Some English Composers and the Music of Benjamin Britten

Dear friends,

Here I am, back to my favourite subject, music. Today I will talk about music in Great Britain. As we all know, the UK is the world’s greatest market for music consumers, buying more albums per head than anywhere else. From Glyndebourne to Glastonbury, the UK hosts the world’s greatest music festivals. For instance, at the 2012 London Olympics, the opening and closing ceremonies  celebrated major aspects of music as a powerful aspect of British national identity.

Going back to history, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries English musicians had a great reputation in Europe, both for their talent and for their originality. Today there is a revival of interest in these neglected composers. It was their experiments in keyboard music which helped to form the base from which grew most of the great harpsichord and piano music of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

William Byrd was the most distinguished English composer of the 16th century, and his name is still widely known. Byrd’s musical stature can hardly be overrated. He wrote extensively for every medium then available except, it seems, the lute. His virginal and organ music brought the English keyboard style to new heights and pointed the way to the achievements of other English composers, such as John Bull, Giles Farnaby, Orlando Gibbons, and Thomas Tomkins.
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Photo credit: sinfonica.com.co

In the centuries which followed, England produced no composers of world rank except for Purcell in the 17th and 18th centuries, and Elgar in the 20th century. In the latter, many people believe there has been a reflowering of English music, and the compositions of some contemporary composers will live on after their deaths. The music of Michael Tippett, William Waltonis and, last but not least, Benjamin Britten performed all over the world.

Britten was an outstanding pianist and conductor, the most important British composer of the 20th century. "Composing is like driving down a foggy road toward a house. Slowly you see more details of the house - the colour of the slates and bricks, the shape of the windows. The notes are the bricks and the mortar of the house", he used to say.
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Britten’s prodigious musical talent was recognised early on. He left school at thirteen and went to study composition with John Ireland at the Royal College of Music. He also studied piano with Arthur Benjamin and would go on to become one of the finest accompanists of his generation.
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He wrote over 100 major works including operas, songs, string quartets and other chamber works, a violin concerto, choral works, incidental music, symphonies and other orchestral works. Of these, he is best known for the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34 (1934)—a sixteen minute work designed to introduce listeners to the various instruments and families of the modern orchestra.
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Photo credit: 50years.library.nd.edu

His operas were considered the finest English operas since those of Henry Purcell in the 17th century. Some of his operas, such as Noyes Fludde (Noah’s Flood) are performed in churches every year, and people from the surrounding area sing and act in them. 

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Britten’s approach was always to write for a person or occasion; he could not write in a vacuum, isolated from the rest of humanity, in an ivory tower and detached from the treatment and reception of his works by musicians and the general public.

He has been called a “people’s composer” because he composed music, particularly operas and choral works, that can be sung by ordinary people and by children. As performers, he liked children’s simplicity and intensity; as audiences he found them highly receptive, very choosy perhaps.
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What’s more, the festival he started in his little home town, Aldeburgh, on the North Sea coast of Suffolk, has become one of the most important musical festivals in Britain. It retains a unique character, largely due to its location in rural Suffolk. It also continues to emphasise the presentation of new music, new interpretations and the rediscovery of forgotten music. 

I hope this post will motivate you to discover his music! Enjoy!
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Teacher Barbara