Britten: War Requiem

by Mervyn Cooke

Overview

The book examines from various viewpoints Britten's War Requiem, written in 1962 to celebrate the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral and uniting the famous anti-war poetry of Wilfred Owen with the Latin Requiem Mass. Britten's and Owen's pacifist beliefs are compared, and the chronology of the compositional process unraveled from documentary and manuscript sources. The musical language is analyzed in detail, and the fluctuating critical responses to the score are assessed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521440899
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/07/1996
Series:	Cambridge Music Handbooks
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.63(w) x 8.78(h) x 0.63(d)

Table of Contents

1. Owen, Britten and pacifism; 2. The War Requiem in progress Philip Reed; 3. The musical language: idiom and structure; 4. Critical reception; Appendix; Text; Select bibliography; Index.