Benjamin Britten

Britten, Walton and Tippett

Three of the greatest British composers of the twentieth century had very different attitudes to music but all attempted to write in many different media such as opera, choral, orchestral and chamber music. Among the operas studied were Midsummer Marriage, King Priam, Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Albert Herring, Turn of the Screw and Troilus and Cressida. Choral works included Child of Our Time, War Requiem, Rejoice in the Lamb, Ceremony of Carols and Belshazzar’s Feast. Orchestral works included the great symphonies and concertos of all three composers plus the Corelli Fantasia, Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Portsmouth Point and Crown Imperial March. Among the chamber works will be the superb string quartets and Façade. I ran this course at Crayford Manor (Bexley College) January-April 2009.  I subsequently drew on it to run two courses at the City Lit in July 2009, one on Post War British Music and the other focussing on Britten’s Gloriana with discussion and use of a video production.

BRITTEN CHRONOLOGY

Below is the spreadsheet I creeated for these courses. Britten life and works