Benjamin Britten

In 1937, Benjamin Britten met Peter Neville Luard Pears and very quickly the two musicians developed a close bond. Initially their relationship was platonic. Later in 1939, during their trip to the USA, they consummated their relationship. Since then, until Britten’s death, they remained partners in every sphere.

Britten died on 4 December 1976 from congestive heart failure. Although authorities at Westminster Abbey had offered burial there, he was put to rest at the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Church in Aldeburgh because he had wished to be buried beside his life partner Peter Pears, who would eventually die in 1986.

Much later in 2013, in his book, ‘Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century’, Australian author Paul Kildea had claimed that his heart failure was due to undetected syphilis, which might be the result of Pears’ liaisons with other partners. However, Britten’s doctors have denied it.

Benjamin Britten was born on November 22, 1913, in Lowestoft, a port town located in the English county of Suffolk. His father, Robert Victor Britten, was a successful but disgruntled dentist.

Benjamin’s mother, Edith Rhoda, née Hockey, was an amateur pianist and also the Secretary to Lowesoft Musical Society. The musical soirees she held at home were attended by the important community members. Thus, in spite of belonging to the middle class, they had a standing in the society.

Benjamin was the youngest of his parents’ four children, having two elder sisters, Charlotte Elizabeth Britten and Edith Barbara Britten and a brother, Robert Harry Marsh Britten. While his sisters were indifferent to music and his brother was only interested in rag-time, to his mother’s delight, Benjamin was born a musical prodigy.

He also got on well with his father, who was said to be remote but loving. According to his sister Elizabeth, they shared a wry sense of humor, dedication to work, as well as a capacity to bear pain.

When he was three months old, he had a bout of pneumonia, which almost killed him. Although he had an astonishing recovery, it left his heart weak. In spite of that, he was a keen tennis player and loved cricket.

In October 1924, while attending one such concert, Benjamin heard Frank Bridge, an English composer, violist and conductor, with strong pacifist convictions. His orchestral poem, ‘The Sea’, highly impressed the little boy.

Returning home, he enthusiastically told Alston all about his experience. By a happy coincidence, Alston was acquainted with Bridge and therefore, when in 1927 he returned to the region to attend Norwich festival, she took young Benjamin, not yet fourteen, to meet him.

Bridge was highly impressed by the young boy’s musical talent and offered to provide him with music lessons provided he came to London. It was agreed that he would continue his studies at Lowestoft and concurrently take regular trips to London to study music with him.

Thereafter from 1927, Britten continued to make regular visit to London, where he studied composition with Bridge and piano with Harold Samuel. It was Bridge who taught him to pay utmost attention to the technicalities of composition and more importantly told him to find himself and remain true to it.

Bridge also introduced him to a wide range of composers from different countries, thus creating the foundation on which Benjamin’s music career evolved. However, he did not study with him for long, for in September 1928, he was sent to Gresham's School, in Holt, Norfolk, as a boarder.

After completing his studies at RCM, Benjamin Britten returned to Lowestoft. There, he began working on eight music pieces he had written for piano as a teenager. In 1934, it was performed as ‘Simple Symphony Op 4’ in the Stuart Hall, with him conducting an amateur orchestra.

In February 1935, Bridge arranged for Britten to appear in a job interview for BBC’s music department. Not keen on a permanent position, he was greatly relieved when he found that he was only expected to write the score for a documentary film, ‘The King's Stamp’ for the GPO Film Unit.

Thereafter, he began writing scores for the film unit on a regular basis. In course of this work, he met poet Wystan Hugh Auden, with whom he worked on a number of innovative documentary films like ‘Coal Face’, ‘Night Mail’, ‘Cabaret Songs’, ‘On This Island’, ‘Paul Bunyan’ and ‘Hymn to St. Cecilia.’

Britten also worked independently, writing scores for a number of radio, theatre, as well as film productions. Some important works of this period were ‘King Arthur’ and ‘The Sword in the Stone’ (radio); ‘The Ascent of F6’, ‘On the Frontier’ and ‘Johnson Over Jordan’ (theatre); ‘Night Mail’ and ‘Love from a Stranger’ (film).

On the personal level, 1937 was a significant year for Britten. This was the year his mother died. He was very attached to her and so was naturally devastated by the incident. At the same time, he must have felt liberated; for he started developing personal relationship with others only after this.