Hymn to St. Cecilia

Hymn to St. Cecilia PDF Author: Benjamin Britten
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices, 5 parts), Unaccompanied
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Hymn to St. Cecilia

Hymn to St. Cecilia PDF Author: Benjamin Britten
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Choruses, Sacred (Mixed voices, 5 parts), Unaccompanied
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description


A Chronicle of First Broadcast Performances of Musical Works in the United Kingdom, 1923-1996

A Chronicle of First Broadcast Performances of Musical Works in the United Kingdom, 1923-1996 PDF Author: Alastair Mitchell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351791257
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 798

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Book Description
First published in 2001, this work provides detailed information taken from the ’Programmes-as-Broadcast’ daily log of output held at the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham. Arranged in chronological order, entries are given for broadcasts of first performances of musical works in the United Kingdom, and include details of: the date of the broadcast, the composer, the title of the work, performers and conductor. In addition to its usefulness as a reference tool, the Chronicle enables us to gauge the trends in twentieth-century British musical life, and the role of the BBC in their promotion.

Schwann Opus

Schwann Opus PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Audiocassettes
Languages : en
Pages : 1132

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Book Description


A Basic Classical and Operatic Recordings Collection for Libraries

A Basic Classical and Operatic Recordings Collection for Libraries PDF Author: Kenyon C. Rosenberg
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 9780810820418
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
No descriptive material is available for this title.

Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten PDF Author: Neil Powell
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0805097759
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 580

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Book Description
This spellbinding centenary biography by Neil Powell looks at the music, the life, and the legacy of the greatest British composer of the twentieth century Benjamin Britten was born on November 22, 1913, in the East Suffolk town of Lowestoft. Displaying a passion and proficiency for music at an early age, to the delight of his mother, Edith, a talented amateur musician herself, he began composing music when he was only five years old. After studying at the Royal College of Music, Britten went on to write documentary scores for the General Post Office Film Unit, where he met and collaborated with the poet W. H. Auden. Of more lasting importance was Britten's introduction in 1937 to the tenor Peter Pears, who was to become the inspirational center of his emotional and musical life. Their partnership lasted nearly four decades, during a dangerous time when homosexuality was illegal in England. Conscientious objectors, Britten and Pears followed Auden to America before the war began in 1939. While there, they joined the extraordinary Brooklyn ménage of George Davis, Louis MacNeice, and Paul Bowles. Eventually intense homesickness, provoked in part by George Crabbe's poem "Peter Grimes," drove the pair home to East Anglia in 1942 and gave Britten the inspiration for his finest opera. Throughout his career, Britten did not want modern music to be just for "the cultured few" and instead always composed his music to be "listenable-to." The shared quotidian lives of Britten and Pears unfold in this intimate biography and the story of two men who created a truly remarkable legacy.

Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten PDF Author: Graham Elliott
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191541710
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Since Britten's death in 1976, numerous articles and books have been written about his life and work. Much has been made of the strong influences of his pacifism and his homosexuality. It is often suggested that Britten felt himself to be an outsider from 'normal' society, and that this accounts for the his concern to portray the 'outsider' in his operas. There is no doubt that this is an important aspect of Britten's art, but the present work attempts to show that his music embraces much wider and more universal concerns, and in addressing those concerns there is a clearly defined pattern of spiritual influence. Part One of the book examines Britten's early life, and the strong presence which the Church had in his childhood and adolescence. It explores the way in which certain spiritual influences were first manifested, and how, like the more specifically musical 'themes' which Donald Mitchell has noted, they can be traced throughout Britten's life and work. The author was privileged to have conversations with two clergymen who were influential in Britten's life, as well as gathering valuable insights through a long series of conversations with Sir Peter Pears. Part Two examines a wide range of the composer's music in which a spiritual dimension can be traced. The specifically liturgical music has received rather less critical notice than Britten's larger works. The music is discussed here, and shown to possess musical characteristics in common with the larger works. Britten could not be described as a conventional Christian; still less is it true to describe him, as Eric Walter White has done, as 'keen, wherever possible, to work within the framework of the Church of England'. Nevertheless, his spirituality was rooted in the religious experience of his childhood. This book seeks to demonstrate that Britten retained a sense of the Christian values absorbed in childhood and adolescence, and that these - along with the specifically Christian heritage of plainsong - were strongly influential in his choice and treatment of themes.

The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears, 1936-1978

The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears, 1936-1978 PDF Author: Peter Pears
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 9780851157412
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
PETER PEARS's reputation as an outstanding and distinctive tenor is grounded in his interpretations of Benjamin Britten's works; their partnership of thirty years significantly shaped and defined musical developments not only in England but on a broader plane. Throughout their busy professional lives they travelled extensively, on concert tours and on holiday, finding fresh stimulus in change. Pear's twelve travel diaries, brought together in this volume, record much of that travel and provide valuable contextual material on the musical development of both Pears and Britten. The first diary dates from 1936, the year before his friendship with Britten began, when he went on tour to North America with the New English Singers. Other diaries record the five-month tour to the Far East and the important encounters (especially for Britten) with the gamelan music of Bali and the Japanese Noh theatre; visits to Russia as guests of Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife Galina Vishnevskaya, where they met significant figures from Russian musical life; and attendance at the Ansbach Bach Festival when Pears was at the height of his career. Also recorded are holidays in the Caribbean and Italy, a concert tour through the north of England, and accounts of the rehearsals and performances of the New York premieres of Billy Budd and Death in Venice.

A History of Western Choral Music, Volume 2

A History of Western Choral Music, Volume 2 PDF Author: Chester L. Alwes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199377014
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
A History of Western Choral Music explores the various genres, key composers, and influential works essential to the development of the western choral tradition. Author Chester L. Alwes divides this exploration into two volumes which move from Medieval music and the Renaissance era up to the 21st century. Volume II begins at the transition from the Classical era to the Romantic, with an examination of the major genres common to both periods. Exploring the oratorio, part song, and dramatic music, it also offers a thorough discussion of the choral symphony from Beethoven to Mahler, through to the present day. It then delves into the choral music of the twentieth century through discussions of the major compositional approaches and philosophies that proliferated over the course of the century, from impressionism to serialism, neo-classicism to modernism, minimalism, and the avant-garde. It also considers the emerging tendency towards nationalistic composition amongst composers such as Bartók and Stravinsky, and discusses in great detail the contemporary music of the United States, and Great Britain. Framing discussion within the political, religious, cultural, philosophical, aesthetic, and technological contexts of each era, A History of Western Choral Music offers readers specialized insight into major composers and works while providing a cohesive understanding of choral music's place in Western history.

A Benjamin Britten Discography

A Benjamin Britten Discography PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This title presents a discography of Benjamin Britten.

Letters from a Life

Letters from a Life PDF Author: Benjamin Britten
Publisher: Boydell Press
ISBN: 9781843833826
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 692

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Book Description
Letters by the British composer to his friends, family, and colleagues document his life from school days to the end of World War II.