Described by E.M. Forster so memorably as 'one of the triumphs outside the rules of art', St Nicolas was commissioned by Esther Neville-Smith for the centenary celebrations of Lancing College , Sussex where Pears had been a pupil in the 1920s. Eric Crozier was Britten's first choice as librettist during the 1940s and they had already worked closely on Albert Herring and Peter Grimes. In September 1947 Britten wrote to Pears: 'Eric has started S. Nicolas & it looks good - I think he's developing well as a poet - & very settable. I've given him the Creation as a model - a good one, I think.'

In December, Britten told Pears: 'And now, I'm beginning St. Nicolas & enjoying it hugely. It'll be difficult to write, because that mixture of subtlety & simplicity is most extending, but very interesting...I think St Michael's will have to be relegated to the galleries (where anyhow girls should be in Church), because they are obviously most suited to the wind noises and so forth. Yes, writing's all most exciting and interesting, but it doesnt get any easier.'

Out of relatively modest resources (string quintet, piano duet, organ and percussion), Britten is able to conjure up an extraordinarily wide range of textures, from the hard-edged to the warm, as well as exploring the possibilities for several felicitous representational effects. In the latter category must fall the remarkable storm in No.4 where even the voices add most tellingly to the drama, and No.2, where the musical portrayal of Nicolas’s bath water, church going and reverence all conspire to heighten the effect of an innocent A major waltz.

Two movements are dedicated to Nicolas alone. In No.3, Britten creates a complex blend of recitative and arioso against a string accompaniment, with the saint’s initial despair following his parents death painted against agonized minor 2nds and 7ths. The parallel solo in the second half of the cantata is a dark and subdued D minor scherzo-like movement full of nervous tension and agitated quaver syncopations. Both movements share something of the musical world of the Donne Sonnets (1945).

The audience/congregation play an integral part in the performance: namely, by joining with the performers in singing the hymn ‘All people that on earth do dwell’ (to the ancient tune of the Old Hundredth) at the conclusion of the fugue celebrating Nicolas’s enthronement as Bishop of Myra. Here, and in the final hymn, ‘God moves in a mysterious way’ (sung to London New), Britten at once touches the past and looks to the future. In many ways, ‘The Death of Nicolas’ (No.9), to which the singing of London New provides a cathartic coda, is the most remarkable compositional achievement in the entire work, the quasi-plainsong chanting of the Nunc dimittis combining with Nicolas’s final words in a passage full of semitonal tension.