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Benjamin Britten: A Life For Music Hardcover – 31 Jan. 2013

4.4 out of 5 stars 49

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Benjamin Britten was the greatest English composer of the twentieth century and one of the outstanding musicians of his age.

Born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, in 1913, Britten was the youngest child of a dentist father and amateur musician mother. After studying at the Royal College of Music, he became a vital part of London’s creative and intellectual life during the 1930s, collaborating with W. H. Auden and meeting his lifelong partner, the tenor Peter Pears. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Britten and Pears were already in America, earning a precarious living as freelance musicians before re-crossing the Atlantic by ship in the perilous days of 1942.

But the east coast of England was where Britten, as he himself said, belonged: this was where he returned to write his most famous opera, Peter Grimes, and – with Pears and Eric Crozier – to found the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948. In the years that followed, his worldwide reputation grew steadily, helped by a busy schedule of international tours and, for many, crowned by the extraordinary success of his War Requiem. Meanwhile, his festival went from strength to strength, its progress symbolised by the opening of Snape Maltings Concert Hall in 1967.

Britten was a mass of paradoxes: a solitary, introspective thinker who came to ebullient life in the company of young people, for whom he composed some of his most memorable works; a man of the political left who was on the friendliest terms with members of the royal family; a composer inspired by some of the twentieth century’s deepest preoccupations who combined innovation with a profound understanding of musical tradition. Devoted to his friends, protégés and fellow musicians, he was, above all, someone who lived for music.

Neil Powell’s book is the landmark biography for Britten’s centenary year: a subtle and moving portrait of a brilliant, complex and ultimately loveable man.

Product description

Review

Neil Powell is a poet, and it shows. Fluent… intimate… psychologically adept… [Powell does] an exceptional job of bringing this strange, neurotic and evasive man to life. -- Bryan Appleyard ― Sunday Times

A sensible, well-written book by an author who is a literary scholar:
this is the biography to choose if you are new to Britten and want an introduction to his life.Country Life

Powell
carries the torch into the present, naming those singers now performing the work anew, painting a portrait of the Aldeburgh festival as it is today. His account has air and light, and brings alive the sense of landscape – the East Anglian coast, the marshes, the wind and waves – which have coloured so much of Britten's music. ― Observer

[A] fine biography... Powell has a more personal touch... takes a more literary approach, and is good at relating the vocal pieces to their sources. ― Daily Telegraph

Tightly focused... sympathetic. Powell lives in Suffolk and has a strong understanding of the composer’s cultural rootedness in that part of the world. ―
Economist

About the Author

Neil Powell is a poet, biographer, editor, and lecturer. His books number over seven collections of poetry, including At the Edge (1977), A Season of Calm Weather (1982), True Colours (1991), The Stones on Thorpeness Beach (1994) and Selected Poems (1998) - as well as Carpenters of Light (1979), Roy Fuller: Writer and Society (1995), The Language of Jazz (1997) and George Crabbe: An English Life 1754 - 1832.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hutchinson; First Edition (31 Jan. 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 528 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0091931231
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0091931230
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.2 x 4.5 x 24 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 49

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
49 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 September 2017
A really good and interesting book.
I found that the way the abbreviations were organised made it hard to quickly find the source of quotes used in the text.
You may find my list of abbreviations (in alphabetical order) and a Harvard reference to the source of the quote helpful.
PT = We have a copy

AA1 {PT}
Blythe, R. (ed.) (1972) Aldeburgh Anthology. Aldeburgh & London: Snape Maltings Foundation Ltd. in association with Faber Music Ltd.

AA2 {PT}
Bankes, A & Reekie, J. (comps.) (2009) New Aldeburgh Anthology. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press.

BFBP {PT}
Ford, B. (1994) Benjamin Britten’s Poets: The Poetry He Set to Music. Manchester: Carcanet Press Ltd.

BOM {PT}
Kildea, P. (ed.) (2003) Britten on Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

CHPP {PT}
Headington, C. (1992) Peter Pears: A Biography. London: Faber & Faber.

DMB {PT}
Matthews, D. (2013) Britten. London: Haus Publishing Ltd.

EWBB {PT}
White, E., W. (1983) Benjamin Britten: His Life and Operas. 2nd ed. London: Faber & Faber.

HCBB {PT}
Carpenter, H. (1992) Benjamin Britten: A Biography. London: Faber & Faber.

IHLM {PT}
Grogan, C. (ed.) (2010) Imogen Holst: A Life in Music. Revised Edition. Aldeburgh Studies in Music 7. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press.

JB {PT}
Evans, J. (ed.) (2009) Journeying Boy: The Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten 1928-1938. London: Faber & Faber.

JBBC {PT}
Bridcut, J. (2006) Britten’s Children. London: Faber & Faber.

JBPG {PT: page numbers may be different as different edition}
Bridcut, J. (2010) The Faber Pocket Guide to Britten. London: Faber.
(Reissued as: Bridcut, J. (2012) Essential Britten: A Pocket Guide for the Britten Centenary. London: Faber & Faber.)

LL1 {PT}
Mitchell, D. & Reed, P. (eds.) (1991) Letters From a Life: The Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten Volume One 1923 - 1939. London: Faber & Faber.

LL2 {PT}
Mitchell, D. & Reed, P. (eds.) (1991) Letters From a Life: The Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten Volume Two 1939 - 1945. London: Faber & Faber.

LL3 {PT}
Mitchell, D., Reed, P. & Cooke M. (eds.) (2004) Letters From a Life: The Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten Volume Three 1946 - 1951. London: Faber & Faber.

LL4 {PT}
Reed, P., Cooke M. & Mitchell, D. (eds.) (2008) Letters From a Life: The Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten Volume Four 1952 - 1957. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press.

LL5 {PT}
Reed, P. & Cooke M. (eds.) (2010) Letters From a Life: The Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten Volume Five 1958 - 1965. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press.

MBB {PT}
Britten, B. (2013) My Brother Benjamin. London: Faber & Faber.

MKBB {PT}
Kennedy, M. (1981) The Master Musicians Series: Britten. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.

MOBB {PT}
Oliver, M. (1996) Benjamin Britten. London: Phaidon Press Ltd.

PEBB {PT}
Evans, P. (1979) The Music of Benjamin Britten. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.

PFL {PT}
Mitchell, D. & Evans, J. (comps.) (1978) Benjamin Britten Pictures from a Life 1913-1976.
London: Faber & Faber.

PPTD {PT}
Reed, P. (ed.) (1995) The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears 1936 - 1978. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press.

TMPG
Banks, P. (ed.) (1996) The Making of Peter Grimes. Martlesham: Boydell & Brewer.
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 January 2014
Britten has been my favourite British composer for as long as I can remember. A ceremony of Carols was my introduction to his music.. This book is interesting because it explores in detail the music and some of the processes of composition. Also it provides an honest picture of Britten the man behind the music.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 September 2017
Neil Powell's study of Britten has got to be one of the best if not the best, available. Any biography of a composer must of necessity contain musical analysis. Mr Powell keeps it to a minimum concentrating instead on providing a more detailed insight into Britten's life and those with whom he was associated. During the seventies and early eighties I owned a holiday caravan in Saxmundham, virtually the centre of Britten's world and yet, except for a visit to his grave at Aldeburgh not once did I ever attend a concert either at Snape or in the churches of Blythburgh and Orford simply because I knew the programmes would feature his works which I didnt care for. Since reading Mr Powells book that has changed. I am now listening and crucially, appreciating the work of a great man. Thinking of all the times I spent in this part of Suffolk I now realise, years later, how much this wonderful landscape influenced his music. I thank Mr Powell for reawakening a dormant interest.
7 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 March 2013
Having read much about Britten I wasn't expecting to find anything new here - and I didn't. However, since so much has already been written about this composer, one does expect when approaching a new biography to find a particular slant or emphasis which offers an original/different perpsective. Otherwise, why is yet another biography warranted?

Powell's is a creditable, workmanlike effort. Factually it is sound but doesn't contribute anything which cannot be found in previous tomes on Britten. Powell draws heavily on the published letters and numerous other already well quoted sources.

What we have is a straightforwad telling of a story that has been already well told. Moreover, Powell does not really illuminate the music itself - his comments on the music are usually rather pedestrian.

However, what concerned me most is that there is not enough analysis and critical comment on Britten the man. Time and time again Powell appears over-reverential towards his subject. He is constantly defending Britten from his detractors. Well at this point in time, Britten really doesn't need defending - it is clear from previous biographies that whilst Britten was a brilliant musician, he was often an unpleasant individual and I don't think that this comes across strongly enough here.

Britten's unsavoury fascination with young boys isn't devoted sufficient space or analysis. This had such fundamental implications for all Britten's work. All credit to Humphrey Carpenter who in his 1992 biography focussed extensively on this (though in doing so, he was criticised by many). This was the slant that made the 1992 biography stand out from the pack. The problem is that Powell's lacks a critical focus. When the ground has been so well tread,this becomes vital.

Certainly, the Carpenter biography feels more scholarly and substantial and is the one which I would recommend at this point in time (I have yet to read the deluge of Britten books due in 2013).

I think this is one for the Britten novice (and as such, I should say it is a very decent introduction). But in the broader scheme of things, it doesn't really earn a place amongst the already extensive shelf of works on Britten.
10 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 July 2020
I was very disappointed that what I know to be a wonderful read arrived in such poor condition. Pages which looked as though they had been sodden and then left to dry out. Crumpled cover. And a surprisingly disappointing response from Amazon Customer Service.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 January 2019
I am enjoying this book, not an easy read!

Top reviews from other countries

Michael Greenebaum
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent sympathetic biography
Reviewed in the United States on 12 September 2013
Now that the exhaustively annotated six-volume Selected Letters has been completely published, as well as Britten's diary for ten crucial years, readers can assess biographies in terms of their treatment of these source materials. Neil Powell writes as a non-musician (but a fine poet) but is a sensitive musical listener and a sympathetic admirer of Britten. While he acknowledges and looks squarely at the ways in which Britten was a difficult person to like, Powell is also clear about why he was so loved, and manages to reconcile these two sides of Britten the man. Those readers more interested in Britten the composer might prefer Paul Kildea's also excellent (if sometimes snarky) biography, but general readers who love Britten's music and want to love Britten will find that Powell has given them good reasons to do so.
19 people found this helpful
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Jorge Arias
4.0 out of 5 stars Good reception
Reviewed in the United States on 3 December 2013
I did'nt read the book, it was a present to a friend, Constancio Levrero, who is very fond of music and of Britten. He enjoyed the book and praised it warmly.
One person found this helpful
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Adriana Alatriste
5.0 out of 5 stars Getting to know Britten
Reviewed in the United States on 29 August 2013
This book introduces you to all musical works composed by one of the most important English composers of XX Century, through his own comments taken from his diaries, as well as comments from other important persons that were closed to him, related in a very amused writing by Neil Powell, who did a profound investigation of Britten’s life and work.
7 people found this helpful
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Richard Scott
3.0 out of 5 stars Understanding why the music of the great Britten is great not found here
Reviewed in the United States on 16 January 2015
Lots of information, but a bit long winded. Understanding why the music of the great Britten is great not found here. Lots of good stories about his life and the people who assisted him.
sykesfan
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on 11 August 2015
Excellent account
One person found this helpful
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