Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten,[1] OM CH (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist; and one of the central figures of 20th century British classical music. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to international fame. For the next fifteen years he devoted much of his compositional attention to writing operas, establishing him as one of the leading 20th century figures in this genre.
Britten's interests as a composer were wide-ranging; he produced important music in such varied genres as orchestral, choral, solo vocal (much of it written for his life partner, tenor Peter Pears), chamber and instrumental, as well as film music. He also took a great interest in writing music for children and amateur performers, and was an outstanding pianist and conductor.
Britten was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on 22 November 1913, the youngest of four children. His father, Robert, was a dentist, and his mother Edith, a talented amateur musician who gave Britten his first lessons in piano and notation. He showed musical gifts very early in life, making his first attempts at composition aged five, and thereafter composing prolifically as a child.[2] He started piano lessons with a teacher from his pre-prep school when aged 7, and viola lessons with Audrey Alston when 10 years old.
John Piper's Benjamin Britten memorial window in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Aldeburgh
Britten heard Frank Bridge’s orchestral poem The Sea at a festival and was, as he put it, ‘knocked sideways’.[2] Alston was a family friend of Frank Bridge and was able to arrange an introduction. After examining Britten's work, Bridge took him on as a composition pupil, and the first lesson took place on 10 January 1928, a few weeks after Britten's 14th birthday.[3] One of the first pieces composed during the period of Bridge's tutelage was the Quatre Chansons françaises for soprano and orchestra, though it appears that Britten's abilities as an orchestrator were essentially self-taught rather than learned from Bridge.[4]
He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt and then studied, 1930–33, at the Royal College of Music under John Ireland (composition) and Arthur Benjamin (piano). Britten also used his time in London to attend concerts and become better acquainted with the music of Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Mahler, and Dmitry Shostakovich. Although ultimately dissuaded by his parents (at the suggestion of College staff), Britten had also intended postgraduate study with Alban Berg in Vienna.
Britten was a prolific juvenile composer: some 800 works and fragments precede his early published works. His first compositions to attract wide attention were the Sinfonietta Op. 1, A Hymn to the Virgin (1930) and a set of choral variations A Boy was Born, written in 1934 for the BBC Singers. In this same period he wrote Friday Afternoons, a collection of 12 songs mostly for unison singing, for the pupils of Clive House School, Prestatyn where Britten's brother, Robert, was headmaster.[5]
In April 1935 he was approached by the film director Alberto Cavalcanti to write the film score for the documentary The King's Stamp, produced by the GPO Film Unit.[6] He subsequently met W. H. Auden, who was also working for the GPO Film Unit; together they worked on the films Coal Face and Night Mail.[7] They also collaborated on the song cycle Our Hunting Fathers Op. 8, radical both in politics and musical treatment, and other works.
Of more lasting importance to Britten was his meeting in 1937 with the tenor Peter Pears, who was to become his musical collaborator and inspiration as well as his life partner. In the same year he composed a Pacifist March (words, Ronald Duncan) for the Peace Pledge Union, of which, as a pacifist, he had become an active member, but the work was not a success and soon withdrawn. One of Britten's most noteworthy works from the 1930s was Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge for string orchestra, Op. 10, written in 1937.
In April 1939 Britten and Pears followed Auden to America. There, in 1940, Britten composed Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, the first of many song cycles for Pears. Already friends with the composer Aaron Copland, Britten encountered his latest works Billy the Kid and An Outdoor Overture, both of which manifestly influenced his own music.[8] While in America Britten wrote his first music drama, Paul Bunyan, an operetta (to a libretto by Auden). The period in America was also remarkable for a number of orchestral works, including the Violin Concerto Op. 15, and Sinfonia da Requiem Op. 20 (for full orchestra).
In the meantime, Britten had had his first encounter with Balinese gamelan music through the transcriptions for two pianos made by the Canadian composer Colin McPhee. Britten first met McPhee at Stanton Cottage in the summer of 1939, and the two subsequently performed a number of McPhee's transcriptions for a recording.[9] This musical encounter was to bear fruit decades later in several Balinese-inspired works including The Prince of the Pagodas,[10] Noye's Fludde[11] and Death in Venice.[12]
Britten and Pears returned to England in April 1942, and both applied for recognition as conscientious objectors; Britten was initially allowed only non-combatant service in the military, but gained unconditional exemption on appeal. He completed the choral works Hymn to St. Cecilia (his last large-scale collaboration with Auden) and A Ceremony of Carols during the long sea voyage. He had already begun work on his opera Peter Grimes based on the writings of Suffolk poet George Crabbe; its première at Sadler's Wells in 1945 was his greatest success thus far. However, Britten encountered opposition from sectors of the English musical establishment and gradually withdrew from the London scene, founding the English Opera Group in 1947 and the Aldeburgh Festival the following year, partly (though by no means solely) to perform his own works. From 1949 to 1951 he had his only private pupil, Arthur Oldham. One of Oldham's achievements was the setting for full orchestra of Britten's Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge, for the Frederick Ashton ballet Le Rêve de Léonor (1949).[13]
Peter Grimes was the first in a series of English operas, of which Billy Budd (1951) and The Turn of the Screw (1954) were particularly admired. His Shakespeare opera, A Midsummer Night's Dream, followed in 1960. These operas share common themes. Even in his comic opera Albert Herring of 1947, all feature an 'outsider' character excluded or misunderstood by society. Often this is the eponymous protagonist, as in Peter Grimes and Owen Wingrave.
Britten was appointed a Companion of Honour (CH) in the Coronation Honours, 1953.[14]
An increasingly important influence was the music of the East, an interest that was fostered by a tour with Pears in 1957, when Britten was struck by the music of the Balinese gamelan and by Japanese Noh plays. The fruits of this tour include the ballet The Prince of the Pagodas (1957) and the series of semi-operatic "Parables for Church Performance": Curlew River (1964), The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966) and The Prodigal Son (1968). The greatest success of Britten's career was, however, the War Requiem, written for the 1962 consecration of the newly reconstructed Coventry Cathedral.
Britten developed close friendships with Russian musicians Dmitri Shostakovich and Mstislav Rostropovich in the 1960s. He composed his Cello Suites, Cello Symphony and Cello Sonata for Mstislav Rostropovich, and conducted the first Western performance of Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony. Shostakovich dedicated this score to Britten, and often spoke very highly of his music. Britten himself had previously dedicated The Prodigal Son (the third and last of the 'Church Parables') to Shostakovich. He was honoured again by appointment to the Order of Merit (OM) on 23 March 1965.[15]
In his last decade, Britten's health deteriorated, and his later works became more and more sparse in texture. They include the operas Owen Wingrave (1970) and Death in Venice (1971–1973), the Suite on English Folk Tunes "A Time There Was" (1974) and Third String Quartet (1975)— which drew on material from Death in Venice— as well as the dramatic cantata Phaedra (1975), written for Janet Baker.
Having previously declined a knighthood, Britten accepted a life peerage on 2 July 1976 as Baron Britten, of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk.[16] A few months later he died of heart failure at his house in Aldeburgh. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul's Church there, with a gravestone carved by Reynolds Stone. The grave of his partner, Sir Peter Pears, lies next to his, and near to that of Imogen Holst, a close friend. A memorial stone to him was unveiled in the north choir aisle of Westminster Abbey in 1978.
The Red House in Aldeburgh, where Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears lived and worked together for almost thirty years, is now the home of the Britten-Pears Foundation, established to promote their musical legacy.
Britten's operas are firmly established in the international repertoire. According to Operabase, he has more operas played worldwide than any other composer born in the 20th century,[17] and only Puccini and Richard Strauss come ahead of him if the list is extended to all operas composed after 1900.[18]
| Title |
Opus |
Description |
Libretto and source |
Premiere |
Publ. |
| Paul Bunyan |
Op. 17 |
Operetta in two acts, 114' |
W. H. Auden, after the American folktale |
1941-05-055 May 1941, Brander Matthews Hall, New York |
Faber |
| Peter Grimes |
Op. 33 |
Opera in a prologue and three acts, 147' |
Montagu Slater, after the poem The Borough by George Crabbe |
1945-06-077 June 1945, Sadler's Wells, London |
B&H |
| RapeThe Rape of Lucretia |
Op. 37 |
Opera in two acts, 107' |
Ronald Duncan, after the play Le Viol de Lucrèce by André Obey |
1946-07-1212 July 1946, Glyndebourne |
B&H |
| Albert Herring |
Op. 39 |
Comic opera in three acts, 137' |
Eric Crozier, loosely after the short story Le Rosier de Mme. Husson by Guy de Maupassant |
1947-06-2020 June 1947, Glyndebourne |
B&H |
| BeggarThe Beggar's Opera |
Op. 43 |
Ballad opera, 108' |
after the ballad opera by John Gay |
1948-05-2424 May 1948, Cambridge Arts Theatre |
B&H |
| LetLet's Make an Opera (The Little Sweep) |
Op. 45 |
An Entertainment for Young People, 130' |
Eric Crozier |
1949-06-1414 June 1949, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Festival |
B&H |
| Billy1Billy Budd |
Op. 50 |
Opera in four acts, 162' |
E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, after the novella by Herman Melville |
1951-12-011 December 1951, Royal Opera House, London |
B&H |
| Billy2Billy Budd (revised) |
Op. 50 |
Opera in two acts, 158' |
|
1964-01-099 January 1964, Royal Opera House, London (revised version) |
B&H |
| Gloriana |
Op. 53 |
Opera in three acts, 148' |
William Plomer, after Elizabeth and Essex by Lytton Strachey |
1953-06-088 June 1953, Royal Opera House, London |
B&H |
| TurnThe Turn of the Screw |
Op. 54 |
Opera in a prologue and two acts, 101' |
Myfanwy Piper, after the novella by Henry James |
1954-09-1414 September 1954, Teatro La Fenice, Venice |
B&H |
| Noye's Fludde |
Op. 59 |
Music-theatre for community performance, 50' |
After the Chester Miracle Play |
1958-06-1818 June 1958, Orford Church, Aldeburgh Festival |
B&H |
| MidsummerA Midsummer Night's Dream |
Op. 64 |
Opera in three acts, 144' |
the composer and Peter Pears, after the play by Shakespeare |
1960-06-1111 June 1960, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Festival |
B&H |
| Owen Wingrave |
Op. 85 |
Opera for television in two acts, 106' |
Myfanwy Piper, after the short story by Henry James |
1971-05-1616 May 1971, BBC2 TV broadcast; 10 May 1973, Royal Opera House, London (staged) |
Faber |
| Death in Venice |
Op. 88 |
Opera in two acts, 145' |
Myfanwy Piper, after the short story by Thomas Mann |
1973-06-1616 June 1973, Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh Festival |
Faber |
Britten was an accomplished pianist, frequently performing chamber music and accompanying lieder and song recitals. However, apart from the Holiday Diary (1934), Piano Concerto (1938), Young Apollo (1939), Diversions (written for Paul Wittgenstein in 1940), Scottish Ballad (1941), he wrote relatively little music that puts the piano in the spotlight, and in a 1963 interview for the BBC said that he thought of it as "a background instrument".
One of Britten's best known works is The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946), which was composed to accompany Instruments of the Orchestra, an educational film produced by the British government, narrated and conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Its subtitle is Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell; the theme is a melody from Henry Purcell's Abdelazar. Britten gives individual variations to each of the sections of the orchestra, starting with the woodwind, then the string instruments, the brass instruments and finally the percussion. Britten then brings the whole orchestra together again in a fugue before restating the theme to close the work. The original film's spoken commentary is often omitted in concert performances and recordings.
Britten's church music is also considerable: it contains frequently performed 'classics' such as Rejoice in the Lamb, composed for St Matthew's Northampton (where the Vicar was Revd Walter Hussey), as well as A Hymn to the Virgin, and Missa Brevis for boys' voices and organ.
As a conductor, Britten performed the music of many composers, as well as his own. Among his celebrated recordings are versions of Mozart's 40th Symphony and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius (with Pears as Gerontius), and an album of works by Grainger in which Britten features as pianist as well as conductor.
Nocturnal after John Dowland for guitar (1963) has an indisputably central place in the repertoire of its instrument. This work is typically spare in his late style, and shows the depth of his lifelong admiration for Elizabethan lute songs. In each of the eight variations Britten focuses on a different feature of the work's theme, Dowland's song Come, Heavy Sleep, or its lute accompaniment, before the theme emerges complete at the close of the work.
In 2005, the Britten-Pears Foundation in partnership with the University of East Anglia was awarded funding from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to produce a thematic catalogue of Britten's works. The project is distinguished by being the first composer thematic catalogue to be published initially online. (All previous thematic catalogues have been print publications, though some have been published online later.) The work involves gathering and cataloguing manuscript and published notation and published recordings, producing a chronology, and assigning identifiers to Britten's works. These identifiers are in addition to Britten's own opus numbers and, after the style of preceding thematic catalogues such as BWV for J.S. Bach, comprise the letters 'BTC' followed by numbers assigned in chronological order. The catalogue includes numerous unpublished works and is expected, when completed in 2013, to include around 1,200 works. (Britten's published output includes around 200 works, of which 95 were assigned opus numbers.)
The Scallop by
Maggi Hambling is a sculpture dedicated to Benjamin Britten on the beach at
Aldeburgh. The edge of the shell is pierced with the words "I hear those voices that will not be drowned" from
Peter Grimes.
Early in his career, Britten made a conscious effort to set himself apart from the English musical mainstream, which he regarded as complacent, insular and amateurish. Many contemporary critics distrusted his facility, cosmopolitanism and admiration for composers such as Mahler, Berg, and Stravinsky, not at the time considered appropriate models for a young English musician. Britten's status as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century is now secure among professional critics. However, criticism of his music is apt to become entangled with consideration of his personality, his politics (especially his pacifism in World War II) and his sexuality.[19][not in citation given] Humphrey Carpenter's 1992 biography further described Britten's often fraught social, professional and sexual relationships, as did Alan Bennett's 2009 play The Habit of Art, set while Britten is composing the opera Death in Venice and centred on a fictional meeting between Britten and W. H. Auden (Britten was played in the premiere production by Alex Jennings).
In 2003, a selection of Britten's writings, edited by Paul Kildea, revealed other ways that he addressed such issues as his pacifism.[20] A further study along the lines begun by Carpenter is John Bridcut's Britten's Children, 2006, which describes Britten’s infatuation with a series of pre-adolescent and adolescent boys throughout his life, most notably David Hemmings.[21]
For many musicians, however, Britten's technique, broad musical and human sympathies and ability to treat the most traditional of musical forms with freshness and originality place him at the head of composers of his generation. A notable tribute is Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten, an orchestral piece written in 1977 by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.
- ^ Bridcut, p. 289
- ^ a b Boosey and Hawkes. Survey of Benjamin Britten's Life and Works. Retrieved 3 May 2011.
- ^ Trevor Bray Frank Bridge pages. Retrieved 3 May 2011.
- ^ See Carpenter, p.18; and Oliver, p.23
- ^ Oliver, p.217
- ^ Michael Kennedy (1981), p.16
- ^ Michael Kennedy (1981), p.17
- ^ See Peter Evans (1979), p.57
- ^ Michael Kennedy (1981), p. 31
- ^ Michael Kennedy (1981), p. 213
- ^ Michael Kennedy (1981), p. 216
- ^ Michael Kennedy (1981), p. 256
- ^ Eric Walter White, Benjamin Britten: His life and operas
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 39863. p. 2976. 26 May 1953. Retrieved 16 July 2008.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 43610. p. 3047. 26 March 1965. Retrieved 16 July 2008.
- ^ London Gazette: no. 46954. p. 9295. 6 July 1976. Retrieved 16 July 2008.
- ^ List of top composers, Operabase. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
- ^ Britten-Pears Foundation press release. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
- ^ Hywel Williams, "The Puccini of Lowestoft", The Guardian, 5 December 2006.
- ^ Paul Kildea, "In his own words". The Guardian, 18 July 2003.
- ^ See Donald Mitchell and Philip Reed (eds.), Letters from a Life: Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten 1913–1976, Faber and Faber, 1991; Humphrey Carpenter Benjamin Britten – a Biography, London. Faber and Faber, 1992; John Bridcut, Britten's Children, Faber and Faber, 2006.
- F. Avellar de Aquino. "Song of Sorrow". in The Strad Magazine, London, v. 117, Vol. 1391, p. 52–57, 2006. (on Britten's 3rd. Cello Suite)
- Philip Brett. "Benjamin Britten", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 18 October 2004), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
- Bridcut, John, Britten's Children, Faber and Faber, 2006. ISBN 0-571-22839-9
- Britten, Benjamin (edited by Philip Reed, Mervyn Cooke and Donald Mitchell) Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Volume IV, 1952–1957 The Boydell Press, 633pp
- Britten, Benjamin (edited by John Evans) Journeying Boy: the Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten, 1928–1938 (London: Faber and Faber), 2009)
- Humphrey Carpenter, Benjamin Britten: a biography (London: Faber and Faber, 1992) ISBN 0-571-14324-5
- Peter Evans. The Music of Benjamin Britten (London: J. M. Dent, 1979) ISBN 0-460-04350-1
- Michael Kennedy, 1981. Britten (London: J. M. Dent, 1983) ISBN 0-460-02201-6
- Donald Mitchell, "Britten, (Edward) Benjamin, Baron Britten (1913–1976)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 18 October 2004: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30853
- Michael Oliver. Benjamin Britten (London: Phaidon Press, 1996) ISBN 0-7148-3277-4
- Britten-Pears Foundation: biographies of Britten and Pears, timelines, work lists and descriptions, performance schedules.
- Boosey & Hawkes (Britten's publishers up to 1963): biographies, work lists and descriptions, recordings, performance schedules
- Faber Music (Publishers set up by Britten for his works after 1963): biography, work lists, recordings, performance schedules
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| 1959–1980 |
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| 1981–2000 |
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| 2001–present |
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| Persondata |
| Name |
Britten, Benjamin |
| Alternative names |
|
| Short description |
English composer |
| Date of birth |
22 November 1913 |
| Place of birth |
Lowestoft, Suffolk, England |
| Date of death |
4 December 1976 |
| Place of death |
Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England |
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