Word: britten
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Mozart: Divertimento in B flat, K. 287 (V); Prokoviev: Prodigal Son (Vx); Handel: Sonata for Flute and Continuo, Op. 1 #7 (D); Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin (Vx); Britten: Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (L); Adam: Giselle; Vivaldi: Concerto in G major for two 'Celli and orchestra...
Still, in the last "official" census among scholars for the most eminent composers of all time, Rossini tied with Benjamin Britten for 59th place; and that isn't doing badly at all. Certainly, one must grant that Rossini had a great talent for melody and for using the human voice superbly (he was a fine professional singer himself). He also knew how to score well for orchestra; no other work of Rossini is orchestrated with such elegance and nuance as Ory. And the bedroom trio in Act II is inspired writing of the first order; Berlioz was quite right...
...work did not tax Composer Britten's creative powers. Noye's Fludde (Noah's Flood) is a 14th century miracle play that Britten set to music by stitching in three oldtime hymns, including the Rev. John Bacchus Dykes's powerful Eternal Father, Strong to Save. The original text, retained by Britten in all its gamy Middle English splendor, closely follows the Biblical tale of Noah, with the startling exception that Mrs. Noah is portrayed as a drunken old bawd, unwilling to enter the ark without her unsavory bevy of gossips...
...into the ark caroling "Kyrie, Kyrie, Kyrie eleison," and the orchestra launched with a crash into cymbal-punctuated storm music that reached its climax in a beautifully descanted chorus of Eternal Father. As the storm subsided, the cast climbed back to the stage singing a four-part Britten Alleluia, filed out singing Thomas Tallis' The Spacious Firmament on High...
...Composer Britten, a resident of Aldeburgh (pop. 2,689), likes to write for children-"They find my idiom easier than grownups do, and they don't argue with me. You never find a child saying, 'That note should be F natural.' " He recruited his 5-to 17-year-old chorus from three neighboring schools, gave them three months to learn their lines and six weeks to learn the music. What impressed him even more than their musical aptitude was their anxiety to please. Early in the rehearsal period, he spotted a small boy wearing a duck label...