Britten

[Serial_Apologist]

It's worth pointing out, perhaps, that the Soirées and Matinées Musicales are not pastiches, but string arrangements of original tunes by Rossini, many of them indeed "sins of his old age" from the 1860s. Not that this affects your argument: that Britten did have a remarkable gift for parody (rather than pastiche) is evident, not least in the play scene of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Having said which, I don't quite follow your point on his harmony. What's "right" and what's "wrong" when it comes to harmonisation? Just because a composer chooses not to follow the rules of (e.g.) the Rimsky or Piston treatises doesn't necessarily mean they don't know what they're doing - as Britten's technically brilliant parodies and arrangements of other composers demonstrate. Don't his quirks provide his personality?

I can't disagree with that! All said, does one not speak of good and bad harmonisation? In Britten's case, hardly that of an iconoclast by temperament or social leaning, but on the contrary someone who we were told completed his music theory exam at the then-conservative RCM well ahead of his co-students, it would make sense to assume he was sufficiently informed in the rudiments. All that said, I did enjoy much of what was played in the final programme - Britten profited well from the influence of Shostakovitch's Age of Gold period, and (by way of that influence possibly) that of Mahler in the plangent slow movements of the Bridge Variations and the Violin Concerto.

[Master Jacques]

In Britten's case, hardly that of an iconoclast by temperament or social leaning, but on the contrary someone who we were told completed his music theory exam at the then-conservative RCM well ahead of his co-students, it would make sense to assume he was sufficiently informed in the rudiments.

Certainly, we have to know the rules before we can break them - mere ignorance would be no defence!

What happened to move him away from the Mahler-Berg axis was his discovery of Bartók, from whose harmonic palette he borrows quite a lot, though making it his own. I reckon the first four Bartók Quartets must have hit young Britten like a musical tsunami.

[smittims]

Another footnote to the Gloriana story was Vaughan Williams' letter to the press pointing out something the critics had missed : that this was the first time a British monarch had commissioned an opera from a British composer.

This was not the first time VW had stood up for Britten . Whe Britten was still practically a boy and had written none of the works by which he's known today, VW was writing to his contacts in the musical world urging them to perform some of B's music. And later, when the orchestral players made fun of Britten's first orchestral work to be performed professionally, threatening the quality of the performance, VW took them to task and told them to take it serioiusly. He received no thanks for any of these actions . I've even heard the absurd idea that he was opposed to Britten. This was not so.

[oliver sudden]

And later, when the orchestral players made fun of Britten's first orchestral work to be performed professionally, threatening the quality of the performance, VW took them to task and told them to take it serioiusly. He received no thanks for any of these actions . I've even heard the absurd idea that he was opposed to Britten. This was not so.

That was Our Hunting Fathers, I think? I haven’t been able to listen to these broadcasts but I do hope that still counts as early Britten because as far as I’m concerned it’s brilliant stuff.

(I think he wrote in letter something like ‘it’s my op. 1 all right’. Unfortunately he had already written op. 8 in the score…)

[Roger Webb]

(I think he wrote in letter something like ‘it’s my op. 1 all right’. Unfortunately he had already written op. 8 in the score…)

He said that Our Hunting Fathers was his 'real Op. 1', implying that the works written up to that point didn't represent what he had to say. His actual Op. 1 is, of course, the Sinfonietta, which is a remarkable work, showing signs of his study of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No 1, and of his teacher and mentor Frank Bridge. Britten's 'fingerprints' are all over this early work - I have it on now - and is fresh and invigorating!

[Master Jacques]

He received no thanks for any of these actions.

By the late 1930s RVW represented the 'mainstream' generation, which had to be overcome in public perception by the new boys on the block. Nor should we confuse Britten's complex attitude to RVW (or Elgar) with some of the curmudgeonly rubbish spouted by some of his acolytes, such as Eric Walter White.

The proof of the pudding, is that Pears and Britten (with the Zorian Quartet) recorded On Wenlock Edge with a fiery intensity which has never been surpassed. The performance is a bit much for pastoralists, but it's still the first one I turn to myself - as being in a class apart, 80 years after it was set down. Now that's what he really thought of RVW.