EDWARD BENJAMIN BRITTEN, Engliah Composer (1913-1976). Edward Benjamin Britten free midi downloads.

EDWARD BENJAMIN BRITTEN
22^thNovember 1913 --- 4^thDecember 1976

Edward Benjamin Britten, (born 1913, Lowestoft, Suffolk, Eng.--died 1976, Aldeburgh, Suffolk), leading British composer
of the mid-20th century, whose operas are considered the finest English operas since those of Henry Purcell in the 17th
century. He was also an outstanding pianist and conductor.

Britten composed as a child and at the age of 12 began several years of study under the composer and teacher Frank
Bridge. He later studied under John Ireland and Arthur Benjamin at the Royal College of Music in London and while there
composed the set of choral variations A Boy Was Born (1933 revised, 1958). He then worked as a composer for the
radio, theatre, and cinema, coming into close contact with the poet W.H. Auden. In 1937 his Variations on a Theme of
Frank Bridge, for string orchestra, won him international acclaim.

From 1939 to 1942 he was in the United States, where his first work for the stage, the operetta Paul Bunyan (1941
libretto by Auden), was performed. A commission by the Koussevitzky Foundation led to the composition of his opera
Peter Grimes (1945, libretto was done by M. Slater after GeorgeCrabbe's poem The Borough, which placed Britten in the
forefront of 20th-century composers of opera. His later operas include The Rape of Lucretia (1946), the comic Albert
Herring ( 1947), Billy Budd (1951 after Herman Melville), Gloriana (1953, which was written for the coronation of Queen
Elizabeth II), thenThe Turn of the Screw (1954, done after Henry James), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960) Owen
Wingrave (television, 1971), and Death in Venice (1973 after Thomas Mann).

With the church parable Curlew River (1964), his conception of musical theatre which took a new direction, by combining
influences from the Japanese no theatre and English medieval religious drama. Two other church parables, The Burning
Fiery Furnace (1966) and The Prodigal Son (1968), followed. An earlier church-pageant opera, Noye's Fludde (1958)
made use of one of the medieval Chester miracle plays. The Rape of Lucretia marked the inception of the English Opera
Group, with Britten as artistic director, composer, and conductor. This undertaking gave rise to the Aldeburgh Festival
(founded 1947), which became one of the most important English music festivals and the centre of Britten's musical
activities.

Preeminent among Brittens nontheatrical music are his song cycles. Among those that established his stature as a master
songwriter are (for voice and piano) Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940; written for the tenor Peter Pears, his lifelong
friend and artistic partner), The Holy Sonnets of John Donne (1945), Winter Words v(1953), and Hölderlin Fragment
(1958) (and for voice and orchestra) Our Hunting Fathers (1936; text by Auden), Les Illuminations (1939, text by Arthur
Rimbaud), and Serenade (1943).

Britten's largest choral work is the War Requiem (1962) for choir and orchestra, based on the Latin requiem mass text
and the poems of Wilfred Owen, who was killed in World War I. Other choral works include the Hymn to St. Cecilia (1942
text by Auden), Ceremony of Carols (1942), Rejoice in the Lamb (1943), St. Nicolas (1948), Spring Symphony (1949) and
Voices for Today (1965; written for the United Nations' 20th anniversary).

Among his principal instrumental works are the Simple Symphony for strings (1925), three string quartets (1941, 1945
and 1976), concerto for piano and for violin, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945) and Symphony in D Major
for Cello and Orchestra (1963), written for the Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

Britten's operas are admired for their skillful setting of English words and their orchestral interludes, as well as for their
dramatic aptness and depth of psychological characterization. In chamber operas such as The Rape of Lucretia and the
church parables, he proved that serious music theatre could flourish outside the opera house. His continual willingness
to experiment with modern musical styles, forms, and sonorities and with new theatrical environments proved extremely
fruitful.

Britten was created Companion of Honour in 1953 and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1965. In June 1976 he was
created a life peer, the first musician or composer to be elevated to the peerage.
Copyright 1994-1998 Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated on 2017
By Steven Ritchie

And now for the Music

Thanks go to Ramon Pajares Box for the music below.
(1858)"The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Opus.34". Sequenced by Ramon Pajares Box

(1453)"4 Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Opus.33a". Sequenced by Dr David Siu

(1454)"4 Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Opus. 33a". Sequenced by Dr David Siu

(1456)"The Young Persons Guide To The Orchestra, Opus.34". Sequenced by A.Given

(625)"A Ceremony of Carols, Opus.28, No.7 Interlude". Sequenced by Richard Summers

(626)"Hymn to Saint Cecilia, Opus 27, Part 1". Sequenced by Dr David Siu

(627)"Hymn to Saint Cecilia, Opus 27, Part 2". Sequenced by Dr David Siu

(32a)"Hymn to Saint Cecila Opus.27 Part 3". Sequenced by David Siu

(503)"Wolcum Yol, from Ceremony of Carols,(Info by Carl Stenger)". Sequenced by Don Robinson

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