Canticle III was premiered by Peter Pears (tenor), Dennis Brain (French horn) and the composer on piano.

[1] The structure of the piece is similar to that of the opera The Turn of the Screw which was premiered a few months before Canticle III.

This structure is characterized by the alternation of an instrumental theme-and-variations (in the horn and piano) with six verses of text settings.

The theme of the variations is presented as an introduction, and consists of a sixteen-bar melody on the horn introducing all twelve notes.

The horn and tenor unite only at the very end, on a rhythmic unison, when the poem evokes the voice of God.