Peter Pears once described Benjamin Britten as a Greek who worships all the gods'; and in order to come to terms with Britten's music it is necessary to recognize a language deeply embedded in this Western tradition. This book is devoted to Night-piece (Notturno), written for the first Leeds International Pianoforte Competition of 1963. It addresses the work from many points of view: historical, documentary, analytical, formal, kinetic, hermeneutical, and affective. It also includes a wide range of illustrated allusions to other music, a full set of sketches, the printed score, arrays of modes and voice-leading graphs, and two appendices that take the issues of intensification and neapolitan relations further. In so doing, it provides a new model for the study of Britten's work in general.