Incidental music for The Ascent of F6, a stage play by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood.
Signed by Britten on ff 1, 1v, 3, and 47. The volume is not dated.
Full autograph score, in ink (with some additions in pencil and red crayon), for voices (SATB), percussion, ukulele, and two pianos, as follows:
- signed title page, in red crayon (f. 1);
- 'Music to Group Theatre production of Ascent of F6' (a numbered list, in ink, of the sequence of compositions), and a note in pencil of the published scores available, stamped 'Boosey & Hawkes Rental Library' (ff. 1v-2);
- 'I Overture', signed by Britten (ff. 3-11v);
- 'IIA' and 'IIB', 'Entr'actes for Mr & Mrs A' (f. 12);
- 'III Entr'acte & Gunn's Song' (f. 13-13v);
- 'IV Pantomime & Mother's Song' (ff. 14-17v);
- 'V Chant' (f. 18);
- 'VIA Climbing Music' (f. 19);
- 'VIB Climbing Music' (f. 20);
- 'VIC Funeral March and Chorus (off)' (ff. 21-23);
- 'VII Gunn's Song' (f. 24);
- 'VIII Caberet [sic] Jazz Song' (ff. 25-38);
- 'IX Mother's song with chorus' (ff. 39-42);
- text fragment, partly struck-through with red crayon (f. 42v);
- 'F6 Blues / ask the court to be cleared', beginning with Auden's text 'Stop all the clocks' (ff. 43-46v);
- 'Prelude to Act II' (ff. 47-48).
First performance: 26 February 1937, Mercury Theatre, London. First broadcast: BBC TV, 18 September 1938. First broadcast with complete score: BBC National, 5 December 1938.