Editing Benjamin Britten (section)

==Music==
{{See also|List of compositions by Benjamin Britten}}

===Influences===
Britten's early musical life was dominated by the classical masters; his mother's ambition was for him to become the "[[Three Bs|Fourth B]]" – after [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]], [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] and [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]].{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=4}} Britten was later to assert that his initial development as a composer was stifled by reverence for these masters: "Between the ages of thirteen and sixteen I knew every note of Beethoven and Brahms. I remember receiving the full score of ''Fidelio'' for my fourteenth birthday&nbsp;... But I think in a sense I never forgave them for having led me astray in my own particular thinking and natural inclinations."{{Sfn|Schafer|1963|p=119}} He developed a particular animosity towards Brahms, whose piano music he had once held in great esteem; in 1952 he confided that he played through all Brahms's music from time to time, "to see if I am right about him; I usually find that I underestimated last time how bad it was!"<ref name= grove/>

Through his association with Frank Bridge, Britten's musical horizons expanded.<ref name= M8/> He discovered the music of [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]] and [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]] which, Matthews writes, "gave him a model for an orchestral sound".{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=9}} Bridge also led Britten to the music of Schoenberg and Berg; the latter's death in 1935 affected Britten deeply. A letter at that time reveals his thoughts on the contemporary music scene: "The real musicians are so few & far between, aren't they? Apart from the Bergs, Stravinskys, Schoenbergs & Bridges one is a bit stumped for names, isn't one?" – adding, as an afterthought: "Shostakovitch – perhaps – possibly".<ref name= grove/> By this time Britten had developed a lasting hostility towards the [[English Pastoral School]] represented by Vaughan Williams and Ireland, whose work he compared unfavourably with the "brilliant folk-song arrangements of Percy Grainger"; [[Percy Grainger|Grainger]] became the inspiration of many of Britten's later folk arrangements.<ref>{{Harvnb|Matthews|2003|p=144}}; {{Harvnb|Whittall|1982|pp=273–274}}.</ref> Britten was also impressed by [[Frederick Delius|Delius]], and thought ''[[Brigg Fair#Delius orchestral setting|Brigg Fair]]'' "delicious" when he heard it in 1931.{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|p=39}} Also in that year he heard Stravinsky's ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'', which he found "bewildering and terrifying", yet at the same time "incredibly marvellous and arresting". The same composer's ''[[Symphony of Psalms]]'', and ''[[Petrushka]]'' were lauded in similar terms.<ref name= grove/> He and Stravinsky later developed a mutual antipathy informed by jealousy and mistrust.{{Sfn|Kildea|2013|p=78}}

Besides his growing attachments to the works of 20th century masters, Britten – along with his contemporary [[Michael Tippett]] – was devoted to the English music of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, in particular the work of [[Henry Purcell|Purcell]].{{Sfn|Whittall|1982|p=104}} In defining his mission as a composer of opera, Britten wrote: "One of my chief aims is to try to restore to the musical setting of the English Language a brilliance, freedom and vitality that have been curiously rare since the death of Purcell."{{Sfn|Brett|1983|p=125}} Among the closest of Britten's kindred composer spirits – even more so than Purcell – was [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]], whose [[Symphony No. 4 (Mahler)|Fourth Symphony]] Britten heard in September 1930. At that time Mahler's music was little regarded and rarely played in English concert halls.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|pp=20–23}} Britten later wrote of how the scoring of this work impressed him: "...&nbsp;entirely clean and transparent&nbsp;... the material was remarkable, and the melodic shapes highly original, with such rhythmic and harmonic tension from beginning to end."<ref name=mahler/> He soon discovered other Mahler works, in particular ''[[Das Lied von der Erde]]''; he wrote to a friend about the concluding "Abschied" of ''Das Lied'': "It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful."<ref>Letter to Henry Boys, 29 June 1937, quoted in {{Harvnb|Matthews|2003|p=22}}.</ref>{{Efn|In 1938, Britten attended what was only the second British performance of [[Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)|Mahler's Eighth Symphony]], the "Symphony of a Thousand", with [[Henry Wood|Sir Henry Wood]] and the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]]. Britten declared himself "tremendously impressed" by the music, though he thought the performance "execrable".<ref>[[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Kennedy, Michael]]. [http://www.spectator.co.uk/2010/01/mahlers-mass-following/ "Mahler's mass following"], ''[[The Spectator]]'', 13 January 2010, accessed 11 June 2016</ref>}} Apart from Mahler's general influence on Britten's compositional style, the incorporation by Britten of popular tunes (as, for example, in ''[[Death in Venice (opera)|Death in Venice]]'') is a direct inheritance from the older composer.{{Sfn|Whittall|1982|p=203}}

===Operas===
The Britten-Pears Foundation considers the composer's operas "perhaps the most substantial and important part of his compositional legacy."<ref>[http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=466 "Operas"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130813034510/http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=466 |date=13 August 2013}}, Britten-Pears Foundation, accessed 26 June 2013</ref> Britten's operas are firmly established in the international repertoire: according to [[Operabase]], they are performed worldwide more than those of any other composer born in the 20th century,<ref name="obtop">[http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en#composer List of top composers], Operabase, accessed 28 April 2011.</ref> and only [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]] and [[Richard Strauss]] come ahead of him if the list is extended to all operas composed after 1900.<ref name="bpf1103pr">[https://web.archive.org/web/20111026211726/http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Britten-Pears-Foundation-announces-Centenary-grants/12218 Britten-Pears Foundation announces Centenary grants(March 2011) ] Boosey & Hawkes, accessed 11 June 2016.</ref>

The early operetta ''[[Paul Bunyan (operetta)|Paul Bunyan]]'' stands apart from Britten's later operatic works. [[Philip Brett]] calls it "a patronizing attempt to evoke the spirit of a nation not his own by W. H. Auden in which Britten was a somewhat dazzled accomplice."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brett |first=Philip |title=Britten's Century: Celebrating 100 Years of Britten |date=2013 |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=978-1-4411-4958-9 |editor-last=Bostridge |editor-first=Mark |page=17 |chapter=The Britten Century}}</ref> The American public liked it, but the critics did not,{{Efn|The critics' outrage at the presumption of Auden and Britten in writing an American work mirrored the hostile response of London critics six years earlier when [[Jerome Kern]] and [[Oscar Hammerstein II|Oscar Hammerstein]] presented ''[[Three Sisters (musical)|Three Sisters]]'', a musical set in England.{{Sfn|Banfield|2006|p=224}}}} and it fell into neglect until interest revived near the end of the composer's life.<ref name=grove/>

[[File:Peter Pears publicity photo 1971 crop jpeg.jpg|thumb|Peter Pears as the General in ''Owen Wingrave'', 1971]]
Britten's subsequent operas range from large-scale works written for full-strength opera companies, to chamber operas for performance by small touring opera ensembles or in churches and schools. In the large-scale category are ''[[Peter Grimes]]'' (1945), ''[[Billy Budd (opera)|Billy Budd]]'' (1951), ''[[Gloriana]]'' (1953), ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)|A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' (1960) and ''[[Death in Venice (opera)|Death in Venice]]'' (1973). Of the remaining operas, ''[[The Rape of Lucretia]]'' (1946), ''[[Albert Herring]]'' (1947), ''[[The Little Sweep]]'' (1949) and ''[[The Turn of the Screw (opera)|The Turn of the Screw]]'' (1954) were written for small opera companies. ''[[Noye's Fludde]]'' (1958), ''[[Curlew River]]'' (1964), ''[[The Burning Fiery Furnace]]'' (1966) and ''[[The Prodigal Son (Britten)|The Prodigal Son]]'' (1968) were for church performance, and had their premieres at [[St Bartholomew's Church, Orford]]. The secular ''The Golden Vanity'' was intended to be performed in schools. ''Owen Wingrave'', written for television, was first presented live by the [[The Royal Opera|Royal Opera]] at Covent Garden in 1973, two years after its broadcast premiere.<ref name=grove/>

Music critics have frequently commented on the recurring theme in Britten's operas from ''Peter Grimes'' onward of the isolated individual at odds with a hostile society.<ref>ODNB; [[Edward Greenfield|Greenfield, Edward]]. "Inspired genius oblivious to musical fashion", ''The Guardian'', 6 December 1976, p. 7; {{Harvnb|Seymour|2007|pp=19, 77, 116, 216}}.</ref> The extent to which this reflected Britten's perception of himself, pacifist and homosexual, in the England of the 1930s, 40s and 50s is debated.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kildea|2013|pp=2–3}}; {{Harvnb|Seymour|2007|pp=19–20}}; and {{Harvnb|Powell|2013|p=233}}.</ref> Another recurrent theme is the corruption of innocence, most sharply seen in ''The Turn of the Screw''.<ref>[http://www.brittenpears.org/resources/the-turn-of-the-screw ''The Turn of the Screw''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220091814/http://www.brittenpears.org/resources/the-turn-of-the-screw |date=20 December 2016}}, Britten-Pears Foundation, accessed 11 June 2016</ref>

Over the 28 years between ''Peter Grimes'' and ''Death in Venice'' Britten's musical style changed, as he introduced elements of [[atonalism]] – though remaining essentially a tonal composer – and of eastern music, particularly gamelan sounds but also eastern harmonies.<ref name=grove/> In ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' the orchestral scoring varies to fit the nature of each set of characters: "the bright, percussive sounds of harps, keyboards and percussion for the fairy world, warm strings and wind for the pairs of lovers, and lower woodwind and brass for the mechanicals."<ref>[http://www.brittenpears.org/resources/a-midsummer-nights-dream "A Midsummer Night's Dream": Programme note] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701164835/http://www.brittenpears.org/resources/a-midsummer-nights-dream |date=1 July 2016}} Britten-Pears Foundation, accessed 11 June 2018</ref> In ''Death in Venice'' Britten turns Tadzio and his family into silent dancers, "accompanied by the colourful, glittering sounds of tuned percussion to emphasize their remoteness."<ref>[http://www.brittenpears.org/resources/death-in-venice "Death in Venice": Programme note] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220091818/http://www.brittenpears.org/resources/death-in-venice |date=20 December 2016}}, Britten-Pears Foundation, accessed 11 June 2016</ref>

As early as 1948 the music analyst [[Hans Keller]], summarising Britten's impact on 20th-century opera to that date, compared his contribution to that of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] in the 18th century: "Mozart may in some respects be regarded as a founder (a 'second founder') of opera. The same can already be said today, as far as the modern British – perhaps not only British – field goes, of Britten."<ref>[[Hans Keller|Keller, Hans]]. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/730149 "Britten and Mozart"], ''[[Music & Letters]]'', January 1948, pp. 17–30 {{Subscription}}.</ref> In addition to his own original operas, Britten, together with Imogen Holst, extensively revised Purcell's ''[[Dido and Aeneas]]'' (1951) and ''[[The Fairy-Queen]]'' (1967). [[Britten's Purcell Realizations]] brought Purcell, who was then neglected, to a wider public, but have themselves been neglected since the dominance of the trend to authentic performance practice.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=102}} His 1948 revision of ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]'' amounts to a wholesale recomposition, retaining the original melodies but giving them new, highly sophisticated orchestral accompaniments.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=91}}

===Song cycles===
Throughout his career Britten was drawn to the song cycle form. In 1928, when he was 14, he composed an orchestral cycle, ''Quatre chansons françaises'', setting words by [[Victor Hugo]] and [[Paul Verlaine]]. Brett comments that though the work is much influenced by Wagner on the one hand and French mannerisms on the other, "the diatonic nursery-like tune for the sad boy with the consumptive mother in 'L'enfance' is entirely characteristic."<ref name=grove/> After he came under Auden's influence Britten composed ''Our Hunting Fathers'' (1936), ostensibly a protest against fox-hunting but which also alludes allegorically to the contemporary political state of Europe. The work has never been popular; in 1948 the critic Colin Mason lamented its neglect and called it one of Britten's greatest works. In Mason's view the cycle is "as exciting as ''Les Illuminations'', and offers many interesting and enjoyable foretastes of the best moments of his later works."<ref name="mason1">Mason, Colin. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/936395 "Benjamin Britten"], ''[[The Musical Times]]'', Vol. 89, No. 1261 (March 1948), pp. 73–75 {{Subscription}}.</ref>

[[File:Britten-poets.jpg|thumb|left|Poets whose words Britten set included (clockwise from top l) [[William Blake|Blake]], [[Arthur Rimbaud|Rimbaud]], [[Wilfred Owen|Owen]] and [[Paul Verlaine|Verlaine]]]]
The first of Britten's song cycles to gain widespread popularity was ''[[Les Illuminations (Britten)|Les Illuminations]]'' (1940), for high voice (originally soprano, later more often sung by tenors){{Efn|Matthews comments that the work is "so much more sensuous when sung by the soprano voice for which the songs were conceived."<ref name="M56">{{Harvnb|Matthews|2003|p=56}}.</ref>}} with string orchestra accompaniment, setting words by [[Arthur Rimbaud]]. Britten's music reflects the eroticism in Rimbaud's poems; Copland commented of the section "Antique" that he did not know how Britten dared to write the melody.<ref name=grove/> "Antique" was dedicated to "K.H.W.S.", or [[John Woolford (muse)|Wulff Scherchen]], Britten's first romantic interest. Matthews judges the piece the crowning masterpiece of Britten's early years.<ref name= M56/> By the time of Britten's next cycle, ''[[Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo]]'' (1942) for tenor and piano, Pears had become his partner and muse; in Matthews's phrase, Britten wrote the cycle as "his declaration of love for Peter".<ref name= M56/> It too finds the sensuality of the verses it sets, though in its structure it resembles a conventional 19th-century song cycle. Mason draws a distinction between this and Britten's earlier cycles, because here each song is self-contained, and has no thematic connection with any of the others.<ref name=mason1/>

The ''[[Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings]]'' (1943) sets verses by a variety of poets, all on the theme of night-time. Though Britten described the cycle as "not important stuff, but quite pleasant, I think", it was immediately greeted as a masterpiece, and together with ''Peter Grimes'' it established him as one of the leading composers of his day.<ref name=dnb/> Mason calls it "a beautifully unified work on utterly dissimilar poems, held together by the most superficial but most effective, and therefore most suitable symphonic method. Some of the music is pure [[word painting|word-painting]], some of it mood-painting, of the subtlest kind."<ref name="mason2">Mason, Colin. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/933105 "Benjamin Britten (continued)"], ''[[The Musical Times]]'', Vol. 89, No. 1262 (April 1948), pp. 107–110 {{Subscription}}.</ref> Two years later, after witnessing the horrors of Belsen, Britten composed ''[[The Holy Sonnets of John Donne]]'', a work whose bleakness was not matched until his final tenor and piano cycle a quarter of a century later. Britten's technique in this cycle ranges from atonality in the first song to firm tonality later, with a resolute B major chord at the climax of "Death, be not proud".<ref name="Matthews 80"/>

''[[Nocturne (Britten)|Nocturne]]'' (1958) is the last of the orchestral cycles. As in the ''Serenade'', Britten set words by a range of poets, who here include [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]], [[John Keats|Keats]], [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]], [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]] and [[Wilfred Owen]].<ref name=grove/> The whole cycle is darker in tone than the ''Serenade'', with pre-echoes of the ''War Requiem''.<ref name="m120">{{Harvnb|Matthews|2003|pp=120–121}}.</ref> All the songs have subtly different orchestrations, with a prominent [[obbligato]] part for a different instrument in each.<ref name=m120/>
Among Britten's later song cycles with piano accompaniment is the ''[[Songs and Proverbs of William Blake]]'', composed for the baritone [[Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau]]. This presents all its poems in a continuous stream of music; Brett writes that it "interleaves a ritornello-like setting of the seven proverbs with seven songs that paint an increasingly sombre picture of human existence."<ref name=grove/> A Pushkin cycle, ''[[The Poet's Echo]]'' (1965), was written for [[Galina Vishnevskaya]], and shows a more robust and extrovert side of the composer.<ref name=grove/> Though written ostensibly in the tradition of European song cycles, it draws atmospherically on the polyphony of south-east Asian music.<ref name=dnb/> ''[[Who Are These Children?]]'' (1969), setting 12 verses by [[William Soutar]], is among the grimmest of Britten's cycles. After he could no longer play the piano, Britten composed a cycle of [[Robert Burns]] settings, ''[[A Birthday Hansel]]'' (1976), for voice and harp.<ref name=grove/>

===Other vocal works===
Nicholas Maw said of Britten's vocal music: "His feeling for poetry (not only English) and the inflexions of language make him, I think, the greatest musical realizer of English."<ref name=max/> One of the best-known works in which Britten set poetry was the ''War Requiem'' (1962). It intersperses the Latin [[requiem mass]], sung by [[soprano]] and chorus, with settings of works by the First World War poet [[Wilfred Owen]], sung by [[tenor]] and [[baritone]]. At the end the two elements are combined, as the last line of Owen's "Strange meeting" mingles with the ''[[In paradisum]]'' of the mass. Matthews describes the conclusion of the work as "a great wave of benediction [which] recalls the end of the ''Sinfonia da Requiem'', and its similar ebbing away into the sea that symbolises both reconciliation and death."{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|pp=125–127}} The same year, he composed ''[[A Hymn of St Columba]]'' for choir and organ, setting a poem by [[Columba|the 6th-century saint]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Spicer |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Spicer |title=A Hymn of St Columba |url=http://www.boosey.com/downloads/brittenchoralenglish.pdf |access-date=13 November 2019 |website=Britten Choral Guide |publisher=[[Boosey & Hawkes]] |pages=8–9}}</ref> Other works for voices and orchestra include the ''[[Missa Brevis (Britten)|Missa Brevis]]'' and the ''[[Cantata academica]]'' (both 1959) on religious themes, ''[[Children's Crusade (Britten)|Children's Crusade]]'' to a text by [[Bertolt Brecht]] about a group of children in [[History of Poland (1939–1945)|wartime Poland]], to be performed by children (1969), and the late cantata ''[[Phaedra (cantata)|Phaedra]]'' (1975), a story of fated love and death modelled on [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]]'s Italian cantatas.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|pp=146, 185–188}}

Smaller-scale works for accompanied voice include the five ''[[Canticles (Britten)|Canticles]]'', composed between 1947 and 1974. They are written for a variety of voices (tenor in all five; counter-tenor or alto in II and IV and baritone in IV) and accompaniments (piano in I to IV, horn in III and harp in V).<ref>[http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=493 "Canticle I"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923194714/http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=493 |date=23 September 2015}}, [http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=494 "Canticle II"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923194716/http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=494 |date=23 September 2015}}, [http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=495 "Canticle III"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923194717/http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=495 |date=23 September 2015}}, [http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=496 "Canticle IV"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923194719/http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=496 |date=23 September 2015}}, and [http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=497 "Canticle V"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923194720/http://www.brittenpears.org/page.php?pageid=497 |date=23 September 2015}}, Britten-Pears Foundation, accessed 30 June 2013</ref> The first, ''[[Canticle I: My beloved is mine and I am his]]'', is a setting of [[Francis Quarles]]'s 17th-century poem "A Divine Rapture",<ref name="matthews98">{{Harvnb|Matthews|2003|pp=98–99}}.</ref> and according to Britten was modelled on Purcell's ''Divine Hymns''.{{Sfn|Schafer|1963|p=121}} Matthews describes it as one of the composer's most serene works, which "ends in a mood of untroubled happiness that would soon become rare in Britten's music."<ref name=matthews98/> The [[Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac|second Canticle]] was written in 1952, between ''Billy Budd'' and ''Gloriana'', on the theme of [[Abraham]]'s obedience to Divine Authority in the proffered sacrifice of his son [[Isaac]].{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=111}}{{Efn|The piece was much admired by Tippett as "one of the wonderful things in Britten's music", an opinion with which Britten apparently concurred.{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|p=305}}}} [[Canticle III: Still falls the rain|"Canticle III"]] from 1954 is a setting of Edith Sitwell's wartime poem "Still Falls the Rain", composed just after ''The Turn of the Screw'' with which it is structurally and stylistically associated. The twelve-note cycle in the first five bars of the piano part of the Canticle introduced a feature that became thereafter a regular part of Britten's compositional technique.{{Sfn|Whittall|1982|pp=162–164}} ''[[Canticle IV: The Journey of the Magi]]'', premiered in 1971, is based on T. S. Eliot's poem "[[Journey of the Magi]]". It is musically close to ''The Burning Fiery Furnace'' of 1966; Matthews refers to it as a "companion piece" to the earlier work.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=140}} The final Canticle was another Eliot setting, his juvenile poem "Death of Saint Narcissus". Although Britten had little idea of what the poem was about,{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|p=565}} the musicologist [[Arnold Whittall]] finds the text "almost frighteningly apt&nbsp;... for a composer conscious of his own sickness."{{Sfn|Whittall|1982|p=272}} Matthews sees Narcissus as "another figure from [Britten's] magic world of dreams and ideal beauty."{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=153}}

===Orchestral works===
{{external media|float=right|width=230px|audio1=You may hear Benjamine Britten's "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra", Op. 34 with Britten conducting the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] in 1967<br/>[https://archive.org/details/lp_young-persons-guide-to-the-orchestra-op-34_benjamin-britten-the-london-symphony-orche/disc1/01.01.+The+Young+Person's+Guide+To+The+Orchestra+(Op.+34).mp3 '''Here on Archive.org''']}}

The Britten scholar [[Donald Mitchell (writer)|Donald Mitchell]] has written, "It is easy, because of the scope, stature, and sheer volume of the operas, and the wealth of vocal music of all kinds, to pay insufficient attention to the many works Britten wrote in other, specifically non-vocal genres."<ref name=dnb/> Maw said of Britten, "He is one of the 20th century's great orchestral composers&nbsp;... His orchestration has an individuality, incisiveness and integration with the musical material only achieved by the greatest composers."<ref name=max/> Among Britten's best-known orchestral works are the ''[[Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge]]'' (1937), the ''[[Sinfonia da Requiem]]'' (1940), the ''Four Sea Interludes'' (1945) and ''The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'' (1945). The Variations, an affectionate tribute to Britten's teacher, range from comic parodies of Italian operatic clichés and Viennese waltzes to a strutting march, reflecting the rise of militarism in Europe, and a Mahlerian funeral march; the piece ends with an exuberant [[fugue|fugal]] finale.<ref>Richards, Denby (1977). Notes to Chandos CD 8376</ref> The Sinfonia moves from an opening ''Lacrymosa'' filled with fear and lamentation to a fierce [[Dies irae]] and then to a final ''Requiem aeternam'', described by the critic Herbert Glass as "the most uneasy 'eternal rest' possible".<ref>Glass, Herbert. [http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/sinfonia-da-requiem-benjamin-britten "Sinfonia da Requiem"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017175446/http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/sinfonia-da-requiem-benjamin-britten |date=17 October 2013}}, Los Angeles Philharmonic, accessed 26 June 2013</ref> Mason considers the Sinfonia a failure: "less entertaining than usual, because its object is not principally to entertain but to express symphonically. It fails because it is neither picturesquely nor formally symphonic."<ref name=mason1/> The ''Sea Interludes'', adapted by Britten from the full score of ''Peter Grimes'', make a concert suite depicting the sea and the Borough in which the opera is set; the character of the music is strongly contrasted between "Dawn", "Sunday Morning", "Moonlight" and "Storm". The commentator Howard Posner observes that there is not a bar in the interludes, no matter how beautiful, that is free of foreboding.<ref>Posner, Howard. [http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/four-sea-interludes-benjamin-britten "Four Sea Interludes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130330004237/http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/four-sea-interludes-benjamin-britten |date=30 March 2013}}, Los Angeles Philharmonic, accessed 26 June 2013</ref> ''The Young Person's Guide'', based on a theme by Purcell, showcases the orchestra's individual sections and groups, and gained widespread popularity from the outset.<ref name=headington82/><ref name=Matthews85/> [[Christopher Headington]] calls the work "exuberant and uncomplicated music, scored with clarity and vigour [that] fits well into Britten's ''oeuvre''."<ref name="headington82">{{Harvnb|Headington|1996|p=82}}.</ref> David Matthews calls it "a brilliant educational exercise."<ref name="Matthews85">{{Harvnb|Matthews|2003|p=85}}.</ref>{{Efn|The piece is formally sub-titled "Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell"; Britten greatly disliked the BBC's practice of referring to the work by the grander sub-title in preference to his preferred title.{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|p=231}}}}

Unlike his English predecessors such as [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]] and Vaughan Williams, and composers from mainland Europe whom he admired, including Mahler and Shostakovich, Britten was not a classical symphonist. His youthful ''jeux d'esprit'' the ''Simple Symphony'' (1934) is in conventional symphonic structure, observing [[sonata form]] and the traditional four-movement pattern, but of his mature works his ''Spring Symphony'' (1949) is more a song cycle than a true symphony,<ref name=grove/> and the concertante [[Cello Symphony (Britten)|Cello Symphony]] (1963) is an attempt to balance the traditional concerto and symphony. During its four movements the Cello Symphony moves from a deeply pessimistic opening to a finale of radiant happiness rare for Britten by this point.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|pp=128, 183}} The composer considered it "the finest thing I've written."{{Sfn|Powell|2013|p=382}}

The [[Piano Concerto (Britten)|Piano Concerto]] (1938) was at first criticised for being too light-hearted and virtuoso. In 1945 Britten revised it, replacing a skittish third movement with a more sombre [[passacaglia]] that, in Matthews's view, gives the work more depth, and makes the apparent triumph of the finale more ambivalent.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|pp=46–48}} The [[Violin Concerto (Britten)|Violin Concerto]] (1939), finished in the first weeks of the World War, has virtuoso elements, but they are balanced by lyrical and elegiac passages, "undoubtedly reflecting Britten's growing concern with the escalation of world hostilities."<ref name="vc">[http://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Benjamin-Britten-Violin-Concerto/6425 "Britten, Benjamin: Violin Concerto"], Boosey & Hawkes, accessed 30 June 2013</ref> Neither concerto is among Britten's most popular works, but in the 21st century the Violin Concerto, which is technically difficult, has been performed more frequently than before, both in the concert hall and on record,<ref name=vc/> and has enthusiastic performers and advocates, notably violinist [[Janine Jansen]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Niles |first=Laurie |date=30 March 2010 |title=Janine Jansen on the Britten Violin Concerto |url=https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20103/11103 |access-date=17 September 2020 |website=violinist.com}}</ref>

Britten's incidental music for theatre, film and radio, much of it unpublished, was the subject of an essay by [[William Mann (critic)|William Mann]], published in 1952 in the first detailed critical assessment of Britten's music to that date.{{Sfn|Mann|1952|pp=295–311}} Of these pieces the music for a radio play, ''The Rescue'', by [[Edward Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville|Edward Sackville-West]], is praised by the musicologist [[Lewis Foreman]] as "of such stature and individual character as to be worth a regular place alongside [Britten's] other dramatic scores."<ref name="Foreman">Foreman, Lewis. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/945907 Benjamin Britten and 'The Rescue'], ''[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]'', September 1988, pp. 28–33 {{Subscription}}.</ref> Mann finds in this score pre-echoes of the second act of ''Billy Budd'',{{Sfn|Mann|1952|p=303}} while Foreman observes that Britten "appears to have made passing allusions to ''The Rescue'' in his final opera, ''Death in Venice''.<ref name= Foreman/>

===Chamber and instrumental works===
Britten's close friendship with Rostropovich inspired the [[Cello Sonata (Britten)|Cello Sonata]] (1961) and three suites for solo cello (1964–71).{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|pp=188–189}} String quartets featured throughout Britten's composing career, from a student work in 1928 to his Third String Quartet (1975). The [[String Quartet No. 2 (Britten)|Second Quartet]], from 1945, was written in homage to Purcell; Mason considered it Britten's most important instrumental work to that date.<ref name= mason2/> Referring to this work, Keller writes of the ease with which Britten, relatively early in his compositional career, solves "the modern sonata problem – the achievement of symmetry and unity within an extended ternary circle based on more than one subject." Keller likens the innovatory skill of the Quartet to that of [[William Walton|Walton]]'s [[Viola Concerto (Walton)|Viola Concerto]].<ref>[[Hans Keller|Keller, Hans]]. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/943226 "Benjamin Britten's Second Quartet"], ''[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]'', March 1947, pp. 6–9 {{Subscription}}.</ref> The third Quartet was Britten's last major work; the critic Colin Anderson said of it in 2007, "one of Britten's greatest achievements, one with interesting allusions to [[Béla Bartók|Bartók]] and Shostakovich, and written with an economy that opens out a depth of emotion that can be quite chilling.<ref>Anderson, Colin, "Britten – 'Phantasy Quartet'; String Quartet No. 3; Bliss – Oboe Quintet", ''[[Fanfare (magazine)|Fanfare]]'', March 2007, pp. 87–88.</ref> The ''Gemini Variations'' (1965), for flute, violin and piano duet, were based on a theme of [[Zoltán Kodály]] and written as a virtuoso piece for the 13-year-old Jeney twins, musical prodigies whom Britten had met in Budapest in the previous year.{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|p=448}} For [[Osian Ellis]], Britten wrote the Suite for Harp (1969), which [[Joan Chissell]] in ''The Times'' described as "a little masterpiece of concentrated fancy".<ref>[[Joan Chissell|Chissell, Joan]]. "Little Masterpieces", ''The Times'', 26 June 1976, p. 11</ref> ''[[Nocturnal after John Dowland]]'' (1963) for solo guitar was written for [[Julian Bream]] and has been praised by [[Benjamin Dwyer]] for its "semantic complexity, prolonged musical argument, and philosophical depth".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dwyer |first=Benjamin |author-link=Benjamin Dwyer |title=Britten and the Guitar |date=2016 |publisher=Carysfort Press |isbn=978-1-9093-2593-7 |location=Dublin |page=159}}</ref>

===Legacy===
[[File:Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk (2).jpg|thumb|[[Snape Maltings]] concert hall, a main venue of the [[Aldeburgh Festival]], founded by Britten, Pears and Crozier]]
Britten's fellow composers had divided views about him. To Tippett he was "simply the most musical person I have ever met", with an "incredible" technical mastery;{{Sfn|Tippett|1994|p=117}} some contemporaries, however, were less effusive. In Tippett's view, Walton and others were convinced that Britten and Pears were leaders of a homosexual conspiracy in music,{{Efn|[[Steuart Wilson]], a retired singer who held a succession of posts as a musical administrator, launched an outspoken campaign in 1955 against "homosexuality in British music" and was quoted as saying: "The influence of perverts in the world of music has grown beyond all measure. If it is not curbed soon, Covent Garden and other precious musical heritages could suffer irreparable harm."<ref>''[[The Sunday People|The People]]'', 24 July 1955, cited in {{Harvnb|Britten|2004|p=7}}.</ref>}} a belief Tippett dismisses as ridiculous, inspired by jealousy of Britten's postwar successes.{{Sfn|Tippett|1994|p=214}} [[Leonard Bernstein]] considered Britten "a man at odds with the world", and said of his music: "[I]f you hear it, not just listen to it superficially, you become aware of something very dark."<ref>Bernstein, in the TV documentary ''A Time There Was'', quoted by {{Harvnb|Carpenter|1992|p=590}}.</ref> The tenor [[Robert Tear]], who was closely associated with Britten in the latter part of the composer's career, made a similar point: "There was a great, huge abyss in his soul&nbsp;... He got into the valley of the shadow of death and couldn't get out."<ref name=Carpenter590/>

In the decade after Britten's death, his standing as a composer in Britain was to some extent overshadowed by that of the still-living Tippett.{{Sfn|Steinberg|1998|p=643}} The film-maker [[Tony Palmer (director)|Tony Palmer]] thought that Tippett's temporary ascendancy might have been a question of the two composers' contrasting personalities: Tippett had more warmth and had made fewer enemies. In any event this was a short-lived phenomenon; Tippett adherents such as the composer [[Robert Saxton]] soon rediscovered their enthusiasm for Britten, whose audience steadily increased during the final years of the 20th century.<ref name=Carpenter590/> Britten has had few imitators; [[Philip Brett|Brett]] describes him as "inimitable, possessed of&nbsp;... a voice and sound too dangerous to imitate."<ref name= grove/> Nevertheless, after his death Britten was lauded by the younger generation of English composers to whom, in the words of [[Oliver Knussen]], he became "a phenomenal father-figure".<ref name="Carpenter590">{{Harvnb|Carpenter|1992|pp=590–591}}.</ref> Brett believes that he affected every subsequent British composer to some extent: "He is a key figure in the growth of British musical culture in the second half of the 20th century, and his effect on everything from opera to the revitalization of music education is hard to overestimate."<ref name= grove/>

Whittall believes that one reason for Britten's enduring popularity is the "progressive conservatism" of his music. He generally avoided the avant-garde, and did not challenge the conventions in the way that contemporaries such as Tippett did.{{Sfn|Whittall|1982|pp=299–301}} Perhaps, says Brett, "the tide that swept away serialism, atonality and most forms of musical modernism and brought in neo-Romanticism, minimalism and other modes of expression involved with tonality carried with it renewed interest in composers who had been out of step with the times."<ref name= grove/> Britten defined his mission as a composer in very simple terms: composers should aim at "pleasing people today as seriously as we can".{{Sfn|Oliver|1996|p=213}}