William Walton

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 and used it as the basis of a class at the City Lit in July 2009 on Post War British Music.

Walton chronology

Below are the spreadsheets I created for the classes. Post War Music Walton life and works