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.
Offertorium
Benjamin Britten Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae,
libera animas omnium fidelium
defunctorum de poenis inferni,
et de profundo lacu:
libera eas de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas
tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum.
Sed signifer sanctus Michael
repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam:
Quam olim Abrahae promisisti,
et semini ejus.
Tenor and Baritone:
So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenched there,
And streched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! and angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so,
but slew his son, -
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
Boys:
Hostias et preced tibi Domine
laudis offerimus; tu suscipe pro
animabus illis, quarum hodie
memoriam facimus: fac eas, Domine,
de morte transire ad vitam.
Quam olim Abrahae promisisti
en semini ejus.
Chorus:
...Quam olim Abrahae promisisti
et semini ejus.
The lyrics to Benjamin Britten’s song Offertorium tell the story of Abraham and his son, Isaac. The boys’ first verses ask Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, to deliver the souls of the faithful departed from the torments of hell and the depths of the lake. They plead for these souls to be saved from the lion’s mouth and the darkness. They hope that Saint Michael, the holy signifier, will lead them into the promised light of Abraham and his descendants.
The tenor and baritone later sing the story of Abraham and Isaac, how the father prepared to sacrifice his beloved son to God, only to be stopped by an angel at the last moment. This story has been interpreted in different ways throughout literature and history, but many see it as a prefiguration of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. The final verses speak of offering praises and sacrifices to the Lord, in memory of those who have departed from the earthly life. The chorus repeats the promise to Abraham and his descendants of reaching the shining light of God.
Overall, the lyrics of Offertorium speak of redemption, sacrifice, and faith. In the story of Abraham and Isaac, we see the willingness to offer all to God, the mercy and care of the Creator, and the promise of salvation. The song’s structure, incorporating the voices of boys, tenor, baritone, and chorus, emphasizes the sense of urgency, hope, and reverence.
Line by Line Meaning
Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae,
libera animas omnium fidelium
defunctorum de poenis inferni,
et de profundo lacu:
libera eas de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas
tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum.
Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory,
free the souls of all the faithful departed from the torments of hell,
and from the deep pit:
free them from the lion's mouth, lest the abyss engulf them
or they fall into darkness.
Sed signifer sanctus Michael
repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam:
Quam olim Abrahae promisisti,
et semini ejus.
But let the holy standard-bearer Michael
present them in the holy light:
that which Thou didst promise of old to Abraham
and to his seed.
So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenched there,
And streched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! and angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so,
but slew his son, -
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
So Abram got up and split the wood and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And while they traveled together,
Isaac, the first-born, spoke and said, 'My Father,
Look at the preparations, fire and iron,
But where is the lamb for this burnt-offering?'
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And built battlements and moats there,
And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.
When an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Do not lay your hand upon the lad,
Nor do anything to him. Behold,
A ram is caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man wouldn't do that,
and killed his son, -
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
Hostias et preced tibi Domine
laudis offerimus; tu suscipe pro
animabus illis, quarum hodie
memoriam facimus: fac eas, Domine,
de morte transire ad vitam.
Quam olim Abrahae promisisti
en semini ejus.
We offer sacrifices and praise to Thee, O Lord;
accept them for
the souls whom we commemorate today:
make them, O Lord,
transcend from death to life.
That which Thou didst promise of old to Abraham
and to his seed.
...Quam olim Abrahae promisisti
et semini ejus.
...
That which Thou didst promise of old to Abraham
and to his seed.
Contributed by Benjamin R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.