"Britten's Boys" article in The Guardian

[ahinton]

That may be so but that’s not the same level of ‘problem’ as calling Britten a paedophile.

Indeed.

In short, does it matter that he was, by inclination if not in practice, a paedophile?

It would do only if he had broken the law by committing acts of pædophilia and, since there is not a scrap of evidence of his having ever done so, no, it doesn't "matter".

[ahinton]

to take two sentences from that article

"No one with even a brief acquaintance of Britten's music can possibly miss the prominent and privileged place that music for the unbroken male voice occupies in his output".

I would change that to

No one with even a brief acquaintance of Britten's music can possibly miss the prominent and privileged place that music for the tenor voice occupies in his output.
Doing a quick calculation from wikipedia's list, I would say only four works of the ninety-six are exclusively for boy's voices

"The last thing his music needs is to be subverted by a pointless denial of his complex sexuality"

I would change that to

the last thing his music needs is to be subverted by a pointless obsession with his sexuality

I wold do precisely the same, as these are two particular areas that give rise to my own reservations about NL's piece; well said!

[ahinton]

I can't find my copy at the moment but Bridcut's Britten's Children contains a moving testimony from David Hemmings who created the part of Miles in Britten's Turn of the Screw about how he felt both safe and loved by Britten while they were working together, and indeed that if there were any trauma in their relationship it arose from Britten's discarding of him when his voice broke. I gained the impression that Hemmings grew to understand and appreciate this too.

Exactly; alongside the lack of any negative evidence, this indeed provides some evidence to the contrary to debunk these baseless quasi-accusations.

[salymap]

I'm afraid the Saville business has stirred a lot of interest in this sort of thing. My doctor left recently and false rumours by one nitwit were heard by a nurse, who explained why he had left suddenly for another practice.

I hope the Britten centenary next year will have shaken off all this stuff that detracts from his true greatness.

[Mary Chambers]

I'm afraid the Saville business has stirred a lot of interest in this sort of thing. My doctor left recently and false rumours by one nitwit were heard by a nurse, who explained why he had left suddenly for another practice.

I hope the Britten centenary next year will have shaken off all this stuff that detracts from his true greatness.

Saly, yesterday, his 99th birthday, was the start of the centenary celebrations, with a wonderful concert at the Wigmore. This silly article was published on that day, which seems particularly tasteless.

[Barbirollians]

I am not quite so sure as the rest of you that this article is to be wholly condemned. I find much of it very ill-reasoned such as equating his writing for the treble voice with paedophilia .It may be naive of me but I don't necessarily believe that the affection he showed them should be construed as sexual either and it does not appear that the objects of that affection saw it that way either .

I still found Britten's Children uncomfortable, however, viewing not because I thought there was any suggestion of inappropriate or criminal sexual behaviour on his part but because it showed him to be rather emotionally warped . His discarding of these children with whom he had formed close almost parental like supportive relationships simply because they were no longer musically useful to him is close to emotional abuse .

Britten appears to have discarded adults that offended him in the same way but to do that to children strikes me as reprehensible.

[DracoM]

not quite sure how we can expect children to become interested in music-making unless music is written exclusively for them

bit of a no-brainer I would have thought

Top post - so obvious to some, not very obvious for Martin Kettle.

[ahinton]

I am not quite so sure as the rest of you that this article is to be wholly condemned. I find much of it very ill-reasoned such as equating his writing for the treble voice with paedophilia .It may be naive of me but I don't necessarily believe that the affection he showed them should be construed as sexual either and it does not appear that the objects of that affection saw it that way either .

I still found Britten's Children uncomfortable, however, viewing not because I thought there was any suggestion of inappropriate or criminal sexual behaviour on his part but because it showed him to be rather emotionally warped . His discarding of these children with whom he had formed close almost parental like supportive relationships simply because they were no longer musically useful to him is close to emotional abuse .

Britten appears to have discarded adults that offended him in the same way but to do that to children strikes me as reprehensible.

I think that, whilst you may have a point that relates to certain specific flaws and difficulties in Britten's personality, there may arguably be some difference in that the kind of emotional abuse to which you refer can be - and, perhaps, in some so permanently busy as Britten, almost certainly was in most if not all cases - committed unwittingly, whereas one can hardly say the same of the commission of acts of pædophilia; perhaps it might have been helpful had someone whom Britten trusted and respected taken him to one side and tried to point out that behaving in this way could be and almost certainly would be hurtful although, since one of Britten's insecurities manifested itself in his finding it more difficult than most to accept adverse criticism, however sincere and well-meant, this might well have backfired, at least initially in the heat of the moment.

[ahinton]

not quite sure how we can expect children to become interested in music-making unless music is written exclusively for them

bit of a no-brainer I would have thought

Well, the fact that I wouldn't have thought so even if only for no better reason than the fact that my own first musical experiences, though alone powerful enough to catapult me into musical study, were by no means of music written for children (I don't think that one could reasonably describe Chopin's F minor Ballade or Ravel's piano trio or Mallarmé songs as kiddies' stuff) in no wise undermines the rationale behind or the motivation for actually writing music for children...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Most humiliating of all is a crass exhibitionist like Jimmy Savile (who may well have behaved abhorently) being put into the same box as BB who was almost certainly a perfect gentleman. I suppose someone at The Guardian will call it "cutting edge journalism".

[ahinton]

Most humiliating of all is a crass exhibitionist like Jimmy Savile (who may well have behaved abhorently) being put into the same box as BB who was almost certainly a perfect gentleman. I suppose someone at The Guardian will call it "cutting edge journalism".

Indeed - in both cases; if that kind of tacky and wholly unfounded gossip-mongering is indeed regarded by anyone as a valid example of "cutting edge journalism", the sooner that someone else cuts the edge - and preferably also a good deal more than just that - of the paper upon which it gets published, the better, it seems to me.

[Barbirollians]

I think that, whilst you may have a point that relates to certain specific flaws and difficulties in Britten's personality, there may arguably be some difference in that the kind of emotional abuse to which you refer can be - and, perhaps, in some so permanently busy as Britten, almost certainly was in most if not all cases - committed unwittingly, whereas one can hardly say the same of the commission of acts of pædophilia; perhaps it might have been helpful had someone whom Britten trusted and respected taken him to one side and tried to point out that behaving in this way could be and almost certainly would be hurtful although, since one of Britten's insecurities manifested itself in his finding it more difficult than most to accept adverse criticism, however sincere and well-meant, this might well have backfired, at least initially in the heat of the moment.

Not so sure about that - I am sure I recall David Hemmings referring to being in essence " cut " by Britten and his distress as a consequence .

[ahinton]

Not so sure about that - I am sure I recall David Hemmings referring to being in essence " cut " by Britten and his distress as a consequence .

I seem to recall that too, but my point was to seek, for the sake or proportionate and reasonable response, to identify a meaningful distinction between what might have been unwitting emotional insensitivity and outright acts of pædophilia which, by definition, could only be committed consciously and deliberately.

[Simon]

I'm with Mary, mostly, on this one. Britten had his faults, as do we all, but it's unfair to smear him with being a paedophile without evidence, just because he was homosexual. I'm fairly sure (with hindsight and experience of life) that one of my former teachers was at the very least attracted to boys, but we all adored him (perhaps because in a strange way we sensed his gentleness and that he cared so much for us?) and I do not believe that he would ever, or ever did, do anything illegal or unsavoury. I suspect Britten was similar in attitude.

Where I'm not with Mary is of course the laughable idea that people who read the Guardian are more intelligent than people who read the Mail. I rarely read either, but I would have guessed that both groups have a very similar proportion of naive dunderheads amongst their respective readerships.

[amateur51]

I'm with Mary, mostly, on this one. Britten had his faults, as do we all, but it's unfair to smear him with being a paedophile without evidence, just because he was homosexual. I'm fairly sure (with hindsight and experience of life) that one of my former teachers was at the very least attracted to boys, but we all adored him (perhaps because in a strange way we sensed his gentleness and that he cared so much for us?) and I do not believe that he would ever, or ever did, do anything illegal or unsavoury. I suspect Britten was similar in attitude.

Where I'm not with Mary is of course the laughable idea that people who read the Guardian are more intelligent than people who read the Mail. I rarely read either, but I would have guessed that both groups have a very similar proportion of naive dunderheads amongst their respective readerships.

Which smug little observation says more about Simon than about the readership of either paper