Editing Peter Pears (section)

===Teacher and singer===
With no clear idea of his future, Pears took a teaching post at his old preparatory school in 1929.<ref name=times>"Obituary: Sir Peter Pears", ''The Times'', 4 April 1986, p. 14</ref> Among his dearest friends were the twins [[Peter Burra]] and Nell Burra; Peter was a close friend from Lancing days, and Nell looked on Pears as almost another brother.<ref>Headington, p. 18</ref> She urged him not to drift into a lifetime of schoolmastering, and he concluded that his future lay in singing. He later said that it was hearing the tenor [[Steuart Wilson]] (a distant cousin) singing the Evangelist in [[Johann Sebastian Bach|J S Bach]]'s ''[[St Matthew Passion]]'' that "started me off".<ref>Pears, p. 225</ref> He successfully applied for admission to the [[Royal College of Music]] in London, first as a part-time student and then, having been awarded a scholarship, studying full-time from 1934. He shared an apartment with [[Trevor Harvey (conductor)|Trevor Harvey]] and [[Basil Douglas]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pears|first1=Peter|title=The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears, 1936–1978|date=1999|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|page=12|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x1v-xi4mi9QC&pg=PA12|access-date=23 January 2018|isbn=9780851157412}}</ref> He appeared in student productions of opera, finding himself wholly at home on the stage, and learning from the experience of singing [[Frederick Delius|Delius]] under [[Thomas Beecham|Sir Thomas Beecham]] and roles in works by [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] and [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]].<ref>Headington, pp. 40–41</ref> But, as at Oxford, he failed to complete the course. He chafed at subsisting on a student's limited funds, and wanted a good, steady income. He auditioned for the [[BBC]] and was given a two-year contract as a member of the [[BBC Singers]], a small vocal ensemble.<ref>Headington, p. 42</ref>

In 1936 Pears made his first recording as a soloist, in [[Peter Warlock]]'s "Corpus Christi Carol".<ref name=decca>Stuart, Philip. [http://images.cch.kcl.ac.uk/charm/liv/pubs/DeccaComplete.pdf ''Decca Classical 1929–2009''], accessed 14 October 2013.</ref> Headington comments on "a thoughtful word delivery and a sensitive moulding of quietly flowing phrases, but also a certain whiteness of tone ... a kind of English cathedral sound."<ref>Headington, pp. 53–54</ref> In the same year, after Peter Burra was given a long-term loan of a cottage on [[Bucklebury Common]], Berkshire, Pears began to stay with him regularly, and it was through Burra that he got to be friendly with the rising young composer [[Benjamin Britten]], who had become another good friend of Burra's. In 1937 Burra was killed in an air crash. Pears and Britten volunteered to clear his possessions from the cottage, and their daily contact during this period cemented their friendship.<ref>Powell, p. 130</ref> Pears quickly became Britten's musical inspiration and close (though for the moment platonic) friend. Britten's first work for him was composed within weeks of their meeting, [[The Company of Heaven#History|a setting]] of [[Emily Brontë]]'s poem, "A thousand gleaming fires", for tenor and strings.<ref>Carpenter, p. 112</ref>

Up to this point Pears had not pursued his career or his vocal training with any great determination. With the stimulus of Britten's music written for him he became much more focused. After their deaths [[John Amis]] wrote that Britten would have become a great composer without Pears, but that Pears would probably not have become a great singer without Britten.<ref>Amis, John. "His maestro's silver voice and love", ''The Times'', 13 June 1992, p. 43</ref> Pears took vocal lessons from the eminent Lieder singer [[Elena Gerhardt]], but they were of limited help to him, and it was some time before he found a wholly suitable voice coach.<ref>Headington, p. 75</ref> In 1938 he had his first professional experience of opera, as an understudy and member of the chorus at [[Glyndebourne Festival Opera|Glyndebourne]].<ref>Headington, p. 82</ref>