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Benjamin Britten Essay

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Benjamin Britten Essay
Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He was born on November 22, 1913 in Suffolk. Britten’s best works were the operas War Requiem which he wrote in 1962 and Peter Grimes which was written in 1945. His most famous orchestral piece was The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra which was also performed in 1945. Britten had a very unusual past but as any other famous composer, pianist or conductor, Britten started at a very young age. The main theme of Britten’s work was the struggle of someone trying to gain admittance into an intimidating group or society. Many people believe that this theme was very common for Britten because of how he lived and his experiences throughout his entire life. By the time he passed away Britten had developed a great legacy writing nearly 15 operas and composing and orchestrating music for many other people. Britten continued to write music and orchestrate and write operas until his death in December of 1976; he died shortly after his 63rd birthday. Britten was born in Suffolk, England as the youngest of 4 children. His father was agnostic and did not support his pursuit of his musical career. Britten’s father refused to take his family to church on Sundays and because of that they would have normally been shunned from the community. The only reason they weren’t shunned was his mother was huge in the arts and she would very occasionally throw parties where she would perform music along with others. She would bring many people together to come and listen to music at their home. His mom, Edith, was the main driving force being Britten’s success, because she was a musician as well. It would have appeared for someone such as Benjamin Britten to become a successful composer, conductor and pianist because of the strictness of his father. His father would not even allow for anyone to have a gramophone or a radio inside the house. This forced Benjamin to learn how to write and play music

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