The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten

by Edited by Mervyn Cooke

• ISBN13: 9780521574761
• ISBN10: 0521574765
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-06-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten is a comprehensive guide to the composer’s work, aimed both at the non-specialist and music student. It sheds light on both the composer’s stylistic and personal development, offering new interpretations of his operatic works and discussing his characteristic working methods. Topics treated here in detail for the first time include Britten’s work in the cinema in the 1930s, his lifelong pacifism and his strong interest in the music of the Far East; other chapters include reassessments of his relationship with W. H. Auden and his attitude towards childhood, comprehensive analyses of major works and a concise history of the Aldeburgh Festival. A distinguished team of contributors include some who worked with the composer during his lifetime, as well as leading representatives of the younger generation of Britten scholars on both sides of the Atlantic.

Table of Contents

Introduction Mervyn Cooke

Part I. Apprenticeship: 1. Juvenilia (1922-1932) Christopher Mark

2. Britten, Auden and 'Otherness' Paul Kildea

3. Britten in the cinema: 'Coal Face' Philip Reed

Part II. The Operas: 4. 'He Descended into Hell': Peter Grimes, Ellen Orford and Salvation Denied Stephen Arthur Allen

5. The chamber operas Arnold Whittall

6. 'Gloriana': Britten's 'Slighted Child' Antonia Malloy-Chirgwin

7. Britten and Shakespeare: 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Mervyn Cooke

8. Eros in life and death: 'Billy Budd' and 'Death in Venice' Clifford Hindley

Part III. Perspectives: 9. Distant horizons : from Pagodaland to the Church Parables Mervyn Cooke

10. Violent climates Donald Mitchell

11. Britten as symphonist Arved Ashby

12. The concertos and early orchestral scores: aspects of style and aesthetic Eric Roseberry

13. The chamber music Philip Rupprecht

14. Music for voices Ralph Woodward

Part IV. The Composer in the Community: 15. Britten and the world of the child Stephen Arthur Allen

16. Old songs in new contexts: Britten as arranger Eric Roseberry