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67 results

Page 1 of 4

  • Positioning Britten

  • from Prologue
  • Edited by Vicki P Stroeher, Marshall University, West Virginia, Justin Vickers, Illinois State University
  • Book:
    Benjamin Britten in Context
    Published online:
    31 March 2022
    Print publication:
    21 April 2022, pp 3-10

  • Summary

    In offering a context for Benjamin Britten, we approached his milieu from vantage points that could adequately represent the fullness of his position in England and in the twentieth century. We were rewarded by the richness of Britten’s engagement with his contemporaries in music, art, literature, and film, British musical institutions, royal and governmental entities, and the church. Equally, his ground-breaking projects that intersected across diverse entities and explored his philosophical and ideological tenets provided food for thought.

  • Chapter 24 - W. H. Auden

  • from Part IV - Wordsmiths, Designers, and Performers
  • Edited by Vicki P Stroeher, Marshall University, West Virginia, Justin Vickers, Illinois State University
  • Book:
    Benjamin Britten in Context
    Published online:
    31 March 2022
    Print publication:
    21 April 2022, pp 215-222

  • Summary

    Auden’s poetry and ideology were shaped by each era and circumstance in which he lived and worked and by those by whom he was surrounded. His early views on politics, religion, sexuality, and the importance of art, music, and poetry to society – all of which defined the poet as Britten knew him in the 1930s and early 1940s – underwent some form of revision thereafter, providing fodder for those critics who sought to conscript him to the turbulent period leading up to and including the Second World War, hailed by many as the ‘golden age’ of his poetry. In England, particularly, some scholars have posited that Auden’s rejection of his ‘age’ – and his country in 1939 – did damage to both his contemporary and posthumous reputations, going so far as to posit that he had squandered his opportunity to be considered that nation’s greatest poet of the twentieth century. As this chapter explores, Auden’s outlook on the varying matters that crept into his poetry was complex and often contradictory.

  • Chapter 11 - Music Critics and the Press

  • from Part II - British Musical Life
  • Edited by Vicki P Stroeher, Marshall University, West Virginia, Justin Vickers, Illinois State University
  • Book:
    Benjamin Britten in Context
    Published online:
    31 March 2022
    Print publication:
    21 April 2022, pp 95-102

  • Summary

    This chapter explores Britten’s relationship with the critical press and various writers on music. The composer’s antipathy to critics is widely acknowledged, and his relationship with members of that circle could be contentious at times. In his article ‘Variations on a Critical Theme’, published in Opera in 1952, Britten addressed many of the concerns he had about music criticism in Britain and posited some remedies, but he only created further animosity in some quarters. Nevertheless, several music writers gained his confidence and respect, including Henry Boys, Donald Mitchell, and Hans Keller. Mitchell and Keller, in particular, attempted to elevate discourse about music in England and gave special attention to the works of Britten in their periodical Music Survey and in Boosey & Hawkes’s publication, Tempo, among other Britten-centred endeavours. The chapter focuses upon proponents and adversaries alike, including such disparate personalities as Eric Blom, Boys, Norman Demuth, Peter Evans, Frank S. Howes, Keller, Colin Mason, Mitchell, Eric Roseberry, Erwin Stein, Eric Walter White, and Virgil Thomson.

Benjamin Britten in Context
  • Edited by Vicki P Stroeher, Justin Vickers
  • Published online:
    31 March 2022
    Print publication:
    21 April 2022
  • Benjamin Britten, pianist, conductor, educator, composer of  a wide range of music from large-scale operas and choral works to string quartets and songs, is acknowledged as a pivotal figure in mid-twentieth-century Britain. This volume explores the contexts for his multi-faceted career and his engagement with his contemporaries in music, art, literature, and film, British musical institutions, royal and governmental entities, and the church, as well as his ground-breaking projects, philosophical and ideological tenets. The book is thematically structured in five parts: Britten's relationships with Peter Pears, his close friends, mentors, and colleagues; musical life in Britain; his interactions with previous and contemporary generations of composers; his professional work with choreographers, librettists, stage designers, and directors; and his socio-cultural, religious, and political environment. The chapters shed light on the many opportunities and challenges of post-war British musical life that shaped Britten's creative output.

Page 1 of 4