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Benjamin Britten was born
at Lowestoft, England in
1913 and died in Aldeburgh
in 1976. He began composing
at the age of five and
during the following five
years he wrote six string
quartets and ten piano
sonatas. While he was still
in school he studied piano
with Harold Samuel and
composition with Frank
Bridge. He then won a
scholarship at the Royal
College of Music, where his
composition teacher was John
Ireland and his piano
teacher was Arthur Benjamin.
Among his early published
works were many choral works
and solo songs. His
Variations on a Theme by
Frank Bridge (for
strings), was one of the
early works which brought him
into serious public notice
(1937) and from the same
period he began a
considerable activity as a
composer of music for over
twenty documentary films,
also providing incidental
music for several stage
plays.
In 1940, his Sinfonia da
Requiem appeared, as did
his Seven Sonnets of
Michelangelo (for tenor
and piano; much sung by Peter
Pears, his friend and a
frequent interpreter of
Britten's
music).
Operatic activity became
prominent from 1945, in which
year his Peter Grimes
was produced; it was followed
by The Rape of
Lucretia (1946), the
comic opera Albert
Herring (1947), a freely
treated version of The
Beggar's Opera (1948),
Let's Make an Opera
(for children) (1949),
Billy Budd (1951),
Midsummer Night's
Dream (1960), Owen
Wingrave (1971, for
television, and in 1973 for
the stage), and Death in
Venice
(1973).
His important larger works
include the War
Requiem (1961), and a
Cello Symphony (1964,
composed for Mstislav
Rostropovich and first given
in Moscow), and The
Childen's Crusade (1968).
Curlew River (1964), a
combination of medieval and
music drama and Japanese Noh
play, and The Burning
Fiery Furnace (1966),
were seen by some as the
beginning of a new stage in
his creative life. In England
the work of the English Opera
Group and the annual festival
at Aldeburgh, in his native
Suffolk, have helped
materially to widen interest
in his
music.
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