britten started writing these songs. Most of them are "unison" songs, meaning everyone sings the same melody together. The last song, "Old Abram Brown," is a "canon," where different groups of singers start the same melody at different times, creating a layered sound.

Britten chose the words for these songs from a poetry book called Come Hither by Walter de la Mare. In his diary, on November 2, 1933, Britten wrote that he had composed a song that afternoon. It was "I mun be married a Sunday," which he wrote for his brother Robert and the boys at Clive House. The song "Ee-Oh!" followed shortly after, on December 19.

Britten didn't mention writing more school songs until May 1934. He visited his brother Robert at Clive House and helped out by coaching the students in cricket and leading singing classes. That's when he continued working on the songs. He included "A New Year Carol," which used words from a traditional song called "Levy-Dew." He finished the whole collection in August 1935 with the song "Begone, Dull Care."

The collection was first called Twelve Songs for Schools. But Robert Britten suggested changing the name to Friday Afternoons. This was because the singing classes at Clive House were held on Friday afternoons. Benjamin Britten dedicated the songs "To R.H.M. Britten and the boys of Clive House, Prestatyn."

The Songs in the Collection

Here are the 12 songs in the Friday Afternoons collection:

1. "Begone, Dull Care" (words by an unknown author)
2. "A Tragic Story" (words by Thackeray)
3. "Cuckoo!" (words by Jane Taylor)
4. "Ee-Oh!" (words by an unknown author)
5. "A New Year Carol" (traditional words, edited by Walter de la Mare)
6. "I Mun Be Married on Sunday" (words by Nicholas Udall)
7. "There Was a Man of Newington" (words by an unknown author)
8. "Fishing Song" (words by Izaak Walton)
9. "The Useful Plough" (words by an unknown author)
10. "Jazz-Man" (words by Eleanor Farjeon)
11. "There Was a Monkey" (words by an unknown author)
12. "Old Abram Brown" (words by an unknown author)