"Noye's Fludde" has been described by the musicologist Arnold Whittall as a forerunner of Britten's church parables of the 1960s, and by the composer's biographer Paul Kildea as a hybrid work, "as much a cantata as an opera". Most of the orchestral writing, says the music analyst Eric Roseberry, lies "well within the range of intelligent young players of very restricted technique". Several episodes of the opera – such as "the grinding conflict of Britten's passacaglia theme against Dykes's familiar hymn-tune in the storm" – introduces listeners and the youthful performers to what Roseberry terms "a contemporary idiom of dissonance", in contrast to the "outworn style" of most music written for the young. With its innovatory arrangement of vocal and instrumental forces, "Noye's Fludde" is summarised by Whittall as "a brilliant demonstration of how to combine the relatively elementary instrumental and vocal skills of amateurs with professionals to produce a highly effective piece of music theatre."