Britten, (Edward) Benjamin ( Lord Britten of Aldeburgh) (b Lowestoft, 1913; d Aldeburgh, 1976). Eng. composer, pianist, conductor. His birth on St Cecilia's Day, 22 Nov., was a happy augury for the career of one of Britain's greatest composers. Essentially a vocal composer, his operas and song-cycles won wide int. acceptance. He never abandoned the principles of tonality and was a ‘modern’ composer who reached a mass audience and a conservative whose originality no radical would sensibly deny. He shared with his predecessors Parry, Vaughan Williams, and Holst, an intense interest in the work of amateurs and children. His brilliant gifts as a pianist and cond., coupled with the virtuoso nature of his inventiveness, also led him to compose mus. for great performers such as the cellist Rostropovich and the singers Vishnevskaya, Fischer-Dieskau, and Janet Baker. The greatest personal influence on his mus. was his friendship with the tenor Peter Pears, for whom he comp. many operatic and vocal roles.

Britten's mus. gifts became apparent at an early stage. In sch. holidays he had lessons from Harold Samuel (pf.) and Frank Bridge (comp.); the influence of Bridge in particular was strong and lasting. Britten was at RCM 1930–3, but found mus. atmosphere uncongenial and resented official refusal to allow him to study with Berg in Vienna. Studied pf. with Benjamin and comp. with Ireland. His astonishing early works were pubd., incl. the Sinfonietta and A Boy was Born, and his song-cycle with orch. Our Hunting Fathers (text compiled and partly written by Auden) was perf. at Norwich Fest. 1936. He worked for the G.P.O. Film Unit, writing mus. for a dozen short documentaries, the best known being Coal Face and Night Mail (both 1936). In 1937, for the Boyd Neel String Orch.'s concert at the Salzburg Fest., he wrote the Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge. He and Pears followed their friend the poet Auden to N. Amer. in 1939, staying until 1942. While in NY, f.ps. of his Vn. Conc. (1939) and Sinfonia da Requiem (1940) were given in Carnegie Hall under Barbirolli. Returning to Eng., Britten settled at Snape and Aldeburgh, Suffolk. His opera Peter Grimes was perf. at SW on 7 June 1945, a day of importance for Eng. mus. comparable with the f.p. of Elgar's Enigma Variations in June 1899. His interest in chamber opera led in 1947 to foundation of the EOG (later EMT) and his desire for a fest. rooted in Eng. village life and the work of amateurs yet capable of enticing int. performers led to the Aldeburgh Festival, first held in 1948. Thereafter his career was uneventful outwardly except for the prolific output of works of all kinds, in many of which he took part as cond. or pianist. He excelled not only in his own mus.: as an accompanist in Schubert he was second to none (Salzburg Fest. 1952, recital with Pears), he played and cond. Mozart superbly, and cond. major works by Bach, Mahler, Elgar, Schumann, and others. The Aldeburgh Fest. also featured neglected works by composers whom Britten and his colleagues deemed to deserve reappraisal. After a major heart operation in 1973 his activities were much reduced. CH 1953, OM 1965. First composer to be created life peer ( Lord Britten of Aldeburgh, 1976). ( Lord Berners was a hereditary peer.)

A major strength of Britten's art, which contributes to the dramatic effectiveness of his operas, is his gift for finding the apt, simple, quickly memorable, and not thereafter easily forgotten phrase to illustrate a point or situation. Another feature is his uncanny ability to capture the imagination and interest of children. Such works as Let's Make an Opera, Noye's Fludde, and Saint Nicolas testify to this. He was much preoccupied with themes of innocence destroyed, of the persecution of the ‘outsider’ in society (stemming from his own pacifism and conscientious objection to war service), and of cruelty. These themes found their most impressive outlet in the operas Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, and Owen Wingrave, the two last being adaptations by Myfanwy Piper of Henry James. If these, and such works as the great War Requiem, represent the dark side of his musical personality, the 1953 Coronation opera Gloriana (a failure at first), his splendid Midsummer Night's Dream, the comedy Albert Herring, and a host of choral and instrumental works such as the pf. conc., the Cantata Academica, and the Spring Symphony show a capacity for joy. He invented a new genre of music theatre in the 3 church parables, the first (Curlew River) being an adaptation of a Japanese Noh play; his song-cycles, to Eng., Fr., It., Ger., and Russ. texts are magnificent word- settings; his 5 canticles are works of original insights; and his instrumental works, in particular the str. qts. and vc. suites, explore and stretch the players’ capacities without ceasing to be musical. Few composers have caught the public's imagination in their lifetime as vividly as did Britten; each new work was eagerly awaited and absorbed. Intensely practical, he won the devoted admiration of the artists for whom he wrote, and on his several visits to the Soviet Union formed a firm friendship with Shostakovich who ded. his 14th Sym. to him. If it is his operas, particularly Peter Grimes, with its evocation of early 19th-cent. Aldeburgh, which dominate his output, it is a mistake to overlook his genius in non-vocal forms. Prin. works are:OPERAS: Paul Bunyan, Op.17 (1940–1, rev. 1974); Peter Grimes, Op.33 (1945); The Rape of Lucretia, Op.37 (1946); Albert Herring, Op.39 (1947); The Beggar's Opera, Op.43 (new version of Gay's opera, 1948); Let's Make an Opera (The Little Sweep), Op.45 (1949); Billy Budd, Op.50 (1950–1, rev. 1960); Gloriana, Op.53 (1953); The Turn of the Screw, Op.54 (1954); Noye's Fludde, Op.59 (1958); A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op.64 (1959–60); Owen Wingrave, Op.85 (1971); Death in Venice, Op.88 (1973; orch. suite arr. S. Bedford, 1984).CHURCH PARABLES: Curlew River, Op.71 (1964); The Burning Fiery Furnace, Op.77 (1966); The Prodigal Son, Op.81 (1968).BALLET: The Prince of the Pagodas, Op.59 (1956).ORCH.: Sinfonietta, Op.1 (1932); A Simple Symphony, Op.4 (1933–4); Soirées musicales, Op.9 (arr. of Rossini, 1936); Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op.10 (1937); Mont Juic, Op.12 (suite of Catalan dances composed jointly with L. Berkeley, 1937); Canadian Carnival, Op.19 (1939); Young Apollo, Op.16, pf., str. qt., str. orch. (1939, withdrawn until 1979); Overture, Paul Bunyan (1940, rev. 1974, orch. C. Matthews 1977); Sinfonia da Requiem, Op.20 (1940); An American Overture, Op.27 (1941–2, f.p. 1983); Matinées musicales, Op.24 (arr. of Rossini, 1941); Prelude and Fugue, Op.29, for str. (1943); Four Sea Interludes, Op.33a, Passacaglia, Op.33b, from Peter Grimes (1944); Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell), Op.34 (1946); Occasional Overture, Op.38 (1946); Men of Goodwill (Variations on a Christmas Carol) (1947); Ov., The Building of the House, Op.79 (with ch. ad. lib.) (1967); Suite on English Folk Tunes (A Time There Was …), Op.90 (1974); Lachrymae, Op.48a, va. and str. (1976, arr. of 1950 work for va. and pf.); The Prince of the Pagodas, concert suite arr. from 1956 ballet by Lankester (1979).CONCERTOS: pf., Op.13 (1938, rev. 1945); vn., Op.15 (1939, rev. 1950 and 1958); Diversions on a Theme, Op.21, pf. left-hand (1940, rev. 1954); Scottish Ballad, Op.26, 2 pf. (1941); vc. sym., Op.68 (1963).BRASS: Russian Funeral, brass and perc. (1936).CHORAL: Hymn to the Virgin (1930, rev. 1934); A Boy Was Born, Op.3 (1933, rev. 1955); Friday Afternoons, Op.7 (children's vv.) (1933–5); Te Deum (1934); Advance Democracy (1938); Ballad of Heroes, Op.14 (1939); AMDG, 4 prayers and holy songs of G. M. Hopkins, for unacc. ch. (1939); Ceremony of Carols, Op.28, treble vv. and hp. (1942); Hymn to St Cecilia, Op.27 (1942); Rejoice in the Lamb, Op.30 (1943); Festival Te Deum, Op.32 (1944); Saint Nicolas, Op.24 (1947–8); Spring Symphony, Op.44 (1948–9); Five Flower Songs (1950); Missa Brevis, Op.63 (boys’ vv.); Cantata Academica, Op.62 (1959); Jubilate Deo and Venite (1961); War Requiem, Op.66 (1961); Cantata Misericordium, Op.69 (1963); Voices for Today, Op.75 (1965); The Golden Vanity, Op.78 (boys’ vv.) (1966); Children's Crusade, Op.82 (1968); Sacred and Profane, Op.91 (1975); Welcome Ode, Op.95 (young people's ch. and orch.) (1976).SOLO VOICE & ORCH.: Quatre chansons françaises (1928); Our Hunting Fathers, Op.8 (1936); Les Illuminations, Op.18 (1938–9); Serenade, Op.31 (1943); Nocturne, Op.60 (1958); Phaedra, Op.93 (1975).SOLO VOICE & PIANO (unless otherwise indicated): 3 Early Songs (1922–6); 4 Cabaret Songs (1937); On This Island, Op.11 (1937); Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op.22 (1939–40); Folk-Song Arrangements, Vol. I British (1945), II French (1946), III British (1948); 9 Holy Sonnets of John Donne, Op.35 (1945); Canticle I, My Beloved is Mine, Op.40 (1947); A Charm of Lullabies, Op.41 (1947); Canticle II, Abraham and Isaac, Op.51 (1952); Winter Words, Op.52 (1953); Canticle III, Still Falls the Rain, Op.55 (with hn. and pf.) (1954); Songs from the Chinese, Op.58 (v. and guitar) (1957); 6 Hölderlin-Fragmente, Op.61 (1958); Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, Op.74 (1965); The Poet's Echo, Op.76 (1965); Who are these Children?, Op.84 (1969); Canticle IV, Journey of the Magi, Op.86 (1971); Canticle V, The Death of St Narcissus, Op.89 (v. and hp.) (1974); A Birthday Hansel, Op.92 (v. and hp.) (1975); 8 Folk Song Arrangements (v. and harp) (1976).CHAMBER WORKS: Elegy, va. (1926); Rhapsody, str. qt. (1929); Quartettino, str. qt. (1930); Phantasy String Quintet (1932); Phantasy Oboe Quartet, Op.2 (1932); 2 Insect Pieces, ob., pf. (1935, Op. posth., f.p. 1979); Suite, Op.6, vn., pf. (1934–5); 3 Divertimenti, str. qt. (1936); Temporal Variations, ob., pf. (1936); Reveille, vn., pf. (1937); str. qt. No.1, Op.25 (1941), No.2, Op.36 (1945), No.3, Op.94 (1975); str. qt. in D (1931, rev. 1974); Lachrymae, Op.48, va., pf. (1950); 6 Metamorphoses after Ovid, Op.49, ob. (1951); vc. sonata, Op.65 (1961); Suite No.1 for vc., Op.72 (1964), No.2, Op.80 (1967), No.3, Op.87 (1971); Gemini Variations, Op.73 (fl., vn., and pf. 4 hands) (1965); Tema-Sacher, vc. (1976).PIANO: 5 Walztes (Waltzes) (1923–5, re-written 1969); Holiday Diary, Op.5 (1934); Sonatina Romantica (1940, f.p. Aldeburgh 1983); Night Piece (Notturno) (1963).2 PIANOS: Introduction and Rondo alla burlesca, Op.23, No.1 (1940); Mazurka Elegiaca, Op.23, No.2 (1941).ORGAN: Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria (1946).INCIDENTAL MUSIC FOR FILMS, PLAYS, AND RADIO: Coal Face, Night Mail (1936); The Ascent of F6, Love from a Stranger (1937); Hadrian's Wall (1938); The Sword in the Stone (1938; concert suite for chamber ens. ed. C. Matthews); Johnson Over Jordan (1939); The Sword in the Stone (1939); The Rescue (1943); This Way to the Tomb (1945); The Duchess of Malfi (1946); The Dark Tower (1946); Men of Goodwill (1947); and others.

Benjamin Britten

The English composer, pianist, and conductor Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) revitalized English opera after 1945.

Born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, Benjamin Britten had a normal preparatory school education, at the same time studying with some of the best musicians in England. At the age of 16 he entered the Royal College of Music on a scholarship. By then he had already composed a large quantity of music, and before long he was represented in print with the publication of the Sinfonietta for chamber orchestra, written when he was 19.

Prior to World War II Britten furnished music for a number of plays and documentary films. He also continued with other composing, the most prominent item being the Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge (1937), his first major success. He lived in the United States from 1939 to 1942. Despite the turmoil of war, the period from 1939 to 1945 was a highly creative one for him, climaxed by the production of his opera Peter Grimes (1945). A year later Britten helped to form the English Opera Company, devoted to the production of chamber opera and in 1948 he founded the summer festival at Aldeburgh, where he made his home. He performed frequently in public as pianist and conductor.

Britten's performance skills were impressive, but even more so were the amount and variety of music he composed. Early in his career he wrote a moderate amount of solo and ensemble music for instruments, among which is The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946), comprising variations and fugue on a theme by Henry Purcell, and later he composed several big works for the cello. Quite in the British tradition, though, music employing voices far outweighs the purely instrumental in his output. He wrote over 100 songs, mainly organized in the form of song cycles or solo cantatas, which he called "canticles," and he made arrangements of several volumes of folk songs. Representative examples are the excellent Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings (1943); Canticle No. 3, Still Falls the Rain (1954); and The Poet's Echo (1967), six songs to poems of Aleksandr Pushkin. Complementing the solo pieces for voice are numerous large works involving chorus, such as A Ceremony of Carols (1942), the Spring Symphony (1949), the Cantata Academica (1960), and especially the War Requiem (1962), which are among his best and most popular compositions.

But it is his operas that carried Britten's name farthest. Beginning rather poorly with Paul Bunyan (1941), he made a spectacular turnabout with Peter Grimes. Following these operas came two chamber operas, The Rape of Lucretia (1946) and Albert Herring (1947); a new version of The Beggar's Opera (1948); Let's Make an Opera (1949), a work for children; Billy Budd (1951); Gloriana (1953), written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II; The Turn of the Screw (1954); A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960); and three dramatized parables for church performance. While by no means uniformly successful, they represent the most sustained and influential attempt by an Englishman to create an English repertory since the time of Purcell.

With so much music to his credit, Britten must certainly be counted among the most fluent of modern composers. He is also one of the least problematical. Leaving polemics and innovation to others, he settled for a conservative tonal idiom that offers few surprises in vocabulary, textures, or formal organization. His roots are strongly in the English past, centering on Purcell and earlier composers of the Elizabethan and Tudor periods. From Purcell, Britten said he learned how to set English words to music. From this source he also may have derived his attachment to vocal music, including opera, as well as his preference for baroque forms, such as the suite and the theme and variations. Britten's strengths are his masterful handling of choral sonorities, alone or in conjunction with instruments, his imaginative treatment of the word-music relationship, his sharp sense for the immediate theatrical effect, and his unusual interest and skill in writing music for children.

Britten's example stimulated English composition, particularly in the operatic field, as it had not been stirred for ages. The United States recognized his contributions to music when, in 1963, he was the first winner of the $30,000 Robert O. Anderson Award in the Humanities.

In addition to being remembered for his compositions, Britten also gained fame as an accompanist and as a conductor. In 1976 he was declared a life peer (the granting of a non-hereditary title of nobility in Great Britain). He died later that year.

Further Reading

The most recent study of Britten is Mervyn Cooke Britten and the Far East, Boydell & Brewer, 1997. Other recent sources are Peter J. Hodgson Benjamin Britten: A Guide to Research, Garland Publishing, Inc., 1996; and Peter Evans The Music of Benjamin Britten, Oxford University Press, 1996. Hans Keller and Donald Mitchell, eds., Benjamin Britten: A Commentary on His Works from a Group of Specialists (1952), is somewhat lavish in its praise but otherwise gives illuminating remarks on Britten's first 40 years. A good general treatment of his works is Patricia Howard, The Operas of Benjamin Britten: An Introduction (1969). There is a chapter on Britten in Joseph Machlis, Introduction to Contemporary Music (1961). Eric Salzman, Twentieth Century Music: An Introduction (1967), provides a good general survey of Britten's period. R. Murray Schafer, British Composers in Interview (1963), is a revealing exposition of the tastes and ideas of Britten and his contemporaries. □

Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh 1913–76, English composer. Britten is widely considered the most significant British composer since Purcell . Britten's most characteristic expression is found in his vocal music. His many song cycles and choral works include A Boy Was Born (1933) and A Ceremony of Carols (1942). Britten's great War Requiem (1962), based on the bitter war poems of Wilfred Owen , was sung at the dedication in England of the reconstructed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed during World War II. In his operas, which include Paul Bunyan (1941), Peter Grimes (1945), The Rape of Lucretia (1946), The Beggar's Opera (1948), The Turn of the Screw (1954), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), and Death in Venice (1973), he displayed a sensitivity to text and a fondness for variation techniques, dynamic dissonance, and the use of ground basses. Britten's instrumental works, some composed when he was a youth, display considerable technical brilliance and colorful orchestration. A notable and popular example, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946), written for a film, is based on a theme by Purcell. In 1976 Queen Elizabeth II named him a life peer.

Bibliography: See biographies by I. Holst (2d ed. 1970), E. W. White (new ed. 1970), and H. Carpenter (1992); study by P. Evans (1979).

Britten, (Edward) Benjamin (1913–76), English composer who set many English poems to music, ranging from Spenser, Jonson, and Herrick, to Blake, Keats, Tennyson, and Auden (who wrote the libretto of Britten's first opera Paul Bunyan, 1941). Britten's second opera, Peter Grimes (1945), was drawn from Crabbe; Billy Budd (1951) from Melville's story adapted by E. M. Forster; The Turn of the Screw (1954) and Owen Wingrave (1970) were both from H. James; Plomer provided the text for Britten's ‘coronation’ opera Gloriana (1953); the libretto of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960) was compiled from Shakespeare's text. Britten made solo settings of individual poets, including The Holy Sonnets of John Donne (1945), Winter Words (Hardy, 1953), five Canticles with texts from Quarles, the Chester Miracle Play, E. Sitwell, and two from T. S. Eliot. His War Requiem (1962), to celebrate the dedication of the new cathedral at Coventry, includes settings of poems by W. Owen.

Britten, Edward Benjamin (1913–76), English composer. In 1947 he settled at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, where he established the famous festival. In the War Requiem, written for the celebrations connected with the dedication of Coventry Cathedral (1962), he juxtaposed poems of Wilfred Owen (who died in the 1914–18 War) with the traditional Latin text. Apart from settings for the Te Deum and Jubilate, the Missa Brevis for the trebles of Westminister Cathedral (1959), and the cantata Rejoice in the Lamb (1943), he wrote little music specifically for use in Church services, but he was preoccupied with cruelty and the plight of the innocent ‘outsider’.

Britten, (Edward) Benjamin (1913–76) English composer. He is best known for his operas, which rank him among the foremost composers of the 20th century. He also wrote numerous songs, many especially for Peter Pears. Britten's operas include Peter Grimes (1945), Billy Budd (1951), The Turn of the Screw (1954), and Death in Venice (1973). Other works include the popular Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945) and War Requiem (1962). In 1948, he established the music festival held annually at his home town of Aldeburgh, on the e coast of England. He was made a peer in 1976.

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