Benjamin Britten in Context

by Vicki P Stroeher (Editor), Justin Vickers (Editor)

Overview

Benjamin Britten, pianist, conductor, educator, composer of  a wide range of music from large-scale operas and choral works to string quartets and songs, is acknowledged as a pivotal figure in mid-twentieth-century Britain. This volume explores the contexts for his multi-faceted career and his engagement with his contemporaries in music, art, literature, and film, British musical institutions, royal and governmental entities, and the church, as well as his ground-breaking projects, philosophical and ideological tenets. The book is thematically structured in five parts: Britten's relationships with Peter Pears, his close friends, mentors, and colleagues; musical life in Britain; his interactions with previous and contemporary generations of composers; his professional work with choreographers, librettists, stage designers, and directors; and his socio-cultural, religious, and political environment. The chapters shed light on the many opportunities and challenges of post-war British musical life that shaped Britten's creative output.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108721844
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/30/2024
Series:	Composers in Context
Pages:	426
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Vicki P. Stroeher is Professor of Music at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. She is co-editor of My Beloved Man: The Letters of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears (with Jude Brimmer and Nicholas Clark, 2016) which earned the 2017 C. B. Oldman Award and Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on An Inexplicit Art (with Justin Vickers, 2017). She has also contributed to Literary Britten. Her current monograph project investigates Britten's interpretation of poetry in his songs and song cycles within a narratological framework.

Justin Vickers is Professor of Music at Illinois State University. As a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom, he is completing his first monograph The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts: A History of the Britten and Pears Era, 1948–1986, (forthcoming). He is co-editor of Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on An Inexplicit Art (with Vicki P. Stroeher, 2017). He has contributed to The Sea in the British Musical Imagination (2016) and Literary Britten: Words and Music in Benjamin Britten's Vocal Works (2019). His additional research focuses on Britten's song and the creative process, Peter Pears, and the English Opera Group, among other mid-century British topics.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Positioning Britten Vicki P. Stroeher and Justin Vickers; Part I. The Britten Circle(S): 1. Early mentors: The bridges, the Auden set, and the mayers of long Island Arnold Whittall; 2. Peter Pears Justin Vickers; 3. The open secret Nicholas Clark; 4. Britten's circle Lucy Walker; 5. Britten's musical assistants Christopher Scheer; 6. Britten's publishers as advance and rear guard Philip Reed; Part II. British Musical Life: 7. Composing in England Eric Saylor; 8. Britten and Film Mervyn Cooke; 9. Britten and the radio Alison Garnham; 10. Television and the composer Danielle Ward-Griffin; 11. Music critics and the press Philip Reed and Vicki P. Stroeher; 12. Britten and English opera: Myths and a (Chequered) history Mervyn Cooke; 13. Festival culture in the British Isles Justin Vickers; 14. Concert life in Britain Philip Reed; 15. Benjamin Britten and folksong Julian Onderdonk; 16. Educating the Nation: Britten's music for young people Kate Guthrie; Part III. Britten and Other Composers: 17. The compositional context: creating a voice Christopher Mark; 18. Responding to a British musical past Michael Burden; 19. Britten and the English musical renaissance Alain Frogley; 20. Responding to the continent Arved Ashby; 21. An English tradition? Christopher Mark; 22.'An exciting time with all Russians': Anglo-Soviet musical contacts Cameron Pyke; 23. The Avant-Garde Philip Rupprecht; Part IV. Wordsmiths, Designers, and Performers: 24. W. H. Auden Vicki P. Stroeher; 25. Eric Crozier Justin Vickers; 26. Two librettists: Montagu slater and Ronald Duncan Ian Patterson; 27. The wise, queer heart of Englishness: E. M. Forster Hanna Rochlitz; 28.William Plomer's poetics of exile at home Kevin Salfen; 29.'Don't colour them, the music will do that': Myfanwy Piper and Britten's marriage of words and music Frances Spalding; 30. Designing and dancing Britten Kevin Salfen and Lucy Walker; 31.Pears as illuminator, interpreter, and inspiration Justin Vickers; 32. Britten's singers Roger Vignoles; 33. Britten's performers: those most 'Instrumental' Thomas Schuttenhelm; Part V. British Socio-Cultural, Religious, and Political Life: 34. English and British national identity in the Arts Irene Morra; 35. Britten's landscapes Charlotte de Mille; 36. Monarchy, royalty, and arts patronage Matthias Range; 37. Literary leanings Nicholas Clark; 38. Faith, spirituality, and the church Margaret Lane; 39. The politics of the closet J. P. E. Harper-Scott; 40. Communism, socialism, and pacifism in British politics: From the 1930s to the cold war Joanna Bullivant; Epilogue: Britten's Legacy Arnold Whittall; Topical bibliography for further reading; Works cited; Index.

Editorial Reviews

‘informative and thought-provoking’ Nigel Simeone, Gramophone

‘Highly recommended.’ J. M. Edwards, Choice

From the Publisher