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The Cambridge companion to Benjamin Britten / edited by Mervyn Cooke.

Contributor(s): Cooke, Mervyn.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookSeries: Cambridge companions to music.Publisher: Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1999Description: xviii, 350 p. : ill. ; 26 cm. + pbk.ISBN: 052157384X; 0521574765 .Subject(s): Britten, Benjamin, 1913-1976 -- Criticism and interpretationDDC classification: 780.92 BRI
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Barcode
General lending MTU Cork School of Music Library Lending 780.92 BRI (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00103765
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten is a comprehensive guide to the composer's work, aimed both at the non-specialist and music student. It sheds light on both the composer's stylistic and personal development, offering new interpretations of his operatic works and discussing his characteristic working methods. Topics treated here in detail for the first time include Britten's work in the cinema in the 1930s, his lifelong pacifism and his strong interest in the music of the Far East; other chapters include reassessments of his relationship with W. H. Auden and his attitude towards childhood, comprehensive analyses of major works and a concise history of the Aldeburgh Festival. A distinguished team of contributors include some who worked with the composer during his lifetime, as well as leading representatives of the younger generation of Britten scholars on both sides of the Atlantic.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • List of plates (p. vi)
  • Notes on contributors (p. vii)
  • Acknowledgements (p. x)
  • List of abbreviations (p. xi)
  • Chronology (p. xiii)
  • Introduction (p. 1)
  • Part 1 Apprenticeship
  • 1 Juvenilia (1922-1932) (p. 11)
  • 2 Britten, Auden and 'otherness' (p. 36)
  • 3 Britten in the cinema: Coal Face (p. 54)
  • Part 2 The operas
  • 4 'He descended into Hell': Peter Grimes, Ellen Orford and salvation denied (p. 81)
  • 5 The chamber operas (p. 95)
  • 6 Gloriana: Britten's 'slighted child' (p. 113)
  • 7 Britten and Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream (p. 129)
  • 8 Eros in life and death: Billy Budd and Death in Venice (p. 147)
  • Part 3 Perspectives
  • 9 Distant horizons: from Pagodaland to the Church Parables (p. 167)
  • 10 Violent climates (p. 188)
  • 11 Britten as symphonist (p. 217)
  • 12 The concertos and early orchestral scores: aspects of style and aesthetic (p. 233)
  • 13 The chamber music (p. 245)
  • 14 Music for voices (p. 260)
  • Part 4 The composer in the community
  • 15 Britten and the world of the child (p. 279)
  • 16 Old songs in new contexts: Britten as arranger (p. 292)
  • 17 Aldeburgh (p. 306)
  • Notes (p. 318)
  • Index of Britten's works (p. 343)
  • General index (p. 346)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The most comprehensive collection of essays on Britten and his music to date, this volume goes beyond the usual subjects that one can fine in a dozen other Britten volumes (analyses of the major operas, the composer's assimilation of exotic musical influences, his homosexuality) and explores a host of other areas. For example, an essay on the "juvenilia" explores Britten's earliest works; another perceptive entry considers the composer's close relationship with, and the influence of, W.H. Auden. Cooke (Univ. of Nottingham, UK) does an outstanding job of grouping the 17 essays under meaningful headings, presenting them as four substantial "movements." Many readers will find the third ("Perspectives") and fourth ("The Composer in the Community") most revealing--in particular, Donald Mitchell's discussion of Britten the pacifist, Arved Ashby's look at Britten the symphonist (and the symphonist who might have been), and Judith Le Grove's moving account of Britten's relationship with Aldeburgh as place, festival site, and symbol. Definitely an upper-level book, this volume requires familiarity with Britten's music and offers no photographs or guides to recordings. But reading it will be rewarding for the ambitious undergraduate and advanced scholar alike. E. Schwartz; Bowdoin College