Britten had a strong affinity for children all his life. Part of that affinity had to do, certainly, with the erotic attraction he felt to young boys, but he also had an uncommon gift to identify with the thoughts and feelings of children – and the two sides of the coin mutually reinforced and enriched one another.

Works written for children constitute a constant thread throughout Britten's oeuvre, including numerous compositions for young performers (the most famous being, perhaps, the opera The Little Sweep). Britten always spoke to children in a clear and simple language, but ne never talked down to them.

Britten first wrote for children when he was little more than a child himself. The last work he completed a few month before his death, Welcome Ode, was also a young people's piece, written to honour the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Britten selected three old English poems from an anthology and connected them with two purely instrumental interludes, thereby creating a five-movement work. The composer had a lifelong fondness for the literary and musical past of his country, and it is symbolic that his final musical word should be a tribute to that tradition.

Two of the three poems Britten chose for his work were theatrical in origin, coming from Jacobean masques; the third one comes from a popular almanac but could just as well be sung and danced on stage.

The opening %u201CMarch” is less a march than a happy song about spring (evoking Britten's grandiose Spring Symphony of 1949). The orchestral %u201CJig” is modelled on a traditional Scottish dance with some untraditional harmonies. %u201CRoundel,” the central movement, has a quiet, pastorale-like melody. A brief orchestral transition is followed by the lively %u201CCanon,” in which, however, the canon is only one of several ways the lively tune is presented.