Benjamin Britten's Six Metamorphoses for oboe solo, Op. 49, of 1951 are his only substantial instrumental pieces to appear in his otherwise almost exclusively theatrical 1950s. The next real concert piece after the Metamorphoses would be the Sonata for cello and piano of 1961. Britten's only work for solo oboe takes Ovid's famous literary work by the same name as its starting point. The work focuses six episodes into musical sequences that give full expression to both Britten's melodic ingenuity and the oboe's expressive range, which is expanded to include far more than just traditional technical idioms and coloristic possibilities.

Certainly one might well wonder, upon first encountering the Metamorphoses, why Britten chose an instrument as seemingly limited as the oboe. However rich in tone, it is basically without extensive change in color throughout its two-and-a-half octave range and is generally monophonic. Yet, upon further acquaintance with the music, it becomes clear that it is these very restrictions that attracted Britten to the instrument and which allow his melodic and harmonic metamorphoses to take center stage, unfolding with great clarity. By restricting himself so thoroughly, the musical processes can remain pure throughout the six movements.

"Pan, who played upon the reed pipe" begins with a brief six-note gesture that will be reshaped to produce all the vital material of the movement. Obviously, the many fermatas and rests that pop up throughout this and the other five movements are not only for the purposes of isolating different musical fragments, but also designed to keep the performer from passing out. Abstract, non-linear use of pseudo-traditional harmonies such as triads, dominant seventh chords with irregular resolutions, etc., abound in the following movements, telling the stories of Phaeton and Niobe. After a musical portrayal of Bacchus, Britten moves on to the appropriately reflective tale of Narcissus and finally to the waterlogged cellular variations of Ovid's Arethusa.

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