Friday Afternoons is a collection of twelve song settings by Benjamin Britten, composed 1933–35 for the pupils of Clive House School, Prestatyn, Wales where his brother, Robert, was headmaster.
[6] There was no further mention in Britten’s diary of composing school songs until May 1934, when he spent time with Robert at Clive House and helped by coaching pupils in cricket and taking singing classes.
[8] The title of the collection was originally Twelve Songs for Schools,[9] but at the suggestion of Robert Britten was changed to Friday Afternoons, since class singing was held at Clive House at that time in the week.
"[11] John Bridcut has pointed out that Britten's use of canon in "Old Abram Brown" – a "little coup de maître [which] makes the funeral march great fun to sing"[12] — was a technique he was to reuse in several future works such as A Ceremony of Carols ("This Little Babe") and Noye's Fludde.
When the first recording was made of almost the entire collection (omitting "Ee-oh") by the Choir of Downside School, Purley on Decca, reviewer Diana McVeagh in The Musical Times described some of the songs having "a spell-binding enchantment — A New Year Carol is as healing as 'Jack shall have Jill' in The Dream.