Learning to Listen: Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten's 100th birthday is Friday, Nov. 22. Britten was the most significant composer to emerge from England in the 20th century.

Britten's first composition instructor was another British composer, Frank Bridge.

At the time, English classical music could best be described as "pastoral". Composers like John Ireland, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Charles Stanford wrote this type of music, and it was immensely popular.

Britten, however, disliked that style of music, and searched hard for an individual musical voice.

Britten found that voice, guided by two of his passions: writing music for children, and the influence of Henry Purcell (a British composer from the Baroque era).

The two passions collide beautifully in one of Britten's most popular works, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Britten wrote the piece to showcase the instruments in an orchestra, and he based the melody off of a piece by Purcell.

Germans and Italians dominated the opera scene for centuries, until Benjamin Britten. Britten was keenly aware of the lack of English opera, and wanted to revive the form.

He did so with his 1945 opera, Peter Grimes.

On Learning to Listen, we'll hear from Peter Grimes, but also Britten's lesser-known works, like his ballet called The Prince of the Pagodas.

Written not long after Britten and his partner, tenor Peter Pears (pronounced PEERs), visited Bali, Britten incorporated Balinese gamelan music into the ballet.

Or his musical called Noye's Fludde (pronounced like Noah's Flood) — a delightful operetta packed with children young and old, complete with hymns for the audience to sing as well.

Britten loved studying the music of Alban Berg, and tried convincing his parents to send him to Vienna for composition lessons. His parents said no way, but Britten experimented with atonal music on and off.

Not atonal, but crunchy, is a piece Britten wrote during his studies at the Royal College of Music in London. Phantasy for String Quartet in F minor is a great example of Britten fighting against the English "pastorals".

Britten's friendship with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich encouraged Britten to write quite a bit of music for cello, including some suites and a Symphony for Cello and Orchestra.

And the lifelong partnership with Peter Pears meant that Britten wrote dozens of works for voice.

Given that Britten and Pears lived in the 20th century, there are many recordings of the two of them performing together, whether Britten is accompanying Pears on keyboard, or conducting the orchestra.

Britten and Pears together are credited with revitalizing music education in the UK.

Additionally, the Britten-Pears Foundation contains excellent resources for learning more about Britten, including classroom curriculum.

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