Benjamin Britten Unravelled
Albury – 7:30pm Saturday 14 November 2026 at St Matthew’s
Wangaratta – 2:30pm Sunday 15 November 2026 HTC
Benjamin Britten – 1913 to 1976
Introduction
2026 is the 50th anniversary of Britten’s death. On 4th December, 1976, Britten passed away from ‘Congestive cardiac failure and aortic incompetence’. Between the mid-1990s and 2010, a number of Britten’s medium-scale choral works have been performed locally, including: A ceremony on Carols, A boy was Born, Rejoice in the Lamb, Christ’s Nativity (extracts), Choral Dances from Gloriana, AMDG and Flower songs. Each work has been greeted enthusiastically by audiences and adored by the performers.
Unravelling Britten – the title chosen for this concert – would be an impossible task without a lifetime of study. The man, his life and his works are rich, complex and hugely diverse topics of discovery. In this concert, we are aiming to provide a balance between the performance of beautiful music – including by Britten himself – and telling a part of Britten’s story; what circumstances and influences came together resulting in the generation of such an array of extraordinary music. The program is presented based on a chronology of influences and events, starting with what influenced his home life before commencing school, progressing through his school years, his teenage years and exposure to church music, then his time at the Royal College of Music and beyond. To do even this would require a significantly longer performance time than we have available; it has been a near impossible task to select the key works central to Britten’s story, and in fact many works originally chosen have by necessity been omitted from the program.
Britten is widely considered one of the greatest English composers of the 20th Century; this among some famous names including Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Tippet. Britten’s work spans almost the entire spectrum of classical musical form: choral, solo vocal, solo instrumental, orchestral, opera, chamber music and film scores, with much of his work in each of these forms ‘breaking new ground’.
He was born Edward Benjamin Britten in 1913 on November 23 (the feast day of St Cecelia, the patron saint of music) in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England. His parents were Robert Britten (dentist) and Edith Rhode, a talented amateur musician, singer, and secretary of the local choral society. It was his mother, Edith, who initially – and very actively! – nurtured Benjamin’s early musical gifts, believing from an early age that he could become the 4th great B among composers, joining Bach, Beethoven and Brahms (she may have omitted a few along the way: Bruckner, Berlioz …. Byrd, Bizet. There were to be many more in the 20th Century too: Berg, Bartok, Barber. Clearly if he were to be successful, he would be joining exalted ranks).
Up to age 14, he attended South Lodge Preparatory School in Lowestoft, moving to Gresham’s School in Holt, Norfolk, from 1928 to 1930. At home, he was immersed in music from the time of his birth, given his mother’s role both in performance and organising music events for local societies.
He was prodigious, his early years showing truly staggering productivity, starting his musical jottings prior to any training in notation. He had a strong creative impulse, and clearly music was destined to be his primary form of emotional and creative expression. His parents actively fostered his obvious talent, including by providing him a personal, private retreat at home where he would spend most of his non-school time writing music. He was an accomplished performer, of both piano and viola, and in his early teens engaged in much music making at home with his mother and her circle of friends. There he met some great performers of the day, as well as learning the joy of the classical chamber music repertoire, including that of Mozart, Haydn, Brahms and Beethoven.
In October 1927, aged 13, he was taken by his then viola teacher, Audrey Alston, to a performance of Frank Bridge’s symphonic suite ‘The Sea’. The composer, known personally to Audrey, was conducting the performance, and Audrey arranged for a post-performance meeting between the two. This was a pivotal moment in Britten’s life; Bridge was so impressed with Britten’s early musical scores that he offered to take him on as his only private composition student. Given his previously unstructured, untutored writing, this would have been difficult for Britten as Bridge demanded technical perfection, that Britten ‘learn the rules before breaking them’, involving of course a study of the works of the great technical masters including Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. In a diary entry of November 1928 – after commencing such study – he noted that of the great composers Beethoven would always be first in his opinion, followed by either Bach or Brahms. In fact, as he matured, his respect for Brahms’ work quickly waned, as it did to a degree for Beethoven; throughout his entire life, though, he remained devoted to Bach’s work, frequently performing and conducting Bach’s major works.
Edith was a devout Anglican and took her son weekly to church, exposing the young Benjamin to the rich musical traditions of the Church of England. In a home with no gramophone, this – along with his mother’s musical endeavours – would have been one of his primary experiences, introducing to him the broad church music repertoire, from the renaissance to the then contemporary (Stanford, Elgar, etc.). These influences remained with and flavoured Britten’s work throughout his creative life. In his mid and late teens, however, he became disillusioned with the church, firstly aligned – it seemed to him – with state-sanctioned violence and war, and secondly strongly condemning his own homosexual identity.
He was very much a ‘small ‘c’ christian’, admiring the moral teachings of Jesus. In particular, and possibly as a result of his own troubled young life, he felt great affinity for any teachings centred on compassion for the vulnerable, marginalised and oppressed. He loved the individual and sought through his music to speak to ‘ordinary folk’, not to the privileged classes; never seeking to impress technical critics with his obvious genius. He simply saw raw life in the first half of the twentieth century and sought to express the human response through music. It was this, in a way, that underpinned his disdain for the English Pastoral School.
In the second half of the 19th century, English composition had been dominated by figures such as Hubert Parry and Charles V Stanford. They had effectively breathed some new life into English choral music, a genre dominated for centuries by German and Italian composers. In 1882, partly as a result of Stanford’s enthusiasm, the Royal College of music was established; through their compositions he and Parry laid the groundwork for English music’s separate identity. They were followed at the end of the century by music giants including Elgar, Delius, Vaughan Williams and Holst. Of these, the output of Elgar (e.g. Dream of Gerontius, the famous ‘cello concerto, Pomp and Circumstance marches) and Vaughan Williams (e.g. Lark Ascending, Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis) were considered by the young Britten largely backward-looking, ‘English Pastoral’ in nature, compared to those of Holst (e.g Planets suite, St Paul’s suite) and Delius (e.g. on hearing the first cuckoo in Spring, The Walk to the Paradise Garden) who were more heavily influenced by emerging musical trends from continental Europe and beyond. In particular after commencing at the Royal College of Music in 1930, it was these outside influences – the emerging compositional developments in mainland and Eastern Europe – that Britten was particularly drawn to. With Bridge’s assistance and direction, he was introduced to the works of Mahler, Berg, Schoenberg, Bartok and the early works of Shostakovich; and with these influences – at the same time looking back to the English Baroque – came some of Britten’s early masterpieces, including ‘A boy was born’ (age 19) and his ‘Simple Symphony’ (age 20). At College he studied piano under Arthur Benjamin and composition under John Ireland, while maintaining extremely close ties with Frank Bridge. Meanwhile, Continental Europe in the 1930s was troubled geopolitically, this turmoil being increasingly expressed musically by Britten’s contemporaries there, most notably Shostakovich. With the resurgence of English choral music in the 1860s and 70s, and the new music emerging in continental Europe, he saw RVW and Elgar’s musical output as unimaginative and retrograde, describing both landed privilege and times long past; rolling green pastures and an idyllic countryside.
Britten loved words. His diaries record that some days were spent simply searching for words, and that small sums of money he won by way of awards and prizes were often spent in bookshops, on the classics, on modern novels and poetry. He was an avid reader, somehow devouring in a day or two books that would take most readers several weeks or months, while at the same time producing vast amounts of music. He was a true master of merging the two arts: prose/poetry and music.
As a lifelong avowed pacifist, Britten left for North America shortly before World War II broke out, living in New York and California, where he completed works like Sinfonia da Requiem and, most importantly for us, AMDG. He had met Aaron Copland in 1938 and spent a significant amount of time with him in America. This is a relationship which could easily have become highly significant in Britten’s life, however his time in the US was relatively short. In 1941 he read the transcript of a radio broadcast by E.M. Forster about George Crabbe, an 18th Century poet born in Aldeburgh, Britten’s home town. He was intensely home-sick and America, recently dragged into WW2 following the attack at Pearl Harbour, was no longer a refuge from war. He and Peter Pears returned to the UK in the first half of 1942.
Britten is widely considered one of the greatest of all 20th Century composers:
- He rejuvenated English opera, which had lacked a defining figure since Purcell
- In the War Requiem, he produced what is considered one of the most important choral-orchestral works of the twentieth century
- He never attempted to produce work of brilliance simply for the professionals and the critics; more important to him was to ensure the accessibility of music to children (he wrote many children’s works and operas) and amateurs.
He passed away at his home in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on December 4, 1976, at the age of 63. He is buried in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Aldeburgh, alongside Peter Pears.
Notes on the individual works
Britten – Prayer 1 from AMDG
By way of introduction, we start the concert with one of 7 poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins set to music by Britten in 1939.
Jesu that dost in Mary dwell, be in thy servants’ hearts as well,
In the spirit of thy holiness, in the fullness of thy force and stress,
In the very ways that thy life goes, and virtues that thy pattern shows,
In the sharing of thy mysteries;
And every power in us that is against thy power put under feet
In the holy ghost, the paraclete
To the glory of the Father. Amen
AMDG itself is discussed further on in these notes when we will perform two other poems from the collection. Some of the harmonic progressions built into Prayer 1 hark back to the experimental work of Carlo Gesualdo in the early 16th Century. Britten and Gesualdo shared the important belief in the reciprocal relationship between human emotion and harmonic progression: that harmony, and music generally, can both reflect human emotion and can generate an emotional response.
Early Influences
We perform here three works by composers that Britten was very much exposed to through his churchgoing experiences in childhood years and his early teens, each of Tallis, Purcell and Stanford having produced anthems which were, and which remain, essential parts of the repertoire of any Anglican church choir.
Tallis – Why fumeth in sight.
Britten had great respect for Tallis, but ironically two of Tallis’ most famous contributions to 20th Century concert performance – the theme we perform here and his momentous motet Spem in Alium – were seen somewhat negatively by Britten. The well-known theme in today’s program – originally written as a psalm tune – was rejected by Britten due to the way in which it came to be famous at the hand of Ralph Vaughan Williams. In overtly referencing Tallis, Britten deliberately ignored the work and chose to write an organ voluntary based on Tallis’ Lamentations instead. The text of today’s work is based on Psalm 2, as translated for psalter by Bishop Parker in 1567.
Why fum’th in sight the Gentiles spite, in fury raging stout?
Why tak’th in hand the people fond, vain things to bring about?
The kings arise, the lords devise, in counsels met thereto,
Against the Lord, with false accord, against His Christ they go.
Be wise therefore: ye kings the more be learned, ye that judge
The earth so wide on every side, and not against him grudge.
Serve ye the Lord: in full accord, with dread and reverent fear,
Rejoice in him; with trembling trim draw to his presence near.
Purcell – Hear my Prayer.
Britten was heavily influenced by composers of the English baroque, none more so than Henry Purcell, whose themes he often quoted. The short anthem based on two lines from Psalm 102 is a sublime example of music complementing text, Britten regarding it as a masterwork of harmonic genius. The work builds emotional tension, through increasing dissonance and the frequent use of ‘false relations’ – minor and major chords clashing, often with opposing movement. For Britten, Purcell’s anthem was a complete masterclass in how to apply rules of harmony and counterpoint in the expression of human emotion, in this case anguish and pain.
Hear my prayer, O Lord
And let my crying come unto thee.
Stanford – Beati quorum via
This is the third, and best known, of Stanford’s 3-motets, op.38. Unlike the preceding Purcell work, there is no record of Britten referring to Standford’s anthems in his writings; this notwithstanding that after its publication in 1905, it very quickly became a standard part of the Anglican repertoire. It is unthinkable that Britten wasn’t aware of it in his teens; in distinct contrast to Purcell, Britten considered Stanford’s choral work to be closer to that of Vaughan Williams – the early 20th century ‘English Academic tradition’ – and this could explain the absence of any kind of diary reference to or criticism of the work. Whatever the reason, it includes some beautiful moments and has very much withstood the test of time.
| Beati quorum via integra est: Qui ambulant in lege Domini, | Blessed are those whose path is pure: Who walk in the law of the Lord. |
Bach – Ach Gott und Herr.
After accepting Britten as a student, detailed analysis of Bach’s harmonisations was a regular feature of Bridge’s composition tuition; the chorales provided a wonderful platform for this study, particularly as Bach frequently wrote many alternative harmonisations of the same chorale. Bridge would frequently require Britten to complete Bach-style harmonisation of provided themes; many of these works survive, often with Bridge’s ‘red ink’ corrections. The significance of this study can’t be overstated; Britten throughout his life referred to the debt of gratitude he owed to Bridge for instilling this discipline and (thereby, he felt) freeing him up to develop his own style and voice.
| Ach Gott und Herr, wie groß und schwer sind mein begangne Sünden ! Da ist niemand, der helfen kann, in dieser Welt zu finden. | Ah, my Lord and God, how great and heavy are the sins I have committed! There is nobody who can help me to be found in this world. |
Britten – Hymn to the Virgin
This gem was composed in 1930, just prior to Britten completing his schooling. As we have seen, without access to a record player or a radio at home, his musical education to date had consisted of exposure to classical and romantic composers through his home life (the Chamber Music staples of Beethoven, Mozart, Hayden, Brahms), to the Anglican choral canon through his churchgoing, and to the rigours of studying Bach (amongst other things) under Frank Bridge …. all this overlain on his young, fertile, emotionally expressive mind. He had received a copy of the ‘Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900’ as a music prize at his high school, Gresham’s. Finding himself in the sick bay at school, just before the end of his final term there, he was under specific instruction to rest and had no access to Manuscript paper. Notwithstanding, he drew lines on a page and, in approximately an hour and a half, had composed the now famous piece (the version performed today was finalised when Britten revisited the work in 1934). The influences are clear: text selection lending itself to choral setting (Purcell’s genius); the idea of two choirs in conversation – something he would have experienced many times in church performances of renaissance masterpieces; and the precise Bach-style harmonies – the techniques instilled in him by Bridge. The poem’s form is referred to as Macaronic, with two choirs singing in different languages, the second answering the first. The text itself dates from c.1300 by an anonymous author
| Choir 1 | Choir 2 | |
| Latin | Translation | |
| Verse 1 Of one that is so fair and bright Brighter than the day is light I cry to thee, thou see to me, Lady, pray thy son for me That I may come to thee | Velut maris stella Parens et puella Tam pia, Maria! | … like a star of the sea Parent and maiden So pious, Mary! |
| Verse 2 All this world was forlorn Till our Lord was y-born With ave it went away Darkest night, and comes the day The well springeth out of thee | Eva pecatrice, De te genetrice. Salutis Virtutis | … through sinful Eve, … from thee as mother. … of salvation, [The well] … of virtue |
| Verse 3 Lady, flower of everything Thou bare Jesu, Heaven’s king Of all thou barest the prize, Lady, queen of paradise, Maid mild, mother Es effecta | Rosa sine spina Gratia divina Electa Effecta | Rose without thorns By divine grace You have become The Chosen One |
Late teens and twenties
Britten entered the Royal College of Music in October 1930, just before his 17th Birthday; his primary study was composition. At the suggestion of Bridge, John Ireland was to be his formal tutor. Bridge, meanwhile, continued to have an enormous effect on Britten’s musical development, encouraging him to attend as many and varied concerts as possible, accompanying him on many occasions. In this way, he experienced – finally – a wide range of contemporary European music, by the likes of Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg and Mahler. Bridge, meanwhile, continued to further broaden Britten’s horizons with the study of renaissance polyphony, and while it isn’t referenced anywhere in diaries or other primary sources, it’s highly likely this study would have included the six books of madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo. These begin (books 1 & 2 – 1594) in a fairly traditional, non-chromatic vein, shifting rapidly to more chromatic, dissonant work in books 3 & 4 (1595-6) and then, some 15 years later, books 5 & 6 contain some of Gesualdo’s most famous works featuring intense dissonance and unexpected harmonic and stylistic shifts.
Gesualdo – O vos omnes. While there is a gap of nearly 350 years between Gesualdo and Britten, some of Gesualdo’s harmonies – many of them somewhat ‘unexpected’ – are very much mirrored in some of Britten’s choral writing. The text (Lamentations, 1:12) is a poetic personification of the destroyed city of Jerusalem weeping over her own destruction; it is often used at Easter, with the words attributed to Mary at the foot of the cross.
| O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, Attendite et videte: Si est dolor simils sicut dolor meus | O all you who pass by on the road, Look and see If there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow |
Bridge – music, when soft voices die.
Britten’s Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge, written in 1937, was arguably the work which brought Britten to international attention for the first time. Given this, and the massive influence Bridge had on Britten’s life and compositional career, we include a beautiful a capella work by Bridge himself. The text, by Shelley, explores how sensory beauty – music, the scent of violets and roses – linger in the human mind longer after the physical stimulus has been removed.
Music, when soft voices die, vibrates in the memory;
Odours, when sweet violets sicken, live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, are heaped for the beloved’s bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on.
Rachmaninov – Bogoroditse Devo.
Britten had immense respect for Rachmaninov and considered the Vespers (‘All night vigil’, op.37) one of the finest choral works ever written. Following the first LP recording of the work in 1965, Britten personally programmed the work for the 1968 Aldeburgh festival (which he had founded in 1948) and brought over the USSR State Academic Chorus for the performance.
Originally written in Church Slavonic language (Synodal Russian recension), the English translation is:
| Bogoróditse D̃évo, ráduysia, Blagodátnaya Maríye, Ghospód s Tobóyu. Blagoslovénna Tï v zhenákh, i blagoslovén Plod chréva Tvoyegó, yáko Spása rodilá yesí dush náshikh. | Rejoice, O Virgin Mother of God, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, for Thou hast borne the Savior of our souls. |
Collaborators and contemporaries
Holst – Nunc Dimitis. Contrasting with the negative way in which he viewed many of the works of Vaughan Williams and Elgar, Britten had huge respect for Gustav Holst. He also greatly admired Holst’s daughter, Imogen, who he met at Dartington in 1943, not long after his return from the USA. Britten and Imogen had a lifelong friendship and enjoyed many collaborations; she was a hugely important part of his musical successes (and some failures!) in post war years. And while she is primarily remembered as an amanuensis and general assistant, there is no doubt she influenced Britten artistically, creatively and in performance. Imogen had spent much of the 1930s and 40s organising music for Dartington and the ‘Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts’ (CEMA – a whole other story! – a Government-led initiative to protect British Culture during WW2). Britten deeply respected the way in which Imogen led and encouraged non-professional vocal ensembles, aligning perfectly with Britten’s fundamental belief that music should be available for amateur performance.
In the early 1970s, Imogen unearthed the heavily damaged manuscript of a setting by her father of the song of Simeon – written in 1915 for the choir of Westminster Cathedral, and only performed once in the composer’s lifetime. She reconstructed the piece which was then performed at the 1974 Aldeburgh Festival, at which Britten was present. Given his close working relationship with Imogen, it is possible Britten may have even had some creative input to its reconstruction.
| Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum in pace: Quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum, Quod parasti ante faciem omnium populorum: Lumen ad revelationem gentium, et gloriam plebis tuae Israel. | Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel. |
Shostakovich – Silent guns (1951)
Britten first mentioned Dmitri Shostakovich’s work in a 1935 letter to a friend; he became a fervent admirer after hearing Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk in 1936, some 3 years after he had left the RCM. It may seem surprising he wasn’t more aware of Shostakovich’s work prior to 1935 – it had, after all, been performed extensively in London in the early 1930s – but under Bridge’s guidance, his attention was very much on the European Avant-garde (Stravinsky absorbed much of his time; also Berg and Schoenberg) with Russian music exerting influence later in Britten’s life. The two composers didn’t meet until 1960, at a performance of Shostakovich’s ‘cello concerto. While neither can in any way be said to have artistically influenced the other, their professional lives were filled with mutual respect; they remained great friends and there were mutual dedications in their respective compositions after they met. From the late 1930s, when Britten was very much aware of his writing, much of Shostakovich’s music had been based on the theme of war, including his Leningrad Symphony. It was written in 1941 (while Britten was in the US) and the historic performance during the siege of Leningrad in August 1942 required the Soviet artillery to deliberately launch a barrage to silence the German guns so the starving orchestra could perform in peace. The performance itself was broadcast across the siege lines to the German troops by a network of loud-speakers.
The work included today is one – no.7 – of ‘Ten Poems on Texts by revolutionary poets’ op.88, this one with a text by Yevgeny Tarasov (1882-1944). The poem itself was actually written in the aftermath of the failed 1905 revolution, in which more than 1,000 protesters were killed. Shostakovich ‘trod a fine line’, in the post was years producing music that was officially sanctioned by the ‘Zhdanov decree’ of 1948. While the text specifically references the failed revolution, it would seem likely the silencing of the artillery in 1942 may also have been in Shostakovich’s mind. For those familiar with Shostakovich’s writing, the music today might seem surprisingly melodic and ‘accessible’; these were in fact two of the requirements of the decree which targeted Shostakovich and many others, accusing them of writing music which was referred to as ‘abstract’ or ‘academic’ and which ‘common Soviet workers couldn’t understand’; and/or which otherwise ran counter to Communist Party ideals.
Guns that roared now rest silently, Thund’ring charge supressed,
Scarlet lawns reveal the tragedy, Galant fighters lying quietly find their final rest.
Winds are blowing o’er the barricade, ruined in the fight;
As they fell, the fallen men have stayed.
While their comrades undismayed realise their plight.
Sleep in peace, all you who fought with us, dying for our land.
Rest in peace, all you who died for us, judgement is at hand
Battlements destroyed when day is done, are at night restored.
Thirst unquenched for battles to be won prods the wounded boar.
We at night rebuild the barricade all around the site
With the morning we are unafraid and renew the fight.
Slumber, heroes of the fusillade, judgement for our right
Will achieve the end for which we prayed, keeping mem’ry bright.
Guns that roared now rest silently, Thund’ring charge supressed,
Scarlet lawns reveal the tragedy, Galant fighters lying quietly find their final rest.
Britten – Shepherd’s Carol.
Britten met Auden in the 1930s when, after leaving the RCM aged 19, he obtained work with a film company writing music for short films and documentaries. Auden was working as a librettist for the same organisation. Following their meeting, there were many collaborations, one of their first being on the film ‘Night Mail’, a now famous 1936 documentary about the train services’ involvement in UK postal system. Auden wrote the script, including the famous poem of the same name, with Britten providing some innovative music – including playing the decaying sound of a cymbal crash backwards to represent a train approaching a tunnel!
While they were both living as ‘exiles’ in the US, the two intended to produce a large scale Christmas Oratorio. This never eventuated; Britten felt that Auden’s deeply philosophical text left no room for the music to express emotion in its own right. Their relationship became strained while in the US, Auden remaining there and becoming a US citizen after Britten left in 1942. Later, when Auden wrote to Britten strongly criticizing his opera Gloriana (written for the coronation of Elizabeth II), Britten tore the letter into small pieces and returned it to Auden, this being their final communication!
The proposed libretto of the Christmas Oratorio was published separately by Auden in 1944, and a few fragments of music also survive, including ‘A shepherd’s carol’. In the chorus, the ‘Little pinkie’ is the finger of the newborn Christ Child, touching ‘ … the Winter sky’, emphasizing the vulnerability of human existence in the context of a vast universe. Auden goes on to talk of how human love and beauty are inextricably linked to mortality; high mountains being remote places removed from ordinary life, a place for passion and the contemplation of earthly truths, that love is intense precisely because life is fleeting. The verses represent the philosophical musings of four aging shepherds (imagine them lying in a field at night under the starts), their reflections on life, chance and, ultimately, aging and death.
Chorus
O lift your little pinkie and touch the Winter sky,
Love’s all over the mountains where the beautiful go to die.
Verses
- (Bass) If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse-opera, I’d pay for riding lessons and take his gun away
- (Tenor) If I were a valentine and fortune were abroad [or ‘a broad’], I’d hypnotise that ice-berg ‘til she kissed me of her own accord
- (Alto) If I’d stacked up the velvet and my crooked rib were dead, I’d be breeding white canaries and eating crackers in bed
- (Soprano) But my cuffs are soiled and fading, the kitchen clock is slow, and over the blue waters the grass grew long ago
Barber – The Coolin. It’s always fascinating to plot a thread of musical influence. A composer can be ‘influenced by’ someone else (including by that person‘s work) in a number of ways, including:
- By seeing it positively and basing new work on something prior – either overtly with specific themes/techniques or sounds
- By being aware of it, seeing it negatively and working deliberately to avoid any obvious linkage or influence
And in rare cases, there is the musical equivalent of convergent evolution, where two composers working at the same time, with similar outlooks but belonging to different traditions and without studying each other’s output, produce similar work. Barber and Britten represent an extraordinary example of such a case, in particular regarding their choral work. Their respective settings of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ work, ‘God’s Grandeur’ (one of the movements of AMDG not performed here today) are strikingly similar in many ways, written at about the same time. Neither had heard the other and both manuscripts were unpublished at the time. They were absolute contemporaries, both gay men with lifelong romantic partners, they set similar texts to music. However, in relation to war they held widely divergent views, Barber serving in the US military and creating some patriotic military pieces. They never met and their professional paths rarely crossed.
The Coolin is the final of a set of three beautiful songs, his ‘Reincarnations’.
Come with me, under my coat,
And we will drink our fill of the milk of the white goat, or wine if it be they will
And we will talk until talk is a trouble too, out on the side of the hill
And nothing is left to do, but an eye to look into an eye,
And a hand in a hand to slip,
And a sigh to answer a sigh
And a lip to find out a lip.
What if the night be black, and the air on the mountain chill
Where the goad lies down in her track and all but the fern is still
Stay with me, under my coat,
And we will drink our fill of the milk of the white goat
Out on the side of the hill
Britten – extracts from AMDG. This is an important part of today’s program, a work based on seven deeply devotional poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Sadly, we’re only able to perform three of the seven today, one by way of introduction and two here. Hopkins led an interesting life; he studied classics at Baliol, Oxford from 1863 to 1867 where he formed what was to become a life-long friendship with Robert Bridges (1844-1930; Poet Laureate from 1913-30). Much of Hopkins’ work remained unpublished in his life, and it was Bridges who – recognising Hopkins’ genius – preserved many of his manuscripts and arranged for their posthumous publication. In 1864 (aged 20) Hopkins met Christina Rossetti who became a significant influence on his work. In 1866 he consulted with Cardinal J H Newman and decided to convert to Catholicism, becoming a Jesuit in 1868 and being ordained a priest in 1877. AMDG – ‘Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam’ – was the motto of the Jesuit order. Of the 7 poems included in Britten’s setting, only one – ‘Heaven Haven’ – dates from Hopkins’ pre-Jesuit days. We will never know whether he produced other brilliant poetry in his early years as he burnt his entire output in 1868, considering his pre-Catholic output unworthy and naïve; he referred to the burning as the ‘Slaughter of the Innocents’. Those few fragments from pre-1868 that survive are based on ‘fair copies’ he sent to trusted friends for review; Heaven Haven is one such text, set aside and published by Bridges.
O Deus
O God, I love thee, I love thee
Not out of hope of heaven for me
Not fearing not to love and be
In the everlasting burning
Thou, thou my Jesus, after me
Didst reach thine arms out dying,
For my sake sufferedst nails and lance
Mocked and marred countenance,
Sorrows passing number
Sweat and care and cumber
Yea and death, and this for me,
And thou couldst see me sinning.
Then I, why should not I love thee,
Jesus, so much in love with me?
Not for heaven’s sake, not to be out of hell by loving thee,
Not for any gains I see,
But just the way that thou didst me
I do love and I will love thee:
What must I love thee, Lord, for then?
For being my king and God. Amen.
Heaven Haven
I have desired to go
Where springs not fail,
To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail
And a few lilies blow.
And I have asked to be
Where no storms come,
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.
MacMillan (b.1959) – O radiant dawn. Sir James MacMillanis a self-confessed fan of Benjamin Britten, openly acknowledging Britten’s influence on his own work. While there were those in the musical establishment of the 1960s and 70s who were somewhat critical of Britten for his refusal to abandon tonality, this criticism has largely evaporated, turning instead to be perceived as a significant strength. The same is true of MacMillan, and it is this which perhaps most closely defines his link with Britten; he has his own distinctive style, often blending his devout Catholic faith with Scottish traditional sounds. Much of his work harks back to ancient-sounding melodies and harmonies (plainsong, drone chants) but with a modern overlay. But it is accessible; both to audiences and to amateur performers. The musical theme of ‘O radiant dawn’ is based on Tallis’ motet, ‘O nata lux’, and blends traditional polyphony with modern dissonance. It is part of his Strathclyde motets of 2007.
O radiant dawn, splendour of eternal light, sun of justice:
Come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
Isiah had prophesied:
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light:
Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.”
O radiant dawn, splendour of eternal light, sun of justice:
Come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
Amen.
Nystedt (1915-2014). Born soon after Britten, Knut Nystedt outlived him by nearly 40 years. While a key plank of Britten’s choral writing was based on creating music around the physical rhythms of the English language, Nystedt’s was heavily focussed around shimmering soundscapes; in a sense the choral equivalent to the instrumental music of Philip Glass. While their styles were markedly different, during his time in the USA, Nystedt regularly programmed Britten’s choral output in his work with University choirs. The motet we are performing today – Peace I leave with you – takes text from the Gospel of John Ch.14, v.27, being the words of Christ at the last supper.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you,
Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Tavener (1944 – 2013) – God is with us. Britten, towards the end of his life, was very much aware of the early work of John Tavener, specifically – in the early 1970s – the young composer’s Celtic Requiem. While their compositional styles are widely divergent, they held each other in high regard and frequently spent time together in the early 1970s. Britten held such a high opinion of Tavener that he personally persuaded the Royal Opera House, Convent Garden, to commission an opera by the young composer. Sadly Britten never heard the resulting opera, Therese, which was completed in 1976 (the year in which Britten died) but not performed until 1979. ‘God is with us’ was composed in 1987 as a commission by Winchester Cathedral as a tribute to its then Master of Music, Martin Neary. It is typical of Tavener’s ‘Byzantine’-style compositions, arising from his conversion in 1977 to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Mike Halsey – 2026