Editing Benjamin Britten (section)

===Early professional life===
In February 1935, at Bridge's instigation, Britten was invited to a job interview by the BBC's director of music [[Adrian Boult]] and his assistant [[Edward Clark (conductor)|Edward Clark]].{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|pp=62–63}} Britten was not enthusiastic about the prospect of working full-time in the [[BBC]] music department and was relieved when what came out of the interview was an invitation to write the score for a documentary film, ''[[The King's Stamp]]'', directed by [[Alberto Cavalcanti]] for the [[GPO Film Unit]].{{Sfn|Powell|2013|p=92}}

[[File:AudenVanVechten1939.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.55|W. H. Auden in 1939]]
Britten became a member of the film unit's small group of regular contributors, another of whom was [[W. H. Auden]]. Together they worked on the documentary films ''Coal Face'' and ''[[Night Mail]]'' in 1935.{{Sfn|Kennedy|1983|p=17}} They also collaborated on the song cycle ''[[Our Hunting Fathers]]'' (1936), radical both in politics and musical treatment, and subsequently other works including ''Cabaret Songs'', ''[[On This Island]]'', [[Paul Bunyan (operetta)|''Paul Bunyan'']] and ''[[Hymn to St Cecilia]]''.{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|pp=104, 105, 148, 166}} Auden was a considerable influence on Britten, encouraging him to widen his aesthetic, intellectual and political horizons, and also to come to terms with his homosexuality. Auden was, as [[David Matthews (composer)|David Matthews]] puts it, "cheerfully and guiltlessly promiscuous"; Britten, puritanical and conventional by nature, was sexually repressed.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=34}}

In the three years from 1935 to 1937 Britten wrote nearly 40 scores for the theatre, cinema and radio.<ref>White, Eric Walter. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/944267 "Britten in the Theatre: A Provisional Catalogue"], ''[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]'', New Series, No 107, December 1973, pp. 2–10 {{Subscription}}.</ref> Among the film music of the late 1930s Matthews singles out ''Night Mail'' and ''[[Love from a Stranger (1937 film)|Love from a Stranger]]'' (1937); from the theatre music he selects for mention ''[[The Ascent of F6]]'' (1936), ''[[On the Frontier]]'' (1938), and ''[[Johnson Over Jordan]]'' (1939); and of the music for radio, ''King Arthur'' (1937) and ''The Sword in the Stone'' (1939).{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=184}}

In 1937 there were two events of huge importance in Britten's life: his mother died, and he met the tenor [[Peter Pears]]. Although Britten was extraordinarily devoted to his mother and was devastated at her death, it also seems to have been something of a liberation for him.<ref>{{Harvnb|Powell|2013|p=127}}; and {{Harvnb|Matthews|2003|p=38}}.</ref> Only after that did he begin to engage in emotional relationships with people his own age or younger.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|pp=38–39}} Later in the year he got to know Pears while they were both helping to clear out the country cottage of a mutual friend who had died in an air crash.{{Sfn|Powell|2013|p=130}} 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.{{Sfn|Carpenter|1992|p=112}}

During 1937 Britten composed a ''Pacifist March'' to words by [[Ronald Duncan]] for the [[Peace Pledge Union]], of which, as a pacifist, he had become an active member; the work was not a success and was soon withdrawn.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=40}} The best known of his compositions from this period is probably ''[[Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge]]'' for string orchestra, described by Matthews as the first of Britten's works to become a popular classic.{{Sfn|Matthews|2003|p=46}} It was a success in North America, with performances in Toronto, New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, under conductors including [[John Barbirolli]] and [[Serge Koussevitzky]].<ref name="press">{{Harvnb|Robinson|1997}}.</ref>