Read complete books and articles on: Benjamin Britten

Britten, Benjamin, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh - 1913–76, English composer. Britten is considered the most significant British composer since Purcell. As a youth he composed instrumental works, displaying technical brilliance and colorful orchestration. One example, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946), written for a film, is based on a theme by Purcell. His most characteristic

8 of the Best Books and Articles on: Benjamin Britten

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Britten » Read Now
by Christopher Headington. 166 pgs.

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2.

The Operas of Benjamin Britten: Expression and Evasion » Read Now
by Claire Seymour. 358 pgs.

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The delicate balance between private and public communication, and the tension between art as self-expression and art as moral resolution were key concerns in Britten's music. Seymour examines ways in which Britten's operas explored and articulated the inherent ambiguity and latent sexuality of...
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The delicate balance between private and public communication, and the tension between art as self-expression and art as moral resolution were key concerns in Britten's music. Seymour examines ways in which Britten's operas explored and articulated the inherent ambiguity and latent sexuality of music, particularly song, and suggests that Britten's operas may illustrate his search for a public 'voice' which would embody, communicate, and perhaps resolve his private beliefs and anxieties.Analyses of Britten's operas from Paul Bunyan to Death in Venice, the three Church Parables, and several of the 'children's operas' offer evidence that, for Britten, opera was the natural medium through which to explore, express and, paradoxically, repress his private concerns.CLAIRE SEYMOUR is an Opera Studies Tutor at Rose Bruford College, Kent.
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3.

Britten's Musical Language » Read Now
by Philip Rupprecht. 358 pgs.

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Blending insights from linguistic and social theories of speech, ritual and narrative with music-analytic and historical criticism,Britten's Musical Language offers fresh perspectives on the composer's fusion of verbal and musical utterance in opera and song. It provides close interpretative studies...
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Blending insights from linguistic and social theories of speech, ritual and narrative with music-analytic and historical criticism,Britten's Musical Language offers fresh perspectives on the composer's fusion of verbal and musical utterance in opera and song. It provides close interpretative studies of the major scores (including Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, War Requiem, Curlew River and Death in Venice) and explores Britten's ability to fashion complex and mysterious symbolic dramas from the interplay of texted song and wordless discourse of motives and themes.
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4.

Tribute to Benjamin Britten on His Fiftieth Birthday » Read Now
by Anthony Gishford. 196 pgs.

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5.

Revealing Masks: Exotic Influences and Ritualized Performance in Modernist Music Theater (Chap. 9 "Britten's Parables") » Read Now
by W. Anthony Sheppard. 350 pgs.

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W. Anthony Sheppard considers a wide-ranging constellation of important musical works in this fascinating exploration of ritualized performance in twentieth-century music. "Revealing Masks "uncovers the range of political, didactic, and aesthetic intents that inspired the creators of modernist music...
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W. Anthony Sheppard considers a wide-ranging constellation of important musical works in this fascinating exploration of ritualized performance in twentieth-century music. "Revealing Masks "uncovers the range of political, didactic, and aesthetic intents that inspired the creators of modernist music theater. Sheppard is especially interested in the use of the "exotic" in techniques of masking and stylization, identifying Japanese Noh, medieval Christian drama, and ancient Greek theater as the most prominent exotic models for the creation of "total theater."
Drawing on an extraordinarily diverse--and in some instances, little-known--range of music theater pieces, Sheppard cites the work of Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten, Arthur Honegger, Peter Maxwell Davies, Harry Partch, and Leonard Bernstein, as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Madonna. Artists in literature, theater, and dance--such as William Butler Yeats, Paul Claudel, Bertolt Brecht, Isadora Duncan, Ida Rubenstein, and Edward Gordon Craig--also play a significant role in this study.
Sheppard poses challenging questions that will interest readers beyond those in the field of music scholarship. For example, what is the effect on the audience and the performers of depersonalizing ritual elements? Does borrowing from foreign cultures inevitably amount to a kind of predatory appropriation? "Revealing Masks "shows that compositional concerns and cultural themes manifested in music theater are central to the history of twentieth-century Euro-American music, drama, and dance.
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6.

The Modern Age, 1890-1960 ("Benjamin Britten" begins on p. 543) » Read Now
by Martin Cooper. 766 pgs.

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7.

An Introduction to Twentieth Century Music (1961) ("Britten, 1913-" begins on p. 297) » Read Now
by Peter S. Hansen. 380 pgs.

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8.

Benjamin Britten: A Bio-Bibliography » Read Now
by Stewart R. Craggs. 302 pgs.

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