Page 295 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

MODERN 1900–1950 293

the next morning when, to the Interludes (“Dawn,” “Sunday
mournful sound of a foghorn, Morning,” “Moonlight,” and
reports emerge of a sinking “Storm”), which are often performed
vessel too far out to be rescued. on their own. They serve to set the
scene, evoke the emotions of the
Building tension characters, and foreshadow the
The music of Peter Grimes has building drama, from gentle violins
astonishing tensile strength, and flutes depicting a coastal dawn
what Peter Pears called “The bare to an upsurge in the brass denoting
minimum of notes to convey the an approaching storm.
maximum effect.” Such economy Britten went on to write other
of style, already apparent in operas, including Billy Budd (1951)
Britten’s early works, such as based on Herman Melville’s novella
A Boy was Born (1933) and Les Billy Budd, Sailor, and Death in
Illuminations (1939), was skeletal Venice (1973), from the novel by
compared to the English pastoral Thomas Mann. In addition to
school of composition. In Peter carving a place for modern British
Grimes, the music expresses the opera in the international repertoire,
drama at all times. In the quartet Britten actively promoted music and
“Hi! Give us a hand!” in the first fellow composers. He also upheld
scene of Act One, for example, all the traditional elements of opera,
four characters sing at the same such as a good story, evocative
time, mimicking an argument, atmosphere, and a large and
while the mix of song, speech, and stirring chorus. Essentially, he
laughter in the chorus’s “Assign reclaimed the concept of opera
your prettiness to me” in Act Three as entertainment in an age when
conveys the natural simplicity of the minimalism ruled. ■
villagers. Conversely, at the end of
the opera, the canon of the chorus
evokes the menace of the crowd. Britten is memorialized in a
window by John Piper in Aldeburgh
Orchestral interludes are also Parish Church. The Burning Fiery
employed to great effect between Furnace, depicted here, evokes
acts, especially in the Four Sea Britten’s three “church parables.”

Music festivals music, founded by its citizens
in 1877. In Italy, it was the
Aldeburgh Festival, launched by centenary in 1913 of Verdi’s
Britten and his friends in 1948, birth that prompted the first
gained international status within operas at the Arena di Verona,
a few decades. It became the where the city’s annual festival
latest in a growing number of is held in summer.
international music festivals, As in Europe, classical music
including the Bayreuth Festival festivals in the US flourished
founded by Richard Wagner in in the 1870s, though the Handel
1876 to stage his own operas, and Haydn Society in Boston
and Salzburg’s festival of Mozart’s held its first triennial festival
as early as 1858. In the 20th
The English Opera Group century, the composer Henry
carry props into the Jubilee Hall Kimball Hadley staged concerts
for Britten’s Let’s Make An Opera in 1934 that evolved into the
during Aldeburgh’s 1949 festival. celebrated Tanglewood Festival.

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