Britten was born on 22nd November 1913 in Lowestoft in Suffolk, the son of a dentist and a talented amateur musician. He began composing prolifically as a child, and in 1927 began private lessons with Frank Bridge. He also studied, less happily, at the Royal College of Music under John Ireland and with some input from Ralph Vaughan Williams. Although ultimately held back by his parents (at the suggestion of College staff), Britten had also intended to study with Alban Berg in Vienna. His first compositions to attract wide attention were the Sinfonietta (op.1) and a set of choral variations "A Boy was Born", written in 1934 for the BBC Singers. The following year he met W. H. Auden with whom he collaborated on the song-cycle "Our Hunting Fathers", radical both in politics and musical treatment, and other works. Of more lasting importance was his meeting in 1936 with the tenor Peter Pears, who was to become his life-partner and musical collaborator. In early 1939 the two of them followed Auden to America. There Britten composed Paul Bunyan, his first opera (to a libretto by Auden), as well as the first of many song-cycles for Pears; the period was otherwise remarkable for a number of orchestral works, including Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (for string orchestra) and Sinfonia da Requiem (for full orchestra).
Britten and Pears returned to England in 1942, Britten completing the choral works Hymn to Saint Cecilia (his last collaboration with Auden) and A Ceremony of Carols during the long sea voyage. He had already begun work on his opera Peter Grimes, and its premiere at Sadler's Wells in 1945 was his greatest success so far. Britten was however encountering opposition from sectors of the English musical establishment and gradually withdrew from the London scene, founding the English Opera Group in 1947 and the Aldeburgh Festival the following year, partly (though not solely) to showcase his own works.
Grimes marked the start of a series of English operas, of which Billy Budd (1951) and The Turn of the Screw (1954) were particularly admired. These operas share common themes, with that of the 'outsider' particularly prevalent. Most feature such a character, excluded or misunderstood by society; often this is the protagonist, such as Peter Grimes and Owen Wingrave in their eponymous operas. An increasingly important influence was the music of the East, an interest fostered by a tour with Pears in 1957, when Britten was much struck by the music of the Balinese gamelan and by Japanese Noh plays. The fruits of this tour include the ballet The Prince of the Pagodas (1957) and the series of semi-operatic "Parables for Church Performance": Curlew River (1964), The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966) and The Prodigal Son (1968). The greatest success of Britten's career was, however, the musically more conventional War Requiem, written for the opening of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in 1962.
In the last decade or so of his life Britten suffered from increasing ill-health and his late works became progressively more sparse in texture. They include the opera Death in Venice (1973), the Suite on English Folk Tunes "A Time There Was" and Third String Quartet (1975), which drew on material from Death in Venice, as well as the dramatic cantata Phaedra (1976), written for Janet Baker. On 4th December 1976 Britten died of heart failure at his house in Aldeburgh, shortly after being made a life peer.
Music:
One of Britten's best known works is The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946), which was composed to accompany Instruments of the Orchestra, an educational film produced by the British government. It has the subtitle Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell, and takes a melody from Henry Purcell's Abdelazar as its central theme. Britten gives individual variations to each of the sections of the orchestra, starting with the woodwind, then the string instruments, the brass instruments and finally the percussion. Britten then brings the whole orchestra together again in a fugue before restating the theme to close the work. In the original film there was a spoken commentary, but this is often omitted in concert performances and recordings.
Britten was also an accomplished pianist, and sometimes performed at the piano in chamber music or accompanying lieder. However, apart from the Piano Concerto (1938) and the Diversions for piano and orchestra (written for Paul Wittgenstein in 1940), he wrote very little music for the instrument, and in a 1963 interview for the BBC said that he thought of it as "a background instrument".
One of Britten's solo works that has an indisputably central place in the repertoire of its instrument is his Nocturnal after John Dowland for guitar (1964). This work is typically spare in his late style, and shows the depth of his life-long admiration for Elizabethan lute songs. The theme of the work, John Dowland's Come, Heavy Sleep, emerges in complete form at the close of eight variations, each variation based on some feature, frequently transient or ornamental, of the song or its lute accompaniment.
Reputation:
Britten's status as one of the greatest English composers of the 20th century is now secure among professional critics. In the 1930s he made a conscious effort to set himself apart from the English musical mainstream, which he regarded as complacent, insular and amateurish. Many critics of the time, in return, distrusted his facility, cosmopolitanism and admiration for composers, such as Mahler, Berg, and Stravinsky, not considered appropriate models for a young English musician. Even today, criticism of his music is apt to become entangled with consideration of his personality, politics and sexuality. The publication of Humphrey Carpenter's biography in 1992, with its revelations of Britten's often fraught social, professional and sexual relationships, has ensured that he will remain a controversial figure. For many musicians, however, his flawless technique, broad musical and human sympathies and ability to treat the most traditional of musical forms with freshness and originality places him near the head of composers of his generation.
Libera Me
Benjamin Britten Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna,
in die illa tremenda:
Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra:
Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem.
Soprano and Chorus:
Tremens factus sum ego, et timeo
Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna.
Quando coeli movendi sunt i terra.
Dies illa, dies irae, calamitatis
et miseriae, dies magna et amara valde.
Libera me, Domine.
Tenor:
It seems that out of battle I escaped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped
Through granites which titanic wars had groined.
Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,
Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.
Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared
With piteous recognition in fixed eyes,
Lifting distressful hands as if to bless.
And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.
"Strange friend," I said, "here is no cause to mourn."
Baritone:
"None", said the other, "save the undone years,
The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours,
Was my life also; I went hunting wild
After the wildest beauty in the world,
For by my glee might many men have laughed,
And of my weeping something had been left,
Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,
The pity of war, the pity war distilled.
Now men will go content with what we spoiled.
Or, discontent, boil boldly, and be spilled.
They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress,
None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress.
Miss we the march of this retreating world
Into vain citadels that are not walled.
Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels
I would go up and wash them from sweet wells,
Even from wells we sunk too deep for war,
Even from the sweetest wells that ever were.
I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark; for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us sleep now..."
Boys, then Chorus, then Soprano:
In paridisum deducant te Angeli;
in tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres,
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam
Jerusalem. Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat,
et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam
habeas requiem.
Boys:
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine:
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Chorus:
In paradisum deducant etc.
Soprano:
Chorus Angeloru, te suscipiat etc.
Tenor and Baritone:
Let us sleep now.
Chorus:
Requiescant in pace. Amen.
The Libera Me from Benjamin Britten's War Requiem is a plea for eternal freedom from death on the day of judgment. It is a combination of the original Latin Libera Me text and Wilfred Owen's poem "Strange Meeting," which describes a soldier's experience in war. The text begins with a chorus praying for liberation from eternal death in the day of judgment when the heavens and earth will be moved and Christ will come to judge the world by fire. The soprano and chorus express their fear and trembling at the thought of the coming judgment and plead for deliverance from eternal death. The tenor then recalls his experience of escaping from the battlefield but ending up in a tunnel filled with the dead where he meets a soldier he had killed.
The baritone then speaks of the pity of war, the spoiling of beauty, and the hopelessness of undone years, for which men will go content with what they have and be swift to kill. The boys' choir, chorus, and soprano then pray that the angels and martyrs lead the soul to paradise and the chorus of angels receives them. They also pray for eternal rest and light for the deceased. Finally, the tenor and baritone suggest "let us sleep now," and the choir responds with "rest in peace. Amen."
Line by Line Meaning
Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna,
in die illa tremenda:
Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra:
Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem.
Save me, Lord, from eternal death
On that fearful day
When the heavens and the earth will be moved;
When you come to judge the world by fire.
Tremens factus sum ego, et timeo
dum discussio venerit, atque ventura ira.
Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna.
Quando coeli movendi sunt i terra.
Dies illa, dies irae, calamitatis
et miseriae, dies magna et amara valde.
Libera me, Domine.
I am trembling and afraid
As I wait for the final reckoning and your coming anger.
Save me, Lord, from eternal death.
When the heavens and the earth will be moved
On that day of wrath, calamity and woe.
Save me, Lord.
It seems that out of battle I escaped
Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped
Through granites which titanic wars had groined.
Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned,
Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.
Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared
With piteous recognition in fixed eyes,
Lifting distressful hands as if to bless.
And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan.
"Strange friend," I said, "here is no cause to mourn."
It appears I have escaped from battle
Through a long tunnel carved through solid rock by past wars' raging.
Yet still many fallen soldiers lay buried and unheard,
Either dead or deep in thought, they won't move.
But one rose to stare at me as I touched him,
And with sad eyes and desperate hands, he seemed to bless.
No more guns shot, no more bombs fell from the sky.
"Strange friend," I said, "don't shed a tear for this goodbye."
"None", said the other, "save the undone years,
The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours,
Was my life also; I went hunting wild
After the wildest beauty in the world,
For by my glee might many men have laughed,
And of my weeping something had been left,
Which must die now. I mean the truth untold,
The pity of war, the pity war distilled.
Now men will go content with what we spoiled.
Or, discontent, boil boldly, and be spilled.
They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress,
None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress.
Miss we the march of this retreating world
Into vain citadels that are not walled.
Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels
I would go up and wash them from sweet wells,
Even from wells we sunk too deep for war,
Even from the sweetest wells that ever were.
I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark; for so you frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us sleep now..."
"There's nothing left," said he, "just wasted years and despair.
Whatever hope you still have was mine to share.
I sought out beauty that was wild
And laughed until my soul grew mild.
From my tears, some hope would persist
But now it all must die, I insist.
I mean the untold truth, the horror of war,
Separated from its glory and gallant scores.
Men will now be content with our spoils.
Or they will rebel boldly, knowing the risks and the toils.
They will be swift, like a tigress when it hunts,
Refusing to break ranks, even as nations lose their clout.
If this world retreats into hollow castles,
Then much blood will clog their chariot-wheels.
I will go and wash them in sweet wells,
Even in the ones sunk too deep for war.
From those wells that were the sweetest,
Surely the enemy you killed is me, lest
You did not recognize me in this dark,
For I felt your frown at me, yesterday, as harsh and stark.
I parried your attack; but my hands were loath and cold.
Let us just sleep tight, let our story remain untold..."
In paridisum deducant te Angeli;
in tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres,
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam
Jerusalem. Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat,
et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam
habeas requiem.
May the Angels lead you to Paradise
And on your arrival, the Martyrs receive you,
Escorting you to the Holy City of
Jerusalem. May the chorus of Angels welcome you
And may you enjoy eternal rest with Lazarus,
Once a poor man.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine:
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
May they rest in eternal peace, Lord:
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
In paradisum deducant etc.
May the Angels lead you to Paradise etc.
Chorus Angeloru, te suscipiat etc.
May the chorus of Angels etc.
Let us sleep now.
Let us rest now.
Requiescant in pace. Amen.
May they rest in peace. Amen.
Contributed by Jordyn P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.