Benjamin_Britten

Benjamin Britten The famous Benjamin Britten was born on November 22, 1913, by the way, was when Wilson became president. His birthplace was Lowestoft, Suffolk, England. Benjamin was the youngest of four. His father was a dentist, and his mother was an amateur singer. (She was his first exposure to music) He was like any other child, in the 1910’s, he liked sports, and liked school. The only difference, was that he was musically gifted. His cousin Elsie, convinced him , that he was born with musical qualities. But, he was still brought up as a normal child. Ever since the age of five, he has been composing musical pieces. When Benjamin was seven years old , he started taking piano lessons with Ethel Astle, and when he was ten years old, he started taking viola lessons with Audrey Alston. It was when he heard Frank Bridge’s orchestral suite at Norwich Triennial Festival, that he was first introduced to Bridge’s music. Mrs. Alston arranged a meeting for Benjamin to meet Frank Bridge. After that meeting, he started taking lessons from Frank Bridge. Soon, Britten wrote many great pieces, that includes a symphony, many orchestral pieces, works for chamber ensemble, suites for solo piano, drafts for Masses, a symphonic poem Chaos and Cosmos and many , many songs. When he was sixteen he won a scholarship to Royal College of Music, so he left Gresham School, Holt and went to RCL . He went there to study piano and composition by Harold Samuel and Arthur Benjamin. But he didn’t find the college very helpful. In February of 1934, A Boy Was Born was broadcasted, and that gave him recognition as a musical composer. The following year, he started working with W.F. Auden. In 1936, he collaborated with Auden to make a song cycle, called Our Hunting Fathers Op. 8. In 1937 his sister caught influenza and got his mother infected also, weakened by the illness, she died from a heart attack. But more importantly, Britten was in a meeting with Peter Pears ,that same year, who later had became his musical collaborator, inspiration , and soon his life partner. Later on, Auden decided to emigrate to America, and because Britten was frustrated and upset with the English Establishment, he decided to go to America with Pears. In 1939, when the war broke out, Britten wanted to go back to England, because he is anti-war, but was told that he was more valuable here than in England. During his stay in America he wrote the Violin Concerto, op. 18, Young Apollo, op. 16 Canadian Carnival, op. 19 and the Sinfonia da Requiem op. 20. He composed that in memory of his parents. In 1940, Britten and Pear moved into a house in Brooklyn Heights, NYC with a lot of artistic people including Auden. In 1941,The poem "The Borough" moved Britten, so he decided to try writing operas on the character of Peter Grimes. It is the story of a fisherman who is suspected by his fellow townsfolk of murdering his young apprentices. This was also the time, that Frank Bridges died. At last, in March of 1942, he got his longed- visas, and went back to England as conscientious objector. But on his way to England, he rode a ship called the Axel Johnson. It was a crazy ride, because the ship’s funnels caught on fire, and had to leave to ride a Nazi submarines. During the time he completed the A Ceremony of Carols op. 28; It was ten ancient carols for treble voices. And he also finished, Hymn of St. Cecilia ,op. 27. Peter Grimes, was finally completed in 1945. It premiered on June 7, at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Peter Grimes soon was established as the most important opera by an English composer since Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, written 250 years earlier. In 1946, his opera The Rape of Lucretia, op.37 was first performed at the Glyndebourne and then it was taken to tour. It retells the story about the wife of Collatinus, who killed herself, after Prince Tarquinius raped her for a simple bet. (At this time, the Cold War started, and the Italian Republic was formed.) During the EOC tour, Pear suggested they should create their own festival, so later on in 1948, they had the the first Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts took place. The opera War Requiem was completed on December 20, 1961. He wrote it for the consecration of the rebuilt St Michael’s Cathedral, Coventry, the original building was destroyed during World War II. Also had some poems from the First World War Poet Wilfred Owen. This was also during the time that the Berlin Wall was erected and the Bay of Pigs invasion. Also the Yuri, the first man to the moon, went to the moon. On May 20, 1962, War Requiem was first performed. It was known for being the most impressive British choral work since Belshazzar's Forest, in 1931. After that he continued to make operas and other work. He was awarded with many awards, including becoming a Companion of Honor in 1952. He also became a member of the Order of Merit in 1965. (That was his most cherish honor) Only 24 people can be awarded this at a time, and since its creation in 1902, only two composers of Britain has been awarded this. Also, in 1964 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society. Lastly, he was awarded the life peer of 1976, the year of his death; He was the first musician to be awarded that. In 1968, Benjamin was infected with sub-acute bacterial endocarditic. He was able to fight the illness with antibodies, but it was then when he found out he had valvular heart-lesion. During 1971, he was getting symptoms of heart disease, there was surgery to cure it, but he refused to get it, until he finished his last opera Death in Venice. But eventually he decided to get it in 1973, he got his heart valve replaced. Sadly, Edward Benjamin Britten died on December 4, 1976. Reference Page Barnett, Robert, “Biography”. Online. Available. http://www.musicweb.uk.net/brittEN/, March 1998. Britten-Pears Foundation, “Benjamin Britten: biography”. Online. Available. http://www.brittenpears.org/'page=britten/biography/, 2009. Behroozi, Cyrus, Niday, Thomas, “Benjamin Britten” Online. Available. http://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Britten/ , 2009