Cantata academica, BTC 1097

The cantata, completed in March 1959, was written for the 500th anniversary of the University of Basel on 1 July the following year. The Latin text, which was compiled by Bernhard Wyss (de), is based on the charter of the university, as well as older orations praising Basel. Britten wrote out the text for the work on the pages of his old preparatory-school German exercise book. He later used the same book to plan his War Requiem.