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Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School

2004 The Voice of the New Renaissance: The Premiere Performances of Christopher Swanson

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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF MUSIC

THE VOICE OF THE NEW RENAISSANCE:

THE PREMIERE PERFORMANCES OF PETER PEARS

By

CHRISTOPHER SWANSON

A Treatise submitted to the School of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music

Degree Awarded Summer Semester, 2004

The members of the Committee approve the treatise Christopher Landon Swanson defended on June 1, 2004.

______Douglas Fisher Professor Directing Treatise

______André Thomas Outside Committee Member

______Stanford Olsen Committee Member

______Roy Delp Committee Member

The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members

ii

To Dr. Kenneth and Mary Jewell

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their support and assistance in of this document: The staff of the Britten-Pears Library: Dr. Nicolas Clark, Victoria Bennett-Hall, Elizabeth Gibson, Heather Grant, Christopher Grogan, Wendy Philips, Andrew Plant, Anne Surfling, Judith Tydeman, and Pamela Wheeler; Felicity Bromage, Mayor of ; Rhain Davies, Reader Services of the National Library of ; Professor Roy Delp; Peter Dickinson; Linda Fairtile, University of Richmond Music Library Liaison; Jean Fickett; Professor Douglas Fisher; the Florida State University Dissertation Research Grant Committee; Sarah Francis; Professor Larry Gerber; Antony Hopkins; Mary Jewell; Michael Johnson; Dr. Evan Jones; Longwood University and the Longwood University Department of Music; Dr. Patricia Lust; Cara McAleese; Dr. CBE; Peter Mountain; Carolyn Nott; Stanford Olsen; Robin Orr; Barry Peter Ould, Bardic Edition Music Publishers; ; Alasdair Pettinger, Information Officer for the Scottish Music Information Center; Howard Pollack; Anthony Rooley; Gerard Schurmann; Fiona Searle; Sue Seymour, International Festival of Music; Donald Simpson; Merit Stephanos, Society for the Promotion of New Music; Rosamund Strode; Dr. André Thomas; Susie Webster, Chester Music; and Stacie Wong, Edition Peters. I would especially like to thank my family for their constant encouragement, patience, and support: my wife Jennifer Gallagher, my children Ellie, Abby, and Charlie, and my parents Lois and Landon Swanson.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Musical Examples ix Abstract xv

INTRODUCTION 1 The New Renaissance 1 Peter Pears: The Voice 5

1. YOUTH 10 Brent Smith: “My Eyes for Beauty Pine” 10 Britten: 13 Britten: 14

2. AMERICA 16 Britten: A. M. D. G. 16 Purcell/Britten: “Hark the Ech’ing Air” 18 Purcell/Britten: “The Knotting Song” 18 Britten: “The Salley Gardens” 19 Britten: “Little Sir William” 19 Britten: “The Bonny Earl o’Moray” 19 Britten: “Oliver Cromwell” 19 Britten: “Calypso” 19 Britten: “The Crocodile” 19 Britten: “The Ash Grove” 19

3. HOME 21 Britten: “I Wonder as I Wander” 23 Britten: “The Seven Blessings of Mary” 23 Britten: “Hymn” 23 Britten: The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo 24 Britten: “The Foggy, Foggy Dew” 26

4. 1943 28 Britten: “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes” 28 Britten: “La belle est au jardin d’amour” 28 Britten: “Quand j’étais chez mon père” 28 Schubert/Britten: “Ach, neige du Schmerzenreiche” 29

v Purcell/Britten: “Not All My Torments” 29 Tippett: Boyhood’s End 30 Hopkins: Songs of Cyprus 32 Purcell/Britten: “There’s Not a Swain on the Plain” 32 Purcell/Britten: “I’ll Sail upon the Dogstar” 32 Purcell/Britten: “On the Brow of Richmond Hill” 32 Britten: “O Can Ye Sew Cushions” 33 Britten: Serenade 33

5. 1944 38 Wordsworth: “The Snowflake” 38 Wood: Three Songs 38 Tippett: A Child of Our Time 41 Greene/Britten: Two Solo Anthems for 43 Purcell/Britten: The Queen’s Epicedium 43 Purcell/Britten: “Pious Celinda” 43 Purcell/Britten: “Evening Hymn” 43 Purcell/Britten: “Sound the ” 43

6. 1945 45 Purcell/Britten: “Turn Then Thine Eyes” 45 Britten: 46 Britten: “Sweet Polly Oliver” 50 Britten: “The Plough Boy” 50 Britten: “There’s None to Soothe” 50 Britten: “Birthday Song for Erwin” 50 Purcell/Britten: “Music for a While” 52 Purcell/Britten: “Mad Bess” 52 Purcell/Britten: “Lord, What is Man?” 52 Purcell/Britten: “I Spy Celia” 52 Purcell/Britten: “Lost is My Quiet” 52 Purcell/Britten: “What Can We Poor Females Do?” 52 Purcell/Britten: and the Witch at Endor 52 Purcell/Britten: “Fairest Isle” 52 Purcell/Britten: “If Music be the Food of Love” (third version) 52 Purcell/Britten: “Man is for a Woman Made” 52 Britten: The Holy Sonnets of 55 Purcell/Britten: “If Music be the Food of Love” (first version) 59 Purcell/Britten: “Sweeter than Roses” 59

7. 1946 60 Purcell/Britten: “We Sing to Him” 60 Schurmann: Five Facets 60 Purcell/Britten: “Celemene, Pray Tell Me” 61 Britten: “The Miller of Dee” 61 Britten: 61 Purcell/Britten: “Morning Prayer” 61 Britten: “O Waly Waly” 61

vi Purcell/Britten: Suite of Six Songs from Orpheus Brittanicus 61 Britten: “The Stream in the Valley” 61

8. 1947 65 Purcell/Britten: “I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly” 65 Britten: 65 Berkeley: Stabat Mater 67 Britten: Canticle: My Beloved is Mine 68 Purcell/Britten: “When Myra Sings” 70 Searle: Put Away the 70

9. 1948 72 Purcell/Britten: Job’s Curse 72 Oldham: Summer’s Lease 73 Oldham: The Sunne Rising 73 Britten: Beggar’s 74 Britten: 74

10. 1949 78 Holst/Britten: 78 Oldham: Five Chinese Lyrics 79 Lier: The Song of Songs 80 Britten: Spring 81 Britten: Wedding (Amo Ergo Sum) 83

11. 1950 85 Orr: Three Romantic Songs 85 : Old American Songs (First Set) 86 Purcell/Britten: “Dialogue of Corydon and Mopsa” 88 Williams: Three Traditional Welsh Ballads 89

12. 1951 93 Britten: “Ca’ the Yowes” 93 Monteverdi: Il combattimento di e Clorinda 93 Tippett: The Heart’s Assurance 94 Purcell/Britten: “I Take No Pleasure” 97 Oldham: The Commandment of Love 97 Britten: 99

vii 13. 1952 101 Britten: Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac 101 Oldham: Love in a Village 103 Berkeley: Variations on a Hymn of Orlando Gibbons 105

14. 1953 106 Berkeley: Nelson 106 Berkeley: Four Ronsard Sonnets 106 Bush: The Voices of the Prophets 107 Seiber: To Poetry 107 Britten: 110 Rainier: Cycle for Declamation 112 Britten: Winter Words 114

15. 1954 117 Britten: “The Brisk Young Widow” 117 Britten: The Turn of the Screw 117 Bernard: Shepherd’s Warning 121 Walton: Troilus and Cressida 122

CONCLUSION 124

APPENDIX A 125

APPENDIX B 164

APPENDIX C 166

APPENDIX D 168

BIBLIOGRAPHY 178

INDEX 190

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 193

viii

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES

Example 1 14 , The Company of Heaven, mvt. VII, “A thousand, thousand gleaming fires,” mm. 35-45.

Example 2 18 , “Hark, the Ech’ing Air!” mm. 7-15.

Example 3 25 Benjamin Britten, The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, “Sonetto XVI,” mm. 11-24.

Example 4 26 Benjamin Britten, The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, “Sonetto XXIV,” mm. 8-15.

Example 5 28 Benjamin Britten, “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes,” mm. 65-68.

Example 6 30 Henry Purcell, “Not All My torments,” mm. 2-6.

Example 7 31 , Boyhood’s End, mm. 108-116.

Example 8 34 Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Pastoral,” mm. 2-3.

Example 9 34 Benjamin Britten, “Little Sir William,” mm. 5-6.

Example 10 34 Benjamin Britten, The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, “Sonetto LV,” mm. 23-24.

Example 11 34 Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “,” m. 9 cadenza.

ix Example 12 35 Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Dirge,” mm. 1-6.

Example 13 35 Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Hymn,” mm. 14-15.

Example 14 35 Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Hymn,” mm. 43-48.

Example 15 36 Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Hymn,” mm. 91-95.

Example 16 36 Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Hymn,” mm. 135-142.

Example 17 37 Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Sonnet,” mm. 34-37.

Example 18 37 Benjamin Britten, The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, “Sonetto XXXI,” mm. 38-48.

Example 19 40 R. W. Wood, Three Songs, “Sonnet No. 64,” p. 2, third system.

Example 20 40 R. W. Wood, Three Songs, “Epitaph,” mm. 4-13.

Example 21 48 Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Act I, Scene 2, fig. 76, mm. 1-6.

Example 22 49 Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Act I, Scene 2, fig. 76, mm. 15-16.

Example 23 49 Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 55, mm. 3-5.

Example 24 49 Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 62, mm. 4-9.

Example 25 49 Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Act III, Scene 2, fig. 51.

Example 26 51 Benjamin Britten, “Birthday Song for Erwin,” mm. 3-10.

x Example 27 53 Henry Purcell, Lord, What is Man? mm. 36-38.

Example 28 53 Henry Purcell, Lord, What is Man? mm. 87-92.

Example 29 54 Henry Purcell, Lord, What is Man? mm. 105-109.

Example 30 54 Henry Purcell, Saul and the Witch at Endor, mm. 26-34.

Example 31 55 Henry Purcell, Saul and the Witch at Endor, mm. 140-144.

Example 32 56 Benjamin Britten, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, “At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners,” mm. 30-32.

Example 33 56 Benjamin Britten, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, “Oh, to Vex Me,” mm. 63-71.

Example 34 57 Benjamin Britten, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, “What if This Present,” mm. 8-10.

Example 35 57 Benjamin Britten, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, “At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners,” mm. 1-6.

Example 36 58 Benjamin Britten, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, “Thou Hast Made Me,” mm. 64-73.

Example 37 63 Benjamin Britten, The Rape of Lucretia, “Intermezzo,” fig. 49, mm. 1-23.

Example 38 66 Benjamin Britten, Albert Herring, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 87, mm. 8-11.

Example 39 68 , Stabat Mater, V, “Eia mater fons amoris,” mm. 11-14.

Example 40 69 Benjamin Britten, Canticle, mm. 4-6.

xi Example 41 69 Benjamin Britten, Canticle, mm. 33-35.

Example 42 70 Benjamin Britten, Canticle, mm. 39-43.

Example 43 76 Benjamin Britten, Saint Nicolas, “The Birth of Nicolas,” mm. 70-76.

Example 44 76 Benjamin Britten, Saint Nicolas, “Nicolas Comes to Myra and is Chosen Bishop,” mm. 11-14.

Example 45 80 , Five Chinese Lyrics, “A Gentle Wind,” mm. 3-8.

Example 46 82 Benjamin Britten, , “The Merry Cuckoo,” mm. 10-16.

Example 47 82 Benjamin Britten, Spring Symphony, “Waters Above,” mm. 6-9.

Example 48 83 Benjamin Britten, Spring Symphony, “When Will My May Come,” mm. 68-71.

Example 49 84 Benjamin Britten, Wedding Anthem (Amo Sum Ergo)

Example 50 87 , Old American Songs (first set), “The Boatmen’s Dance,” mm. 2-3.

Example 51 95 Michael Tippett, The Heart’s Assurance, “Song,” mm. 53-63.

Example 52 95 Michael Tippett, The Heart’s Assurance, “The Heart’s Assurance,” mm. 51-53.

Example 53 96 Michael Tippett, The Heart’s Assurance, “The Dancer,” 56-63.

Example 54 96 Michael Tippett, The Heart’s Assurance, “Remember Your Lovers,” mm. 1-2.

xii Example 55 96 Michael Tippett, The Heart’s Assurance, “Compassion,” mm. 33-34.

Example 56 98 Arthur Oldham, The Commandment of Love. “My Sang is in Sighing,” mm. 62-69.

Example 57 98 Arthur Oldham, The Commandment of Love, “Lo, Leman Sweet, Now May Thou See,” mm. 31-40.

Example 58 100 Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 97, mm. 7-20.

Example 59 100 Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 99, mm. 21-30.

Example 60 102 Benjamin Britten, Canticle II, mm. 1-3.

Example 61 103 Benjamin Britten, Canticle II, mm. 7-13.

Example 62 108 , Voices of the Prophets, II, mm. 124-30.

Example 63 108 Alan Bush, Voices of the Prophets, IV, mm.92-96.

Example 64 109 Mátyás Seiber, To Poetry, “Invocation,” mm. 21-26.

Example 65 109 Mátyás Seiber, To Poetry, “Tears,” mm. 42-44.

Example 66 111 Benjamin Britten, Gloriana, Act II, no. 6, “Second Lute Song,” mm. 1-4.

Example 67 111 Benjamin Britten, Gloriana, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 77, mm. 12-15.

Example 68 113 , Cycle for Declamation, “In the Wombe of the Earth,” mm. 10-16.

xiii Example 69 115 Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “At Day-Close in November,” mm. 10-18.

Example 70 115 Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “Midnight on the Great Western,” mm. 23-28.

Example 71 115 Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “Before Life and After,” mm. 22-25.

Example 72 116 Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “Midnight on the Great Western,” mm. 9-15.

Example 73 116 Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “The Little Old Table,” mm. 37-41.

Example 74 116 Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “The Choirmaster’s Burial,” mm. 17-19.

Example 75 119 Benjamin Britten, Turn of the Screw, Act I, Scene 8, mm. 4-11.

Example 76 120 Benjamin Britten, Turn of the Screw, Act II, Scene 8, mm.13-19.

Example 77 120 Benjamin Britten, Gloriana, Act III, Scene 1, no. 3 “The Second Duet of the Queen and ,” mm. 137-141.

Example 78 120 Benjamin Britten, Turn of the Screw, Act II, Scene 8, fig. 133.

Example 79 120 Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “Before Life and After,” mm. 31-32.

xiv

ABSTRACT

Sir Peter Pears (1910-1986) was the foremost interpreter of Benjamin Britten’s vocal music. Britten composed a majority of his vocal works with Pears’s voice in mind: seven song cycles, twelve original opera roles, five , and eight works for voice and . Britten also prepared most of his folksong arrangements and realizations of Baroque vocal works for Pears. The tenor’s reputation stretches far beyond Britten’s music. A popular recital artist, Pears gave countless performances across four continents. In recital and opera, he performed a great variety of music, from early Baroque to Contemporary. He was a founder of a major music festival, frequently wrote essays on music, and later in his life, devoted his time to teaching. This treatise concentrates on other important aspects of Pears’s career, namely his commissioning of and performance of new works. Over the course of his career, he premiered more than two hundred pieces of music. Britten composed, realized, or arranged about 120 works for Pears, while over 40 other composers provided the rest. The treatise focuses on the music that Pears premiered during the first half of his career, performances that took place between 1932 and 1954, discussing music by Benjamin Britten, Alexander Brent Smith, Michael Tippett, Antony Hopkins, , R. W. Wood, Gerard Schurmann, Lennox Berkeley, , Arthur Oldham, Bertus van Lier, Robin Orr, Aaron Copland, , Alan Bush, Mátyás Seiber, Priaulx Rainier, , , realizations of music by Henry Purcell and Greene, and arrangements and works by and . Discussion will cover a wide variety of genres and styles, and will analyze the music from the singer’s perspective. The treatise includes a complete chronological list of Pears’s premiere performances. Through these, the author wishes to illuminate the influence of Peter Pears upon the musical world in the second half of the twentieth century.

xv

INTRODUCTION

The New Renaissance

During the years between the two World Wars, the dominant musical force in came from composers such as (1872-1958), Gustav Holst (1874-1934), (1883-1953), and others “who had laid the foundations for the country’s prewar ‘musical Renaissance’.”1 In the early 1940s, a new generation of artists rose to the cultural forefront. They were at once attempting to distinguish themselves from the older generation of artists as well as from the movements of other nations. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) wrote to (1907-1984) in October 1943 about this new air of artistic creativity. It is… encouraging that you too sense that ‘something’ in the air that heralds a renaissance. I feel terrifically conscious of it, so do Peter [Pears], & Clifford [Curzon], & Michael Tippett & so many that I love & admire – it is good to add you to the list! Whether we are the voices crying in the wilderness or the thing itself, it isn’t for us to know, but anyhow it is so very exciting. It is of course in all of the arts, but in music, particularly, it’s this acceptance of ‘freedom’ without any arbitrary restrictions, this simplicity, this contact with the audiences of our own time, & of people like ourselves, this seriousness, & above all this professionalism. One mustn’t and can’t deny the many heavenly genius[es] of the last century, but it is also a greater sympathy with the earlier centuries that marks this thing perhaps the most clearly.2

Britten and his generation were indeed the “thing itself.” They created a new sound that was distinctive to their nation and their generation. In order for the music of this new renaissance to be heard, however, there must be performers as dedicated to the music as the composers, who would commission, present, and promote new works. Tenor Peter Pears (1910-1986) was one such performer. From the beginning of his career, he commissioned new works from young composers, gave premiere

1 Robert P. Morgan, Twentieth Century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991), 270. 2 Donald Mitchell and Phillip Banks, eds. Letters from a Life: Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976, Volume 2, 1939-1945 (: Faber and Faber, 1998), 1162.

1 performances with astounding frequency, and often kept new works in his performance repertoire. Pears was as much a part of this new wave of artists as any composer. In August 1944 from his home in England, he wrote to friends in America, “We have the feeling here that in these dark times, the seed is slowly growing. English music is really appearing again as music and itself, free of odd nostalgias and preoccupations with non-musical ideas!”3 Pears’s interest in music went far beyond the scope of his career. He commissioned works by composers who wrote in styles that ranged from neo-classical to twelve-tone, a technique for which he had little interest.4 His devotion to new music grew to eventually include premieres of works by composers who lived outside of England. It is this vast range of music that is so astonishing. Dr. Donald Mitchell CBE, Life President of the Britten Estate Limited, says that one must consider the extraordinary catholicity of the premieres that he gave, because at first sight it would be quite hard to find any common ground among the talents. They were as diverse as you could possibly imagine…. On the whole, [Pears] was bold and adventurous with what he commissioned himself and what he was willing to take on. Even looking down that list of first performances, it is extraordinary how it is not exclusive and some of it is really different from what he spent most of his life singing…. The scope of the commissioning process was very wide indeed. But it’s the composers of genius, like Tippett or Britten or [Witold] Lutoslawski, who ultimately tell one the most about Pears as an artist.5

The voice of Peter Pears was one of the most distinguished of his generation, not only because of the unique qualities of his voice, but because of the quantity and variety of music that composers wrote specifically for his voice. In anticipation of Pears’s seventy-fifth birthday, the archivists at the Britten-Pears Library in Aldeburgh, England celebrated the singer’s work in promoting new music by preparing a list of the premiere performances in which he took part during his career. They identified 108 premieres. Faber Music published the list in A Tribute to Peter Pears on his 75th Birthday with this introductory statement, We have attempted to list here all those works of which Peter Pears gave the first performance, or in whose premières he took part. In a project of this kind – which is designed to be a surprise to its dedicatee – one has an insoluble problem from the start:

3 Mitchell, Letters from a Life, vol. 2, 1215-6. 4 This is true for both Pears and Benjamin Britten. Humphrey Carpenter in Benjamin Britten: A Biography, on p. 336 (see footnote 53 for full citation) quotes Britten as saying in 1964, “[] has simply never attracted me as a method… I cannot feel that is outworn, and find many serial ‘rules’ arbitrary.” Meanwhile, Christopher Headington in Peter Pears: A Biography on p. 315 (see footnote 11 for full citation) quotes Pears as saying, “Unless serial composers for the voice are prepared to use less violent methods both towards the text and towards the voice, singing of new art songs may be expected to die.” 5 Dr. Donald Mitchell, interview by author, 15 March 2003, London, tape recording.

2 how can everything be discovered when questions cannot be asked of the one person who would be able to help? All the same, we hope that any composer who has been inadequately represented or inadvertently left out altogether will understand the dilemma and forgive the omission, applauding with the rest of us Peter’s constantly encouraging enthusiasm for presenting and promoting the works of all those composers who have been fortunate enough to write for him. Works premièred by the BBC Singers while Peter Pears was singing with them have not been included, nor have any stage premières of that pre-war period in which he may have sung. And although many of Benjamin Britten’s realizations of songs by Purcell and his contemporaries were written for PP to sing, these and the Britten Folksong Arrangements (likewise mostly made for their joint recital programmes) have been omitted.6

The published list is admittedly incomplete and needs to be presented in a finished form with a fuller explanation. The present treatise has three goals: to provide a complete and correct list of all of Pears’s premiere performances, to explain Pears’s role in the creation of the music, and to identify some unifying musical characteristics that one can observe throughout this catalogue of music. To satisfy the first goal, a complete list of premieres, presented in chronological order, including dates, composers’ names, titles, performers’ names, and locations, appears at the end of the document as an appendix. This list does not include music premiered while Pears sang with the BBC Singers, or the “stage premieres of that pre-war period,” but does include Pears’s premieres of Britten’s realizations of Baroque vocal works and folksong settings. It also includes the dates of broadcast premieres and important premieres to various countries. The scope of discussion of the second and third goals is limited, approximately, to the first half of Pears’s premieres as it would be disadvantageous to attempt to give detail to all of the music that he premiered within the narrow confines of a treatise. The text will only go as far as the first 106 premieres, beginning with his first in 1932 and extending to near the end of 1954, roughly mid-way through his career. In pursuit of the second goal, the author will answer several questions. Did Pears commission the said piece? Was the music written with Pears’s voice especially in the mind of the composer? What was the tenor’s relationship with the composer? In answering these questions, one is able to realize how Pears and his extraordinary talents came to inspire as much music as they did.

6 Marion Thorpe, ed., Peter Pears: A Tribute on His 75th Birthday (London: Faber Music in Association with the Britten Estate, Aldeburgh, , 1985), 121.

3 There are several musical features that are present in a majority of the works composed for Pears. To observe one or two of these characteristics in a single piece of music would not necessarily tell one anything about the singer for whom the music was written; to observe like characteristics in several works by a single composer still might only speak to the composer’s personal style; but seeing several characteristics in many examples by various composers, composed over a long period of time, can give insight into not only the physical abilities and limitations of a singer, but their preferences and interests as well. This treatise is an analysis of music not from a theoretical or historical perspective but rather from the performer’s perspective. The author will consider five recurring musical elements: a high tessitura, descending phrases, monotone lines, writing, and monophonic voice setting. The tessitura of Pears’s music is specifically set in most of the music between E flat and G above middle C in the tenor voice. Composers have tended to emphasize E4 in many compositions.7 Often, this prominent pitch is to be sung repeatedly or even intoned. Ralph Woodward referred to E4 as “Pears’s ‘best’ note.”8 It was a note that he sang with great control at a low dynamic, producing his characteristic mezza voce. Pears produced this tone throughout his entire range, but, judging by the frequency at which E4 appears in the music, the timbre of the note must have had a particularly strong effect upon composers. Those phrases with descending lines begin between E-flat 4 and higher, and they typically appear at a low dynamic. Monotone phrases are usually written on a note in the higher part of Pears’s voice. The tendency for composers to leave Pears’s vocal lines exposed or to write extended passages without any accompaniment is most assuredly due to the characteristic timbre of Pears’s voice as well as his ability to sensitively interpret texts. Donald Mitchell said, “The one feature that wonderfully distinguishes Peter’s singing from most other singers is the ability to use the words to color the pitches…. No matter which language he was singing in, the words color the pitches.”9 Mitchell, who witnessed many coaching sessions with Pears and young singers, recalled the advice that both Pears and Britten gave. ‘Don’t worry about producing beautiful tone or beautiful sounds, use the words … to color the pitches.’ This was their famous dictum and I think that is an absolutely essential

7 Henceforth, when a pitch is specifically named, the author will identify it by its sounding pitch, not its written pitch. For example, the note named here will be identified as E4. 8 Ralph Woodward, “Music for Voices,” in The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten, ed. Mervyn Cooke (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1999), 263. 9 Mitchell, interview by author.

4 part of Pears’s thoughts about singing and training other singers – not to engulf or sink the words in a swamp of beautiful sound, but in fact, to articulate the words with maximum clarity and in doing that … the words would color the pitches. So don’t worry about color all of the time – the words will do that for you.10

Peter Pears: The Voice

Before discussing the music that Pears inspired and how it reflects his abilities, the reader should consider the voice itself. Discussions of Pears’s voice tend to stay in the area of his interpretive skills. Very rarely has a reviewer or critic attempted to diagnose the voice of this artist. As well, credit for building this musician usually falls upon Benjamin Britten. Christopher Headington’s 1992 biography on Peter Pears concludes with the question, “Would Peter Pears have become a great singer without Benjamin Britten? And the answer is probably ‘no’.”11 Pears’s career was indeed focused on the music of Britten, but Pears had his own success as a singer even before Peter Grimes in 1945. It is impossible, and perhaps useless, to try to predict what may have become of Peter Pears had he not been Britten’s singer of choice, yet many assume that without Britten, Pears would have amounted to very little. Headington’s comment gives little credit to Pears’s personal study and development as a singer. The tenor, in fact, studied with several teachers throughout the 1930s and 40s and continued in the mid 1960s. Pears, admittedly, placed little emphasis on the technique of singing. Even in 1972, when he opened the School for Advanced Study in Music (now the Britten-Pears School) in Aldeburgh, England, he said, “I’m not concerned with technique, but with style, working from certain points of view that free the imagination.”12 It is a paradox of sorts that a singer who outwardly under-stressed the importance of teaching vocal technique was also a singer who studied privately during most of his career and who strove for technical virtuosity. Pears’s first teacher of record was Dawson Freer at the in London. Pears recalled, on one hand, that Freer was “a good teacher and a good, decent singer”13 but also remembered the haphazard way in which he had begun his own training, working at almost his first lesson… on full-blooded Wagner, Seigmund’s ‘Wintersturme wichen dem Wonnemund’

10 Mitchell, interview by author. 11 Christopher Headington. Peter Pears: A Biography (London: Faber and Faber, 1992), 330. 12 , “Here and There,” Gramophone 55 (June 1977): 29. 13 Headington, Peter Pears, 40.

5 from Act I of Die Walküre, and then, a few months later and still inexperienced after only a few singing lessons, playing the Duke in at the Royal College of Music.14

After leaving the College and working professionally as a singer in and around London, Pears began studies with German mezzo- (1883-1961), working with her from 1936 until 1938. Gerhardt, who was “perhaps the finest of all Lieder singers,”15 had been in London for just over two years when Pears began studying with her. Gerhardt had a considerable reputation as a singer through her recital performances and gramophone recordings.16 Pears later recalled, “She was very dear, but I must honestly say that she didn’t teach me very much about technique.”17 Interestingly though, the entry for Gerhardt in New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, refers to her “penetrating interpretations [of art songs], her mastery of light and shade, her humour, rhythmic energy and wide variety of tone colour. She gave herself completely to her art, making every song that she sang into a part of her own warm and rich personality.”18 This same statement could be written about Peter Pears’s career, and one wonders if he was able to learn something far more valuable than technique from her. Pears’s time in North America, 1939-1942, allowed him the luxury of concentrating on the training of his voice without having to work. He studied briefly with a teacher named Campbell McInnes while in in June 1939. Pears later wrote that he “had a couple of lessons from him. Interesting and he is a very charming old man…. I’m not sure that the lessons were enough to be of much use – but I think he helped to loosen me up a bit.”19 As well as private studies, Pears studied pedagogical texts by Shakespeare and Aikens.20 Pears began studying with German Teresa Behr (1876-1959), wife of pianist , in February 1940, traveling between Long Island and for weekly lessons. In March, Britten wrote in a letter, “Peter is terribly pleased with her, finds her charming and extremely good (if severe) teacher. The improvement in his voice after only a month is quite staggering. It is much clearer, more resonant, and much more controlled.”21

14 Headington, 317. 15 W. S. Meadmore, “Peter Pears,” Gramophone 32 (March 1955): 432-3. 16 Desmonde Shawe-Taylor, “Gerhardt, Elena,” in The New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 7, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: MacMillan, 1980), 255. 17 Alan Blyth, “Peter Pears talks to Alan Blyth,” Gramophone 46 (September 1968): 331. 18 Shawe-Taylor, “Gerhardt, Elena,” 255. 19 Mitchell, Letters from a Life, vol. 2, 731. 20 Mitchell, vol. 2, 731. Pears read ’s The Art of Singing: 3 volumes (1898) and W. A. Aiken’s The Voice: An Introduction to Practical Phonology. 21 Mitchell, vol. 2, 780.

6 It is through this teacher that Pears comes into a very impressive pedagogical lineage. Behr was a student of Julius Stockhausen (1826-1906), for whom wrote some of his major vocal works, including Die schöne Magdelone and the solos in Ein deutsches , and who was a student of Manuel Garcia II (1805-1906). Behr also studied with Etelka Gerster (1855-1920) in , and Gerster studied with Mathilde Marchesi (1821- 1913) who was also a student of Garcia II.22 Tracing Pears’s lineage back to Manuel Garcia II, one of the first great vocal pedagogues, is important because it validates the technical side of Pears’s singing. Even though he stayed with Behr for less than a year, he certainly gained from the background of his teacher. Something about Behr’s method did not work for Pears, however. He said,“ I remember doing a Bach concert with [Otto] Klemperer in New York and singing the taxing part in O Ewigkeit, du Sonnerwort [Bach, Cantata # 60] her way, and knew it was wrong. So I went to another teacher, Clytie Hine Mundy… I found her very helpful and sound in her advice.”23 The performance of the Bach Cantata occurred on November 27, 1940,24 and before the end of the year, Pears went to Mundy. She was born in and studied music at the Royal College of Music in London and later became a leading member of ’s Opera Company.25 Pears said about Mundy in 1985 that she “was a fine teacher of singing in New York and had a lot of excellent pupils… she worked with me quite a lot on the voice, and I learned a lot from her and loved working with her.”26 In a 1974 interview Mundy remembered her first encounter with Pears, I asked to hear Peter sing. He started in on ‘Il mio tesoro,’ and I was not too impressed with his technique. My husband…said, ‘Young man, you will never be a Caruso, but with your potential you will be a great artist and have a wonderful career. But you have to be better trained.’…. At the end I said, ‘Well, if you want to, I would be happy to work with you and see what we could do.’…. You see I had no – what is commonly called – method. Just a few exercises that never changed. And then I would try to approach the problems of each individual singer: with Peter it was almost entirely a matter of voice production, because basically, he had a wonderfully lyric quality.27

22 John Morgan, “Behr, Teresa,” in The New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 2, ed. S. Sadie (London: MacMillan, 1980), 416. 23 Blyth, “Peter Pears,” 331. 24 “Final Bach Program Led by Klemperer,” New York Times, 28 November 1940, p. 29. 25 Mitchell, vol. 2, 907. 26 Headington, 98. 27 Robert Daniels, “American Friends,” Opera News (December 14, 1974): 28.

7 Pears studied with Mundy almost daily throughout the remainder of his time in America, and Britten would usually come to the lessons to accompany. In addition to lessons in vocal technique, Pears also had the benefit of his teacher’s friends in the music world, including Giorgio Polacco, the then- conductor, who would come to the Mundy house to give coaching sessions to her students.28 Mundy was Pears’s last teacher in America, although she was not his last teacher. The teachers discussed above are those who brought Pears to vocal maturity. His voice, in its maturity, has presented music critics with something of an enigma. On one hand, it had great flexibility, control, impeccable diction, and a strong sense of style and expression. On the other hand, his voice not very large and was not necessarily beautiful. Reviews often addressed both sides of the voice and described how one side could compensate for the other. , in one of the first published biographical articles on Pears, described the tenor’s voice as: A voice of character which carries farther and deeper than any voice thrice as strong…. Half a year ago I wrote that the psychic force of Pears’ voice could make the physically impossible possible – could make his the best Tristan of our time…. I submit that if he had been handicapped by a voice of greater physical “stature,” he would have found it more difficult to achieve the pronounced character of his timbres, the powerful tensions of his phrases (on whatever dynamic level) [italics Keller’s].29

In a recital review from 1949, another author noted that Pears was “so consummate a musician that the fact that his voice is not intrinsically very impressive is soon forgotten by the listener…. Mr. Pears’ voice is light in texture and lacking in natural color, but he projects it so skillfully that he can produce any emotional or dramatic effect he desires.”30 A review of a recording of songs criticized certain aspects of the voice but admitted, “The recitals given by Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten are always so well chosen, and so artistically performed, that the limitations of the singer are often overlooked.”31 Other reviews have praised his “finely drawn line, and expressive singing,”32 “his characteristic timbre and his very individual way of placing a phrase within his voice,”33 and his “supreme artistic intelligence,” calling it “a voice of unmistakable individuality… one which he has made responsive to all demands on it. His legato, his florid passages, his soft high notes… his instinct for words and the phrase, all these give

28 Daniels, 28. 29 Hans Keller, “Peter Pears,” Opera 2 (1950-51); 287. 30 R[obert] S[abin], “Peter Pears, tenor,” Musical America 69 (November 1949): 18. 31 J[?] F[?], “Songs,” Gramophone 29 (April 1952): 256. 32 J[?] F[?], “Songs,” Gramophone 30 (April 1953): 294. 33 Andrew Porter, “Choral and Song,” Gramophone 34 (August 1956): 91.

8 unique pleasure to the hearer.” This review goes on to say that while “there may be with more beautiful voices in the world today: I know of none who has Peter Pears’s rare combination of qualities.”34 To be sure, Pears’s voice did not have the same qualities as other great tenors of his day, and because of this he has been criticized. Regardless of one’s opinion of Peter Pears’s singing, one must admit that the unique traits of his voice and his individuality in how he used his gifts have inspired scores of composers and have produced for the world well over two hundred compositions.

34 Alec Richardson, “Choral and Song,” Gramophone 32 (November 1954): 261.

9

CHAPTER 1

YOUTH

Peter Neville Luard Pears, born on June 22, 1910, in , England, was the youngest of seven children to Arthur Pears and Jessie Luard. From 1916 to 1923, he attended The Grange, a preparatory school, where he was a successful student, excelling in mathematics, English, French, and classics. After graduating, he went to Lancing Public School, where he stayed until 1928. During those years, Pears explored music and poetry, the interests that would shape his future. He was involved in clubs that read and discussed and plays, he studied composition, and he organized a school orchestra for which he taught himself to play the . Pears also sang in the and participated in school operetta productions. The year before graduation Pears studied organ and after graduation auditioned for an organ scholarship at Christ Church in . He failed to win the scholarship and entered Keble College in Oxford in September 1928 as an undergraduate. At Keble, he failed to pass his compulsory exams and left after two terms. He stayed in Oxford and worked at Hertford College as an assistant organist. After a year, Pears returned to The Grange, as an instructor at the rank of Junior Usher, a title which “meant teaching music and just about everything else for £100 per year.”35

Brent Smith: “My Eyes for Beauty Pine”

Pears’s first premiere performance happened when he was only twenty-two years old, before he had any career as a singer. Sometime in 1932 Pears performed in a recital in which he gave the premiere performance of a setting of Robert Bridges’s “My Eyes for Beauty Pine” by

35 Blyth, “Peter Pears,” 331-2.

10 Alexander Brent Smith (1889-1950).36 Brent Smith was an English music educator, author and composer. His compositions include , choral works, , and chamber pieces. An important figure in Pears’s education, Brent Smith was the Director of Music at from 1913 to 1934, and was Pears’s organ instructor and the director of the Lancing College Orchestra.37 Brent Smith was “a teacher whom [Pears] remembered with gratitude and affection,” and Pears recalled his mentor as “quite a considerable minor composer, good with the choir and also a wonderful organist.”38 The song that Pears sang is unpublished and the Britten-Pears Library does not hold a copy, although there are three other scores in the collection by the composer, all bearing Pears’s signature. This performance shows that Pears did perform as a soloist in his early twenties, but it is not known how much singing he did at that time. It was enough for one of his close friends to take notice and encourage him. This friend, Nell Burra, suggested to him in 1932 that he audition for a singing teacher in London. The response to his audition was that he had “a marvelous mezza voce, but nothing much else to develop.”39 Pears next went to Clive Carey, a voice teacher and opera producer who recommended that Pears go to Dawson Freer at the Royal College of Music. Pears auditioned there in 1933 and, as at Hertford College, Pears failed to pass his audition. The Royal College awarded Pears the alternative award of operatic exhibition, which he accepted. He found that “his chief obligation was to sing tenor in the operatic class. This was certainly not what he had wished for or wanted, for he had imagined that most of his time would have been occupied with singing lessons and the training of his voice.”40 When Pears took the scholarship, he left The Grange, and moved to London to live with his parents, who had recently relocated there. He received eight pounds sterling per term as well as weekly singing lessons with Freer. During the summer of 1933, Pears inquired into an audition for a new BBC ensemble called the Wireless Chorus. He auditioned nearly a year later and on June 28, 1934 joined the ensemble. At the end of the summer of 1934, Pears left the Royal College of Music to sing with

36 This information, as well as many other premiere dates, was discovered and compiled in an unpublished list by Anne Surfling, an Archivist Consultant at the Britten-Pears Library. This author is greatly appreciative to Ms. Surfling, her tireless efforts and for allowing her findings to be published here. Subsequent references to Surfling’s findings are noted as “Surfling, ‘Premiere List’.” 37 Eric Blom, “Brent Smith, Alexander,” in The Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., vol. 1, ed. Eric Blom, (London: Macmillan, 1968), 927. 38 Headington, 21-2. 39 Headington, 39. 40 Meadmore, 432-3.

11 the ensemble full time. Headington wrote that in doing so, Pears “abandoned the operatic direction in which his studies there were leading him.”41 Judging however from Pears’s own disappointment at his time at the College, it appears that he was not focused on being primarily an opera singer and that leaving school was the ideal move for him at this time in his life. When he left school, he moved out of his parents’ home and into a flat in London with two friends from the BBC, Trevor Harvey, the assistant chorus master, and Basil Douglas, a tenor in the chorus. During the time Pears lived there, he was frustrated as a singer because he felt he lacked technical polish, and his roommates found that he was often depressed.42 Nevertheless, Pears had a busy schedule with the BBC choir and as a soloist as time permitted. In 1936 he made his first recording as the tenor soloist in ’s Corpus Christi Carol. Listening to it today, we at once notice a thoughtful word delivery and a sensitive moulding of quietly flowing phrases, but also a certain whiteness of tone. To call the sound bloodless or emasculated is too strong, but it is ‘churchy’, with a kind of English cathedral sound, and though that is appropriate in this piece one guesses that at this stage of Pears’s career he lacked the flexibility to do justice to the wider repertory, and that his acquisition of a ringing, virile sound as well as some other vocal colours was still some way off.43

Contralto Anne Wood, also on the recording, recalled that Pears’s voice was “young, intensely sensitive to words…. But technically, it wasn’t a big voice… and he didn’t have enough range; he was short a couple of notes on top of the voice.”44 Pears left the Wireless Chorus and joined the New English Singers, a professional sextet, early in 1936. Cuthbert Kelly, a founding member, invited Pears to join, and he remained in the group for two years. The NES was an ensemble that specialized in a cappella and often performed in the traditional Elizabethan, or round-table manner, in which the performers sat around a table while singing. Pears devoted time to other musical interests as well. He sang a small role in the English language premiere of ’s Lady of Mtsensk under the direction of on March 18, 1936 at Queen’s Hall, London.45 He also continued to explore

41 Headington, 42. 42 Headington, 44. 43 Headington, 54. 44 Headington, 54. 45 Derek C. Hulme, Dmitri Shostakovich: A Catalogue, Bibliography, and Discography, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991), 68.

12 composition. On March 27, 1936, Anne Wood sang Pears’s composition, “When Within My Arms I Hold You”46

Britten: The Company of Heaven

Without question, the single most influential person in Pears’s career was Benjamin Britten. The exact date and the circumstances under which Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten first met are unknown, but the first documented meeting between them was on March 6, 1937, when Britten attended a BBC Singers rehearsal and afterward, according to his diary, had lunch with “T[revor] H[arvey], Peter Piers [sp.], & [Basil] Douglas – at their flat.”47 Their relationship grew after their mutual friend, Peter Burra, died in a plane crash on April 27, 1937. Pears and Britten traveled to Burra’s home after the funeral to sort through his belongings, and after the trip, they spent an increasing amount of time together both socially and musically. The first musical product of this friendship was Britten’s cantata, The Company of Heaven. In the 1930s, the BBC produced a series of programs which combined music and spoken verse, for which the BBC generally used parts of familiar religious music and . In 1937 Trevor Harvey, the assistant chorus master of the BBC and roommate of Pears, suggested that Britten compose an original piece for a program.48 The BBC commissioned Britten to compose two such programs:49 The Company of Heaven, broadcast on St. Michaelmas Day, September 29, 1937 and The World of the Spirit, broadcast June 5, 1938.50 By September 10, 1937, Britten had composed much of the first cantata, including the seventh movement, “A thousand, thousand gleaming fires,” an for tenor and string orchestra, “almost certainly the very first vocal music that Britten composed with Pears’s voice specifically in mind.”51 After rehearsing the aria on September 10, Britten wrote, “The tenor – Peter Pears – is first-rate. I’ve shown him his big number, & he’s already reconciled to it.”52 The

46 Headington, 43. 47 Mitchell, vol. 1, 519n. 48 Phillip Reed, “A Cantata for Broadcasting,” Musical Times 130 (June 1989): 328. 49 Michael James Weber, “Benjamin Britten’s The Company of Heaven” (DMA diss., University of Arizona, 1990), 32. 50 Paul Banks, comp. and ed., Benjamin Britten: A Catalogue of the Published Works (Aldeburgh, Suffolk: The Britten-Pears Library for The Britten Estate Limited, 1999), 38. 51 Reed, 328. 52 Mitchell, vol. 1, 509.

13 tenor aria holds one element in its vocal line that appears in later works for Pears: an extended monotone vocal line on B3 near the end of the aria (ex. 1).

Example 1: Benjamin Britten, The Company of Heaven, mvt. VII, “A thousand, thousand gleaming fires,” mm. 35-45.

This is the first time that Britten wrote such a line for Pears, but not the first time that Britten wrote a monotone vocal line. It is unclear as to whether he wrote it because of Pears’s voice and his ability to color words, or if it was a devise that Britten might have used for any tenor. Regardless, it is a feature that will return again and again in the music composed for Pears.

Britten: On This Island

The second work by Britten that Pears may have premiered, although by no means is this proven, is the On This Island. On two occasions Pears recalled that the first time he performed in a recital with Britten was in 1937. Carpenter’s biography on Britten quotes Pears as saying, “‘I think the year ’37 was our first concert together’, he said, adding that this was in aid of a fund for Spanish War Relief and took place at Cambridge, perhaps in the Cambridge Arts Theater.”53 In a 1968 interview, Pears recalled with more clarity that their “first joint concert was in the autumn of 1937 – at Cambridge in aid of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War….

53 Humphrey Carpenter, Benjamin Britten: A Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1992), 75.

14 We gave a Schubert group, Ben’s On This Island and some songs by Duran, who was a general in the Republican Army.”54 There is, however, no printed proof of such a recital. Britten completed On This Island on October 12, 1937, and Pears left England with the New English Singers on October 27, 1937 not to return until January. Britten, however, wrote to Pears on October 24, from Suffolk, to say goodbye to his friend. Pears sang some of the songs on October 14 with Britten at his flat, and the next day, they gave a private performance for Lennox Berkeley and . Britten wrote in his diary, “[They] are considerably pleased – as I admit I am. Peter sings them well.”55 If Pears and Britten gave a recital in the autumn of 1937 that included On This Island, it would have had to be between October 16 and October 23. This would proceed by a month the accepted premiere date of the cycle, November 19, 1937 sung by soprano (1897-1983). It is possible, and an intriguing thought, that Pears sang a public performance of the songs before Wyss. In any case, Britten wrote On This Island specifically for Wyss, not for Pears. Pam Wheeler, an Archive Consultant at the Britten-Pears Library, is skeptical of such a performance. She states that in the Autumn of 1937, Pears and Britten were both much occupied with their separate lives throughout this period. B[ritten] is moving out of [his house on] Finchley Road and is often in Suffolk with his sister and her fiancé’s family; P[ears] is regularly rehearsing and performing with BBC Singers and Cuthbert Kelly’s New English Singers. I really do still think it most unlikely that their first recital was given at this point. I know Pears thought that perhaps this was roughly the date at one stage, but he was the first to say that his memory was unreliable, and the date has been passed around without any documentation ever having come to light. One such instance is in Grove itself.56

54 Blyth, “Peter Pears,” 331. 55 Headington, 74. 56 Pam Wheeler to the author, email, 19 September 2003. She compared Pears’s and Britten’s pocket diaries for October 1937. “They are a source not reproducible without written permission from the trustees, but I can pass on the facts I have ascertained.”

15

CHAPTER 2

AMERICA

Britten and Pears decided to travel to America in early 1939. Britten’s reasons for leaving England were both professional and personal. Through Aaron Copland, Britten had an offer from Hollywood to compose film music. He was also deeply concerned with the political atmosphere and the war that would be declared in September. Pears explained, “We were both pacifists, we didn’t see much what we were going to do – short of going to prison or something for a long time. And that didn’t appeal to him – he wanted to write lots of music.”57 Pears’s reasons for leaving his home were less clear. He had been to America on two previous occasions, but did not have any professional contacts. Initially, he planned to stay in America with Britten until August 1939 and “stood little chance of achieving much during a short and scarcely planned visit.”58 Pears worked as Britten’s musical assistant, copying parts and scores and making vocal scores. He remembered many years later “I was going [to America] as [Ben’s] esquire… in a way… I thought it was part of my duty, and certainly part of my pleasure as well.”59

Britten: A. M. D. G.

Pears and Britten arrived in on May 9, 1939 and spent the first two months of their trip there.60 They stayed first in Quebec and later went on to and Ontario. In June 1939, Pears gave a recital of Britten’s songs over a Toronto radio station.61 From the end of June until the middle of August 1939, Pears and Britten rented a cabin in the Catskill Mountains, NY, near the home of Aaron Copland, whom Britten met a year earlier. Britten worked on several

57 Tony Palmer, dir., A Time There Was, 102 min. (Kultur Film Inc., 1980), documentary film. 58 Carpenter, Benjamin Britten, 126. 59 Mitchell, vol. 2, 690n. 60 Mitchell, vol. 2, 631. 61 Mitchell, vol. 2, 668.

16 compositions while living in the Catskills, including A. M. D. G., a cycle of seven sacred part- songs with texts by . It was “intended for Peter Pears and his Round Table Singers and was therefore designed for performance by a quartet of soloists.”62 The Round Table Singers was an ensemble formed by Pears “probably before his departure for America. The name clearly indicates an intention to perform in the Elizabethan manner.”63 Pears and Britten planned the premiere of the cycle to take place on November 24, 1939 in London. Pears, however, did not leave America when he had planned, and they cancelled the performance. Four of the songs were performed “by Pears in America along the lines of the Round Table Singers.”64 By the end of the summer 1939, Pears and Britten were ready to move to a new home in America. Around this time Pears wrote a letter to Elizabeth Mayer an old acquaintance in Long Island, New York, “I and my friend Benjamin Britten, composer, have just arrived in New York, and I am so looking forward to seeing you again.”65 Pears met Mayer two and a half years earlier when the New English Singers left England for a concert tour of America. By chance, Mayer, an acquaintance of Pears’s then roommate, Basil Douglas, and Pears were on the same ship for the journey across the ocean. Pears rekindled that brief friendship after arriving in America and he and Britten moved into the Mayer home in August. They stayed until 1942. Britten wrote a few months later about the Mayers: Peter and I have found some wonderful friends – who are (luckily) devoted to us - & on no account will let us depart…. She – is one of those grand people who have been essential through the ages for the production of art; really sympathetic & enthusiastic, with instinctive good taste (in all the arts) & a great friend of thousands of those poor fish – artists. She is never happy unless she has them all round her – living here or round about at the moment are lots of them – many refugees. Wystan [Auden] comes here from New York nearly every weekend – an excellent German painter lives here, too, - [Josef] Scharl [(1896-1954)] – friends include the Manns [Thomas Mann, German novelist (1875-1955)], Borgesi [Giuseppe Antonio Borgese, Italian essayist (1882-1952)], [Albert] Einstein. That’s the kind of person she is!66

This spirit of giving to and supporting artists made an impression upon Pears and stayed with him for the rest of his life. He encouraged young singers and instrumentalists, avidly collected paintings by young artists, and supported composers by commissioning new works and

62 Banks, Britten: A Catalogue, 48. 63 Mitchell, vol. 2, 694n. 64 Mitchell, vol. 2, 694n. 65 Mitchell, vol. 2, 679. 66 Mitchell, vol. 2, 725.

17 performing them. Rosamund Strode, Britten’s music assistant, relates that Pears gained this sense of giving from Elizabeth Mayer. [Pears] was keen on new works by new composers and giving them a chance, in other words, not just first performances. There are people who are only interested in doing first performances of things, but he wasn’t one of them…. And that is something he learned from Elizabeth Mayer, in the States…. The value of giving people a leg-up…. I know at some point he said, ‘I learned that from Elizabeth Mayer’ – the value.67

Purcell/Britten: “Hark, the Ech’ing Air” Purcell/Britten: “The Knotting Song”

One of Pears’s and Britten’s many recitals in America took place on November 19, 1939 at the Hotel Henry Perkins in Rivershead, NY. Pears sang the premiere performance of Britten’s first two realizations of Purcell songs, “Hark, the Ech’ing Air”68 and “The Knotting Song.”69 These two realizations remained in their repertory throughout their careers, and they included the latter in their final recital in September 1972.70 “Hark the Ech’ing Air!” displays extensive coloratura writing. Although the vocal line was not originally written for Pears, the fact that Britten chose this song to realize shows the facility that Pears’s voice had (ex. 2).

Example 2: Henry Purcell, “Hark, the ech’ing air!” mm. 7-15.

67 Rosamund Strode, interview by the author, tape recorded, Aldeburgh, England, 14 March 2003. Ms. Strode became Britten’s assistant in 1964, replacing Imogen Holst. Strode worked with Britten until his death in 1976 and continued on at the Britten-Pears Library until 1992. 68 Banks, 181. 69 Banks, 176. 70 Philip Reed, preface to Henry Purcell: A Miscellany of Songs for One/Two Voices & , realized by Benjamin Britten (London: Faber Music, 1994).

18 Britten wrote to his publisher Ralph Hawkes in late November that he had met with “the musical director of Columbia with favorable results and on Friday next [December 1, 1939] Peter and I probably shall go and perform [Les illuminations] for him.”71 Britten began composing Les illuminations, a cycle for high voice and string orchestra, in March 1939 for soprano Sophie Wyss. Pears had, in fact, been booked to sing the work in in late November 1939, but the performance was cancelled.72 This would have preceded the Wyss’s official premiere, which took place in London on January 30, 1940.73 On May 18, 1941 at the 18th International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in New York City, Pears gave the American debut of Les illuminations with Britten conducting.74 The recording of this performance “shows that Pears had now developed his characteristic voice, but not an Italian bel canto or even and English ‘cathedral tenor,’ but a strange and unique sound in which any technical limitations were lavishly compensated for by the strong personality it expressed.”75

Britten: “The Salley Gardens” Britten: “Little Sir William” Britten: “The Bonny Earl o’Moray” Britten: “Oliver Cromwell” Britten: “Calypso” Britten: “The Crocodile” Britten: “The Ash Grove”

Other performances in 1941 included an appearance at the annual Bach Festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan in January,76 a recital with Britten for the British War Relief Society in Providence, Rhode Island on February 20,77 and a performance of Les illuminations in Chicago in November.78 From Chicago Pears and Britten went to Grand Rapids, Michigan where they gave a recital at the First Park Congregational Church on November 26. At this recital they performed Les illuminations with piano accompaniment79 and gave the premiere performance of four of Britten’s folksong arrangements: “The Salley Gardens,” “Little Sir William,” “The

71 Mitchell, vol. 2, 737. 72 Carpenter, 142. 73 Banks, 50. 74 Mitchell, vol. 2, 932. 75 Carpenter, 151. 76 Mitchell, vol. 2, 649. 77 Mitchell, vol. 2, 906. 78 Mitchell, vol. 2, 886. 79 This information comes from the archive collection at the Britten-Pears Library. Subsequent information from this source will be noted as “BPL Archive”.

19 Bonny Earl o’Moray,” and “Oliver Cromwell.”80 Britten later orchestrated the accompaniments of these settings, and Pears premiered them on December 13, 1942. Paul Banks notes in Benjmain Britten: A Catalogue of Published Works, that “there may have been an earlier (and as yet untraced) performance of [the orchestrated version of The Salley Gardens] in the first half of the year.”81 In the coming years, Britten would arrange dozens of folksongs for his recitals with Pears, who sang several selections in most recitals. At a recital in Long Island, New York on December 14, 1941, they premiered three more songs by Britten: “Calypso,”82 and folksong arrangements “The Crocodile” and “The Ash Grove.”83 The folksong settings were composed especially for Pears, but “Calypso” was one of four cabaret songs with texts by Auden composed for soprano Hedli Anderson (1907-1990) for later performances in England.84

80 Banks, 155. 81 Banks, 157. 82 Banks, 48. 83 Banks, 155. 84 Banks, 48.

20

CHAPTER 3

HOME

After spending over three years in North America, Pears and Britten boarded the ship, the Axel Johnson, headed for England on March 16, 1942.85 Pears later wrote that during the journey, “while Ben was writing and Hymn to St. Cecilia… I was planning the original shape of the Peter Grimes .”86 Pears and Britten discovered Peter Grimes when Pears purchased The Poetical Works of the Rev. in a used bookshop in California about a year earlier. They arrived at Liverpool, England on April 17, 1942, and on April 22, Boosey & Hawkes engaged Britten and Pears to perform all of Britten’s new works in a private hearing. Pears sang several works and played the piano in works either for two or in orchestral transcriptions. (1904-1976), English conductor, music scholar and administrator, was among those at the hearing. His official position was Assistant Director of Music at the BBC, for which he “often found himself required to pronounce on new music.”87 Pears sang Britten’s Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, composed in 1940, about which Herbage reported, “An extremely fine cycle – Italianate virility of vocal line and simplicity and extreme effectiveness of piano accompaniment have produced an unusual and notable work. The whole was sung twice, at the beginning and at the end of the audition, and confirmed more deeply first impressions on second hearing.” Pears also sang some of the folksongs that Britten arranged in America, what Herbage titled “Irish folk songs for tenor and piano.” Herbage wrote, “The least satisfying of the four works, though quite charming and well executed, they have an ingenuousness which to my mind

85 Headington, 114. 86 , “‘Fiery visions’ (and revisions): ‘Peter Grimes’ in progress,” in Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes, comp. Philip Brett (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1983), 47. 87 Mitchell, vol. 2, 652.

21 descends to the childish or silly clever. They make quite pleasant listening if not too critically approached.”88 A few days after the hearing, Britten wrote in a letter, “On the strength of [Pears’s performance at the hearing] Peter has had this Tales of Hoffmann offer (to sing Hoffmann) which will be a splendid experience for him.”89 Pears’s debut in Offenbach’s opera took place on May 6, 1942 in the Strand Theater in London, and after several performances there, the opera went on tour. A few days after his debut, Pears wrote to Elizabeth Mayer: I was asked at very short notice to sing the title role in “Tales of Hoffmann” now running here in an elaborate production. Oddly enough I wasn’t at all nervous at my first performance last Wednesday afternoon & apparently was a big success & am going to tour in two weeks when we have finished in London. It’s a big role with a lot of singing, & though I haven’t even now after 4 performances sung it as well as I should like to, it goes across alright!90

Meanwhile, Britten concentrated on several compositions, one of which was his opera Peter Grimes. From its inception it was a project that involved both Pears and Britten. On May 17, 1942, Britten wrote in a letter that he was going to discuss the opera with the librettist, , and that, “Peter & I will be in it up to our necks.”91 Pears was only a collaborator at this point, not the intended singer of the title role. Britten made a list of the characters sometime after June 1, 1942, on which he identified Grimes as a baritone.92 Pears said in 1975, “I don’t think Ben really thought of me as playing Peter Grimes. At that time… I was more a recitalist than an opera singer.”93 Considering the number of operatic performances that Pears would give between 1942 and 1946, this seems an absurd comment, yet it serves to show what Pears considered his strengths to be as a young singer. Pears’s work as a recitalist centered on an organization called CEMA, the Committee for the Encouragement of Music and for the Arts, later the Arts Council of Great Britain. Because they were pacifists, Pears and Britten went through War Tribunals when they returned to England in order to keep out of military duty. They were each awarded Conscientious Objector status and in exchange for active duty the government required them to work for CEMA.

88 Mitchell, vol. 2, 653. 89 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1037 90 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1039. 91 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1050. 92 Phillip Reed, “A Peter Grimes Chronology,” in The Making of Peter Grimes: Essays and Studies, ed. Paul Banks (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 2000), 25. 93 George Gells, “Peter Pears – the Voice that Inspired Britten,” New York Times, 2 November 1975, p. 158.

22 Typically, they performed together, but Pears also sang with other pianists, such as Norman Franklin, on occasion. Some CEMA concerts could be in London, but most required travel into other cities. Britten explained the concerts to Elizabeth Mayer in a letter on September 30, 1942. Whenever possible Peter or I, mostly together, do concerts for [CEMA]. We go all over the place, under the strangest conditions – playing on awful old pianos – singing easy, but always good programmes - & really have the greatest successes with the simplest audiences…. I feel it absolutely worth it, because as we have so often agreed, it does get music really to the people, finds out what they want & puts the emphasis on the music, & not the personality of the artist, or their previous fame. One starts completely from ‘scratch’ as it were, since more often than not, they haven’t even heard of Schubert – much less, Britten or Pears!!94

Britten: “I Wonder as I Wander” Britten: “The Seven Blessings of Mary” Britten: “Hymn”

These recitals were immensely important to both Pears and Britten, and they would at times give premiere performances at them, especially Britten’s folksong settings. At a CEMA recital on September 11, 1942 in , Pears and Britten gave the first recorded performance of Britten’s arrangement of “I Wonder as I Wander.” Britten arranged this song in the belief that it was in the public domain, however he later found that the song was an original composition by John Jacob Niles. As a result, Britten’s arrangement was not published during his lifetime. The setting was a favorite of Pears, who programmed it in concerts until the end of his career.95 In Britten’s setting, the vocal lines are completely unaccompanied, and the four verses are separated by interludes in the piano which consist of wandering monophonic melodies. Britten probably arranged this song just after composing the last song of his cycle The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, another work for Pears that uses monophonic texture. On that same program, there are two other curious inclusions. The first is a folksong arrangement by Britten called “The Seven Blessings of Mary” and the other, also by Britten, for tenor, , and piano, simply titled “Hymn.” These were most likely premiere performances of songs by Britten, but there is no record of the scores at the Britten-Pears Library beyond their titles on the program.

94 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1090. 95 Banks, 155.

23 Britten: Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo

On September 23, 1942, Pears and Britten gave the first public performance of Britten’s Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo in a concert organized by the publisher Boosey & Hawkes that show-cased several new works by their composers. Britten composed the songs two years earlier in America, completing them in March 1940. This was the first song cycle that Britten wrote for Pears, and it reflected not only the specific abilities of Pears’s voice but Britten’s personal feelings for the tenor as well. Graham Johnson wrote that “this cycle ranks with Schumann’s Myrthen as a garland of songs to celebrate a marriage of minds and hearts.”96 Although Pears and Britten gave “a number of private performances of the work and had made a private recording… while in America,”97 they waited to give the official public premiere until 1942. Donald Mitchell says, “It is clear that the main reason for the delayed premiere was Pears’s wanting to wait until such time as he felt vocally ready to give the best possible account of the work.”98 Reviews for Pears’s performance of the Seven Sonnets in 1942 were unanimous. ran a review written by Ferruccio Bonavia that stated, “The reception left no possible doubt as to the pleasure the audience had derived from the performance of Peter Pears and the composer, who accompanied him.”99 The London Times said that the Sonnets are “fine songs for singing – or so Mr. Pears, who returns with his pleasing voice grown more robust and his skill considerated by experience, easily persuaded. For they are big songs they made a singularly direct appeal.”100 A review by Edward Sackville-West in the New Statesmen and Nation said, “The singer, Peter Pears, is something of a portent, too. It is long since we have heard an English tenor with a voice at once so strong, so pure and so sweet.”101 The range of the cycle extends from C3 to B4, the highest note that Britten would even write for Pears. He wrote it only two other times – in quick, melismatic passages in Peter Grimes and The Burning Fiery Furnace. There are two musical characteristics in the cycle that appear in later works for Pears: the exploitation of the note E4 and the use of unaccompanied writing. Ralph Woodward wrote, “This was the first song-cycle to be written expressly for Peter Pears,

96 Graham Johnson, “Voice and Piano,” in The Britten Companion, ed. Christopher Palmer (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1984), 290. 97 Banks, 53. 98 Mitchell, vol. 2, 930. 99 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1077. 100 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1076 101 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1078.

24 and the influence of Pears’s voice can be heard in the frequent use, especially for long notes, of high E.”102 Several of the songs emphasize the note, but it is most apparent in the opening song (ex. 3).

Example 3: Benjamin Britten, The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, “Sonetto XVI,” mm. 11-24.

The second musical characteristic appears in the seventh song when Britten sets the first four lines of poetry with no accompaniment (ex. 4). Britten composed this song soon before his setting of “I Wonder as I Wander,” another monophonic setting. One wonders from whence came the idea to use that texture within a typically homophonic genre. One answer may be in a song that Pears sang around the time that Britten composed his songs. Pears performed Schumann’s on December 9, 1940 in Carnegie Hall with pianist Lucy Brown,103 and Britten completed the seventh sonnet on October 30. It stands to reason that Pears would have prepared the Schumann cycle in Britten’s presence and with his assistance. In the thirteenth song of Dichterliebe, “Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet,” the piano does not play with the voice until the twenty-fourth bar. Perhaps this was the first song that Pears sang in which his voice was unaccompanied and it was Britten’s source of inspiration for his songs.

102 Woodward, “Music for Voices,” 263. 103 “Lucy Brown’s Recital,” New York Times, 10 November 1940, p. 32.

25

Example 4: Benjamin Britten, The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, “Sonetto XXIV,” mm. 8-15.

Britten: “The Foggy, Foggy Dew”

On November 18, Pears and Britten gave a CEMA concert and included The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo as well as the premiere performances of Britten’s arrangement of “The Foggy, Foggy Dew.” Banks’s Catalogue of Published Works gives the premiere of this song as September 27, 1945 at Melksham Music Club, Melksham House.104 Headington biography of Pears verifies that Pears performed the song on November 18, 1942, “In this programme, a group of four Schubert songs.… Beethoven’s A major … the Michelangelo Sonnets… a

104 Banks, 161.

26 group of cello solos and five of Britten’s folk-song arrangements including The foggy, foggy dew and ending with Oliver Cromwell.”105 Near the end of 1942, operatic performances began to fill Pears’s singing schedule. In late August 1942, during the end of the Hoffmann tour, representatives from the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company in London heard Pears sing. He joined the company in January 1943 and remained with them until 1946. During those years, Pears sang leading tenor roles in La bohème, La traviata, Rigoletto, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Die Zauberflöte, Così fan tutte, , and Peter Grimes.

105 Headington, 120.

27

CHAPTER 4

1943

Britten: “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes” Britten: “La belle est au jardin d’amour” Britten: “Quand j’étais chez mon père”

Pears and Britten gave a recital on February 28, 1943 at the Friend’s House in London which included Dichterliebe, by Handel and Gluck,106 and three premieres of Britten’s song: a setting of W. H. Auden’s “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes,”107 and two French folksongs, “La belle est au jardin d’amour,” and “Quand j’étais chez mon père.”108 Britten composed “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes” in January 1938 and gave the manuscript fair copy to Sophie Wyss, assumedly for performance use. Pears’s performance of the song, however, predates any performance by Wyss.109 The song has a range from C-sharp 3 to A-sharp 4 and a vocal line that employs many leaps and coloratura (ex. 5).

Example 5: Benjamin Britten, “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes,” mm. 65-68.

106 BPL Archive. 107 Banks, 41. 108 Banks, 160. 109 Phillip Reed, preface to Fish in the Unruffled Lakes: Six Settings of W. H. Auden for High Voice and Piano, by Benjamin Britten (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1997).

28 For the next several months, Pears had opera engagements or CEMA recitals nearly every day. He sang the role of the Duke in Rigoletto for the first time on April 3110 and the role of Alfredo in La Traviata on April 29, 1943 under conductor Herbert Menges.111 On April 6, Britten wrote to William Mayer, Peter is with Sadler’s Wells Opera company these two weeks – doing Magic , Rigoletto, & rehearsing Traviata. He is singing so well and acting with such abandon, that he is well on his way to becoming an operatic star…. When I write it, & if it is put on here, I hope [Peter] will do the principal part in Peter Grimes. The ideas are going well but I haven’t had time to start it yet.112

This was, according to Donald Mitchell, “The first indication that the role of Grimes was intended for Pears” and not a baritone.113

Schubert/Britten: “Ach, neige du Schmerzenreiche”

On April 25, Pears and Britten performed a program of songs by Schubert and Britten, and Pears sang a premiere of a song by Franz Schubert that Britten completed. In 1938, the BBC commissioned Britten to complete the song “Ach, neige du Schmerzenreiche (Gretchens Bitte)” for a program of Schubert songs composed between 1817 and 1818. Britten completed two versions of Schubert’s song. He completed the first version in late 1938, and he and soprano Mary Blyth premiered it on December 27, 1938 over BBC Regional Radio. The second version “seems to have been written while he and Pears were in America… perhaps because the earlier version had been left in England – and was included in their recital programmes in 1943.”114

Purcell/Britten: “Not All My Torments”

Pears performed a recital for CEMA on May 3 in which he gave the first performance of Britten’s realization of Purcell’s “Not all my Torments.”115 This realization, the third by Britten,

110 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1125. 111 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1142. 112 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1145. 113 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1146n. 114 Banks, 191. 115 Banks, 183.

29 is a quasi and features several long melismas, which require the singer to negotiate runs and turns at a high tessitura (ex. 6).

Example 6: Henry Purcell, “Not All My Torments,” mm. 2-6.

Tippett: Boyhood’s End

Pears and Britten took part in a concert on June 5, 1943 in the Holst Room at . They performed the Michelangelo Sonnets and the premiere of Boyhood’s End by Michael Tippett (1905-1998). Tippett came to Morley College in 1932 to organize and direct the South London Orchestra, an ensemble “which was formed to provide performance opportunities for out of work professional musicians.”116 He became the Director of Music at the college in 1940 and stayed until 1951.117 During those years the concert series at the college organized by Tippett was an important part of musical life in London. , a student at Morley, described the concert atmosphere during wartime. A concert at Morley College during the war – it would be a Saturday evening and early because of the raids, one of the regular ‘house’ concerts. Only a small part of the famous college for working men and women was left unbombed; there was no big hall, just the little Holst room with his ‘Planets’ painted on the ceiling, seats for a (crowded) 150 – best to get there early – and a small, raised platform with a tiny but very good Steinway

116 Gordon Theil, comp., Michael Tippett: A Bio-Bibilography (New York: Greenwood, 1989), 5. 117 Theil, Tippett: A Bio-Bibliography, 6.

30 in light mahogany…. The atmosphere at the concerts was friendly but highly charged in that hot Holst room.118

Pears met Tippett when he sang in a performance at Morley College of Gibbon’s verse anthem My Beloved Spoke under him shortly after returning from America.119 Pears later wrote about Tippett in a letter, “It has been wonderful having Michael Tippett as a fellow-artist & composer whom we can both wholly admire and love…. Michael’s music is more complex than Ben[‘s], but it is slowly being recognized, & the Cantata from W.H. Hudson [Boyhood’s End] of his that we do, has made many friends.”120 Tippett composed Boyhood’s End in January 1943.121 It utilizes two characteristics that are common in music written for Pears: unaccompanied sections and coloratura. There are four brief unaccompanied phrases, all within the andante section (beginning m. 124) of the cantata. This section was, according to Pears, “one of Tippett’s best things…. The subtle colouring of the words throughout the wide range gives the singer, unaccompanied much of the time, chance after chance to express the finest verbal nuances”122 Tippett uses coloratura several times in the cantata, and often at the top of the tenor range (ex. 7).

Example 7: Michael Tippett, Boyhood’s End, mm. 108-116.

118 John Amis, “Wartime Morley,” in Michael Tippett: A Symposium on his 60th Birthday, ed. Ian Kemp (London: Faber and Faber, 1965), 73. 119 Alan Blyth, Remembering Britten (London: Hutchinson, 1981), 62. 120 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1216. 121 Eric Walter White, “A Biographical Sketch,” in Michael Tippett: A Symposium, 20. 122 Peter Pears, “Song and Text,” in Michael Tippett: A Symposium, 48.

31 Tippett’s choice to use the cantata form for Boyhood’s End, as opposed to a song cycle, was in response to his studies of music by Purcell and Monteverdi.123 A trend among English composers of the 1940s and 1950s was “to make a song into more than a song, and even the song-cycle more than a song-cycle…. It is as if the short, isolated song, suitable for musically echoing the gently romantic poetry of former days, was no longer apt for the musical expression of the different poetic ideas to which composers of lively minds were now attracted.”124 Tippett’s composition was probably one of the first examples of this trend.

Hopkins: Songs of Cyprus

The next premiere that Pears gave was also at Morley College. On July 17, 1943, he took part in a performance of Antony Hopkins’s Songs of Cyprus, “three short unaccompanied choral pieces”125 with solo soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and parts. The soloists were Pears, soprano Alison Purves, mezzo-soprano Rita Harris, and bass Donald Lumsden with the composer conducting the performance. Hopkins (b. 1921), an English composer, studied piano and composition at the Royal College of Music where he afterward worked as a lecturer. While at Morley, he studied composition with Michael Tippett and sang tenor in his choir. After leaving the RCM, Hopkins “began to compose music for the theater, radio, and films, and quickly achieved success.” Songs of Cyprus, one of Hopkins’s early compositions, does not appear on his list of works in the entry in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 126

Purcell/Britten: “There’s not a Swain on the Plain” Purcell/Britten: “I’ll Sail upon the Dogstar” Purcell/Britten: “On the Brow of Richmond Hill”

On July 19, 1943, in Buckinghamshire, Pears and Britten gave a recital for the Friend’s War Relief. Their program included Dichterliebe, Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, several of

123 Blyth, “Peter Pears,” 63. 124 Arthur Jacobs, “The British Isles,” in A History of Song, ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1960), 177. 125 Antony Hopkins to the author, letter, 30 July 2003. 126 Richard Cooke, “Hopkins, Antony,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., vol. 11, ed. S. Sadie (London: MacMillan, 2001), 697-8.

32 Britten’s folksong arrangements, and several Purcell songs, including the premiere of Britten’s realization of Purcell’s “There’s not a Swain.”127 The next day, they performed live over the BBC Home Service and premiered Britten’s realizations of Purcell’s ”I’ll Sail Upon the Dogstar” and “On the Brow of Richmond Hill.”128 The performance also featured the broadcast premieres of the Purcell/Britten songs “There’s not a Swain” and “Not All My Torments,”129 as well as the broadcast premiere of The Michelangelo Sonnets. A review in The Listener stated of the Sonnets, “the best set of songs that have appeared in this country for a generation, and they have a right singer in Peter Pears.”130

Britten: “O Can Ye Sew Cushions” Britten: Serenade

Between September 23 and October 15, Pears gave nearly a dozen performances, two of which involved premiere performances.131 He premiered Britten’s arrangement of the folksong “O Can ye Sew Cushions”132 on October 14, and the next day, at in London, Pears sang the premiere of Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings. Britten met hornist in the summer of 1942 and “immediately contemplated producing a horn concerto for the brilliant 21-year-old. At the suggestion of , Britten elected to write an orchestra song- cycle that would include a solo horn as a prominent obbligato instrument.”133 The Serenade consists of six songs with a prologue and epilogue for solo horn. There are elements to the Serenade’s vocal lines that appear in many previous compositions, including Britten’s original works as well as his realizations and folksong settings. The first vocal entrance of the first song in Serenade, “Pastoral” begins on A-flat 4 and then descends by arpeggio (ex. 8). A similar lines are in the folksong “Little Sir William” (ex. 9) and in the Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (ex. 10).

127 Banks, 183. 128 Banks, 182. This source notes that “Pears sang “I’ll Sail Upon the Dog-star” and “On the Brow of Richmond Hill” at three concert accompanied by Norman Franklin in April 1943, but it is not clear whether Britten’s realizations were used.” 129 Banks, 183. 130 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1096. 131 BPL Archive. In addition to his opera schedule, Pears gave recitals and concerts on September 23, 29, 30, October 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14. 132 Banks, 156. 133 Mervyn Cooke, liner notes to Benjamin Britten, Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, op. 31, , op. 8, Folksong Arrangements, , EMI Classics 7243-5-56871-2-8, 1999.

33

Example 8: Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Pastoral,” mm. 2-5.

Example 9: Benjamin Britten, “Little Sir William,” mm. 5-6.

Example 10: Benjamin Britten, The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, “Sonetto LV,” mm. 23-24.

Similar vocal lines exist within the Serenade in “Nocturne” (ex. 11), “Dirge” (ex. 12), and “Hymn” (ex. 13). The quite lines descend either by step or by arppeggio.

Example 11: Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Nocturne,” m. 9 cadenza.

34

Example 12: Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Dirge,” mm. 1-6.

Example 13: Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Hymn,” 14-15.

There are many melismatic passages in the cycle, but three notable examples appear in the fifth song, “Hymn.” All three are fast and have a range of at least an octave. Two of the melismas begin high in Pears’s voice, follow a descending line, and are to be sung quietly (ex. 14, 15, and 16). Looking at Britten’s earlier compositions for Pears, one sees melismatic lines in the realizations of Purcell’s “Hark the ech’ing air,” “Not all my torments,” and “I’ll Sail upon a Dogstar” as well as Britten’s setting of “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes,” which was probably composed for Sophie Wyss. Before the Serenade, Britten had not yet fully exploited Pears’s ability to sing highly florid music, though Tippett had in Boyhood’s End. Coloratura passages appear with more frequency in Britten’s music written for Pears in the coming years.

Example 14: Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Hymn,” mm. 43-48.

35

Example 15: Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Hymn,” mm. 91-95.

Example 16: Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Hymn,” mm. 135-142.

Unaccompanied writing and monotone vocal line appear in the Serenade. In the refrains of the second song, “Nocturne,” and in the third song, “Elegy,” the tenor’s vocal lines have very little accompanying support. In the first strophe of the fourth song, “Dirge,” the first five measures, the voice is completely unaccompanied (ex. 12). In the last setting of the cycle, “Sonnet,” Britten has the tenor intone the last line of the poem on D4 above changing chords in the orchestra (ex. 17). Peter Evans points out that this line “gives a foretaste of the power Britten was to find in monotone in the ‘Great Bear’ soliloquy of [Peter] Grimes.”134 The monotone line in Serenade however was not the first time that Britten wrote a monotone vocal line for Pears. It appeared in the Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo in “Sonetto XXXI” (ex. 18) as well as the tenor aria of The Company of Heaven (ex. 1).

134 Peter Evans, The Music of Benjamin Britten (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1979), 94.

36 Example 17: Benjamin Britten, Serenade, “Sonnet,” mm. 34-37.

Example 18: Benjamin Britten, The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, “Sonetto XXXI,” mm. 38-48.

37

CHAPTER 5

1944

Wordsworth: “The Snowflake” Wood: Three Songs

In January 1944, Britten began composing Peter Grimes, and Pears made recordings of “The Salley Gardens,” “Little Sir William,” “The Ash Grove,” and “Oliver Cromwell,”135 performed the title role in Handel’s ,136 as well as the , and several recitals.137 On January 4 at Fyvie Hall in London, in a recital sponsored by the Committee for the Promotion of New Music, Pears and Britten premiered two vocal works. The first was a song by William B. Wordsworth and the second was a set of three songs by Ralph Walter Wood. William Wordsworth (1908-1988), a descendant of the poet’s brother, was born in London and trained at the University of Edinburgh, under Sir Donald Tovey. Wordsworth’s connection with Pears and Britten probably began in 1943. In January of that year, Wordsworth wrote to Britten, congratulating him on his successful war tribunal; Wordsworth, like Britten, was a dedicated pacifist. He asked Britten if they could meet to discuss some music that he was writing.138 Although there is no proof, it is possible that they met, as Britten and Pears premiered his song twelve months later. In February 1946, Wordsworth suggested that the three of them meet in London so that Britten and Pears could sing through some of Wordsworth’s songs.139 He wrote several times to Britten after 1948, asking to have his music played at the , but Britten never granted this.

135 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1155. 136 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1182. Mitchell states, however, “We have not been able to locate that performance.” 137 BPL Archive. 138 BPL Archive. 139 BPL Archive.

38 In the January 1944 recital, Pears and Britten premiered Wordsworth’s song “The Snowflake.” He composed this Walter de la Mare setting 1936 and published it in 1948 as the first song in a set of four, op. 7 for high voice and piano. The autograph score of the entire song set, now held at the Britten-Pears Library, shows a group of five songs with various dates: “Full Moon” (1936), “The Image” (1943), “Serenade” (1941), “The Snowflake” (1936), and “Song of Shadows” (1938). The first, fourth, and fifth songs are de la Mare settings, the second song is a setting of R. Hughes, and the third is the familiar “Come, o Come, My Life’s Delight” by Thomas Campion.140 There are notations throughout the entire set of songs written by Pears and Britten indicating that they learned the whole song set but decided to only perform the one song. Three Songs by Ralph Walter Wood (b. 1902) is not a part of the collection at the Britten- Pears Library, and neither is any other music by him. Wood was born in London and was self- taught as a composer, though he studied briefly under and .141 Wood is perhaps better known as a musicologist, having written several articles on various composers. There is no available information on Wood after 1980, when an article on him appeared in that year’s edition of Groves International Dictionary of Music and Musicians.142 He does not appear in the 2000 edition or in the on-line version of the dictionary. Although there is no documented evidence of a relationship between him and Pears, it is reasonable to think that there was one, as Pears premiered a second set of songs by Wood in 1959.143 Wood’s music “has an individuality that his variety and versatility make difficult to characterize, particularly in a composer who so carefully avoided conscious imitation.”144 The Three Songs, composed in 1936 and published in 1939, are settings of sonnets by William Shakespeare, Charles Baudelaire, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The range of the cycle never rises above F-sharp 4, but it has a high tessitura. The first song, a setting of Shakespeare’s sixty- fourth sonnet, “When I Have Seen by Time’s Fell Hand,” frequently takes the singer to E4 and at one point the singer intones an entire phrase on the note (ex. 19).

140 This is a very different set of songs than what was published in 1948. Opus 7 includes “The Snowflake,” “Full Moon,” and “Night,” (texts by de la Mare) and “Awake, my Heart, to be Loved” (text by Robert Bridges). 141 Eric Blom, “Wood, Ralph (Walter),” in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., vol. 9, ed. Eric Blom (London: Macmillan, 1968), 358. 142 Blom, “Wood, Ralph (Walter),” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 19, ed. S. Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), 519. 143 Surfling, “Premiere List.” Pears premiered Five German Songs by R. W. Wood over BBC Third Programme on September 21, 1959 with pianist John Willis. 144 Blom, “Wood, Ralph (Walter),” (1980).

39

Example 19: R. W. Wood, Three Songs, “Sonnet No. 64,” p. 2, third system.

In the final song, “Epitaph,” which is marked larghetto and piano, every note in the vocal line of the song, except for the last four words, is on E4 (ex. 20). Considering the composition date of Wood’s songs, one can assume that he did not write them with Pears’s voice in mind. However, it is interesting that the songs, especially the third, rely as much as they do on Pears’s “best note.” The performance of these songs occurred just after Britten began composing Peter Grimes, and one cannot help but wonder if Pears’s performance of Wood’s songs helped to inspire the “Great Bear” aria (see ex. 21).

Example 20: R. W. Wood, Three Songs, “Epitaph,” mm. 4-13.

According to the published list of premieres in A Tribute to Peter Pears, the tenor gave a third premiere at this concert, “Winter Song” for high voice and piano by Thomas Pitfield. This, however, was not a premiere performance, as Pitfield explained in his autobiography. It was January day during the Second World War years…. The soprano soloist was Gwen Berriman (later Doris Archer of the famous BBC programme). Michael [Mullimar] and myself shared the song accompaniments, which included the first performance of ‘Winter

40 Song’ to Katherine Mansfield’s words. Its second performance was by Pears and Britten in London.145

On February 11 Pears gave a live broadcast over the BBC North Region Home Service with conductor Richard Austin and the BBC Northern Orchestra which featured the broadcast premiere of two of Britten’s folksongs, arranged for voice and orchestra: “Little Sir William,” and “Oliver Cromwell.”146 Two days later he gave another performance in the same venue with soprano Emily Hooke and pianist . The performance featured the UK premiere of Leos Janacek’s Diary of a Young Man who Vanished, in an English translation by Iris Holland Rogers.147 Pears gave a number of recitals with Britten as well, performing in Stafford, Nottingham, and Pears’s home town Farnham.148 In a letter written on March 1, from Pears to Britten one begins to see the possible influence that the tenor had over Britten’s compositions. Britten had been working on Peter Grimes for about two months and by now had completed most of the Prologue. Peter Grimes was quite madly exciting! Really tremendously thrilling. The only thing you must remember is to consider that the average singer hasn’t much gift for intensity off his own bat, so make sure that the tempi etc make a tense delivery inevitable. Actually I feel very much that you have already done this, only you know what most singers are; the bit I was thinking of was Swallow in the Prologue. Can it sound pompous at that pace? Aggressive yes - & perhaps that’s enough. The more I hear of it, the more I feel that the queerness is unimportant & doesn’t really exist in the music (or at any rate obtrude) so it mustn’t do so in the words. P.G. is an introspective, an artist, a neurotic, his real problem is expression, self-expression.149

Tippett: A Child of our Time

Pears sang in the premiere of Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time on March 19, 1944. Unlike Boyhood’s End, Tippett did not compose the oratorio with Pears’s voice in mind. Tippett began composing it in September 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II, and completed it 1941.150 He showed the score to his friend Walter Goehr, who advised him to put it aside for awhile, which he did. When Britten saw it in 1944, he was immediately

145 Thomas Pitfield, A Song After Supper: Volume I of an Autobiography (London: Thames, c. 1990), 19. 146 Banks, 158-9. 147 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1187. 148 BPL Archive. 149 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1189. 150 David Matthews, Michael Tippett: An Introductory Study (London: Faber and Faber, 1980), 33.

41 enthusiastic about it and persuaded Tippett to have it performed.151 The oratorio calls for four soloists, chorus, and orchestra. The soloists at the premiere were , mezzo-soprano Margaret McArthur, Pears, and bass , and Walter Goehr conducted the London Region Civil Defense and Morley College and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.152 Between Pears’s recitals, concerts, and operatic performance, the tenor was beginning to tire, not physically, but mentally. There is evidence in letters that Pears wished to devote more of his time to focusing on Britten’s music. On March 1, after missing a train to an opera engagement, Pears wrote to Britten, “Oh for a holiday! I expect it’s Freudian my missing trains. I just can’t cope with the work - & I couldn’t have wanted to do anything less than sing at Greenock!”153 On May 11, while aboard a train, he wrote to Britten, “I had to sing Boheme last night…. It’s dirty music! However it’s probably a good training for Peter Grimes, which is after all what I was born for.”154 Britten, as well, wished that Pears could spend less time singing other music. He wrote to Pears about his operatic career on June 29, “It is the bloodiest business and I can’t wait to get you out of it all.”155 Pears wrote of this same sentiment on August 6, 1944 to Elizabeth Mayer, It has been the most terrifically busy time…. Sometimes I don’t know how I managed all the endless travelling & then singing at the end of it. It’s been wonderful experience, if only it doesn’t go on too long and wear me out. One can’t really get a proper holiday. The five days I had last month have to last me until after Christmas, but I am very strong physically…. We have done the Sonnets everywhere, and always people take to them as if they had been waiting just for that very experience. And now of course since last October, there has been the Serenade, which is subtle and beautiful and haunting, with a wonderful setting of Blake’s poem “o rose thou art sick”. We have just made a record of it with ’s Orchestra for Decca, but we shall do it again better soon…. Peter Grimes is now two-thirds done…. It will be terribly difficult to do, for me especially, as the part is so dramatic it needs a Chaliapin – & my voice is still lyrical and not dramatic. However it was a year before I could tackle the Sonnets, do you remember, and now I sing them best of anything. So perhaps I shall reach my Grimes by April!156

151 Headington, 192. 152 BPL Archive. 153 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1189. 154 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1197. 155 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1208. 156 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1215-6.

42 Greene/Britten: Two Solo Anthems for Tenor

Pears and Britten participated in a concert at St. Matthew’s Church, Northampton on September 21, 1944, exactly one year after the premiere of Britten’s at the same location. Britten wrote to Reverend Walter Hussey, Vicar of the cathedral, in July, “The plans for Sept 21st are going ahead from our end. Are they from yours? Our plan now is to have a ‘cello, as we want to do some religious music with continuo. So I have asked Norina Semino, who has agreed.”157 Pears’s program included two solo anthems for tenor by Maurice Greene (1696-1755), “Blessed are they that dwell” and “O praise the Lord.” Britten arranged these anthems, presumably for this concert, for tenor, cello and piano.158 The arrangements are unpublished and they are not at the Britten-Pears Library. There is one score in the library by Greene, Seven Sacred Solos of the Early English School, and the record in the catalogue reads, “Two of these solos [Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; O praise the Lord] were annotated by Britten and Pears for the performance at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948.”159 They performed the songs at a recital during the first Aldeburgh Festival on June 8, 1948, the program for which reads, “Two anthems with cello obbligato.”160 The annotations in the score may be the only existing remains of Britten’s arrangement.

Purcell/Britten: The Queen’s Epicedium Purcell/Britten: “Pious Celinda” Purcell/Britten: “Evening Hymn” Purcell/Britten: “Sound the Trumpet”

On October 8, the same day that Pears finished recording Britten’s Serenade, he and Britten gave a recital at Morley College. They performed On This Island, substituting the third song in the cycle, “Seascape,” with “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes.”161 Pears wrote that “Seascape” is perhaps less well made and certainly less distinguished than its contemporary,

157 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1214. 158 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1221. 159 Britten-Pears Library, “On-line Catalogue,” 160 BPL Archive. 161 Banks, 41.

43 “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes.”162 They also premiered two realizations by Britten, The Queen’s Epicedium,163 and “Pious Celinda.”164 Not long after this concert, Britten wrote to Pears, “I’ve started [the realization of Purcell’s] Evening Hymn – what a piece that is!”165 Pears and Britten performed at St. Matthew’s in Northampton on October 19 in a CEMA sponsored recital in which Pears sang pieces by Dowland, Buxtehude, Bach, and Purcell. This concert, which was broadcast live by the BBC Home Service, included the premiere of Britten’s realization of Purcell’s “Evening Hymn.”166 On December 1, Pears and Britten gave a recital with soprano Margaret Ritchie at the Museum Lecture Theater in . For this performance, Britten made three new Purcell realizations. Ritchie premiered two of them, and Ritchie and Pears sang the premiere of the duet “Sound the Trumpet.”167

162 Peter Pears, “The Vocal Music,” in Benjamin Britten: A Commentary on his Works by a Group of Specialists, ed. Donald Mitchell and Hans Keller (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1952), 64. 163 Banks, 180. 164 Banks, 182. 165 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1224. 166 Banks, 179. 167 Banks, 182.

44

CHAPTER 6

1945

Purcell/Britten: “Turn Then Thine Eyes”

On February 10, 1945, Britten wrote to a friend, “I have actually just at this minute written ‘End’ to the opera score.”168 He then went to , where Pears was on tour with the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company and delivered the Prologue and Act I of Peter Grimes to the singers.169 Britten wrote to on February 24 from Joan Cross’s dressing room during a performance of Così fan tutte, “Peter and I have now got to leave for on 5th [March].… We are having a terrific time with Grimes - & Peter & I are pretty well re-writing his part. Montagu agreed to the new Mad Scene…. Peter sends his love… 6 concerts in a row before the Paris trip.”170 The comment about rewriting Pears’s part is curious. In all of the published material on Peter Grimes and its history, there has been no explanation of this statement. Pears and Britten gave four concerts in Paris between March 8 until March 13. In the final concert at the Salle de l’ancien conservatoire they gave a recital of Dowland, Purcell realized by Britten, Britten, and folksong arrangements. In their set of Purcell songs, they gave the premiere performance of “Turn Then Thine Eyes.”171

168 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1242. 169 Carpenter, 216. 170 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1243. 171 Banks, 182.

45 Britten: Peter Grimes

When Pears and Britten returned to England from , there were only three months until the premiere of Peter Grimes. During this interval, Pears took part in a tour with the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company from May 8 until May 18, performing Così fan tutte, Rigoletto, and The Bartered Bride. 172 It was typical for the company to perform the operas in their repertory while rehearsing for the next production. In this case, the next show was Peter Grimes. The premiere of Britten’s opera would serve as “the return of the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company, after six years of exile, to their home in Rosebery Avenue.”173 Because of this, there was tension within the company as to the choice of a first production. Many thought that a work from the traditional operatic canon would be more appropriate while others supported Britten’s opera. Eric Walter White, Britten’s first biographer, wrote that “Dissension broke out in the [Sadler’s Wells] company, mainly between members of the old guard and the new, and this led Britten to realize that it would be inadvisable for him to write his next opera for Sadler’s Wells. A small but powerful group of artists was willing to secede and join whatever new venture he was preparing to launch.”174 recalled During a free day from rehearsals at Wolverhampton, Britten, Pears, Joan Cross and I had taken a boat up the river to Bridgnorth. Later we lay on the bank and discussed our predicament. We knew that after Grimes we had to go on… but Sadler’s Wells had turned against us. Covent Gardens was still in use as a Mecca dance hall. Glyndebourne was closed…. I suggested that we should form a small company of gifted singers… with ourselves as artistic directors, no chorus and the smallest group of instrumentalists that Ben would find acceptable for .175

This suggestion would later come into being, exactly as Crozier described it, as the . The Sadler’s Wells Company arrived at their home theater on May 23, and on May 31, the principal singers in the cast gave a preview performance at Wigmore Hall with Britten playing the piano and Eric Crozier narrating the story. Edward Sackville-West, a critic in

172 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1252. 173 Desmond Shawe-Taylor, “Peter Grimes: a review of the first performance,” in Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes, comp. Phillip Brett (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1983), 153. 174 Eric Walter White, Benjamin Britten: A Sketch of His Life and Works, new ed., rev. and enlarged (New York: Boosey & Hawkes, 1954), 15. 175 Carpenter, 225.

46 attendance, wrote, “London was about to hear the English equivalent of .”176 The premiere of Peter Grimes, op. 33, took place at the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company in London on June 7, 1945 under the musical direction of Reginald Goodall followed by another eight performances over the next two months.177 Historically, there is no question as to the long-term success of Peter Grimes. Not all critics at the time of the premiere, however, were positive about the opera or its performance. Julian Herbage wrote in an internal circulation at the BBC the day following the premiere I could hear practically no word of what was being sung…. The soloists could certainly have improved their diction, if they had shouted less and articulated more. The opera was excellently cast, and apart from the usual vocal limitations of the Sadler’s Wells company, it seems invidious to pick any of them out for special praise. I should imagine, however, that never will Peter Pears (Peter Grimes) or Joan Cross (Ellen Orford) be more suitably cast. Incidentally, if Pears continues to sing his mad scene in his present throat straining manner he would be liable to lose his voice.178

Scott Goddard wrote in the News Chronicle, “Peter Pears as Grimes… gave a profoundly sympathetic rendering of the part for which he will be remembered. Singing and acting were of one piece, and intensely moving,”179 while Frank Howes wrote in The Times “Mr. Peter Pears, as Peter Grimes, commanded all the vocal resources required for a great and exacting part, though he was not completely convincing as a sadist.”180 Pears, in effect, countered this critique via an article he wrote in 1946, “Grimes is not a hero nor is he an operatic villain. He is not a sadist nor a demonic character, and the music quite clearly shows that.”181 The music critic for The Times wrote on June 15, “Grimes is… a dual personality, and the role will set a problem of interpretation which may defeat singers of less intelligence than Peter Pears.”182 Another critic wrote, “after hearing several performances…. there are moments in the role of Grimes which demand a sort of tenor Chaliapin; Peter Pears is not that, but he is in every other way worthy of the composer’s intentions.”183 One recalls Pears’s own comparison of himself to the great Russian singer-actor Fyodor Chaliapin (1873-1938) in the letter he wrote on August 10, 1944 (see page 43). Composer Antony Hopkins wrote, looking back on Pears’s many opera roles,

176 Carpenter, 219. 177 Banks, 72. 178 Mitchell, vol. 2, 654-5. 179 Mitchell, 1256. 180 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1253. 181 Peter Pears, “Neither a Villian nor a Hero,” in Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes, 152. 182 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1254. 183 Shawe-Taylor, 158.

47 “Pears was a brilliant Pandarus in Walton’s Troilus and C., also Vasek in The Bartered Bride. Too refined for a good Grimes!”184 A review of Pears’s recording of the opera read, “There have been many excellent portrayals of Grimes since Pears created the part but none have reached his artistic stature, even allowing for the fact that the part was written with his particular vocal abilities in mind.”185 Considering the letter written by Britten some months earlier saying that he and Pears were rewriting Pears’s part, one assumes that Pears had some part in the creation of the opera. Throughout the score there are elements in Grimes’s vocal lines that suggest Pears’ voice and music that he had sung in the past. In the Act I scene 2 aria, “Now the Great Bear,” the vocal line is almost entirely written on a monotone E4 (ex. 21).

Example 21: Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Act I, Scene 2, fig. 76, mm. 1-6.

Examples of coloratura writing in the role appear in the fast section of the same aria (ex. 22), and in Grimes’s opening statement in act II scene 2, “Go there!” This melisma begins high then descends to the bottom of the voice (ex. 23). A third example is found in the aria “In dreams I’ve built myself” later in the same scene. In this aria, Britten writes melismatic turns on quintuplet figures (ex. 24). Another is at the climax of Grimes’s monologue in Act III, scene 2, when he shouts his own name on a wild melisma that begins on D-flat 3, rises by leaps to A-flat 4, and winds back down to E-flat 3 (ex. 25).

184 Antony Hopkins to the author, letter, 30 July 2003. 185 Alec Richardson, “Operatic,” Gramophone 37 (October 1959): 188-9.

48

Example 22: Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Act I, Scene 2, fig. 76, mm. 15-16.

Example 23: Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 55, mm. 3-5.

Example 24: Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 62, mm. 4-9.

Example 25: Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Act III, Scene 2, fig. 51.

There are two extended instances of unaccompanied writing in Peter Grimes. The first is the duet between Grimes and Ellen Orford in the later half of the Prologue. This type of writing is exceedingly rare in opera, though one example of it exists in an opera that Britten may have known when composing Grimes. The first several minutes of Gustav Holst’s feature an

49 unaccompanied duet. The second example of unaccompanied writing in Peter Grimes is in Grime’s mad scene (Act III, Scene 2), which Donald Mitchell called one of the most original and daring innovations in 20th century opera that anyone could ever have thought of. That tells you everything about… words and color and letting the words color, because that is the perfect example. All the color there in Peter’s wonderful performance in that incredible scene is provided by the words. And it was Ben’s understanding of what he could do with the words to actually shape that huge cadenza…. But what an incredible idea, that extended 12 or 13 minutes unaccompanied, for that one voice and that one character on the stage with nothing else except very distant interventions, occasionally, by the chorus and the horn. There’s nothing there. That in itself tells one a lot about the potentialities of Peter’s voice.186

Much of this scene lies in the lower register of the tenor’s voice, and, besides a few quotations of earlier lyrical melodies, it is declamatory. Although Britten had not yet written for Pears in a declamatory style, he had realized a few comparable Purcell works for him. Britten and many others would write declamatory music for the tenor in coming years. Throughout Grimes’s final scene, the dynamic and expressive markings are very specific and change often. The dynamics in the voice part only rise to forte a few times, and each time they return to piano almost immediately. This specificity in instruction from the composer would allow Pears to rely upon the color and flexibility of his voice and not merely its size.

Britten: “Sweet Polly Oliver” Britten: “The Plough Boy” Britten: “There’s None to Soothe” Britten: “Birthday Song for Erwin”

Pears and Britten continued giving recitals while Grimes was in production. In a recital on June 28 in , which the BBC Home Service broadcast, they performed the broadcast premieres of the Purcell/Britten songs “Turn Then Thine Eyes” and “Pious Celinda.”187 Pears sang premieres of several other works by Britten before the end of 1945. On September 26, he and Britten gave a recital at the Bristol Grammar School at which they premiered Britten’s arrangement of the folksong “Sweet Polly Oliver.”188 The next day, in a recital for the Melksham

186 Mitchell, interview by author. 187 Banks, 182. 188 Banks, 161

50 Music Club, they premiered two more folksong arrangements, “The Plough Boy” and “There’s None to Soothe.”189 They premiered an original song by Britten on November 7, a setting of a poem by Ronald Duncan called “Birthday Song for Erwin.” Both the poem and song were dedicated to Erwin Stein (1885-1958) on his sixtieth birthday.190 Stein, a former pupil of , came to England in 1938, worked as an editor for Boosey & Hawkes, and became “one of [Britten’s] closest friends and advisors.”191 Britten did not have the song published during his lifetime, and there were no performances of it after the premiere until 1988.192 In this brief song, twenty-six measures long, the vocal line centers on E4. In the first several phrases, the voice does not remain on the note but rather the note acts as a point of departure and return (ex. 26).

Example 26: Benjamin Britten, “Birthday Song for Erwin,” mm. 3-10.

189 Banks, 161. 190 Banks, 77. 191 Rosamund Strode, preface to The Red Cockatoo & Other Songs (1935-1960), by Benjamin Britten (London: Faber Music, 1994). 192 This performance, which celebrated Britten’s seventy-fifth birthday, was by tenor Christopher Hobkirk and pianist Rosalind Jones at the Royal College of Music in London on November 22, 1988.

51 Purcell/Britten: “Music for a While” Purcell/Britten: “Mad Bess” Purcell/Britten: “Lord, What is Man?” Purcell/Britten: “I Spy Celia” Purcell/Britten: “Lost is My Quiet” Purcell/Britten: “What Can we Poor Females Do?” Purcell/Britten: Saul and the Witch at Endor Purcell/Britten: “Fairest Isle” Purcell/Britten: “If Music be the Food of Love” (third version) Purcell/Britten: Man is for a Woman Made”

Pears and Britten gave several concerts in late November, most of which were dedicated to music by Purcell. For these concerts, Britten prepared thirteen new Purcell realizations. Here, absolute accuracy of first performance date comes into question. Banks writes, “Britten very rarely dated his arrangements and realizations…. It is likely that most… were prepared shortly before their first performance, but… the dates of all such premieres cannot be reliably established: in most cases it is possible to record only the earliest known performance of a work.”193 To further complicate the matter, some programs which featured more than one singer were not always clear as to which singer performed a particular piece. A recital on November 17, 1945 at Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool was one such program. Pears and Joan Cross, accompanied by Britten, sang several operatic excerpts, as well as some individual songs. Pears premiered Britten’s realization of Purcell’s “Music for a While,” although Banks notes, “or Joan Cross.”194 The other premiere of the evening was Britten’s realization of Purcell’s “Mad Bess.” Banks gives Cross credit for the premiere but notes “or possibly Pears.”195 Britten dedicated both of these songs to Cross. Pears and Britten gave nightly concerts between November 21 and November 25, 1945, each dedicated to the music of Purcell. The first, which took place at Wigmore Hall, also celebrated the 250th anniversary of Purcell’s death. The concert involved Pears, Britten, soprano Margaret Ritchie, baritone Richard Wood, the Zorian , and violist Robert Donington. The program featured performances of Purcell’s trio sonata in F, the “Golden Sonata,” two fantasias for strings, the premiere of Britten’s second string quartet written “in homage to Purcell,” and nine Purcell vocal works realized by Britten, eight of which were

193 Banks, x-xi. 194 Banks, 182. 195 Banks, 183.

52 premieres.196 Pears may have taken part in each premiere: a solo song “Lord, What is Man?”197 duets with baritone “I Spy Celia,” “Lost is my Quiet,” and “What Can we Poor Females Do?”198 the trio Saul and the Witch at Endor,199 as well as three more solo works, “Fairest Isle,” If Music be the Food of Love” (third version), and “Man is for a Woman Made.” These three may have been premiered by Margaret Ritchie.200 A later performance by Pears of “Lord, What is Man?” caused the critic William McNaught to write that the song communicated “an intricate and unified whole, compounded of Purcell’s mind, his fellow-composer’s and the mind and gifts of the singer.”201 The song is divided into three sections, an accompanied recitative, an allegretto aria, and a quick “Halleluia.” All of the sections have melismatic passages and high tessituras (ex. 27, 28, 29).

Example 27: Henry Purcell, Lord, what is man? mm. 36-38.

Example 28: Henry Purcell, Lord, what is man? mm. 87-92.

196 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1288. 197 Banks, 179. 198 Banks, 182. 199 Banks, 178. 200 Banks, 182-3. 201 Carpenter, 229.

53

Example 29: Henry Purcell, Lord, what is man? mm. 105-109.

Britten dedicated Saul and the Witch at Endor to Cuthbert Kelly, the man who in 1936 invited Pears to sing in the New English Singers.202 A paraphrase of Samuel I, 28:8-20, Saul and the Witch at Endor is a dramatic work in which each of the three singers represents a character in the story. The soprano sings the part of the witch, the tenor sings the part of Saul, and the bass sings the part of Samuel. The drama is preceded and followed by all voices singing together as a narrator. The tenor role is very high and, at times, extremely florid (ex. 30). The tenor is also required to negotiate chromatic lines through the high tessitura (ex. 31).

Example 30: Henry Purcell, Saul and the Witch at Endor, mm. 26-34.

202 Banks, 178.

54

Example 31: Henry Purcell, Saul and the Witch at Endor, mm. 140-144.

Britten: The Holy Sonnets of John Donne

On November 22, St. Cecilia’s Day and Britten’s thirty-second birthday, at the second of the concerts dedicated to Purcell, Pears gave the premiere of Britten’s Holy Sonnets of John Donne, op. 35.203 Immediately after the run of Peter Grimes in London, the Sadler’s Wells went on tour to Belfast and Dublin from July 23 until August 9. Pears sang Così fan tutte, La bohème, and The Bartered Bride, nine performances in all.204 Much of this time, Britten was on a tour with violinist to concentration camps in “under the auspices of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association.”205 On August 2, just after returning home, Britten began composing his next song cycle, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne. He considered setting the poetry of John Donne for many years, but it was his trip to Germany that finally made him put pen to paper. He completed the cycle of nine songs on August 19, though Pears did not give the premiere until November. There are “direct influences on the shape of [Britten’s] vocal declamation” in the Holy Sonnets that come from Purcell’s vocal works found in the first book of the Harmonia Sacra (1688), especially those realized by Britten and sung by Pears.206 As well, “both composers construct vocal lines in which the words dictate rhythmic shape of such individuality as to form highly asymmetrical melodic phrases.”207 This could only be so, on Britten’s part, had he witnessed Pears’s ability to interpret such a line, as he had done in such realizations as “Lord, What is Man?” and The Queen’s Epicedium.

203 Banks, 75. 204 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1273. 205 Mitchell, vol. 2, 1269. 206 Evans, 350. 207 Evans, 351.

55 There is one unaccompanied line in the cycle. It is in the seventh song, “At the round Earth’s imagined corners,” on the last line of the song (ex. 32). It bears a striking resemblance to an unaccompanied line found in act III scene 2 of Peter Grimes, beginning low, rising above the staff and descending to where it began (ex. 25).

Example 32: Benjamin Britten, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, “At the round earth’s imagined corners,” mm. 30-32.

In the fourth song, “Oh, to vex me,” Britten sets the final phrase as a long melisma on triplets (ex. 33). It is very similar to the melismas in the “Hymn” of the Serenade (ex. 14, 15, 16).

Example 33: Benjamin Britten, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, “Oh, to vex me,” mm. 63-71.

Another melisma in the Holy Sonnets appears in the fifth song, “What if this present,” on the word “crucified.” This florid line begins high and descends (ex. 34).

56

Example 34: Benjamin Britten, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, “What if this present,” mm. 8-10.

The only other coloratura writing in this cycle is in the seventh song, in which the vocal line employs quintuplet turns (ex. 35), as in the second act aria of Peter Grimes (ex. 24).

Example 35: Benjamin Britten, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, “At the round earth’s imagined corners,” mm. 1-6.

There is one example of a monotone vocal line in this cycle. It appears in the eighth song, “Thou Hast Made Me,” and is set on an E-flat 4 (ex. 36).

57

Example 36: Benjamin Britten, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, “Thou hast made me,” mm. 64-73.

As observed by Evans, “The vigilant ear will have detected that some melodic gestures struck first in the Serenade have been given new significance in this cycle.”208 This holds true for vocal gestures first heard in Peter Grimes as well. These gestures were born out of Pears’s voice, and if through repetition they are maturing, it is certainly due to Britten having a keen ear to his interpreter’s gifts. Finally, while technically the Holy Sonnets are very demanding for the singer, they turn away from pure vocal virtuosity, as is necessary in a work like Britten’s Our Hunting Fathers, op. 8, and toward a need for “emotional intensity.”209 Headington writes that “without [Pears’s] capacity for spiritual intensity and vocal virtuosity Britten could not have conceived [the Holy Sonnets].”210 Pears wrote, “the attack of the very first notes [of the cycle] creates a tension that is not wholly relaxed for twenty-five minutes.”211 Pears and Britten gave the broadcast premiere of The Holy Sonnets of John Donne on September 1, 1946 over the BBC Third Programme, and they recorded it in August and December 1947.212

208 Evans, 352. 209 Evans, 355. 210 Headington, 147. 211 Pears, “The Vocal Music,” 71. 212 Banks, 75.

58 Purcell/Britten: “If Music be the Food of Love” (first version) Purcell/Britten: “Sweeter than Roses”

On November 23, the day after the premiere of the Holy Sonnets, at the in London, Pears and Britten shared a concert with the Aeolian String Quartet. This concert was, again, devoted to Henry Purcell. Pears and Britten premiered two more of Britten’s realizations of Purcell songs, “If Music be the Food of Love,” (first version) and “Sweeter than Roses.”213 They gave at least one more all-Purcell concert this month, on November 25 in .

213 Banks, 183.

59

CHAPTER 7

1946

Purcell/Britten: “We Sing to Him”

The first premiere of the year was another Britten’s realization of Purcell’s “We Sing to Him.” The performance took place on January 11, 1946 in during a four day run of performances by Pears and Britten.214 This was the nineteenth Purcell realization that Pears premiered.

Schurmann: Five Facets

On January 20, 1946, Pears and Britten gave the premiere of Five Facets, a song cycle by the Dutch composer Gerard Schurmann (b. 1924). Schurmann was born in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, and later studied composition with at the Royal College of Music in London. Schurmann’s music attracted attention in the early 1940s and he had many performances in England and the Netherlands. After serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he held the position of cultural attaché at the Netherland’s Embassy in London. He was “instrumental in arranging exchanges of musicians and art exhibitions, as well as setting up scholarships between England and Holland.”215 He became acquainted with Britten and Pears through his office and aided in arranging Pears’s first recital tours, as well as English Opera Group tours, to the Netherlands. He also had a part in arranging the recital on January 20. Schurmann composed the song cycle for this concert, though Pears and Britten did not commission it.216

214 Banks, 179. 215 Carolyn Nott, “Gerard Schurmann,” Musical Opinion (January – February 2004): 22. 216 Gerard Schurmann, interview by author, telephone, 19 September 2002 and 20 June 2003.

60 Schurmann wrote to Britten in April 1945 about the song cycle, “[I] am glad you considered the suggestion of my new songs favorably and of course I do not mind the delay [of the performance] in the slightest…. I’ll send the songs along soon.”217 Although the program states that the performance was the “first performance in England,” Schurmann is sure that there was no previous performance of his songs. The songs are settings of Dutch poems written by the Dutch poet F. Sybrand Bijlsma and were “especially written and devised for this cycle… in co- operation with the composer.”218 Schurmann coached Pears on the language and recalled that Pears had a “fantastic ear” for the languange.219 Schurmann did not publish the songs, but rather destroyed them immediately after the first and only performance. Throughout his career, Schurmann threw away music that he found unworthy. In the 1956 Schurmann wrote another song cycle for Pears and Britten, Nine Poems of Blake, which he sent to them, though as far as he knows they never performed it. Schurmann discarded much of this cycle as well but revised three of the songs and published them in 1997 in the cycle Six Songs of .220

Purcell/Britten: “Celemene, Pray Tell Me” Britten: “The Miller of Dee” Britten: The Rape of Lucretia Purcell/Britten: “Morning Prayer” Britten: “O Waly Waly” Purcell/Britten: Suite of Six Songs from Orpheus Brittanicus Britten: “The Stream in the Valley”

All other premieres that Pears gave in 1946 were arrangements, realizations, or original works by Britten. On February 10, at the Cambridge Arts Theater. Pears, Britten and Joan Cross gave a recital which included the premiere of “Celemene, pray tell me” a duet for soprano and tenor by Purcell. This song “remained a feature of their joint recitals together until Miss Cross’s retirement in the mid-1950s.”221 On March 11, Pears premiered the folksong arrangement “The Miller of Dee” at the National Gallery in London.222 During a tour with Britten to the

217 Gerard Schurmann to Benjamin Britten, 10 April 1945, Britten-Pears Library Archive, Aldeburgh, England. 218 BPL Archive. 219 Schurmann, interview by author. 220 Schurmann, interview by author. 221 Phillip Reed, preface to Purcell: A Miscellany of Songs, realized by Benjamin Britten (London: Faber Music, 1994). 222 Banks, 161.

61 Netherlands, Pears premiered Britten’s realization of Purcell’s “A Morning Prayer” on October 30223 and Britten’s arrangement of “O Waly Waly” on October 31.224 A week later, on November 7, in Harmonie, Leeuwarden, Pears gave the premiere performance of Suite of Six Songs from Orpheus Britannicus, songs realized and arranged for tenor and orchestra by Britten.225 The suite includes the songs “Let Sullen Discord Smile,” “Why Should Men Quarrel,” “So When the Glittering Queen of Night,” “Thou Tun’st This World,” “‘Tis Holiday,” and “Sound Fame Thy Brazon Trumpet.” Britten had not previously realized any of these pieces for piano. Over the BBC Light Programme on November 21, 1946, Pears, Britten, flutist John Francis, and the Zorian Quartet gave the first performance of Britten’s new arrangement of “The Plough Boy.”226 On the same program, Pears, Britten, and French cellist Maurice Gendron premiered Britten’s arrangement of the German folksong “The Stream in the Valley.”227 The most important premiere of 1946 was of Britten’s third opera, The Rape of Lucretia, in which Pears sang the role of the Male Chorus. After the success of Peter Grimes, Britten went almost immediately to his next opera, beginning composition in January 1946 and finishing on May 3.228 The opera was not produced by the Sadler’s Wells Company, but rather by the new opera group created by Britten, Pears, Eric Crozier, and Joan Cross. John Christie gave the company financial backing and asked them to produce the opera at the Glyndebourne Music Festival, which was trying to reopen after six years of wartime closure. The company took on the name of the Glyndebourne English Opera Company, and the cast and orchestra arrived at Glyndebourne on June 10, 1946, taking up residence there for the next month and a half. 229 The premiere of the opera took place on July 12, 1946, conducted by .230 Throughout the score of this opera there are a cappella and coloratura passages in the tenor role. The opera begins with a long recitative for the Male Chorus, “Rome is now ruled…” in which most of the vocal line is unaccompanied. As the scene continues and the Male Chorus’s

223 Banks, 179. 224 Banks, 161. 225 Banks, 183-4. “’Tis Holiday” was not published with the other songs. 226 Banks, 162. 227 Banks, 163. 228 Banks, 79. 229 Carpenter, 236. 230 Banks, 80.

62 lines become more aria-like, one hears the melismatic nature of the role. Melismas occur more frequently and at greater length in the tenor’s aria, “Tarquinius does not dare,” which begins just before the first Interlude. Many of the melismas begin high and descend (ex. 36).

Example 37: Benjamin Britten, The Rape of Lucretia, “Intermezzo” fig. 49, mm. 1-23.

After a two week run at the Glyndebourne Festival, the group went on tour around England and Scotland. In the first six months, there were eighty performances of The Rape of Lucretia.231 Despite the number of performances, the tour was not financially successful. Following his financial loss on the tour of Lucretia, John Christie said he could not possibly support other tours. In any case Britten… now wanted nothing to do with Glyndebourne beyond keeping the agreement to present the new piece there next summer. The Glyndebourne English Opera Company was wound up, and into being came the English Opera Group.232

The EOG, as it came to be known, was officially founded in early 1947. It “was launched on a non-profit making basis with a manifesto headed by the names of three artistic directors (Britten, Crozier and Piper) as well as other well-known people including Kenneth Clark, Ralph Hawkes and Tyrone Guthrie.”233 Performances of The Rape of Lucretia continued in a tour to Amsterdam

231 Headington, 140. 232 Carpenter, 243. 233 Headington, 141.

63 in October 1946, and Pears sang in the broadcast premiere on October 11, 1946 on the BBC Third Programme.234

234 Banks, 80.

64

CHAPTER 8

1947

Purcell/Britten: “I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly”

In January 1947, Pears sang in Italy, Holland, Belgium, and Scandanavia,235 then he and Britten spent February in Switzerland on holiday and giving recitals. Britten composed much of his next opera, Albert Herring, on that trip.236 In April, Pears sang the in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Amsterdam, about which a critic wrote, “Apart from his phenomenal singing, there is in his rendering an ideal balance between narrative objectivity and dramatic expression.”237 He and Britten went next back to Italy for recitals, and on April 26 in Teatro Comunale, Florence, Pears and Britten premiered Britten’s realization of “I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly” by Purcell.238

Britten: Albert Herring

Pears created the title role in Albert Herring on June 20, 1947 at Glyndebourne.239 The EOG performed the opera, although they were no longer officially affiliated with the Glyndebourne Festival. The BBC Third Programme broadcast the premiere performance of the opera,240 and there were eight subsequent performances at Glyndebourne.241

235 Headington, 147. 236 Carpenter, 248. 237 Headington 149. 238 Banks, 181. 239 Banks, 83. 240 Banks, 83. 241 Headington, 142.

65 Very few of the musical characteristics associated with Pears are present in this opera. There is only one melismatic passage in the opera for Albert. It is in his second monologue of act II scene 2, which begins high and descends (ex. 38).

Example 38: Benjamin Britten, Albert Herring, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 87, mm. 8-11.

There are no unaccompanied sections, except for a single bar in Act III scene 2, in which Albert says the famous line, “Have a peach.” What one must consider though in seeing this role as one made carefully for Pears is the role’s dramatic content. As emotional intensity is necessary to successfully sing The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, so is the singer’s ability to act in a comic role a factor in Albert Herring. Pears never formally studied acting, yet it is certain that he had exceptional ability in this regard, especially in comic acting. He had great success in the comic role of Vasek in The Bartered Bride and would later have the opportunity to use this gift singing Pandarus in Walton’s Troilus and Cressida (1954) and Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1960). In late September 1946, Pears and the EOG performed Albert Herring in Newcastle and again at Covent Gardens on October 8, just two days after Pears’s mother died. A review for the performance said, “Peter Pears, as Albert, displayed a wonderful articulation of voice. By shrewd management of his vocal strength and dramatic movements he built up the character in a manner rarely seen on the stilted and conventional operatic stage.”242

242 Headington, 142.

66 Berkeley: Stabat Mater

After the first run of performances of Albert Herring, the English Opera Group went on tour to Holland and Switzerland. While in Switzerland, the Group gave the first performance of Lennox Berkeley’s Stabat Mater, op. 28. Although not a work for the stage, the English Opera Group commissioned it.243 Britten asked Berkeley “to write a work for a tour of the English Opera Group, which planned to give concert performances as well as theatrical productions.”244 Berkeley dedicated Stabat Mater to Benjamin Britten, who conducted the performance.245 Years earlier, in 1938, Britten dedicated his to Berkeley.246 Lennox Randal Berkeley (1903-1989) was born in Sunningwell Plain, near Oxford. He moved to Paris in the autumn of 1926 at the suggestion of and studied composition with until 1933.247 “The English academic or folksong tradition thus played no part in his musical training, as they did in that of most British composers of his generation.”248 Berkeley met Britten at the International Society for Contemporary Musicians Festival at Barcelona in April 1936. “Berkeley immediately recognized Britten’s natural brilliance. It was a case of hero worship and they became friends.”249 Berkeley was one of Britten’s “closest friends for at least a few months until Britten got to know Peter Pears and took a flat with him in London in March 1938.”250 Berkeley met Pears through Britten and may have written for Pears’s voice already in 1940. In April of that year, Berkeley wrote to Britten in America, “I’ll send you a copy of my Housman songs – perhaps Peter might sing them.” Peter Dickinson wrote, There is no evidence that the songs were sung until after Pears sent me the manuscript in 1975: Ian and Jennifer Partridge performed them on BBC Radio 3 in 1978 and they were published in 1983…. How unfortunate that Pears simply hung on to the manuscript instead of performing what is possibly the finest Housman cycle of all.251

243 Mitchell, vol. 1, 40. 244 Peter Dickinson, The Music of Lennox Berkeley (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 2003), 114-5. 245 Carpenter, 148. 246 Banks, 43. 247 Dickinson, The Music of Lennox Berkeley, 8. 248 Wilfred H. Mellers, “Berkeley, Lennox,” in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., vol. 1, ed. Eric Blom, (New York: Macmillan, 1968), 647. 249 Dickinson, 2. 250 Dickinson, 34. 251 Dickinson, 89.

67 Berkeley also dedicated his songs, “The Ecstatic” (C. Day Lewis) and “Lullaby” (W. B. Yeats), for high voice and piano, to Pears. There is no known performance of either song by Pears.252 Berkeley scored Stabat Mater for six solo voices and a chamber orchestra of eleven instruments and percussion. The EOG first performed it in Kleiner Saal of the Tonhalle in Zurich on August 19, 1947, and it was broadcast for the first time on September 27, 1947 on the BBC from Concert Hall in London. This was also the first British performance. The first concert performance in the UK was on June 22, 1953 during the Aldeburgh Festival, again performed by Pears and the EOG and conducted by Britten.253 Pears often extracted the fifth movement tenor aria, “Eia mater fons amoris,” what Dickinson calls the “ most Rossinian moment in the entire work,”254 and performed it several times in recitals with Britten. The aria contains long melismas, many of which begin in a low dynamic and high in the tenor range and then descend (ex. 39).

Example 39: Stabat Mater, V, “Eia mater fons amoris,” mm. 11-14.

Britten: Canticle: My Beloved is Mine

The Canticle was, according to Pears in 1952 “Britten’s finest piece of vocal music to date.”255 He began composing it on September 4, 1947 and completed it eight days later.256 Pears wrote that, “Fascinated by the form of such pieces as Lord, What is Man? [Britten] found in it

252 Stewart R. Craggs, Lennox Berkeley: A Source Book (Aldershots, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2000), 70. 253 Craggs, Berkeley: A Source Book, 78. 254 Dickinson, 118. 255 Pears, “The Vocal Music,” 72. 256 Banks, 85.

68 the ideal shape for an extended song, a sort of cantata.”257 Tippett’s Boyhood’s End had a similar inspiration in Baroque vocal form and preceded the Canticle by four years. Tippett’s exploration of the form may have helped to inspire Britten’s. Before the premiere of the Canticle, Pears and Britten gave broadcast premieres of folksongs “The Miller of Dee” and “The Foggy, Foggy Dew” during a recital broadcast on the BBC Light Program on September 18.258 Pears then went to sing at the Edinburgh Festival for the first time, where he sang two performances of Mahler’s Das von der Erde.259 Pears and Britten premiered Canticle: My Beloved is Mine on November 1, 1947 in Central Hall at Westminster.260 This occasion was a memorial concert for the Rev. Dick Sheppard, one of the founding members of , an organization with which both Pears and Britten associated themselves. There are monotone vocal lines in the opening stanza of the song (ex. 40), and there are extended melismatic passages in the first section. Each begins high in the vocal range and descends (ex. 41, 42). In the central recitative section of the piece, the vocal writing is in declamatory style, similar to that seen in The Holy Sonnets and some of the Purcell realizations.

Example 40: Benjamin Britten, Canticle, mm. 4-6.

Example 41: Benjamin Britten, Canticle, mm. 33-35.

257 Pears, “The Vocal Music,” 72. 258 Banks, 161. 259 Headington, 149. 260 Banks, 85.

69

Example 42: Benjamin Britten, Canticle, mm. 39-43.

Purcell/Britten: “When Myra sings”

Later in November 1947, Pears and Britten gave the broadcast premieres of “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes,”261 several Purcell realizations,262 and Canticle.263 On November 29, during a BBC Third Programme broadcast, Pears and tenor Max Malli sang the premiere performance of Britten’s realization of “When Myra Sings.” This version was not published and “is a different realization than that which was completed by June 1971 for tenor, baritone and piano.”264 Pears and Britten gave another recital over the BBC Light Programme on December 11 and gave the broadcast premiere of Britten’s realization of “Sweeter than Roses.”265

Searle: Put Away the Flutes

Pears sang one other premiere in 1947, Put Away the Flutes by Humphrey Searle (1915- 1982), “a short piece… for flute, and string quartet. This had been commissioned by Peter Pears, always a generous patron of young composers.”266 Pears gave the first performance of this “emotionally telling work”267 on BBC radio, where Searle was a program producer. The first

261 Banks, 41. The specific date of this performance was not noted. 262 Banks, 180-2. On November 24, they performed The Queen’s Epicedium and “If Music be the Food of Love” (third version). On November 29, they performed “Sound the Alarm.” 263 Banks, 85. This performance was on November 26 and included On this Island. 264 Banks, 177. 265 Banks, 143. 266 Humphrey Searle, “Quadrille with a Raven: Memoirs by Humphrey Searle” Classical Music on the Web, (Accessed 24 October 2003), 267 Jacobs, “The British Isles,” 179.

70 concert performance was at the International Society of Contemporary Musicians Festival in Amsterdam in 1948, though Pears did not sing this concert.268 Searle was a student of for a short time in 1937, which “gave him an insight into that composer’s outlook, as well as a sense of purpose for the future.”269 Searle composed his first strictly twelve-tone work in 1946 and then composed Pears’s commission, also in the twelve-tone style, almost immediately after. This is the first twelve-tone work of Pears’s commissions and is a curious addition to the catalogue. Neither Pears nor Britten had much admiration for that compositional technique, and they performed only one work by Webern during their careers. In 1957 at the tenth Aldeburg Festival they performed Webern’s Four Songs, op. 12. “No other work by that composer was done at Aldeburgh in Britten’s lifetime.”270 In this performance, “[Pears] found that he could not help making mistakes; even so, as he said later, ‘the avant garde boys came with tears in their eyes saying “We’ve never heard this Webern sung like this!” – indeed they probably haven’t, but they think it’s absolutely marvellous, and if they don’t know the difference between right and wrong, well, who does?”271

268 Searle, “Quadrille with a Raven.” 269 Francis Routh, “Humphrey Searle,” Classical Music on the Web (Accessed 24 October 2003), 270 Headington, 190. 271 Headington, 315.

71

CHAPTER 9

1948

Purcell/Britten: Job’s Curse

Pears and Britten spent January 1948 touring in Italy, Switzerland, and Holland, during which time Britten composed Beggar’s Opera, his next opera.272 At a recital in Amsterdam on April 4, they gave the premiere performance Britten’s realization of Job’s Curse by Purcell.273 In this concert they coupled Job’s Curse with Britten’s Canticle, which became a common pairing. Later that year, at their recital at the first Aldeburgh Festival, they sang both works calling them “Two Divine Hymns.”274 On April 9, Pears and Britten performed over BBC Third Programme a set of Schubert songs and Six Monologues from Jedermann by Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890-1974). This was the first performance of these songs in the UK.275 Martin composed Six Monologues for baritone and piano, with text by Hugo von Hoffmannstal in 1944. According to the Frank Martin Catalogue of Works, the premiere of this work was on August 6, 1944 and the UK premiere was on February 29, 1952 with contralto Elsa Cavelti accompanied by the composer.276 The performance by Pears and Britten, although it is not mentioned in the catalogue, clearly precedes that one. Broadcast recitals were an important part of Pears’s performance schedule. Pears gave many broadcast premieres of works and he sang many of Britten’s works over the radio soon

272 Headington, 152. 273 Banks, 178. 274 BPL Archive. 275 Surfling, “Premiere List.” 276 Charles W. King, comp., Frank Martin: A Bio-bibliography: Catalogue of Published Works (New York: Greenwood, 1990), 20.

72 after their concert premieres. In a broadcast recital, on April 15, Pears and Britten gave the broadcast premiere of Britten’s realizations of “If Music be the Food of Love” (1st version) and “Man is for the Woman Made.”277

Oldham: Summer’s Lease Oldham: The Sunne Rising

Pears and Britten gave a Saturday afternoon recital on April 24, 1948 at Wigmore Hall, billed as their “Only Recital this Season.”278 In the concert they gave the UK premiere of Job’s Curse, programming it with Britten’s Canticle.279 They also premiered of a work by Arthur Oldham (1926-2003) called The Sunne Rising. Oldham, who had studied composition with Britten since 1944, had already written one piece for Pears. Oldham wrote, “Four years had now elapsed since I had begun my studies with Britten…. He now began actively to encourage my work by helping me to obtain commissions and performances. The first of these was a piece for tenor and string orchestra, consisting of settings of Shakespeare sonnets, and which I entitled Summer’s Lease.”280 The premiere took place at Chelsea Town Hall with the composer conducting, but the precise date is unknown, although it took place. Oldham recalled that “Ben was critical [of Summer’s Lease]… because it was a rather blatant attempt on my part to rival the success of his Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo.”281 Oldham’s opinion of his setting of John Donne’s poetry in The Sunne Rising was not high. In a letter written in April 1948 just after the premiere, Oldham said, [Britten] asked me how I felt, hearing my piece at Saturday’s concert. I told him I loathed every minute of it; and he said he does too, with his own pieces – ‘That’s why I can never bear to go see Grimes.’… It’s a long time since I [Oldham] wrote the Donne – and there’s been much better stuff since – and I hated it and thought everyone else did too. But Ben assured me that, if he and Peter hadn’t thought very highly of it, they never would have done it.282

Neither The Sunne Rising nor Summer’s Lease were published and were either lost or destroyed.

277 Banks, 183. 278 BPL Archive. 279 Banks, 178. 280 Arthur Oldham, Living with Voices: An Autobiography (England: Thames, 2000), 24. 281 Oldham, Living with Voices, 24. 282 Oldham, 22-23.

73 Britten: Beggar’s Opera

Britten’s fifth opera, The Beggar’s Opera, an arrangement of ’s 1728 ballad- opera, had its premiere on May 24, 1948 at the Arts Theater in Cambridge. The Beggar’s Opera is an arrangement as well as a realization due to Britten’s “more or less ‘free’ treatment of [the original] material.”283 Britten began work on it in December 1947 and completed it in May.284 Pears created the role of Captain Macheath, the wealthy gamester, highwayman, and frequent visitor of the town’s various bars and brothels, and sang all seven performances in Cambridge.285 During rehearsals for the opera, director Tyrone Guthrie was unhappy with Pears’s portrayal, saying that Macheath “was a part that could only be played by a real man.”286 Although Pears sang the role “admirably,” Britten revised the opera two years later and transposed Pears’s role for a baritone. “The result was not altogether satisfactory, some of the buoyancy and sparkle of the score being thereby lost.”287 The EOG cast, without Pears, premiered the revised version on June 19, 1950 at the Aldeburgh Festival.288 The 1948 version, written for Pears, does not possess any unaccompanied sections or extended melismatic passages. While Britten made free with the accompaniment of the opera, he did not reshape any of the vocal lines. The tessitura of the role is high, although the range only extends up to A-flat 4. The third act holds an extended solo scene for the tenor, in which he sits in jail awaiting his execution and “reflects on his fate and consoles himself with wine.”289

Britten: Saint Nicolas

The First Aldeburgh Festival took place between June 5 and June 12 in Aldeburgh, England, almost immediately after the performances of The Beggar’s Opera. The festival, which Pears, Britten, and others discussed for the first time less than a year before, consisted of daily

283 Eric Rosenberry, “Old Songs in New Contexts: Britten as Arranger,” in The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten, ed. Mervyn Cooke (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1999), 297. For a complete discussion on Britten’s Beggar’s Opera, see Hans Keller, “Britten’s Beggar’s Opera,” Tempo (new series) 10 (1948-49): 7-13. 284 Banks, 87. 285 Headington, 152. 286 Carpenter, 266-7. 287 White, Britten: A Sketch of his Life and Works, 70. 288 Banks, 87. 289 Rosenberry, “Old Songs in New Contexts,” 299.

74 events including musical performances, lectures, and poetry readings. In following years the festival would also include films and nature walks. Events during the first several years took place in local churches, the cinema, and the Jubilee Hall, a small theater in the town. The opening concert of the first festival occurred on a Saturday afternoon at the Aldeburgh Parish Church. In the first half of the concert, there were performances of works by Purcell and Handel, and God’s Grandeur, a choral work by Martin Shaw (1875-1958) written for this concert.290 The second half of the concert consisted of a single piece by Britten, Saint Nicolas op 42, a cantata for tenor solo, chorus, semi-chorus, four solo boy singers, string orchestra, piano duet, percussion, and organ. The Aldeburgh Festival Chorus and Orchestra conducted by and Pears as the tenor soloist performed the work.291 Britten completed Saint Nicolas on May 31, 1948, just after the premiere of The Beggar’s Opera, and presumably during its first run of its performances. Lancing College, Pears’s alma mater, commissioned Britten to compose the new cantata for “performance at the centenary celebrations of Lancing College.” The college, however, gave Britten permission to have the work performed first at the Aldeburgh Festival. The official premiere of Saint Nicolas took place at Lancing College on July 24, 1948.292 Ten years earlier, in June 1938, Pears wrote in a letter to Britten, “Exciting about Osbert [Sitwell, who may have been providing a text for Britten to set]. Make him do a Tenor Cantata!!”293 In all of the music that Britten wrote for Pears over the next ten years he had not written a tenor cantata until Saint Nicolas. The cantata features the tenor soloist prominently in all but one of the nine movements. The second movement, “The Birth of Nicolas,” has only a single solo line for the tenor on the phrase, “God be glorified!” The phrase is monotone on E4, perhaps a glorification of Pears’s voice as well (ex. 43).

290 BPL Archives. 291 Banks, 88. 292 Banks, 88. 293 Mitchell, vol. 1, 559.

75

Example 43: Benjamin Britten, St. Nicolas, “The Birth of Nicolas,” mm. 70-76.

This is an important note throughout the role, as several of the solo melodies rely upon it. There is a recitative in the fifth movement, “Nicolas Comes to Myra and is Chosen Bishop,” for example, which is almost entirely on an E4 (ex. 44).

Example 44: Benjamin Britten, St. Nicolas, “Nicolas comes to Myra and is chosen Bishop,” mm. 11-14.

Pears sang the cantata under Britten’s direction in Amsterdam on December 9, 1948, a performance that was broadcast over the radio, making it the first broadcast of the work. The chorus sang in English, but Pears sang his solo parts in Dutch, possibly calling upon his coaching on the language with Gerard Schurmann in 1946.294 There was another broadcast of the work with Pears singing on January 6, 1949 over the BBC Third Programme, which the Radio Times

294 Banks, 88.

76 called the premiere broadcast. It, of course, was not, but it was the first broadcast within the UK, and the first sung in English.295 On December 29, Pears, Joan Cross, bass George James, and pianist Boris Ord gave a recital over the BBC Third Programme. In it Pears took part in the broadcast premiere of several of Britten’s realizations of Purcell songs. He sang solos Job’s Curse,296 “Lost is My Quiet,”297 “Alleluia,”298 duets “Celemene, Pray Tell Me” for soprano and tenor,299 “What Can We Poor Females do?” for tenor and bass,300 “I Spy Celia” for tenor and bass,301 and trio Saul and the Witch at Endor.302

295 Surfling, “Premiere List.” 296 Banks, 178. 297 Banks, 182. 298 Banks, 179. This piece may have been sung by Joan Cross. 299 Banks, 73. 300 Banks, 182. 301 Banks, 182. 302 Banks, 178.

77

CHAPTER 10

1949

Holst/Britten: The Wandering Scholar

The first of the five premieres that Pears sang in 1949 was an arrangement by Britten and Imogen Holst of the chamber opera in one act, The Wandering Scholar by Gustav Holst (1874- 1934). Britten and Imogen Holst, the daughter of the composer, arranged the opera in late 1948 “in preparation for the broadcast of the work” given by the English Opera Group.303 The broadcast took place on January 5, 1949 over BBC Third Programme sung by Pears, soprano Margaret Ritchie, baritone Frederick Sharpe, and bass George James. The EOG later gave the stage premiere on July 1951 at the Cheltenham Festival, though this cast did not include Pears.304 In late 1948, Britten began to experience health problems and doctors ordered him to take three months of rest. “Britten now gave Pears a hint they might have to cease doing recitals together.”305 Britten’s health limited his touring and performing, and he spent more time at his home in Aldeburgh where he worked on his commissions for the year. In early 1949 he began work on Billy Budd, the Spring Symphony, and his children’s opera Let’s Make an Opera. The first two had substantial parts for Pears, but Let’s Make an Opera did not. On April 8, Britten wrote to Pears, “I am pushing on terrifically with the children’s opera…. It’s funny writing an opera without you in it – don’t really like it much, I confess, but I’ll admit that it makes my vocal

303 Banks, 190. 304 Banks, 190. 305 Carpenter, 270.

78 demands less extravagant.”306 Pears and Britten did finally give recitals in April and May in such locations as in England, , Amsterdam, , and .307

Oldham: Five Chinese Lyrics

At the second Aldeburgh Festival, there were performances of three of Britten’s operas; Albert Herring and The Rape of Lucretia, both with Pears, and the premiere of Let’s Make an Opera. Pears also sang in serenade concerts, choral and orchestral concerts which included two Bach and Saint Nicolas. The closing event of the festival on June 19 in Jubilee Hall was a recital given by Pears and Britten. They performed Elizabethan songs by Thomas Ford, , Philip Rosseter and Robert Jones, six of Britten’s Purcell realizations, songs by and Gustav Holst, and Five Chinese Lyrics, a new song cycle by Arthur Oldham.308 Oldham composed this cycle, the third of his works premiered by Pears, some time between 1943 and October 1945. Britten and Pears heard three of the songs in a performance in Paris in late October 1945 during the tour of Ronald Duncan’s play This Way to the Tomb, for which Britten composed the incidental music and Oldham was the music director. The entire company, including Oldham, Britten, and Pears went on the tour. Oldham wrote, During [the]… tour in Paris… I included [three songs to translations of Chinese texts] in a recital…. Ben and Peter got to hear of them and suggested that I should expand the group. With two new additions, they included my Five Chinese Lyrics in a recital of English songs, the concluding concert of the 1949 Aldeburgh Festival. They were an immediate success, were recorded (three of them) by Britten and Pears, and remain in the repertoire to this day.309

A music critic wrote in 1965, “The delicate and luminous Five Chinese Lyrics has become perhaps the most frequently performed [of the songs by Oldham].”310 Pears and Britten continued to perform the songs for many years after the premiere. They gave the broadcast premiere on October 10, 1949 on the BBC Third Programme,311 the first performance in London on October 13, 1949, and on December 8, 1949 in New York, most assuredly the American

306 Carpenter, 273-4. 307 Headington, 155. 308 BPL Archives. 309 Oldham, 25. 310 Conrad Wilson, “Arthur Oldham,” Musical Times 106 (1965), 947. 311 Surfling, “Premiere List.”

79 premiere. The last recorded performance of a recital by Pears to include the songs was on April 23, 1955 at Wigmore Hall.312 Pears and Britten recorded three of the five songs in September and October of 1955 at the Decca Recording Studio as part of an album entitled Twentieth Century English Songs.313 There are unaccompanied sections in three of the five songs: the first song “Under the Pondweed,” the fourth “The Pedlar of Spells,” and the fifth “A Gentle Wind.” This last song also has a highly melismatic vocal line (ex. 43).

Example 45: Arthur Oldham, Five Chinese Lyrics, “A Gentle Wind,” mm. 3-8.

Lier: The Song of Songs

After the 1949 Aldeburgh Festival, the English Opera Group went on tour with the same three operas that it presented at the festival.314 This tour took them to Amsterdam where Pears sang in two premieres performances. The first, on July 12 in Oude Kerk, Amsterdam was of Bertus van Lier’s The Song of Songs. This is how the title reads in Tribute to Peter Pears,315 however the proper, Dutch title is Het hooglied. Bertus van Lier (1906-1972), a Dutch composer, was also active in and conducting. As a frequent conductor of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, van Lier had noted that movement no. 30 of the work contains a quotation from the Song of Songs. This led him

312 BPL Archive. 313 BPL Archive. 314 Headington, 155. 315 Thorpe, A Tribute to Peter Pears, 128.

80 to undertake extensive research on the text, finally resulting in the composition of his own Het hooglied (‘The Holy Song’) for soprano, tenor, bass, mixed chorus and chamber orchestra (1949)…. It counts among his most successful and impressive works.316

Pears sang Lier’s work with soprano Dors van Doorn-Linderman, bass and the Amsterdam Chamber Music Society, with the composer conducting.

Britten: Spring Symphony

Two days after the Lier premiere, Pears took part in the premiere of Britten’s Spring Symphony, op 44 for soprano, , and tenor soloists, chorus, boys’ chorus and orchestra. The soloists were Pears, soprano and contralto (1912-1953). They sang with the Dutch Radio Chorus and the Orchestra, with conducting. The performance was broadcast on the BBC Third Programme.317 The symphony features the tenor prominently in six of the twelve movements, including three arias and one duet. The first and second arias, “The Merry Cuckoo” and “Waters Above,” feature high tessituras, stretches of unaccompanied sections, and long melismatic phrases (ex. 46, 47). The first aria is scored for tenor and three solo while the second is scored for tenor and two solo , leaving the voice exposed throughout each aria.

316 Marius Flothuis, “Lier, Bertus van,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 20 October 2003), 317 Banks, 92.

81

Example 46: Benjamin Britten, Spring Symphony, “The Merry Cuckoo,” mm. 10-16.

Example 47: Benjamin Britten, Spring Symphony, “Waters above,” mm. 6-9.

82 The last aria, “When will my May come,” has a fuller accompaniment, consisting of a full and two harps. It has a high tessitura and several unaccompanied phrases. The last phrase of the aria rises to A4, marked ppp, at which point the orchestra stops playing (ex. 48).

Example 48: Benjamin Britten, Spring Symphony, “When Will My May Come,” mm. 68-71.

Britten: Wedding Anthem (Amo Ergo Sum)

After the premiere of the Spring Symphony, the EOG went on to and for more performances of Albert Herring and The Rape of Lucretia from September 12 through 23. During this time, Britten completed the next composition that Pears would premiere, A Wedding Anthem: Amo Ergo Sum, op, 46 for soprano, tenor, choir, and organ.318 Britten conducted Pears and Joan Cross and the choir of St. Mark’s Church in the premiere on September 29 at St. Mark’s Church in London. The occasion of the performance was the wedding of Lord Harewood and Marion Stein, close friends of Britten and Pears. Queen Elizabeth and King George VI, the uncle of Harewood, were among those at the ceremony. Although one does not find in this work the typical markers for Pears’s voice, there is a tenor line that is similar to one heard in the Spring Symphony. The arioso, “As Mountain Streams Find One Another,” closes with an ascending line, marked piano with a decrescendo, which ends on a sustained A4 (ex. 49).

318 Banks, 93.

83

Example 49: Benjamin Britten, Wedding Anthem.

84

CHAPTER 11

1950

Orr: Three Romantic Songs

The first of several premieres in 1950 was Three Romantic Songs by Robin Orr (b.1909). The performance took place on May 10, on the BBC Third Programme with Pears, oboist Terrance MacDonagh and the Aeolin String Quartet.319 Pears became acquainted with Orr in 1947, and in 1949 Orr participated as an organist in a concert at the Aldeburgh Festival.320 Not long after, Pears commissioned a work from Orr. Orr later revised the songs, and on November 14, 1950, Pears premiered Four Romantic Songs with members of the London Harpsichord Ensemble.321 The titles of the songs in the original version were “Winter,” “Spring,” and “Summer.” In the revised version, Orr renamed each song by the first line of its text, inserting a new song between the second and third: “Down from the Branches,” “Comes Now the Spring,” “Now the Fields are Laughing,” and “While Summer on is Stealing.” Orr made a significant cut from the original set: eighteen measures of an interlude that connected the second and third songs. Beyond these changes, the work is basically the same. There are a few changes in rhythmic patterns and meter, but this is generally confined to the accompaniment. Orr did not alter the vocal line, save some enharmonic note name changes, and the reshaping of one phrase. In both versions, Orr wrote one unaccompanied phrase, which appears at the end of the second song.

319 Surfling, “Premiere List.” 320 BPL Archive. 321 The manuscript of both versions of Orr’s music are at the Britten-Pears Library. The later version was published.

85 Copland: Old American Songs (first set)

At the 1950 Aldeburgh Festival, Pears sang in a complete performance of the St. Matthew Passion in German as the Evangelist, the first performance of its kind to take place in Britain.322 He also participated in a concert of operatic arias and duets with Joan Cross, accompanied by Britten, as well as a choral and orchestral concert that featured Britten’s Amo Ergo Sum.323 On June 18, he and Britten gave a recital in Jubilee Hall and performed Schumann’s Dichterliebe, music by Purcell, and Frank Bridge. The concert concluded with the premiere of Aaron Copland’s (1900-1990) first set of Old American Songs. The audience was enthusiastic toward the new songs, and Pears repeated the last song, “I Bought Me a Cat,” as an encore.324 The program from the premiere performance reads, “The songs were arranged at the instigation of today’s performers on their recent tour of the ,”325 a tour which lasted from October until early December 1949. Copland and Britten met in London at an ISCM concert in June 1938.326 Afterward, Britten invited Copland to spend the weekend at his home in Snape, during which time they played through some of their compositions, offering suggestions and criticisms. As a result of this weekend visit, Britten helped to secure Copland with a contract with Boosey & Hawkes.327 Pears was not present for any of this, as he was engaged with the Glyndebourne Opera Company throughout the summer of 1938 singing in the chorus.328 He did not meet Copland until the following year when he and Britten lived in Woodstock, NY. Britten wrote to soprano Sophie Wyss from America in January 1940, describing Copland as “by far the best American composer,”329 an opinion “seconded by Pears…. Both Britten and Pears loved Copland’s music…. and were troubled by the fact that Copland had not yet written any songs…. As a duo, they especially regretted the dearth of songs in the Copland catalog.”330

322 Carpenter, 289. 323 BPL Archive. 324 BPL Archive. 325 BPL Archive. 326 Carpenter, 124. 327 Howard Pollack, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man (Chicago: University of Illinois, 2000), 73. 328 Headington, 81. 329 Mitchell, vol. 2, 772. 330 Pollack, Aaron Copland, 74.

86 Although Pears and Copland commissioned the songs in 1949, Copland began composing them as early as 1945. He composed “I Bought Me a Cat” in 1945 as part of his unfinished opera, On Tragic Ground.331 Copland’s biographer, Howard Pollack wrote that “[Copland] had used – or considered using – at least six of these songs [from the two sets of Old American Songs] in the past, so in some respects the project represented a cleaning house of sorts.”332 It is difficult to know, then, whether or not Copland’s arrangements purposefully reflect his conception of Pears’s voice. As well, Pears transposed three of the five songs when he performed and recording them; the second song, “The Dodger,” up a full step, from G to A major, the third song, “Long Time Ago,” up a minor third to D flat major, and “I Bought Me a Cat” up a major second to G major. The most striking transposition is in “Long time ago,” in which the higher tessitura would better suit Pears’s voice and would allow him to sing Copland’s long piano phrases, with his characteristic mezza-voce. Pears also reordered the songs when he performed them, reversing the second and third songs as to produce a fast-slow-fast-slow-fast pattern in the set. A significant feature in the first song that points to Pears’s voice, is in the refrain of the first song, “The Boatmen’s Dance.” The refrain is repeated six times at different dynamics throughout the song, each one emphasizing the tenor’s E4. Perhaps Pears’s voice and music that he performed inspired Copland to set “The Boatman’s Dance” in the key that he did or to place this song first in the set (ex. 50).

Example 50: Aaron Copland, Old American Songs (first set), “The Boatmen’s Dance,” mm. 2-3.

331 Pollack, 421. 332 Pollack, 468.

87 On May 23, 1950, Copland wrote to Pears saying how happy he was to know about the many planned performances of his songs. He went on to say that his Twelve Poems of had its premiere just a few days before, on May 18, 1950 and that he was anxious to compose more songs. In fact, after Copland composed his second set of Old American Songs in 1952, he only wrote one more song during his life, “Dirge in the Woods” in 1954.333 Pears and Britten performed the Old American Songs often in the coming years, and at the end of September 1950, Britten and Pears recorded Copland’s songs for the HMV record label. In 1952, Copland completed a second set of Old American Songs, which American baritone William Warfield and Copland premiered on July 24, 1953.334 Copland later orchestrated both sets. Warfield and Pears were both a part of the songs’ lives and reputations, but Warfield’s reputation has outlasted Pears’s, as is seen in an introductory comment found on the Old American Song (second set). “The first set of Old American Songs was completed in 1950, and William Warfield gave the first performance in New York on January 28, 1951.”335 Copland’s music was not performed at the Aldeburgh Festival for more than ten years after the world premiere of Old American Songs. On July 13, 1959, Copland wrote to Britten answering a request for participation in the next Festival. He suggested that Pears sing both sets of Old American Songs in their orchestrated versions, conducted by Copland.336 The songs were not performed at that Festival or any following, and Pears never sang the second set of Old American Songs, nor did he sing the orchestrated version of either set.

Purcell/Britten: “The Dialogue of Corydon and Mopsa”

In a recital at Central Hall, Westminster in London on September 25, 1950, Pears and Kathleen Ferrier premiered Britten’s realization of Purcell’s duet “The Dialogue of Corydon and Mopsa.”337 This was a different version “from that included in the Britten-Pears-Holst edition of The Fairy Queen.”338 In the program, which was in aid of the National Appeal Fund, Ferrier sang

333 Pollack,, 563. 334 Pollack, 467. 335 Preface to Old Amercian Songs (second set) by Aaron Copland (U.S.A.: Boosey & Hawkes, 1954). 336 BPL Archive. 337 Banks, 173. 338 Banks, 173.

88 some of Britten’s realizations and folksongs,339 and Pears sang Copland’s Old American Songs as well as an aria by Handel. It was perhaps this performance that caused Richard Butt, a friend of Pears’s, to write about, “A recital with Kathleen Ferrier and Ben [and Pears] at the Central Hall, Westminster that included ‘Waft her, angels’, and it was in the singing, and the playing [by Britten], of that single Handel aria… that one became aware of a new doorway into Music.”340

Williams: Three Traditional Welsh Ballads

On November 14, 1950, Pears performed at the Friend’s House in London with members of the London Harpsichord Ensemble.341 Pears performed frequently with this ensemble and, in fact this group formed the core of the English Opera Group Orchestra. Under the guise of the London Harpsichord Ensemble, they focused “on the Baroque repertoire, but not exclusively so. We performed many contemporary and near contemporary works, especially of British composers and those with whom we were personally associated.”342 This concert included the premiere of Orr’s revised Four Romantic Songs and the premiere of Grace Williams’s Three Traditional Welsh Ballads. Grace Williams (1906-1977) was born in Barry, South Wales into a musical family which “overflowed with music and gramophone records, and her family eagerly attended concerts of visiting and went to London for the Promenade concerts.”343 She studied composition at the University College in from 1923 until 1926, where she studied harmony and counterpoint, but had little opportunity for her own composition.344 She went on to the Royal College of Music in London, and studied composition with Ralph Vaughan Williams and

339 , ed., The Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 2003), 128. In this source, a letter from Ferrier to John Newmark sent on September 28, 1950 reads of Ferrier’s account of the recital. “Did a concert for the United Nations the other evening with Ben and Peter. Did Bad Mess [properly Mad Bess] and several of his folksongs – Bess rather quicker, especially in the dance rhythm parts, than I remembered – and oh he is a superb pianist. I didn’t have enough rehearsal with him, and found him a little bit disconcerting, whilst still loving what he did – forgot my words several times as a result, but put in some rude German ones and the Churchills and Attlees, who were there, would be no wiser than I am sure!!” 340 Thorpe, 16. 341 John Francis, flute; Joy Boughton, oboe; Hans Geiger, ; Peter Mountain, violin; Bernard Davis, ; and Ambrose Gauntlet, cello. 342 Peter Mountain, who joined the London Harpsichord Ensemble in early 1950, became the leader of the group in 1952 and left in 1955 when he was appointed leader of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, to the author, letter, April 25, 2003. 343 Jennifer Doctor, “Intersecting Circles: The Early Careers of , , and Grace Williams,” Women & Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 2 (1998), 90. 344 Malcolm Boyd, Grace Williams (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1980), 11.

89 Gordon Jacobs. “It happened that her contemporaries [at the college] included several of the same age and sex as herself, and together they made a formidable circle of young women composers, or would-be composers: Dorothy Gow, Imogen Holst, Elizabeth Maconchy, and Elisabeth Lutyens.”345 In 1929 Williams won a scholarship for traveling and went to Vienna where she studied during the summer of 1930 with Egon Wellesz (1885-1974). Wellesz later composed a piece for Pears as well.346 Williams’s choice to study with Wellesz was perhaps unexpected, considering that the style of music she would later compose was so different from his. Wellesz, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, was an avid supporter of his teacher’s music, composed in a similar style, and published a book on his teacher. Williams never claimed to be a supporter of Schoenberg or his musical style. After returning to London in late 1930, Williams lived in the southwest part of the city near to where Britten lived, at which time they became friends. Britten aided Williams in finding commissions for film scores and in getting some of her folksong arrangements published. It was through Britten that Boosey & Hawkes published Williams’s folksong settings Six Welsh Oxen Songs in 1937, which Britten said were “by far the best arrangements of any folk-songs I know.”347 Britten and Williams grew to be very close friends and often critiqued each other’s music. They had their compositions played at the Macnaghten-Lemare Concerts, a series of concerts in London that featured new works by young composers. Williams had four of her compositions performed at these concerts.348 Williams’s health caused her in 1946 to retire from the teaching position that she held. She worked for a very short time “writing radio scripts, arranging music, and visiting schools” for the BBC, but eventually quit that job as well. 349 She moved home to Wales in February 1947 and lived there for the rest of her life. In 1949, thinking that her condition had improved, and finding it difficult to support herself as a composer in Wales, she went to London “in search of another full time job (which will really mean the end of composing this time).”350 She returned home having “had a lovely time in London but had no luck over jobs – except for some editing

345 Boyd, Grace Williams, 12-13. 346 Alleluia dic nobis for unaccompanied tenor, premiered by Pears in June 1958. 347 Mitchell, vol. 1, 345. 348 Doctor, “Insecting Circles,”101. 349 Boyd, 29. 350 Boyd, 30.

90 and arranging of school choruses for OUP []…. From now until Christmas I’m having my last fling at composing… I’ve started on a Violin Concerto.”351 This was by no means the last of her compositions. Just over a year later came the premiere of Three Traditional Welsh Ballads, which Pears commissioned and premiered. Pears knew Williams through Britten, but there are no surviving letters between her and Pears until November 18, 1950, four days after the performance. In the letter she apologizes for not being at the concert. “I was really mad at not being able to come up to the concert…. The cheque you enclosed is far too generous – (really meant what I said about not wanting anything) – so I’m returning it with thanks.”352 One can only guess that the commission took place while Williams was in London in late 1949. Pears and Britten left for America in a recital tour around this same time, but it is possible that the three of them met before their departure. The score is dated autumn 1950. The Three Traditional Ballads exist in two forms at the Britten-Pears Library. In the first, which has the title “Folksongs from the Gower Peninsula, sung by Phil Tanner, noted by Grace Williams,” only the vocal lines have been written out. There are five songs in this set: “Sweet Primroses,” “The Lass of Swansea Town,” “Fair Phoebe (The Dark-eyed Sailor),” “Fair Lisa,” and “Crystal Spring.” The Gower Peninsula, a small land-mass on the southern coast of Wales, is only about forty miles from where Williams grew up. Phillip Tanner (b. 1862, died after 1937) was a Welsh traditional singer, though primarily a mill worker. His singing was recorded in London in 1936 and he made a few appearances in the city the following year. He was “the only Welsh traditional singer to have been of interest to the members of the Folksong Revival.”353 Williams’s melodies are likely to be based upon the recordings made by Tanner. The second set of the songs at the Britten-Pears Library is Williams’s arrangement of three of the songs for tenor, flute, oboe, and string quartet: “Sweet Primroses,” “The Lass from Swansea Town,” and “Fair Lisa.” The songs range from D3 to G4 and the melodies do not vary from verse to verse, but the accompaniment varies significantly between verses. The meters continually change and are often in 5/8 or 7/8. Williams explains this in the third song in particular: “No. 3 is a Welsh folksong –

351 Boyd, 31. 352 Grace Williams to Peter Pears, 18 November 1950, Britten-Pears Library Archive. 353 Reg Hall, “Tanner, Phillip,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music Online, ed. L Macy (Accessed December 30, 2003),

91 The traditional Welsh words have been translated into English, and that rather necessitated the changing of the original time sequence, 3/4 to 5/8.” There are no unaccompanied or melismatic passages in this song set. This was the only premiere of a work by Williams that Pears ever sang, but she may have composed one other piece for Pears. On May 7, 1951 Williams wrote to Pears asking him if he would mind if she sent him a song called “” that she had composed.354 The song is not in the collection of scores and manuscripts at the Britten-Pears library and therefore it appears that she did not send it. Pears performed at least one other song by Williams, in a recital with pianist Noel Mewton-Wood on February 20, 1953 in Milngavie, Glasgow. The song was “Watching the Wheat,” a setting of a Welsh folksong.355 This song, as well as six others, is held at the Britten- Pears Library and came from Pears’s personal collection.356 On December 9, 1950, Britten wrote a letter of encouragement to Pears, who may have been feeling exhausted at the end of a long year, “Don’t be depressed about your singing my darling. You are potentially the greatest singer alive, & in this rather difficult stage, you remain a lovely artist & I’m not prejudice – madly critical. Take Jomelli as a singing exercise – but try & enjoy Pylades.”357 Headington points out that “Pylades” is a character from Iphigenia en Tauride by Gluck, and that Pears was to sing an aria from this opera in a concert on December 11.358 Headington also points out that Niccolo Jomelli (1714-1774) “was a Neapolitan composer who wrote useful singing exercises.”359 Pears however sang the broadcast premiere of La Passione di nostro signore Gesu Cristo by Jomelli on December 10.360 Pears sang this performance with Margaret Ritchie, George Pizzey, and Bernard Steel. The conductor was Trevor Harvey. Britten’s comment in his letter was probably not about Pears working through a method book, as Headington implies, but rather was helpful advise for how Pears should approach the performance.

354 BPL Archive. 355 BPL Archive. 356 Other songs by Williams present at the Britten-Pears Library: “Bonny at the Morn” (1951), Two French Folksongs: “Chevalier du Guet,” and “Margoton va-t-à-l’eau” (1949); “Il était une bergere” (1951); “O Rare Turpin” (1951); and “Song of the Flax” (1951). 357 Headington, 164. 358 Pears sang this concert of operatic arias and duets at the Friend’s House in London, performing with Joan Cross and pianist Peter Gellhorn. 359 Headington, 164. 360 Surfling, “Premiere List.”

92

CHAPTER 12

1951

Britten: “Ca’ the Yowes”

1951 was a very performance-heavy year. In addition to the usual recital performances, English Opera Group performances, and commitments to the Aldeburgh Festival, Pears performed in two operas by Stravinsky and gave premiere performances of three major works. He began the year with a run of performances of Die Zauberflöte at under Erich Kleiber,361 and in the midst of these performances Pears sang the role of “Eumolpus” in Stravinsky’s Perséphone in a BBC broadcast on January 19.362 Britten spent the beginning of the year working on his next opera, Billy Budd, completing all except for the epilogue by late March.363 He was then more available for recitals with Pears. They went to Vienna in early April where they performed several concerts. On April 9 at the Mozart-Saal, they gave the first performance of Britten’s folksong setting “Ca’ the Yowes.” They gave a further performance of the song in a recital on April 22, which they recorded for the premiere broadcast on May 31 over the BBC Light Programme.364

Monteverdi: Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (new English translation)

Beginning on May 1, the EOG presented a run of performances at the Lyric Theater in . Their production was a double-bill of Britten’s new edition of Henry Purcell’s

361 Headington, 160-1. Pears sang four performances of the opera and cancelled two more The performances were on January 6, 17, 26, and February 19. He cancelled performances on February 7 and 17. 362 Surfling, “Premiere List.” 363 Carpenter, 295. 364 Banks, 166.

93 and Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. Pears sang the roles of Aeneas in Dido and the narrator in Tancredi. He was double-cast and sang the first performance in the Monteverdi but not the Purcell.365 A review of the first performance stated that Tancredi was “an equally felicitous realization also by Britten.”366 The critic, however, was mistaken. Britten, with Imogen Holst, edited and realized the score of Dido for these EOG performances, but there are no corroborating sources saying that Britten ever realized any work by Monteverdi. Although it was not a premiere of a realization by Britten, Tancredi was a performance and probably a premiere of a work by Pears, who prepared the English translation. J. W. Chester Limited published Pears’s translation in 1954.

Tippett: The Heart’s Assurance

Pears and Britten gave a recital on May 7 at Wigmore Hall in which they gave the first performance of Michael Tippett’s song cycle The Heart’s Assurance, his second piece written specifically for Britten and Pears to perform and a work commissioned by Pears.367 Tippett composed the cycle in 1950, taking a break from work on his opera Midsummer’s Marriage, which he had begun in 1946.368 He completed the first two acts of the opera in early 1950, and by May of that year he had composed four of the five songs of the cycle.369 Pears wrote in an essay in 1965 about this song cycle, comparing it to the earlier cantata composed for Pears. Boyhood’s End remains a work full of imaginative and suggestive imagery, and its elaboration of voice and piano is part of its success. It is this elaborate figuration applied to the song-form in Heart’s Assurance, which damages it by expanding essentially simple shapes. The ur-forms of the three slower songs are simple lyrical utterances which do not need the pianistic figures which expand and blur. The fourth song is an effective toccata (Scarlatti-like) with vocal obbligato; the second is a very original two-mooded piece where the vocal ornaments balanced by the plain cadences. The cycle is coloured with a

365 Banks, 174. The first performance of Dido and Aeneas featured baritone singing the role of Aeneas. Pears sang in the broadcast premiere of this work on July 10, 1951 from the Cheltanham Opera House. 366 Cecil Smith, “Dido and Aeneas, first performance,” Musical America 71 (June 1951): 19. This review stated that, “Peter Pears handled the of the narrator, in his own excellent translation for Tasso, with moving simplicity.” 367 Theil, 26. 368 Theil, 7. 369 White, “A Biographical Sketch,” 23.

94 deep warmth; it is perhaps a too strong feeling for the situation of the three big songs, which has driven the music to destroy the poem – by inflation.370

Pears’s statement that Tippett’s music has ‘destroyed’ the poetry is interesting in light of an essay that Tippett wrote a few years earlier in 1960. Tippett claimed that it was the composer’s job to “destroy” the “verbal music” of the already existing poetry with the “music of music.” He went so far as to say that this was not only a composer’s job but his “gift” to do so.371 Pears might have been correct in his analysis, but in Tippett’s view it is not a criticism. Heart’s Assurance possesses many traits associated with Pears’s voice. The final line of the first song, “Song,” is monotone on E4 (ex. 51). The second and fourth songs, “The Heart’s Assurance,” and “The Dancer,” both employ extensive coloratura at very quick tempos (ex. 52, 53). There is unaccompanied writing in the final song, “Remember your Lovers,” in the first line of each stanza. Each of these three a cappella lines begin at the top of the staff and descend (ex. 54).

Example 51: Michael Tippett, The Heart’s Assurance, “Song,” mm. 53-63.

Example 52: Michael Tippett, The Heart’s Assurance, “The Heart’s Assurance,” mm. 51-53.

370 Pears, “Song and Text,” 49. 371 Michael Tippett, “Conclusion,” in A History of Song, 461.

95

Example 53: Michael Tippett, The Heart’s Assurance, “The Dancer,” 56-63.

Example 54: Michael Tippett, The Heart’s Assurance, “Remember your lovers,” mm. 1-2.

The vocal range of the cycle reaches higher than many pieces written for Pears. Despite the fact that Pears and Britten commissioned this song cycle, Tippett “did not think of… Pears as ‘the exact [person] I was writing for. Pears didn’t have a top B natural of the kind I wanted,’ … The Heart’s Assurance was soon dropped from the Britten-Pears repertoire.”372 The high B4 appears at the climax of the third song, “Compassion,” (ex. 55).

Example 55: Michael Tippett, The Heart’s Assurance, “Compassion,” mm. 33-34.

Pears and Britten repeated the cycle a few times in the coming years, most immediately at their 1951 Aldeburgh Festival recital. Pears recorded the cycle, as well as Boyhood’s End, with Noel Mewton-Wood in 1952. Both recordings were released in 1953, “but were subsequently

372 Carpenter, 295-6.

96 withdrawn due to poor recording quality. New masters were later made from the original tapes and the recording was re-released in 1962.”373 A page of the manuscript of the fifth song appears in Tribute to Peter Pears on his 75th Birthday with the inscription from Tippett, “This is to re- dedicate the piece to Ben and Peter.”374

Purcell/Britten: “I Take no Pleasure” Oldham: The Commandment of Love

At the 1951 Aldeburgh Festival, Pears gave several performances, covering a wide range of musical styles. He sang Monteverdi’s Il combattimento, the title role in Handel’s Jephtha, Britten’s St. Nicolas and Albert Herring, and participated in a concert dedicated to Verdi operas.375 He also sang in a concert of madrigals with four other singers of the EOG.376 He and Britten gave their annual recital in Jubilee Hall on June 13, at which time they performed, in addition to Tippett’s new song cycle, the premiere of Britten’s realization of Purcell’s “I Take No Pleasure”377 and the premiere of a new song cycle by Arthur Oldham.378 Oldham wrote, In 1951 a second cycle of songs followed [the Five Chinese Lyrics], which I entitled The Commandment of Love. This comprised settings of six poems by the 14th-century mystical poet Richard Rolle of Hampole. Apart from the fourth item, My Sang is in Sighing, which Ben greatly admired (he described it as ‘a real contribution’) when he played the cycle through with me… these were unmemorable. Ben and Peter duly gave them a hearing at the Festival and they were then published. In spite of a few subsequent performances, however, they never achieved the success or popularity of the Chinese Lyrics.379

There is no unaccompanied writing in this cycle, but there is a heavy reliance upon E4. This is seen in the climactic line of the fourth song, which is set as a monotone on the note (ex. 56). The note appears repeatedly in the fifth song, “Lo, Leman Sweet, Now May Thou See” as well (ex. 57).

373 BPL, “On-line Catalogue” 374 Thorpe, 95. 375 This concert involved soprano Joan Cross, soprano Tatiana Preston, contralto Catherine Lawson, Pears, baritone Bruce Boyce, and bass Norman Lumdsen. Britten accompanied the singers. They performed excerpts from Un giorno di regno, Giovanna d’arco, I masnadieri, I due foscari, Luisa Miller, MacBeth, La traviata, Un ballo in mascera, , and . 376 BPL Archive. 377 Banks, 181. 378 BPL Archive. 379 Oldham, 26.

97

Example 56: Arthur Oldham, The Commandment of Love. “My Sang is in Sighing,” mm. 62-69.

Example 57: Arthur Oldham, The Commandment of Love, “Lo, Leman Sweet, Now May Thou See,” mm. 31-40.

After the first performance, Pears and Britten performed the cycle on June 30, 1951 at the Holland Festival and May 22, 1953, at the Royal Festival House. Shortly after this recital, Oldham wrote to Pears thanking him for continuing to perform the songs.380 On August 5, 1954, Pears and Britten performed two songs of the cycle, “My Sang is Sighing” and “O Lord Right Dear,” at the Holy Trinity Church in Ilfacombe, . The last recorded date of Pears performing this cycle was December 15, 1965, in a recital given with Arthur Oldham accompanying at the National Gallery of Scotland.381 Oldham wrote that after an almost ten year separation from Pears and Britten “There was even a ‘reconciliation’ between myself and Peter Pears when in 1965, I accompanied him in a recital, at the National Gallery of Scotland, which included six of my songs from Love in a Village together with my song-cycle The Commandment of Love.”382

380 BPL Archive. Oldham to Pears, letter, August 12, 1953. 381 BPL Archive. 382 Oldham, Living with Voices, 30.

98 Britten: Billy Budd

Before his next premiere, Pears sang the Bach B Minor Mass on July 17, 1951,383 the title role in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, under the composer’s direction in on October 5 and then recorded two days later,384 and two performances of Britten’s Les illuminations in Amsterdam.385 On December 1, Pears sang in the premiere of Britten’s sixth opera at Covent Garden under the direction of the composer.386 The third performance of the opera, on December 11, was broadcast on BBC Third Programme.387 Pears’s role in the opera was Captain Vere, about which Eric Crozier said, “Most composers, I am certain would have allocated the tenor role to the innocent young hero Billy: Britten took it for granted that it must go to Melville’s wise and thoughtful naval commander, Vere.”388 Headington took this thought a step further, In a sense, Pears did more than is usually understood by the term ‘create a role’ for it seems certain that it was because of his personality that Britten and his librettists… together made Vere more of a thinking and self-questioning man than the original figure drawn in ’s story, just as had happened in Crabbe’s original Peter Grimes.389

This fact is emphasized in the Billy Budd’s Prologue and Epilogue, two monologues in which the aged Captain Vere looks back upon the traumatic events upon his ship.

383 Fifield, 290. This performance was at Concert Hall, Broadcasting House. Pears sang with soprano Suzanne Danco, contralto Kathleen Ferrier, and bass Bruce Boyce. Georges Enesco conducted the Boyd Neel Orchestra. 384 Headington, 162. Pears sang with Martha Modl as Jocasta, as Creon, as the Shepherd, and Jean Cocteau as the narrator. 385 Headington, 163. 386 Banks, 96. 387 Surfling, “Premiere List.” 388 Carpenter, 281. 389 Headington, 165.

99 There are many unaccompanied lines throughout the opera and several are specifically for Vere, especially in the Prologue and Epilogue. The role possesses a high tessitura, and vocal lines frequently accentuate E4, as is seen in the Act II, Scene 2 aria, “I Accept Their Verdict,” (ex. 58). This same aria also has examples of coloratura and monotone writing (ex. 59).

Example 58: Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 97, mm. 7-20.

Example 59: Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 99, mm. 21-30.

100

CHAPTER 13

1952

Britten: Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac

In the wake of the premiere of Billy Budd, Pears, Britten and Kathleen Ferrier gave the premiere of Britten’s Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, op. 51, on January 21, 1952 at Albert Hall in Nottingham.390 The trio gave another performance of the work, which they recorded for broadcast on the BBC. The BBC postponed the broadcast until February 18 due to the death of King George VI.391 Ferrier wrote on January 28, 1952, “I have just started work again – with a heavy programme – 9 recitals in two weeks…. Some with Ben and Peter P. – Ben wrote a new Canticle for the two of us on the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac – the ink was still wet for the 1st performance! But it’s a sweet piece – simple and very moving.”392 Christopher Fifield described Ferrier’s voice saying, “The voice might be held by some an acquired taste, but in the music she sang… it was ideally suited. It remained unique.”393 One could describe Pears’s voice in similar terms. Perhaps then, it was an ideal for Britten to pair these two voices. The singers had performed together several times already, most notably for Britten in the premiere of his Spring Symphony. Britten wrote exposed and unaccompanied passages for both voices throughout the second Canticle. It opens with the two voices singing together, unaccompanied save some flourishes in the piano. The voices sing in unison or at close intervals, never more than a perfect fourth apart from each other (ex. 60).

390 Banks, 98. 391 Surfling, “Premiere List.” 392 Fifield, 294. This source incorrectly gives the premiere of the work as February 3, 1952 at Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Ferrier’s diary for January 21, the actual premiere date, reads, “Nottingham. Reh 2.30.” 393 Fifield, ix.

101

Example 60: Benjamin Britten, Canticle II, mm. 1-3.

The piece has a high tessitura for the tenor, and the most prominent note is E-flat 4, a half step lower than many other previous works. Several times throughout the piece the singers must sing the pitch in unison, in order to create the effect that the voices are coming from the same source. At the end of the first section, the mezzo-soprano sings a sustained E-flat 4 and decrescendos. The tenor’s entrance on the same note, beginning at pianissimo, overlaps with the mezzo-soprano, creates the effect that the two voices are one (ex. 61). The importance of the tenor’s E-flat 4 in this piece could have been due to the timbre of Kathleen Ferrier’s voice, which Pears would have to match. However, several later works by Britten, including the opera The Turn of the Screw and Canticle III also emphasize this pitch in the tenor voice.

102

Example 61: Benjamin Britten, Canticle II, mm. 7-13.

Like the Canticle I (1947), the second is a setting of text based upon Biblical scriptures and is written with a Purcellian character. The second Canticle bears likeness in some ways to Purcell’s Saul and the Witch at Endor, which Britten realized in 1945. Both are dramatic works for more than one singer in which each singer represents a character. In both works, the drama between the characters is preceded and followed by the voices singing together. In Saul and the Witch at Endor, the voices singing together create the single voice of a narrator. In Canticle II, the voices singing together represent the voice of God.

Oldham: Love in a Village

Pears’s next premiere performance was May 9, 1952, singing the leading role of Hawthorne in Love in a Village, an opera by Arthur Oldham. The EOG gave this performance on a BBC radio broadcast,394 and the stage premiere was on June 16, 1952 at the fifth Aldeburgh Festival with the same cast.395 Oldham explained Pears’s role in the creation of the opera.

394 Surfling, “Premiere List.” 395 Headington, 170.

103 Ben asked me to contribute an opera to the [1952] Aldeburgh Festival…. It was in this spirit [of The Beggar’s Opera by Britten] that he proposed to me to compose Love in a Village for his English Opera Group. Peter Pears, one of whose hobbies was browsing in second-hand book shops, had discovered an 18th-century volume which contained Dr. [Thomas] Arne’s original version of this so-called ‘ballad opera.’396

The twenty-six year old Oldham, who up until now had been an extremely productive composer, had come to a breaking point. I had not wished to accept the proposed commission from the BBC to write Love in a Village. But rather than turn it down… I decided to ask for what I considered an exorbitant fee, half of which was to be paid in advance, hoping that my conditions would be considered sufficiently outrageous to annihilate the project. To my consternation a contract arrived… together with a cheque for 50 per cent of my asking fee. I was committed. But it meant that I had somehow, within the span of three short months, to write my song-cycle for Britten and Pears [The Commandment of Love], my opera Love in a Village, and a ballet for Covent Garden.397

Oldham completed the opera as well as his other commitments, but it left him severely burned out. After a particularly onerous three months striving (and only just succeeding) to meet deadlines, the inevitable happened: the machine collapsed. The result was a major nervous breakdown, which had the curious effect of leaving me totally incapable of listening to music, even to the extent of being unable to distinguish the pitch of one note in relation to another. For a while I refused to accept what had happened to me and continued to try to force myself to compose by turning day into night with the help of stimulant drugs. This, of course, only made matters worse, and my mental health deteriorated rapidly.398

This was followed by “a five year gap when he composed no music at all.”399 During this period, however, Pears continued to sing and record Oldham’s music. Love in a Village was the last piece that Oldham wrote for Pears, but there is reference to two others that were at least in the stages of planning. On June 3, 1954 Oldham wrote a letter to Pears saying that he was still thinking about composing some songs for unaccompanied tenor, about which Pears had asked Oldham.400 He did not compose the songs and may not have started them. Further, in a biographical article on Oldham published in 1968, the author referes to a

396 Oldham, 26-7. 397 Oldham, 26-7. 398 Oldham, 39-40. 399 Wilson, 946. 400 BPL Archive.

104 song-cycle of Scottish love poems of Alexander Montgomery, “commissioned by Peter Pears for performance this month at the 600th lunchtime-hour concert at the National Gallery, Edinburgh.”401 Neither of these works appear in Oldham’s oeuvre nor is there evidence of them at the Britten-Pears Library.

Berkeley: Variations on a Hymn of Orlando Gibbons

Pears sang in two other premiere performances at the 1952 Aldeburgh Festival. On June 20 at the Parish Church, Imogen Holst conducted the premiere of her orchestrated version of Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb. The soloists for the performance were trebles Graham Bush and Roger Cooper, countertenor , bass Trevor Anthony, and Peter Pears.402 On June 21, Pears sang the premiere performance of Lennox Berkeley’s Variations on a Hymn of Orlando Gibbons, op.35 for tenor, chorus, strings, and organ. The English Opera Group commissioned this piece for the Aldeburgh Festival.403 In response to an apparent poor performance of the work “[Britten] consoled [Berkeley] by saying that nevertheless ‘a great deal came across - & a great deal of enjoyment was felt by many people I have talked to. Thank you so much for writing such a lovely piece for us.”404

401 Conrad, 948. 402 Banks, 67. 403 Craggs, Berkeley: A Source Book, 83. 404 Dickinson, 148.

105

CHAPTER 14

1953

Berkeley: Nelson

1953 was a particularly busy year with respect to premiere performances. The first to speak of, though the actual date is unknown, is Nelson, op. 41, a grand opera by Lennox Berkeley. This three-act opera, which Berkeley began in 1949, was his first venture into the genre. Pears probably sang the title role in the opera, though Berkeley did not compose the role especially for Pears. The performance in which Pears sang was not the official stage premiere but was a “concert reading” given at Wigmore Hall.405 The stage premiere occurred at the Sadler’s Wells on September 22, 1954, though Pears did not sing in this performance. Sadler’s Wells expressed interest in Berkeley’s opera prior to 1953, but Basil Douglas, manager of the English Opera Company, was concerned that the Wells was not moving fast enough to set a date for a performance. Douglas arranged a concert performance of the opera with the EOG accompanied by a piano that he hoped would generate interest in the opera. Because of the success of this concert that Sadler’s Wells included the opera in their 1954 season.406

Berkeley: Four Ronsard Sonnets (set 1)

On March 8, 1953, Pears premiered a work that Berkeley wrote for him, Four Ronsard Sonnets (set 1), op. 40, four settings of sonnets by the French poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524- 1585) for two tenors and piano. There are very few works for such an ensemble beyond the vocal

405 Dickinson, 100. 406 Dickinson, 128.

106 works of the Baroque era. In 1947, Pears sang Britten’s realization of Purcell’s “When Myra Sings,” for two tenors (see page 70). Perhaps that piece caused Pears to commission an original work for two tenors. Berkeley composed the sonnets to be sung by Pears and French tenor Hughes Cuenod (b. 1902) with pianist George Malcolm (1917-1997).407 The performance, which took place at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, was broadcast live over BBC Third Programme.408 Berkeley returned to the sonnets of Ronsard in 1963, when he composed a second set of four for Pears, premiered August 9, 1963,409 and then revised and arranged the first set for Pears and tenor Ian Partridge, premiered June 14, 1978.410

Bush: The Voices of the Prophets Seiber: To Poetry

Pears and pianist Noel Mewton-Wood gave a recital on May 22, 1953 in which they performed Oldham’s The Commandment of Love411 and premieres of two works, Voice of the Prophets by Alan Bush (1900-1995), and To Poetry by Mátyás Seiber (1905-1960).412 Voices of the Prophets, a cantata for tenor and piano, is something of a sonata in four movements for piano and voice (one may deliberately choose that order of mention)…. Bush’s music, closely interwoven and predominantly diatonic, follows a somewhat austere style entirely his own. In this work the voice delivers its utterance in a somewhat impersonal and uninteresting way, rather as a vehicle for a kind of ‘pure music’: were it not for this, one might tolerate even the banal neo- Whitmannesque political verse with which Bush chose to follow up his selections from Isaiah, Milton, and Blake.413

When Pears recorded this piece in 1964 with the composer at the piano, a reviewer called it a “novelty,” which he “didn’t much like” because of the “too elaborate, even fussy accompaniment to prose texts (unless the long last piece can be called a poem) [which] takes them out of the realm of lyrical song.”414

407 Craggs, Berkeley: A Source Book, 84. 408 Surfling, “Premiere List.” 409 Dickinson, 101. 410 Dickinson, 84. 411 BPL Archive. 412 Thorpe, 123-4. 413 Jacobs, 177. 414 T. Harvey, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song,” Gramophone 35 (Jan 1978): 1283.

107 There are several coloratura passages throughout the cantata, as seen in the second and fourth songs (ex. 62, 63).

Example 62: Alan Bush, Voices of the Prophets, II, mm. 124-30.

Example 63: Alan Bush, Voices of the Prophets, IV, mm.92-96.

Mátyás Seiber was “not a leading composer, but he was a master…. Seiber was too genuine to write an enormous amount of music. His and his film music, to be sure, he wrote with almost uncanny fluency. But in his serious music, where he was up against the idiomatic crisis of our time, he was often assailed by doubts.”415 Seiber was Hungarian by birth and came to England in 1935. “A large portion of Seiber’s compositional output in London was devoted to film scores and incidental works.”416 He was interested in American jazz music and wrote many serious works, many of which are folksong settings. In 1942, Seiber joined the faculty at Morley College. Michael Tippett said, “I persuaded… Seiber to give classes there in composition. For it was clear that Mátyás was a superb teacher. He seemed to me to have an encyclopedic knowledge of compositional techniques, old and new, without dogmatic prejudices.”417 It was at Morley that Pears came to know Seiber and his music. In 1943 Pears sang in a performance of Seiber’s Yugoslav

415 Hans Keller, “Mátyás Seiber: 1905-1960,” in Hans Keller: Essays on Music, ed. Christopher Wintle (Cambridge: , 1994), 86-88. 416 Michael Franklin Varro Jr., “The Music of Mátyás Seiber,” (DMA diss., University of Washington, 1975), 14. 417 and others, “In Memorium: Mátyás Seiber,” Musical Times 111 (1970): 886.

108 Folksongs, his “first work for chorus to be composed in England,” in 1943.418 Ten years later, Seiber composed To Poetry for Peter Pears. The song cycle consists of five songs, texts by Goethe (translated by Louis MacNeice), Shakespeare, Dunbar, and an anonymous Elizabethan poet. “Clearly the most challenging of Seiber’s available solo vocal works…. Seiber concerns himself in this work primarily with such classical elements as traditional key relationships and symmetry of form. The most obvious factor of symmetry is of course Seiber’s framing the work with identical first and last movements.”419 Arthur Jacobs sees in this symmetry, as well as other factors, a likeness to Britten’s Serenade. “[To Poetry] begins with an Invocation and ends identically with it, as Britten’s begins and ends with parellel… horn calls, and Seiber’s setting of William Dunbar’s Timor mortis [the fourth movement] recalls the atmosphere of the Dirge in Britten’s.”420 Seiber’s Timor mortis and Britten’s Dirge are also similar in that they both begins with the first full phrase sung a cappella. Identical melismas appear in the first and last songs (ex. 64) and in the song “Tears” (ex. 65).

Example 64: Matyas Seiber, To Poetry, “Invocation,” mm. 21-26.

Example 65: Matyas Seiber, To Poetry, “Tears,” mm. 42-44.

418 Varro, “The Music of Matyas Seiber,” 24. 419 Varro, 74. 420 Jacobs, 177.

109 Britten: Gloriana

On June 8, 1953, Pears sang in the premiere of Britten’s seventh opera Gloriana, op. 53. The conception of this opera dates back only just over a year, when in May 1952 Britten received royal approval to compose a work to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth.421 Britten first met with his librettist in June 1952 and began composing in August. He completed the opera on March 13, 1953,422 after which Britten and Pears took a long vacation to Ireland before beginning rehearsals.423 The Queen’s coronation was on June 2, and the first performance of the opera took place on June 8 at Covent Garden under the musical direction of John Pritchard.424 Britten had scarce time for performances with Pears while composing the opera, and it is perhaps this fact that caused him to have negative feelings about Gloriana. One of the few recitals given by them during this time was early during the composition of the opera on July 24, 1952 in Aix-en-Provence, France. The Harewoods were with Britten and Pears in France, and noticed that Pears was ‘glum’ about the new opera. He resented being deprived of his accompanist while it was being written – Noel Mewton-Wood was to deputize for Britten at the recitals in the coming months – and [Pears] was wary of the ‘official’ nature of the project. He also felt he was unsuited to playing Essex, which Britten had assigned to him. Harewood suspected that he was not keen on acting the ‘young, ardent lover’ of Joan Cross who was to sing Elizabeth. Pears suggested he could be cast in the minor role of Cecil instead. Harewood felt that Essex could perfectly well be a bass. But [as Harewood said] ‘Ben…wanted Peter for Essex, and he was accustomed to getting his own way.’425

Pears later said, “I think somebody else should have [played Essex] rather than me.”426 W. H. Auden, who attended one of the first performances enjoyed the opera but had a much harsher opinion of Pears. “Some of the best operatic music in it, I think that Ben has done yet… Didn’t care for the libretto and neither Joan Cross nor Peter should sing anymore on the stage.”427 Ten years later, Pears sang the opera in a concert performance at the opposite Sylvia Fischer. A review stated, “Essex is a role for the vigorous young tenor who has at once

421 Carpenter, 305. 422 Banks, 99. 423 Carpenter, 316. 424 Banks, 100. 425 Carpenter, 307. 426 Carpenter, 317. 427 Carpenter, 325.

110 fire and delicacy and imagination. Peter Pears has the last two, not the first: there was beautiful singing from him, as at the premiere, but the part could be more strongly presented.”428 Several parts of the opera were arranged for separate performances. Three of these were for performances that included Pears. The first is Essex’s aria, “Happy were he,” known as “The Second Lute Song,” found in Act II. Pears extracted this aria for performance in recitals, with either guitar or piano accompaniment, which Imogen Holst arranged. Pears first sang this aria with Britten playing Holst’s arrangement at Jubilee Hall on June 28, 1953 during the Aldeburgh Festival.429 Britten composed the aria, which uses text written by the original Earl of Essex, in a style that is a “bow in the direction of the Elizabethans.”430 The text setting and melismatic figures also bring to mind the many Purcell realizations sung by Pears (ex. 66).

Example 66: Benjamin Britten, Gloriana, Act II, no. 6, “Second Lute Song,” mm. 1-4.

Another melismatic line in Essex’s role appears in the quartet of Act II, Scene 2 (ex. 67).

Example 67: Benjamin Britten, Gloriana, Act II, Scene 2, fig. 77, mm. 12-15.

428 Andrew Porter, “Concert Performances,” Opera 15 (January 1964): 66-7. 429 Banks, 101. 430 Antonia Malloy-Chirgwin, “Gloriana: Britten’s ‘slighted child’,” in Cambridge Companion to Benjmain Britten, 125.

111 The other two extracted pieces from Gloriana are an orchestral piece and a choral piece. On September 23, 1954, Pears sang a concert performance at the Birmingham Town Hall with the CBS Orchestra under Rudolf Schwarz, in which he gave the first performance of the Symphonic Suite from Gloriana, an arrangement by Britten of pieces from the opera for tenor and orchestra. On March 1, 1967, Pears, Ossian Ellis, and the sang Courtly Dances from Gloriana for tenor, chorus, and harp.431

Rainier: Cycle for Declamation

Eight days after the premiere of Gloriana, Pears gave a first performance of another major work, though one much smaller in scale, Cycle for Declamation for unaccompanied tenor by South African-English composer Priaulx Rainier (1903-1986). The premiere took place on a live broadcast on June 16 over the BBC third programme. Several artists took part in this broadcast, performing works that they would perform at the 1953 Aldeburgh Festival. 432 Pears sang the cycle again at the festival on June 25.433 Rainier, who spent her youth in Zululand and then , drew “little from other 20th century [musical] styles. Rather, the most important influences were the language and music of the Zulus, and the natural sounds of their country.”434 The Cycle for Declamation, three poems by John Donne “is a tour de force in exploiting the different registers in the voice.”435 As stated in the cycle’s title, Rainier composed this work in a declamatory style: there are few melismatic passages. In the first song, “Wee cannot bid the fruits,” there are melismas on only three words, and each is brief. The second song, “In the Wombe of the Earth,” the tempo is slower and the style is far more lyrical and the composer uses longer melismas (ex. 68).

431 Banks, 101. 432 Surfling, “Premiere List.” 433 Thorpe, 124. The source refers to this performance as a premiere. 434 Ian Kemp and Hubert van der Spuy, “Rainier, (Ivy) Priaulx,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 6 November 2003), 435 Harvey, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song,” 1283.

112

Example 68: Cycle for Declamation, “In the Wombe of the Earth,” mm. 10-16.

The final song, “Nunc, lento sonito,” is in the declamatory style of the first song, and there are only two brief melismas. Rainier’s “handling of the solo voice, whose part is notated in exact rhythm, is remarkably assured and varied: whether the work can be called a success appears to depend solely on the acceptability of the medium.”436 Though this is a genre of song rarely discussed or heard in modern day, it dates back, as part of the art song tradition, as opposed to unaccompanied sacred monodies of the Renaissance or unaccompanied folksongs, to the early twentieth-century England. “In many songs of this period… the accompaniment is little more than comfortable patterns, supplying harmony… and providing a routine overture…. An attempt to bypass this was made by Herbert Bedford (1867-1945), in writing songs which dispensed with accompaniment altogether. The first were issued in 1922.”437 Bedford, who lived and worked in London, wished to adhere “to the original poetic idea and it’s natural declamation by preserving and artistically balancing the metrical line, a succession of figures designed and varied in such a way as to replace the missing elements of an accompaniment by something equally complete and satisfying, and the creation of a sense of ‘horizontal harmony’.”438 Rainier’s piece is the first example of unaccompanied song, as set forth by Bedford’s example just eight years after his death, written for Pears. It is not, however, the last. In coming years, he would premiere unaccompanied songs by Wilfrid Mellers (b. 1914), Robin Orr, (b. 1906), Egon Wellesz (1885-1974), (b. 1936), and Richard

436 Jacobs, 178. 437 Jacobs, 164. 438 Eric Blom, “Bedford, Herbert,” in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., vol. 1, ed. Eric Blom (New York: Macmillan, 1968), 526.

113 Drakeford. It is possible that Pears’s commissions for unaccompanied songs came from his knowledge as a young man of Bedford’s work. Mitchell said, “The tradition of unaccompanied song was quite strong in the 1920s and 1930s in the …. and Herbert Bedford was prominent among [the composers]…. That was part of the musical culture.”439 Rosamund Strode attributes Pears’s interest in unaccompanied music to the fact that Britten was increasingly busy with composition and so Pears had to look for other performing outlets. As well, Britten suffered from bursitis in one arm in the 1950s, which further limited his playing. “This is [the] reason why Peter wanted to have a small choir available, and this is why… you get quite a lot of unaccompanied works…. Those were… almost certainly written… for the concerts he gave with the Purcell Singers where he would do groups of unaccompanied pieces.”440

Britten: Winter Words

Just after Britten completed the score of Gloriana, he began composing his next major work, Winter Words, op. 52, a song cycle with poems by Thomas Hardy. Britten completed the cycle in mid-September 1953, and he and Pears premiered it during the Leeds Festival on October 8, 1953. They recorded the cycle on October 22 for a later broadcast on November 28.441 They also made a commercial recording in March 1954. Pears said that he felt closest to Winter Words of all of the song cycles composed for him by Britten, “I think in a way that they are my favorite.”442 A review of the recording of the cycle stated,. “Peter Pears has perhaps never done anything finer than his performance of Winter Words. Each year his voice has been growing a fuller, more flexible instrument, and he uses it here with consummate art.”443 Peter Evans repeatedly described this cycle using the word “spare.” He writes that the significance of it, in relation to Britten’s “earlier tenor cycles,” is the “tendency [for the composer] to prune back musical ideas almost to their stocks, discouraging the proliferation of florid textural detail.” In doing so, Britten “ward[s] off the sentimentality that can lurk behind

439 Mitchell, interview by author. 440 Strode, interview by author. 441 Banks, 104 442 Gells, “The Voice that Inspired Britten,” 158. 443 Andrew Porter, “Choral and Song,” Gramophone 32 (March 1956): 391-2.

114 [Hardy’s verses].”444 This applies to the vocal lines as well. One does not hear the broad lyricism present in the Michelangelo Sonnets, nor the impassioned cries of the Holy Sonnets of John Donne. Rather, in Winter Words, Britten writes lines that depict the mood set forth by Hardy without bowing to word painting. There is simplicity to be found in the vocal lines of these eight songs. However the composer is still able to write melodic features that are found in the other works written for Pears. Vocal lines that begin at the top of the staff and descend appear frequently throughout the cycle (ex. 69, 70, and 71).

Example 69: Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “At day-close in November,” mm. 10-18.

Example 70: Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “Midnight on the Great Western,” mm. 23-28.

Example 71: Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “Before Life and After,” mm. 22-25.

444 Evans, 356-7.

115 Despite Evans’s claim that Britten discouraged “proliferation of florid textural details” in this cycle, there are melismas present in almost every song (ex. 72, 73, and 74). The tessitura of this cycle is between E-flat 4 and G4, although there is a concentration on lower part of the tenor’s range as well.

Example 72: Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “Midnight on the Great Western,” mm. 9-15.

Example 73: Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “The little old table,” mm. 37-41.

Example 74: Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “The Choirmaster’s Burial,” mm. 17-19.

Britten also makes great use of writing exposed and unaccompanied vocal lines for Pears in this cycle. The first song features long, winding lines over sustained chords. The fifth song employs a kind of recitative, most of which is unaccompanied. The vocal line in the seventh song, “At the Railway Station, Upway,” is set against a single meandering line, meant to imitate a child playing the violin.

116

CHAPTER 15

1954

Britten: “The Brisk Young Widow” Britten: The Turn of the Screw

Pears and Britten began a tour of recitals in October, which started in England and went into Scotland. In late October 1953, “just as [Britten] should have been starting work on the [next opera commission, The Turn of the Screw], Britten was ordered to stop using his right arm.” Because of an attack of bursitis, an inflammation of a sac in the right shoulder, he had to stop using his right arm “for at least three months.”445 Not only could he not compose, but he would have to put an end to the recitals as well. Pears and Britten did not perform together until early January 1954, when Britten’s arm was “definitely improving.”446 Pears’s many performances up until then, of course, did not involve Britten. In November he sang in a production of Peter Grimes at Covent Garden and in a concert over BBC. On this broadcast he gave the UK premiere of Stravinsky’s Cantata (1952) for soprano, tenor, female chorus, and chamber orchestra.447 A few weeks before this performance, on October 23, 1953, Stravinsky wrote to Ernst Roth, “I am very glad to know that my Cantata will be performed with Peter Pears.”448 Pears was very familiar with the text used in Stravinsky’s Cantata, as it is the same text used by Britten in the “Dirge” of his Serenade. When Britten was finally back to playing the piano, he and Pears gave a recital, on January 24, 1954 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, at which they gave the premiere

445 Carpenter, 331 446 Carpenter, 332. Carpenter quotes Britten’s words in a letter to William Plomer. 447 Surfling, “Premiere List.” 448 , Stravinsky: Selected Correspondence, 1st American ed., vol. 3, trans. and ed. with commentaries by Robert Craft, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), 378.

117 performance of the folksong setting “The Brisk Young Widow.”449 They gave a series of recitals around England over the next several weeks into the beginning of April.450 The next premiere in which Pears would sing was Britten’s eighth opera The Turn of the Screw, op. 54, based on the novel by Henry James. The planning for the opera began as early as September 1952,451 but Britten did not begin composing until March 1954. Britten received a commission for this opera before the commission for Gloriana. Basil Douglas, the English Opera Group manager, went to Venice to obtain a commission for the Venice Biennale, as the Festival committee wanted a new Britten opera. However, by the time Douglas returned to England with the commission, Britten had already committed himself to composing Gloriana. Because of his bursitis, Britten was not able to begin composing when he had planned, and he decided to postpone the Venice commission for a year. Turn of the Screw is different from all other opera in which Pears sang because in it he created two roles: a narrator and a ghost named Peter Quint. Quint, the apparition of the dead servant, is a major role in the opera, but the role of the narrator, an after-thought suggested by the librettist because Britten feared that the opera was going to be too short, appears only in the opening scene.452 There is nothing that links the Prologue with Peter Quint dramatically except for the fact that in the original production and recording Pears sang both parts. This has set a standard for later productions for the opera that the two roles should be sung by the same tenor. There may be a danger in assuming that Britten’s intention was to make the two characters somehow related, although there is no evidence to support this assertion. Musically, Pears’s voice and musical tastes were a great inspiration for Britten in this opera. The nearly unaccompanied, melismatic passages sung by Peter Quint as he calls Miles in the final scene of Act I (ex. 75), were inspired by Pears’s performances of a monody for solo tenor by the Notre-Dame composer Perotin (c. 1200) called “Beata viscera Mariae virginis.” Pears performed this piece on occasion when he sang with the Purcell Singers. In these concerts Pears would sometimes sing “the Evangelist in one of the Schütz Passions, or the Spirit of the Masque [in the]… Choral Dances from Gloriana…. But then the concert would also include unaccompanied songs for solo tenor; new works written for him at Peter’s own request… and

449 Banks, 166 450 BPL Archive. 451 Carpenter, 307. 452 Carpenter, 334.

118 monodic medieval settings of liturgical texts, to which Imo[gen Holst] had introduced him.”453 Strode goes on to say that the monody by Perotin was the “one that always seemed to suit him the best” and that he sang it at a concert during the 1954 Aldeburgh Festival, during which time Britten was composing Turn of the Screw. Pears sang the monody “with extraordinary flexibilty, passion and concentration…. Peter’s beautifully controlled singing of its rapid melismatic phrases suggested to Ben exactly what he wanted for Quint’s unearthly and alluring calls.”454

Example 75: Benjamin Britten, The Turn of the Screw, Act I, Scene 8, mm. 4-11.

Beyond the melismatic and unaccompanied passages found in this opera for the tenor, one sees Pears’s identity in the high tessitura. Although the range of the opera never extend beyond A-flat 4, most of the vocal lines lie between E-flat 4 and G4, with a special concentration on E-flat 4, as was seen in Abraham and Isaac a few years earlier. It is on this note that Quint makes his first vocal appearance, and each of his subsequent lines in that scene either begins or ends on that note. This continues to be so throughout the rest of the opera, until the final scene, after Quint has been defeated, when he repeats his opening melisma one half step higher: now focusing back on Pears’s “best note,” E-natural 4. There are interesting similarities between Turn of the Screw and Britten’s two most recent vocal works. A melisma in Turn of the Screw (ex. 76) looks like an evolved version of one

453 Thorpe, 90. 454 Thorpe, 90.

119 of Essex’s lines in Gloriana (ex. 77). Another appears in the final scene of Screw, in which Quint’s line resembles the final melody in the song, “Before Life and After” (ex. 78, 79).

Example 76: Benjamin Britten, The Turn of the Screw, Act II, Scene 8, mm.13-19.

Example 77: Benjamin Britten, Gloriana, Act III, Scene 1, no. 3 “The Second Duet of the Queen and Essex,” mm. 137-141.

Example 78: Benjamin Britten, The Turn of the Screw, Act II, Scene 8, fig. 133.

Example 79: Benjamin Britten, Winter Words, “Before Life and After,” mm. 31-32.

120 The opera’s premiere took place on September 14, 1954 in Venice.455 There, the English Opera Group gave two performances, the first of which was broadcast over BBC radio by way of Radio Italiana. Immediately after, the EOG went on a short tour to Holland and Sweden then to England. Pears sang the opera many times during his life. His last stage performance, which took place in 1979 at the Edinborough Festival, was singing the “Prologue” of Turn of the Screw.

Bernard: Shepherd’s Warning

Once home from the EOG tour to Holland and Sweden, Britten was composing again and perhaps because of this Pears’s next several performances were without Britten. On November 12, Pears gave a recital at Wigmore Hall with guitarist (b. 1933). At this recital they premiered Shepherd’s Warning, a song cycle for tenor and guitar by James Bernard (1925- 2001).456 Bernard met Britten and Pears when he was seventeen, when in 1942 they came to Bernard’s school to visit the schoolmaster Kenneth Greene, the designer of the original production of Peter Grimes. Britten took an interest in Bernard and his student compositions. After serving in the military, Bernard studied composition at the Royal College of Music with Herbert Howells and later Imogen Holst. In 1950, Britten, who had been supporting and encouraging Bernard’s musical efforts, asked him to assist in copying the vocal score of Billy Budd.457 While working on this project, Bernard lived with Britten and Pears in Aldeburgh. Also in 1950, Bernard started receiving commissions for radio plays on BBC radio, and soon after he became involved in the motion picture industry with writer . 458 They received an Academy Award in 1952. “Occasionally Bernard attempted to break out of his typecast role. He tried his hand at concert music, his output including a song-cycle for Peter Pears…. The Times gave an enthusiastic review, The Daily Telegraph was withering.”459 James Bernard is best remembered today for his scores for the Gothic horror films made by Hammer Film Productions Limited.

455 Banks, 106. 456 Thorpe, 122. 457 Alexander Gleason, “James Bernard,” , 20 August 2001, p. 18. 458 Paul Dehn later wrote for William Walton and Lennox Berkeley. 459 “James Bernard, Composer and Screenwriter,” The Times (London), 17 July 2001, p. 21.

121 The recital at Wigmore Hall marks the first performance given by Pears and Bream. Bream made his London debut in 1950 and performed at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1952. Soon after, Pears and Bream struck up a friendship, which lead to a twenty-year professional partnership.460 Bernard’s song cycle, although it is not published and only exists in manuscript form at the Britten-Pears Library, is the first example of music written to be performed by Pears and Bream. Many composers, such as Britten, Berkeley, Tippett, and Walton wrote for this duet during their time together.

Walton: Troilus and Cressida

Referring to Walton’s opera, Headington wrote, “Whether music was created for Pears, as in Britten’s case, or whether it already existed, like Oedipus Rex, living composers were now ready to draw on his skills. William Walton was one such composer, and it was at his request that Pears created the character role of Pandarus in … Troilus and Cressida.”461 William Walton (1902-1983) created a role for Pears that, dramatically, could not have been further away from Pears’s most recent operatic role. Although Troilus is by no means a comic piece, the role of Pandarus is marked as “tenor buffo,”462 and he is “a volatile and rather camp character.”463 Musically, the part is written very specifically to Pears’s voice. On May 21, 1954, Walton wrote to Pears, hoping that the tenor would take part in the new opera. “I am hoping that you may find the part [of Pandarus] worthy of you. If you do I shall be delighted, as I can think of no one who could do it well, also the relief that this tricky part would be in your safe hands.”464 The vocal lines are often florid and call for a wide variety of vocal colors, even making use of the falsetto voice. Headington reports that “Pears did not like his role, later describing Troilus as ‘a hell of an opera’.” Reviews of Pears’s performance were extremely positive, but after the premiere performance at Covent Garden on December 3, 1954,465 Pears was stricken with a “heavy cold

460 Headington, 173. 461 Headington, 168. 462 Earl of Harewood, ed., The Definitve Kobbé’s Opera Book (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987), 1131. 463 Headington 168. 464 Headington 168. 465 Craggs, comp., William Walton: A Source Book (Aldershot, England: Scolar, 1993), 61.

122 and laryngitis and could barely speak.” 466 He cancelled the next four performances, though he did sing performances of Troilus in January 1955. When Walton revised the opera in 1963, “making a number of cuts and other alterations,” Pears did not sing the role first written for him, rather John Lanigan gave the performance.467 When Walton revised the opera for a second time in 1972-6, Pears,again did not sing Pandarus, but sang it instead.468 This is not to say however that Walton had become tired of Pears’s voice or Pears of Walton’s music. Pears recorded “a brief extract from Act II” with soprano Marie Collier in February and July of 1968 under the baton of the composer.469 Walton also wrote several other works that Pears premiered. On April 21, 1956 Walton wrote to Pears from Milan, “I like the idea of the ‘one-man’ opera & I’ll see what Christopher [Hassell, Walton’s librettist] thinks… I’m all for writing little songs with guitar.”470 These were both ideas from Pears. The “one-man” opera never came to be, however he did later composer : an Extravaganza in One Act for three singers, based on a play by Anton Chekhov.471 Several copies of this score are at the Britten-Pears Library, one of them is inscribed by the composer, “for Peter with many thanks for having suggested my writing this piece, love from William, 9.9.68.”472 The other work mentioned in the letter from Walton to Pears later would become a song cycle for tenor and guitar called Anon in Love, premiered by Pears and Julian Bream on June 21, 1960.473 Walton also composed two pieces for which Pears gave the premiere performances as a speaker. On July 28, 1972, Pears premiered Ballet in One Act: based on the Entertainment and on June 19, 1979, Pears premiered Façade II: A Further Entertainment.474

466 Headington, 168. 467 Craggs, Willam Walton: A Thematic Catalogue of His Works, (London: Oxford University, 1977), 179. 468 Craggs, WW: Thematic Catalogue, 179. 469 Michael Kennedy, Portrait of Walton (Oxford: Oxford University, 1990), 183. 470 Headington, 169. 471 The libretto of this opera was adapted from Chekhov by Paul Dehn, the author of the text used in Bernard’s song cycle Shepherd’s Warning. 472 BPL , “On-line Catalogue.” 473 Craggs, WW: A Source Book, 71. 474 Craggs, WW: Thematic Catalogue, 27.

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CONCLUSION

This treatise has discussed, in some detail, the first 106 premiere performances of Peter Pears. Britten composed, arranged, or realized seventy-eight of the works, while the remaining twenty-eight were by other composers. Over the next thirty years, Pears premiered 109 more works, fifty by Britten and fifty-nine by other composers (see the appendix for details). These numbers are, of course, low estimates, as some performance dates are unknown. In any case, the number of Pears’s first performances is impressive and speaks to his dedication to the promotion of new music, especially to his generation of composers in England. The discussion has accomplished the second and third goals described in the introduction. It has explained Pears’s role in the creation of the music and identified some unifying musical characteristics. The discussion has shown that, not only are there melodic patterns to be found within this music, but in many cases Pears’s performance of one work influences the composition of another. There is a development, then, of melodic elements that travels between composers over an extended amount of time, all originating with Pears’s voice. This development continues into the works written for Pears after 1954, and further study is necessary that will include the premieres of the next thirty years. There is no question that Pears had a significant impact upon composers and music of the twentieth-century. Through Peter Pears’s voice, musicality, sensitivity, and passion for his art, he has brought to the world a great amount of music. One must notice the wide range that this music covers: a variety of genres, styles, and languages. One must also notice that while some of the composers who wrote for Pears are at the top of the list of twentieth-century composers, many are less notable. This does not mean necessarily that their compositions are any less important or any less worth learning and performing. Rather, it means that Pears’s criteria for choosing a composer to promote did not rely upon popularity. It also shows that Pears was not necessarily looking for masterpieces in his commissions. In commissioning, premiering and promoting new works Pears was thoroughly dedicated to the advancement of contemporary music on the whole.

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APPENDIX A

The Premiere Performances of Peter Pears

The following is a chronological list of all of the premiere performances given by Sir Peter Pears for which the dates are known. As well as world premieres, the list includes other special premieres, such as broadcast premieres, premieres within the United Kingdom, premieres of revised works, etc. The numbering in the far-left column refers only to world premieres.

1932 1. World Premiere ?/?/1932, location unknown Alexander Brent Smith: “My Eyes for Beauty Pine”

1936 English Language Premiere March 18, 1936, Queen’s Hall, London Dmitri Shostakovich: Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk Pears as the ‘Second Foreman’ Conductor Albert Coates.

1937 2. World Premiere September 29, 1937, BBC broadcast Benjamin Britten: The Company of Heaven Soprano and tenor soloists, chorus, and orchestra Soprano Sophie Wyss and conductor Benjamin Britten

3. World Premiere Between October 16 and 23, 1937, Cambridge Benjamin Britten: On this Island I. Let the Florid Music Praise II. Now the Leaves are Falling Fast III. Seascape IV. Nocturne V. As it is, Plenty Pianist Benjamin Britten

125 1939 4. World Premiere Between 1939 and 1941, United States Benjamin Britten: A. M. D. G. I. Prayer I II. Rosa Mystica III. O Deus, ego amo te IV. Heaven-Haven Performed by Pears with a group of American singers

5. World Premiere November 19, 1939, Hotel Henry Perkins, Rivershead, NY Purcell/Britten: “Hark, the Ech’ing Air” Pianist Benjamin Britten

6. World Premiere November 19, 1939, Hotel Henry Perkins, Rivershead, NY Purcell/Britten: “Knotting Song” Pianist Benjamin Britten

1941 US Premiere May 18, 1941, Chicago, CBS radio Britten: Les illuminations Conductor Benjamin Britten

7. World Premiere November 26, 1941, 1st Park Congregational Church, Grand Rapids, MI Britten: “The Salley Gardens” Pianist Benjamin Britten

8. World Premiere November 26, 1941, 1st Park Congregational Church, Grand Rapids, MI Britten: “Little Sir William” Pianist Benjamin Britten

9. World Premiere November 26, 1941, 1st Park Congregational Church, Grand Rapids, MI Britten: “The Bonny Earl o’Moray” Pianist Benjamin Britten

10. World Premiere November 26, 1941, 1st Park Congregational Church, Grand Rapids, MI Britten: “Oliver Cromwell” Pianist Benjamin Britten

11. World Premiere December 14, 1941, Southold High School, Long Island, NY Britten: “Calypso” Pianist Benjamin Britten

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12. World Premiere December 14, 1941, Southold High School, Long Island, NY Britten: “The Crocodile” Pianist Benjamin Britten

13. World Premiere December 14, 1941, Southold High School, Long Island, NY Britten: “The Ash Grove” Pianist Benjamin Britten

1942 14. World Premiere September 11, 1942, Ipswich, St. Mary-le-Tower Church Britten: “I Wonder as I Wander” Pianist Benjamin Britten

15. World Premiere September 11, 1942, Ipswich, St. Mary-le-Tower Church Britten: “The Seven Blessings of Mary” Pianist Benjamin Britten

16. World Premiere September 11, 1942, Ipswich, St. Mary-le-Tower Church Britten: “Hymn” Cellist Florence Hooten and pianist Benjamin Britten

17. World Premiere September 23, 1942, Wigmore Hall, London Britten: Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo I. Sonetto XVI II. Sonetto XXXI III. Sonetto XXX IV. Sonetto LV V. Sonetto XXXVIII VI. Sonetto XXXII VII. Sonetto XXIV Pianist Benjamin Britten

18. World Premiere November 18, 1942, Hockerill Training College Hall Britten: “The Foggy, Foggy Dew” Pianist Benjamin Britten

World Premiere of an Arrangement December 13, 1942, Odeon Theater, Southgate Britten: 4 Folksong arrangements for voice and orchestra I. Salley Gardens II. Bonny Earl o’ Moray III. Little Sir William IV. Oliver Cromwell New London Orchestra and conductor Alex Sherman.

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1943 19. World Premiere February 28, 1943, Friend’s House, London Britten: “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes” Pianist Benjamin Britten

20. World Premiere February 28, 1943, Friend’s House, London Britten: “La belle est au jardin d’amour” Pianist Benjamin Britten

21. World Premiere February 28, 1943, Friend’s House, London Britten: “Quand j’étais chez mon père” Pianist Benjamin Britten

22. World Premiere April 25, 1943, Cambridge Arts Theater Schubert/Britten (completed): “Ach, neige du Schmerzenreiche (Gretchens Bitte)” D564 Pianist Benjamin Britten

23. World Premiere May 3, 1943, Crane Theater, Liverpool Purcell/Britten: “Not All My Torments” Pianist Benjamin Britten

24. World Premiere June 5, 1943, Holst Room, Morley College, London Michael Tippett: Boyhood’s End Pianist Benjamin Britten

25. World Premiere July 17, 1943, Holst Room, Morley College, London Antony Hopkins: Songs of Cyprus I. Con brio II. Quasi Lento III. Lento, tempo rubato Soprano Alison Purves, mezzo Rita Harris, bass Donald Lumsden, and conductor Antony Hopkins.

26. World Premiere July 19, 1943, Jordan, Buckinghamshire Purcell/Britten: “There’s Not a Swain” Pianist Benjamin Britten

27. World Premiere July 20, 1943, BBC Home Service Purcell/Britten: “I’ll Sail Upon the Dogstar” Pianist Benjamin Britten

28. World Premiere July 20, 1943, BBC Home Service Purcell/Britten: “On the Brow of Richmond Hill” Pianist Benjamin Britten

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Broadcast Premiere July 20, 1943, BBC Home Service Britten: Michelangelo Sonnets Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere July 20, 1943, BBC Home Service Purcell/Britten: “There’s Not a Swain” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere July 20, 1943, BBC Home Service Purcell/Britten: “Not All My Torments” Pianist Benjamin Britten

29. World Premiere October 14, 1943, St Margaret’s Church Britten: “O Can Ye Sew Cushions?” Pianist Benjamin Britten

30. World Premiere October 15, 1943, Wigmore Hall Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings I. Prologue II. Pastoral III. Nocturne IV. Elegy V. Dirge VI. Hymn VII. Sonnet VIII. Epilogue Hornist Dennis Brain and conductor Walter Goehr

1944 31. World Premiere January 4, 1944, Fyvie Hall, London Polytechnic William Wordsworth: “The Snowflake” Pianist Benjamin Britten

32. World Premiere January 4, 1944, Fyvie Hall, London Polytechnic R. W. Wood: Three Songs (1936) I. Sonnet No. 64 (Shakespeare) II. Sonnet d’Automne (Baudelaire) III. Epitaph (Elizabeth Barnett Browning) Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere February 11, 1944, BBC North Region Home Service Britten: “Little Sir William” (voice and orchestra) BBC Northern Orchestra and conductor Richard Austin

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Broadcast Premiere February 11, 1944, BBC North Region Home Service Britten: “Oliver Cromwell” (voice and orchestra) BBC Northern Orchestra and conductor Richard Austin

UK Premiere February 13, 1944, BBC Leos Janacek: Diary of a Young Man who Vanished Soprano Emilie Hooke and pianist Walter Susskind

33. World Premiere March 19, 1944, Royal Adelphi Theater, London Michael Tippett: A Child of our Time Oratorio for SATB solos, chorus and orchestra Soprano Joan Cross, mezzo Margaret McArthur, bass Norman Walker, the London Region Civil Defence and Morley College Choirs, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and conductor Walter Goehr.

Broadcast Premiere April 20, 1944, BBC Home Service Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings Hornist Dennis Brain

34. World Premiere September 21, 1943, St. Matthews, Northhampton Maurice Greene/Britten: Two Solo Anthems for Tenor Accompaniment arranged for cello and piano by Britten. I. Blessed are They That Dwell II. O Praise the Lord Cellist Norina Semino and pianist Benjamin Britten

35. World Premiere October 8, 1944, Morley College, London Purcell/Britten: The Queen’s Epicedium Pianist Benjamin Britten

36. World Premiere October 8, 1944, Morley College, London Purcell/Britten: “Pious Celinda” Pianist Benjamin Britten

37. World Premiere October 19, 1944, Northampton, St. Matthew’s Church Purcell/Britten: “Evening Hymn” Pianist Benjamin Britten

38. World Premiere December 1, 1944, Museum Lecture Theater, Bristol Purcell/Britten: “Sound the Trumpet” Soprano Margaret Ritchie and pianist Benjamin Britten

1945 Broadcast Premiere January 17, 1945, BBC Home Michael Tippett: A Child of Our Time

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39. World Premiere March 13, 1945, Salle de l’ancien conservatoire, Paris, France Purcell/Britten: “Turn Then Thine Eyes” Pianist Benjamin Britten

40. World Premiere June 7, 1945, Sadler’s Wells, London Britten: Peter Grimes, op 33 Conductor Reginald Goodall

Broadcast Premiere June 28, 1945, BBC Home Service, Leeds Purcell/Britten: “Turn Then Thine Eyes” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere June 28, 1945, BBC Home Service, Leeds Purcell/Britten: “Pious Celinda” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere July 15, 1945, BBC Home Service Britten: Peter Grimes (excerpts)

Broadcast Premiere July 17, 1945, BBC Home Service Britten: Peter Grimes (complete)

41. World Premiere September 26, 1945, Bristol Grammar School Britten: “Sweet Polly Oliver” Pianist Benjamin Britten

42. World Premiere September 27, 1945, Melksham Music Club Britten: “The Plough Boy” Pianist Benjamin Britten

43. World Premiere September 27, 1945, Melksham Music Club Britten: “There’s None to Soothe” Pianist Benjamin Britten

44. World Premiere November 7, 1945, location unknown Britten: “Birthday Song for Erwin” Pianist Benjamin Britten

45. World Premiere November 17, 1945, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool Purcell/Britten: “Music for a While” Pianist Benjamin Britten

131 46. World Premiere November 17, 1945, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool Purcell/Britten: “Mad Bess” Pianist Benjamin Britten

47. World Premiere November 21, 1945, Wigmore Hall Purcell/Britten: “Lord, What is Man?” Pianist Benjamin Britten

48. World Premiere November 21, 1945, Wigmore Hall Purcell/Britten: “I Spy Celia” Baritone Richard Wood and pianist Benjamin Britten

49. World Premiere November 21, 1945, Wigmore Hall Purcell/Britten: “Lost is my Quiet” Baritone Richard Wood and pianist Benjamin Britten

50. World Premiere November 21, 1945, Wigmore Hall Purcell/Britten: “What Can We Poor Females Do?” Baritone Richard Wood and pianist Benjamin Britten

51. World Premiere November 21, 1945, Wigmore Hall Purcell/Britten: Saul and the Witch at Endor Soprano Margaret Ritchie, baritone Richard Wood, and pianist Benjamin Britten

52. World Premiere November 21, 1945, Wigmore Hall Purcell/Britten: “Fairest Isle” Pianist Benjamin Britten

53. World Premiere November 21, 1945, Wigmore Hall Purcell/Britten: “If Music be the Food of Love” (third version) Pianist Benjamin Britten

54. World Premiere November 21, 1945, Wigmore Hall Purcell/Britten: “Man is for the Woman Made” Pianist Benjamin Britten

132 55. World Premiere November 22, 1945, Wigmore Hall Britten: Holy Sonnets of John Donne I. Oh my black soule! II. Batter my heart III. Oh might those sighes and teares IV. Oh, to vex me V. What if this present VI. Since she whom I loved VII. At the round earth’s imagined corners VIII. Thou hast made me IX. Death, be not proud Pianist Benjamin Britten

56. World Premiere November 23, 1945, National Gallery, London Purcell/Britten: “If Music be the Food of Love” (1st version) Pianist Benjamin Britten

57. World Premiere November 23, 1945, National Gallery, London Purcell/Britten: “Sweeter then Roses” Pianist Benjamin Britten

1946 58. World Premiere January 11, 1946, Amsterdam, Concertgebouw Purcell/Britten: “We Sing to Him” Pianist Benjamin Britten

59. World Premiere January 20, 1946, Wigmore Hall Gerard Schurmann: Five Facets (Vijf facetten) I. O leven wordt zijn helder lied II. Laat mij luist’ren III. In groen en zwart IV. Een hoge stem doorbreekt de wind V. Vergeten van bevreemde mijmering Pianist Benjamin Britten

60. World Premiere February 10, 1946, Cambridge Arts Theater Purcell/Britten: “Celemene, Pray Tell Me” Soprano Joan Cross and pianist Benjamin Britten

61. World Premiere March 11, 1946, National Gallery, London Britten: “The Miller of Dee” Pianist Benjamin Britten

62. World Premiere July 12, 1946, Glyndebourne Britten: Rape of Lucretia Pears as Male Chorus; conductor Ernst Anserme

133

Broadcast Premiere August 7, 1946, BBC West of England Home Service Britten: “The Salley Gardens” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere August 7, 1946, BBC West of England Home Service Britten: “Little Sir William” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere September 1, 1946, BBC Third Programme Britten: Holy Sonnets of John Donne Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere October 11, 1946, BBC Third Programme Britten: Rape of Lucretia

63. World Premiere October 30, 1946, Maastricht, Netherlands Purcell/Britten: “A Morning Hymn” Pianist Benjamin Britten

64. World Premiere October 31, 1946, Amsterdam Britten: “O Waly Waly” Pianist Benjamin Britten

65. World Premiere November 7, 1946, Harmonie, Leeuwarden Purcell/Britten: Henry Purcell: Suite of Songs from Orpheus Brittanicus I. Let Sullen Discord Smile II. Why Should Men Quarrel III. So When the Glittering Queen of Night IV. Thou Tun’st this World V. Tis Holiday VI. Sound Fame Thy Brazon Trumpet Groninger Orkestervereeniging [orchestra], conductor Jan van Epenhuysen.

World Premiere of an Arrangement November 21, 1946, BBC Light Programme Britten: “The Plough Boy” Flutist John Francis and the Zorian String Quartet

66. World Premiere November 21, 1946, BBC Light Programme Britten: “The Stream in the Valley” Cellist Maurice Gendron and pianist Benjamin Britten

134 1947 67. World Premiere April 26, 1947, Teatro Comunale, Florence Purcell/Britten: “I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly” Pianist Benjamin Britten

68. World Premiere and Broadcast premiere June 20, 1947, Glyndebourne/BBC Third Programme Britten: Albert Herring Pears as Albert, conductor Benjamin Britten

69. World Premiere August 19, 1947, Zurich, Tonhalle Lennox Berkeley: Stabat Mater Six solo voices and chamber orchestra Margaret Ritchie and Lesly Duff, contralto Nancy Evans, baritone Frederick Sharp, bass Norman Lumsden, and conductor Benjamin Britten.

Broadcast Premiere September 18, 1947, BBC Light Programme Britten: “The Miller of Dee” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere September 18, 1947, BBC Light Programme Britten: “The Foggy Foggy Dew” Pianist Benjamin Britten

70. World Premiere November 1, 1947, Central Hall, Westminster Britten: Canticle: My Beloved is Mine Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere November 24, 1947, BBC Third Programme Purcell/Britten: The Queen’s Epicedium Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere November 24, 1947, BBC Third Programme Purcell/Britten: “If Music be the Food of Love” (third version) Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere November 26, 1947, BBC Third Programme Britten: Canticle: My Beloved is Mine Pianist Benjamin Britten

71. World Premiere November 29, 1947, BBC Third Programme Purcell/Britten: “When Myra Sings” Tenor Max Malli and pianist Benjamin Britten

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Broadcast Premiere November 29, 1947, BBC Third Programme Purcell/Britten: “Sound the Trumpet” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere December 11, 1947, BBC Light Programme Purcell/Britten: “Sweeter than Roses” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere December 28, 1947, BBC Home Service Britten: “The Plough Boy” Pianist Benjamin Britten

72. World Premiere ?/?/1947, location unkown Humphrey Searle: Put Away the Flutes For tenor, flute, oboe, string quartet Ensemble unknown

1948 73. World Premiere April 4, 1948, Amsterdam, Concertgebouw Purcell/Britten: Job’s Curse Pianist Benjamin Britten

UK premiere: April 9, 1948, BBC Third Programme Frank Martin: Six Monologues from Jedermann (Hofmannsthal) I. Ist alls zu End das Freudenmahl II. Ist als wenn eins gerufen haett’ III. Ja! Ich glaube IV. Ach Gott, wie graust mir vr dem Tod V. O ewiger Gott! VI. O goettliches Gesicht Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere April 15, 1948, BBC Light Programme Purcell/Britten: “If Music be the Food of Love” (third version) Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere April 15, 1948, BBC Light Programme Purcell/Britten: “Man is for the Woman Made” Pianist Benjamin Britten

UK Premiere April 24, 1948, Wigmore Hall, London Purcell/Britten: Job’s Curse Pianist Benjamin Britten

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74. World Premiere ?/?/1948, Chelsea Town Hall Arthur Oldham: Summer’s Lease For tenor and string orchestra Conductor Arthur Oldham

75. World Premiere April 24, 1948, Wigmore Hall, London Arthur Oldham: The Sunne Rising Pianist Benjamin Britten

76. World Premiere May 24, 1948, Arts Theater, Cambridge Britten: The Beggar’s Opera (realization of an opera by John Gay, 1728) Pears as Macheath; conductor Britten and director Tyrone Guthrie.

77. World Premiere June 5, 1948, Parish Church, Aldeburgh Britten: Saint Nicolas Cantata for tenor solo, chorus, semi-chorus, four boy singers and orchestra.

Broadcast Premiere September 21, 1948, BBC Third Programme Britten: Beggar’s Opera

Broadcast Premiere December 9, 1948, Amsterdam Lutheran Church Britten: Saint Nicolas

Broadcast Premiere December 29, 1948, BBC Third Programme Purcell/Britten: “Celemene, Pray Tell Me” Soprano Joan Cross and pianist Boris Ord

Broadcast Premiere December 29, 1948, BBC Third Programme Purcell/Britten: Job’s Curse Pianist Boris Ord

Broadcast Premiere December 29, 1948, BBC Third Programme Purcell/Britten: Saul and the Witch at Endor Soprano Joan Cross, bass George James, and pianist Boris Ord

Broadcast Premiere December 29, 1948, BBC Third Programme Purcell/Britten: “Alleluia” Pianist Boris Ord

Broadcast Premiere December 29, 1948, BBC Third Programme Purcell/Britten: “I Spy Celia” Bass George James and pianist Boris Ord

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Broadcast Premiere December 29, 1948, BBC Third Programme Purcell/Britten: “Lost is My Quiet” Bass George James and pianist Boris Ord

Broadcast Premiere December 29, 1948, BBC Third Programme Purcell/Britten: “What Can We Poor Females do?” Bass George James and pianist Boris Ord

1949 78. World Premiere January 5, 1949, BBC Third Programme Gustav Holst: The Wandering Scholar Edited by Britten and Imogen Holst English Opera Group: baritone Frederick Sharp, soprano Margaret Ritchie, bass George James, and conductor Ivan Clayton.

79. World Premiere June 19, 1949, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Arthur Oldham: Five Chinese Lyrics I. Under the Pondweed II. The Herd Boy’s Song III. Fishing IV. The Pedlar of Spells V. A Gentle Wind Pianist Benjamin Britten

80. World Premiere July 12, 1949, Oude Kerk, Amsterdam Bertus van Lier: The Song of Songs Soprano Dors van Doorn-Linderman, bass Hermann Schey and the Amsterdam Chamber Music Society, conductor Bertus Van Lier.

81. World Premiere July 14, 1949, Holland Festival, Amsterdam Britten: The Spring Symphony Soprano Jo Vinccent, contralto Kathleen Ferrier, the Dutch Radio Chorus, Concertgebouw Orchestra and conductor Eduard van Beinum

82. World Premiere September 29, 1949, St. Mark’s Church, London Britten: A Wedding Anthem (Amo Ergo Sum) Soprano Joan Cross and conductor Britten

Broadcast Premiere October 10, 1949, BBC Third Programme Arthur Oldham: Five Chinese Lyrics Pianist Benjamin Britten

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1950 UK Premiere March 9, 1950, BBC Third Programme Britten: Spring Symphony Soprano Joan Cross, contralto Anne Wood, and conductor Eduard van Beinum

83. World Premiere May 10, 1950, BBC Third Programme Robin Orr: Three Romantic Songs I. Winter II. Spring III. Summer For tenor, oboe, a string quartet Oboist Terrance MacDonagh and the Aeolin String Quartet

84. World Premiere June 18, 1950, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Aaron Copland: Old American Songs: First Set I. The Boatman’s Song II. Long Time Ago III. The Dodger IV. Simple Gifts V. I Bought Me a Cat Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere August 8, 1950, BBC Third Programme Aaron Copland: Old American Songs: First Set Pianist Benjamin Britten Broadcast of first performance

85. World Premiere September 25, 1950, Central Hall, Westminster, London Purcell/Britten: “Dialogue of Corydon and Mopsa” Contralto Kathleen Ferrier and pianist Benjamin Britten

Premiere of a Revised Version November 14, 1950, The Friend’s House, London Robin Orr: Four Romantic Songs I. Down from the Branches II. Comes Now the Spring III. Now the Fields are Laughing IV. While Summer on is Stealing For tenor, oboe and string quartet (See premiere entry 83) Members of the London Harpsichord Ensemble: oboist Joy Boughton, violinists Hans Geiger and Peter Mountain, violist Bernard Davis, and cellist Ambrose Gauntlet

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86. World Premiere November 14, 1950, The Friend’s House, London Grace Williams: Three Traditional Welsh Ballads I. Sweet Primroses II. The Lass from Swansea Town III. Fair Lisa For tenor, flute, oboe, string quartet Members of the London Harpsichord Ensemble: flutist John Francis, oboist Joy Boughton, violinists Hans Geiger and Peter Mountain, violist Bernard Davis, and cellist Ambrose Gauntlet

Broadcast Premiere December 10, 1950, BBC Third Programme Nicole Jomelli: La Passione di nostro signore Gesu Cristo With soprano Margaret Ritchie, baritone George Pizzey, baritone Bernard Steel, and conductor Trevor Harvey cond.

1951 87. World Premiere April 9, 1951, Vienna, Mozart-Saal Britten: “Ca’ the Yowes” Pianist Benjamin Britten

88. World Premiere May 1, 1951, New Lyric Theater, Hammersmith : Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda In a new English translation by Peter Pears English Opera Group

89. World Premiere May 7, 1951, Wigmore Hall, London Michael Tippett: The Heart’s Assurance I. Song II. The Heart’s Assurance III. Compassion IV. The Dancer V. Remember your Lovers Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere May 31, 1951, BBC Light Programme Britten: “Ca’ the Yowes” Pianist Benjamin Britten

90. World Premiere June 13, 1951, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Purcell/Britten: “I Take No Pleasure” Pianist Benjamin Britten

140 91. World Premiere June 13, 1951, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Arthur Oldham: The Commandment of Love I. Ihesu God’s Son II. Unkind Man Give Keep Til Me III. O Lord Right Dear IV. My Sang is in Sighing V. Lo, Leman Sweet, Now May Thou See VI. All Vanities Forsake Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere July 10, 1951, Opera House, Cheltenham Purcell/Britten: Dido and Aeneas (original version).

92. World Premiere December 1, 1951, Covent Garden Britten: Billy Budd Pears as Captain Vere, conductor Benjamin Britten and director Eric Crozier

1952 93. World Premiere January 21, 1952, Nottingham Britten: Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac Contralto Kathleen Ferrier and pianist Britten

Broadcast Premiere February 18, 1952, BBC Midland Purcell/Britten: “Dialogue of Corydon & Mopsa” Contralto Kathleen Ferrier and pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere February 18, 1952, BBC Midland Britten: Canticle II Contralto Kathleen Ferrier and pianist Benjamin Britten

94. World Premiere and Broadcast Premiere May 9, 1952, BBC Third Programme Arthur Oldham: Love in a Village Conductor

Stage Premiere June 16, 1952, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Arthur Oldham: Love in a Village Conductor Norman Del Mar

Premiere of an Arrangement June 20, 1952, Parish Church, Aldeburgh Britten: Rejoice in the Lamb (revised version) For SATB choir, soloists and orchestra. Trebles Graham Bush and Roger Cooper, countertenor Alfred Deller, bass Trevor Anthony, organ and conductor Imogen Holst.

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95. World Premiere June 21, 1952, Parish Church, Aldeburgh Lennox Berkeley: Variations on a Hymn of Orlando Gibbons For tenor, chorus, strings, organ Aldeburgh Festival Choir and Orchestra, organ Ralph Downes and conductor Lennox Berkeley

1953 96. World Premiere ?/?/1953, Wigmore Hall Lennox Berkeley: Nelson: A Grand Opera in Three Acts English Opera Group This was a concert performance of the opera

97. World Premiere March 8, 1953, Victoria and Albert Museum Lennox Berkeley: Four Ronsard Sonnets (set 1) For two tenors and piano Tenor Hughes Cuenod and pianist George Malcolm

98. World Premiere May 22, 1953, Royal Festival House Alan Bush: Voices of the Prophets: Cantata for Tenor Voice and Pianoforte I. From the Sixty-fifth Chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah II. From the Oration ‘Against the Scholastic Philosophy’ by John Milton III. From ‘Selections from Milton’ by William Blake IV. From ‘My Song is for All Men’ by Peter Blackman Pianist Noel Mewton-Woods

99. World Premiere May 22, 1953, Royal Festival House Mátyás Seiber: To Poetry I. Invocation II. Sonnet III. Tears IV. Timor Mortis V. Epilogue Pianist Noel Mewton-Wood

100. World Premiere and broadcast premiere June 8, 1953, Covent Garden/BBC Third Programme Britten: Gloriana, op 53. Pears as Essex; conductor John Prichard

101. World Premiere June 16, 1953, BBC Third Programme Priaulx Rainier: Cycle for Declamation I. Wee cannot bid the fruits II. In the Wombe of he Earth III. Nunc, lento sonitu Unaccompanied tenor

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UK Premiere June 22, 1953, Jubilee Hall Lennox Berkeley: Stabat Mater English Opera Group, conductor Benjamin Britten

Premiere of an Arrangement June 28, 1953, Jubilee Hall Britten/arr. I. Holst: “The Second Lute Song of the Earl of Essex” from Gloriana Pianist Benjamin Britten

102. World Premiere October 8, 1953, Leeds Festival, Harewood House Britten: Winter Words I. At Day-close in November II. Midnight on the Great Western (or The Journeying Boy) III. Wagtail and Baby (a Satire) IV. The Little Old Table V. The Choirmaster’s Burial (or The Tenor Man’s Story) VI. Proud Songsters (Thrushes, Finches and Nightengales) VII. At the Railway Station, Upway (or The Convict and the Boy) VIII. Before Life and After Pianist Benjamin Britten

UK Premiere November 17, 1953, BBC Third Programme Igor Stravinsky: Cantata (1952) for soprano, tenor, female chorus and chamber ensemble. Soprano Arda Mandikain and conductor Paul Sacher

Broadcast Premiere November 28, 1953, BBC Third Programme Britten: Winter Words (pre-recorded on Oct 22, 1953) Pianist Benjamin Britten

1954 103. World Premiere January 24, 1954, Victoria and Albert Musuem, London Britten: “The Brisk Young Widow” Pianist Benjamin Britten

104. World Premiere September 14, 1954, Venice, Teatro la Felice Britten: The Turn of the Screw, op 54. Pears as Prologue/Peter Quint; conductor Benjamin Britten

Premiere of an Arrangement September 23, 1954, Birmingham, Town Hall Britten: Symphonic Suite from Gloriana for tenor and orchestra CBS Orchestra, conductor Rudolf Schwarz

UK Premiere October 6, 1954, Sadler’s Wells, London Britten: The Turn of the Screw

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105. World Premiere November 12, 1954, Wigmore Hall, London James Bernard: Shepherd’s Warning Pastoral song cycle for voice and guitar Guitarist Julian Bream

106. World Premiere December 3, 1954, Covent Garden William Walton: Troilus and Cressida Pears as Panderus; conductor

107. World Premiere December 22, 1954, Morley College, London Arnolde Cooke: “This Worldes Joie” Unaccompanied tenor

108. World Premiere December 22, 1954, Morley College, London Wilfred Mellers: “Merry Margaret” Unaccompanied tenor

109. World Premiere December 22, 1954, Morley College, London Robin Orr: “Cupid Enchained” Unaccompanied tenor

110. World Premiere December 22, 1954, Morley College, London : “Ay Flattering Fortune” Unaccompanied tenor

1955 UK Premiere January 20, 1955, BBC Third Programme Igor Stravinsky: In Memorium: New London Quartet and organist Charles Spinks.

111. World Premiere January 28, 1955, Wigmore Hall : Elegaic Sonnet Tenor, string Quartet and piano Zorian Quartetand and pianist Benjamin Britten

112. World Premiere January 28, 1955, Wigmore Hall Britten: Canticle III: Still Falls the Rain For tenor, horn and piano Hornist Dennis Brain and pianist Benjamin Britten

113. World Premiere March 6, 1955, Victoria and Albert Museum Lennox Berkeley: Crux fidelis Motet for solo tenor and chorus Purcell Singers, conductor Imogen Holst

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114. World Premiere March 11, 1955, Wigmore Hall Purcell/Britten: “O Solitude” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere May 8, 1955, BBC Home Service Britten: “The Brisk Young Widow” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere May 23, 1955, BBC Third Programme Lennox Berkeley: Crux fidelis

Broadcast Premiere June 22, 1955, Parish Church, Aldeburgh, BBC Third Programme Britten: Canticle III: Still Falls the Rain Hornist Dennis Brain and pianist Benjamin Britten

115. World Premiere September 8, 1955, Decca recording studio, London Lennox Berkeley: “How Love Came In” (Robert Herrick). Pianist Benjamin Britten

1956 116. World Premiere April 15, 1956, Victoria and Albert Museum Priaulx Rainier: Requiem Tenor solo and chorus Purcell Singers, conductor Imogen Holst

117. World Premiere May 6, 1956, Wigmore Hall Britten: “I Will Give my Love an Apple” Guitarist Julian Bream

118. World Premiere May 6, 1956, Wigmore Hall Britten: “The Soldier and the Sailor” Guitarist Julian Bream

119. World Premiere May 6, 1956, Wigmore Hall Britten: “The Shooting of his Deer” Guitarist Julian Bream

UK Premiere May 13, 1956, Festival Hall, London : Das klagende Lied Violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan, soprano , contralto Norma Procter, tenor Wilfred Brown and conductor Walter Goehr

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Broadcast Premiere May 19, 1956, BBC Third Programme Priaulx Rainier: Requiem Purcell Singers, conductor Imogen Holst

120. World Premiere June 21, 1956, Aldeburgh Parish Church Britten: The Heart of the Matter Speaker , hornist Dennis Brain, and pianist Britten

121. World Premiere October 2, 1956, Scala Theater, London Lennox Berkeley: Ruth Pears as Boaz

Broadcast Premiere October 6, 1956, BBC Third Programme Lennox Berkeley: Ruth. English Opera Group: Una Hale, Anna Pollak, , , conductor

1957 UK Premiere February 1, 1957, BBC Third Programme Karl Birger-Blomdahl: In the Hall of Mirrors, 9 Sonnets from The Man Without a Way For solo voices, chorus, and orchestra. Soprano Elisabeth Söderström, contralto Pamela Bowden, baritone Frederick Harvey, baritone Alvar Lidell, bass George James, and conductor Norman del Mar

122. World Premiere April 23, 1957, Vienna, Mozart-Saal Britten: “Early One Morning” Pianist Benjamin Britten

123. World Premiere April 23, 1957, Vienna, Mozart-Saal Britten: “How Sweet the Answer” Pianist Benjamin Britten

124. World Premiere April 23, 1957, Vienna, Mozart-Saal Britten: “The Minstrel Boy” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere May 28, 1957, BBC Midland Home Service Britten: “The Soldier and the Sailor” Guitarist Julian Bream

Broadcast Premiere May 28, 1957, BBC Midland Home Service Britten: “The Shooting of his Deer” Guitarist Julian Bream

146 1958 125. World Premiere January 26, 1958, Victoria and Albert Museum Britten: “Avenging the Bright” Pianist Benjamin Britten

126. World Premiere January 26, 1958, Victoria and Albert Museum Britten: “Oft in the Stilly Night” Pianist Benjamin Britten

127. World Premiere January 26, 1958, Victoria and Albert Museum Britten: “The Last Rose of Summer” Pianist Benjamin Britten

128. World Premiere March 1, 1958, Stuttgart Purcell/Britten: “How Blest are Shepherds” Pianist Benjamin Britten

129. World Premiere March 15, 1958, Dusseldorf Britten: “Soldier, Won’t You Marry Me?” Contralto Norma Prochter and pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere March 27, 1958, BBC Third Programme Britten: “Avenging and Bright” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere March 27, 1958, BBC Third Programme Britten: “The Minstrel Boy” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere March 27, 1958, BBC Third Programme Britten: “The Last Rose of Summer” Pianist Benjamin Britten

UK Premiere June 13, 1958, Aldeburgh Festival : Les mamelles de Tirésias An arrangement for two pianos made for this performance Pears as the Husband

130. World Premiere June ? 1958, location unknown Egon Wellesz: Alleluia Dic Nobis Unaccompanied tenor

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131. World Premiere June 17, 1958, House Britten: I. The Big Chariot II. The Old Lute III. The Autumn Wind IV. The Herd-Boy V. Depression VI. Dance Song Guitarist Julian Bream

132. World Premiere June 17, 1958, Great Glemham House Britten: “Sailor Boy” Guitarist Julian Bream

133. World Premiere June 17, 1958, Great Glemham House Britten: “Master Kilby” Guitarist Julian Bream

Broadcast Premiere July 1, 1958, BBC Home Service Britten: “How Sweet the Answer” Pianist Benjamin Britten Pre-recorded May 20, 1958

Broadcast Premiere July 1, 1958, BBC Home Service Britten: “Oft in the Stilly Night” Pianist Benjamin Britten Pre-recorded May 20, 1958

Broadcast Premiere July 15, 1958, BBC Home Service Britten: Songs from the Chinese Guitarist Julian Bream Prerecorded June 17, 1958

134. World Premiere and Broadcast Premiere October 16, 1958, Leeds Town Hall/BBC Third Programme Britten: Nocturne I. On a poet’s lips I slept II. Below the thunders of the upper deep III. Encinctured with a twine of leaves IV. Midnight’s bell goes ting, ting, ting, ting, ting V. But that night VI. She sleeps on soft, last breaths VII. What is more gentle than a wind in summer? VIII. When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see For tenor, seven obbligato instruments and string orchestra BBC Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Rudolph Schwartz

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135. World Premiere October 20, 1958, BBC Studio Britten: Sechs Holderin-Fragmente I. Menschenbeifall II. Die Heimat III. Sokrates und Alcibiades IV. Die Jugend V. Hälfte des Lebens VI. Die Linien des Lebens Pianist Benjamin Britten This was a recording session that would be broadcast on Nov 14, 1958

136. World Premiere November 26, 1958, Hamburg : Chamber Music 1958 For tenor, guitar, , horn, string quartet Guitarist Julian Bream and others

Broadcast Premiere November 14, 1958, BBC Third Programme Britten: Sechs Holderin-Fragmente Recording of a previous performance, October 20, 1958 Pianist Benjamin Britten

Concert Premiere (to a private audience) November 20, 1958, Schloss Wolfsgarten, Germany Britten: Sechs Hölderlin-Fragmente Pianist Benjamin Britten

1959 Broadcast Premiere June 18, 1959, BBC Third Programme Hans Henze: Chamber Music 1958 Guitarist Julian Bream, the Dorian Singers, and the

137. World Premiere June 22, 1959, Jubilee Hall Charles Dibdin/Britten: “Tom Bowling” Pianist Benjamin Britten

138. World Premiere June 22, 1959, Jubilee Hall Britten: “Sally in our Alley” Pianist Benjamin Britten

139. World Premiere June 22, 1959, Jubilee Hall Britten: “The Lincolnshire Poacher” Pianist Benjamin Britten

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UK Premiere June 25, 1959, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Mátyás Seiber: Three Fragments from ‘A Portrait of a Young Man as an Artist’ A chamber cantata for speaker, chorus and eight instruments Dorian Singers, Melos Ensemble, conductor Seiber

140. World Premiere and broadcast premiere September 21, 1959, BBC Third programme R. W. Wood: Five German Songs I. An die Guenstigen II. Brief an Edith III. Liebste, sollst mir Heute sagen IV. Oktoberlied V. Wahrhaftig Pianist John Willis

141. World Premiere September 21, 1959, BBC Third programme Richard Rodney Bennett: Three Songs I. Sir, there’s a Tower on Fire in me II. And if the Fire Cannot Love III. My Most – My Most – O my Lost Unaccompanied tenor (from a recording made previously at the BBC Studio)

Broadcast Premiere September 21, 1959, BBC Third Programme Arnolde Cooke: “This Worlde’s Joie” Unaccompanied tenor (from a recording made previously at the BBC Studio)

Broadcast Premiere September 21, 1959, BBC Third programme Egon Wellesz: “Alleluia dic nobis” Unaccompanied tenor (from a recording made previously at the BBC Studio)

Broadcast Premiere September 21, 1959, BBC Third programme Wilfred Mellers: “Merry Margaret” Unaccompanied tenor (from a recording made previously at the BBC Studio)

Broadcast Premiere September 21, 1959, BBC Third programme Robin Orr: “Cupid Enchained” Unaccompanied tenor (from a recording made previously at the BBC Studio)

1960 142. World Premiere June 11, 1960, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Britten: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Pears as Flute, conductor Benjamin Britten

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143. World Premiere June 21, 1960, Shrubland Park, Clatdon, Suffolk William Walton: Anon in Love Six Anonymous Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Lyrics Set for Tenor and Guitar I. Fain Would I Change that Note II. O Stay, Sweet Love III. Lady, When I Behold the Roses IV. My Love in her Attire V. I Gave her Cake and I gave her Ale VI. To Couple is a Custom Guitarist Julian Bream

144. World Premiere June 21, 1960, Shrubland Park, Clatdon, Suffolk Richard Rodney Bennett: Lament For tenor and guitar Guitarist Julian Bream

Broadcast Premiere June 24, 1960, BBC Home Service Britten: Midsummer Night’s Dream Pears as Flute, conductor Benjamin Britten (This was broadcast of the recorded dress rehearsal on June 10, 1960 at Jubilee Hall before an invited audience)

145. World Premiere July 1, 1960, Basle University Britten: SATB solos, chorus and orchestra Soprano Agnes Giebel, alto Elsa Cavelti, bass Heinz Rehfuss, and conductor Paul Basler

Premiere of a revised work November 8, 1960, BBC Third Programme Britten: Billy Budd (revised version) Broadcast on November 13, 1960

UK Premiere November 29, 1960, Guildhall, Cambridge/BBC Third Programme Britten: Cantata Academica Soprano , contralto Helen Watts, bass , and conductor Benjamin Britten (The performance was broadcast on BBC Third Programme

146. World Premiere December 16, 1960, Wigmore Hall Alan Rideout: On Heliodora, Three songs for unaccompanied tenor

1961 147. World Premiere July 7, 1961, Great Glemham House, Suffolk : Ballad: Sir Patrick Spens With guitarist Julian Bream

151

148. World Premiere July 7, 1961, Great Glemham House, Suffolk Michael Tippett: Songs for I. In the Tent II. On the Battlefield III. By the Sea Guitarist Julian Bream

149. World Premiere November 22, 1961, National Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Richard Rodnay Bennett: Tom O’Bedlam’s Song Cellist Joan Dickson.

1962 Broadcast Premiere January 26, 1962, BBC Third Programme Michael Tippett: Songs for Achilles Guitarist Julian Bream

Broadcast Premiere January 26, 1962, BBC Third Programme Thea Musgrave: “Ballad: Sir Patrick Spens” Guitarist Julian Bream

150. World Premiere May 30, 1962, St. Michael’s Cathedral, Britten: STB solos, chorus, orchestra, chamber orchestra, boys’ chorus and organ Soprano , baritone Dietrich Fischer Diskau, Coventry Festival Chorus, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Melos Ensemble, conductors and Benjamin Britten

151. World Premiere June 16, 1962, Aldeburgh Parish Church Britten: The Twelve Apostles For tenor, unison chorus and piano. London Boy Singers and pianist Benjamin Britten

152. World Premiere June 21, 1962, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh : Cantata op 37 For tenor and chamber ensemble English Chamber Orchestra

153. World Premiere July 31, 1962, Dartington Hall Peter Racine Fricker: O Mistress Mine Guitarist Julian Bream

152 1963 154. World Premiere March 6, 1963, Purcell/Britten: Three Songs for high voice and orchestra I. Hark the Ech’ing Air! II. Not All My Torments III. Take Not a Woman’s Anger Ill USSR State Symphony Orchestra and conductor Norman del Mar cond.

Broadcast Premiere March 25, 1963, BBC Midland Services Britten: “Sally in our Alley” Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere March 25, 1963, BBC Midland Services Britten: “The Lincolnshire Poacher” Pianist Benjamin Britten

155. World Premiere April 24, 1963, Venice Hans Werner Henze: Novae de infinito laudes SATB soloists, chorus and orchestra of West German Radio Soprano Elisabeth Soderstrom, mezzo Kerstin Meyer, baritone Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Chorus and Orchestra of West German Radio, and conductor Hans Henze

156. World Premiere August 9, 1963, Lennox Berkeley: Four Ronsard Sonnets (set 2) I. Ce premier jour de mai II. Je sens une douceur III. Ma fiévre croist toujours IV. Yeux, qui versez en l’ame For tenor and orchestra BBC symphony orchestra and conductor Lennox Berkeley

157. World Premiere and broadcast premiere September 1, 1963, Geneva/BBC Home Service Britten: For tenor and baritone solos, small chorus and orchestra Baritone Dietrich Fischer Diskau, le Motet de Geneva, l’Orchestre da la Suisse Romande, and conductor Ernst Ansermet

UK Premiere September 12, 1963, Royal Albert Hall Britten: Cantata Misericordium

1964 158. World Premiere June 12, 1964, Village Church of Oxford Britten: Pears as Mad woman.

Broadcast Premiere

153 June 21, 1964, BBC Third Programme Britten: Curlew River (relay of June 12, first performance)

Broadcast Premiere June 21, 1964, BBC2 TV Charles Dibdin/Britten: “Tom Bowling” Pianist Benjamin Britten

1965 159. World Premiere June 20, 1965, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Witold Lutoslawski: Paroles Tissées: Quatre tapisseries pour la Chatelaine de Vergi For tenor, string orchestra, piano, and percussion Philharmonic of London, conductor Lutoslawski

160. World Premiere June 22, 1965, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Berkeley: Songs of the Half-Light, op 65 I. Rachel (Allegro moderato) II. Full Moon (Lento) III. All that’s Past (Allegretto) IV. The Moth (Lento) V. The Fleeting (Andante) Guitarist Julian Bream 161. World Premiere June 22, 1965, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Elizabeth Maconchy: Hymn to God the Father Pianist Viola Tunnard

1966 Broadcast Premiere June 1966, BBC Music Programme (from RCA recording) Britten: “I Will Give my Love an Apple” Guitarist Julian Bream

Broadcast Premiere June 1966, BBC Music Programme Britten: “Sailor boy” Guitarist Julian Bream

162. World Premiere June 9, 1966, Orford Parish Church, Aldeburgh Britten: The Burning Fiery Furnace Pears as Nebuchadnezzar

Broadcast Premiere July 13, 1966, BBC Robin Stephenson: Six Elizabethan Poems Pianist Viola Tunnard

154 Broadcast Premiere December 16, 1966, BBC Music Program (from RCA recording) Britten: “Master Kilby” Guitarist Julian Bream

163. World Premiere December ?, 1966, Cologne Francis Burt: The Skull

1967 Premiere of an Arrangement March 1, 1967, Queen Elizabeth Hall Britten: “Choral Dances” from Gloriana For tenor, harp and chorus Harpist and the Ambrosian Singers

Broadcast Premiere March 2, 1967, Queen Elizabeth Hall Britten: “Choral Dances” from Gloriana For tenor, harp and chorus Harpist Osian Ellis and the Ambrosian Singers

Broadcast Premiere April 6, 1967, Jubilee Hall Raymond Warren: The Pity of Love: Six Songs for Tenor and Guitar Guitarist Julian Bream

Broadcast Premiere May 29, 1967, BBC Music Programme Purcell/Britten: “Morning Hymn” Pianist Viola Tunnard

164. World Premiere and broadcast premiere June 25, 1967, Maltings, Snape/BBC Music Programme Purcell/Britten: The Fairy Queen “A new version for concert performance devised by Peter Pears, edited by Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst.” Sopranos Jennifer Vyvyan and Mary Wells, mezzo Alfreda Hodgson, countertenors James Bowman and Martin Lane, tenor , basses Owen Brannigan and Stafford Dean, and conductor Benjamin Britten

165. World Premiere Summer (?) 1967, Queen’s University, Belfast Raymond Warren: A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day For tenor, flute, viola, and guitar Flutist , violist , and guitarist Julian Bream (The concert was recorded in Sir William Whitle Hall during the 1967 festival and then broadcast on BBC Thirde Programme on Dec 4, 1967)

155 1968 166. World Premiere June 10, 1968, Orford Parish Church, Aldeburgh Britten: Prodigal Son Pears as Tempter

167. World Premiere June 14, 1968, Purcell/Britten: “In These Delightful, Pleasant Groves” For soprano, contralto, tenor, bass and piano Soprano Heather Harper, contralto , baritone Thomas Hemsley, and pianist Britten

Broadcast Premiere June 28, 1968, Orford Parish Church, Aldeburgh (relay of sixth performance): Britten: Prodigal Son

168. World Premiere October 3, 1968, BBC broadcast, London Malcolm Williamson: A Vision of Beasts and gods Pianist Viola Tunnard

1969 169. World Premiere June 18, 1969, Church J. S. Bach/Britten: Five Spiritual Songs (English translations by Pears) I. Gedenke doch, mein Geist, zurücke BWV 509 II. Kommt, Seelen, dieser Tag BWV 479 III. Liebster Herr Jesu BWV 484 IV. Komm, süsser BWV 478 V. BWV 508 Pianist Benjamin Britten

170. World Premiere September 22, 1969, Queen Elizabeth Hall : The Tentacles of the Dark Nebula London , and conductor

1970 Broadcast Premiere February 27, 1970, BBC radio David Bedford: The Tentacles of the Dark Nebula London Sinfonietta, and conductor David Atherton

171. World Premiere June 17, 1970, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Priaulx Rainier: The Bee Oracles For tenor, flute, oboe, violin, cello and harpsichord Flutist Patricia Lynden, oboist , violinist Perry Hart, harpsichordist Alan Harverson, and cellist Olga Hegedus

156

Broadcast Premiere November 1, 1970, BBC Radio 3 Priaulx Rainier: The Bee Oracles Flutist Patricia Lynden, oboist Janet Craxton, violinist Perry Hart, harpsichordist Alan Harverson, and cellist Olga Hegedus

1971 172. World Premiere March 7, 1971, University College, Cardiff Britten: Who are these Children? (nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 12 only) Pianist Benjamin Britten

Official Premiere May 4, 1971, National Gallery of Scotland Britten: Who are these Children? (no. 5 omitted) Pianist Benjamin Britten

173. World Premiere May 16, 1971, BBC television Britten: : An Opera for Television Pears as General Sir Philip Wingrave, conductor Britten (pre-recorded Nov 23-30, 1970)

Broadcast Premiere May 23, 1971, BBC radio 3 (from Decca recording) Britten: Owen Wingrave

174. World Premiere June 16, 1971, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Ronald Stevenson: Border Boyhood Pianist Ronald Stevenson

175. World Premiere June 16, 1971, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Sebastian Forbes: Death’s Dominion song cycle for tenor, flute, clarinet, string trio and piano English Chamber Orchestra

176. World Premiere June 26, 1971, Maltings, Snape Purcell/Britten: “When Myra Sings” For tenor, bass and piano Baritone John Shirley-Quirk and pianist Britten (This is a different version than the realization for two tenors by Britten from 1947)

177. World Premiere June 26, 1971, Maltings, Snape Britten: Canticle IV: Journey of the Magi Countertenor John Bowman, baritone John Shirley-Quirk, and pianist Benjamin Britten

157

Premiere of Complete Work September 26, 1971, Snape Maltings Britten: Who are these Children? I. A Riddle (The Earth) II. A Laddie’s Sang III. Nightmare IV. Black day V. Bed-time VI. Slaughter VII. A Riddle (The Child You Were) VIII. The Larky Lad IX. Who are these Children? X. Supper XI. The Children XII. The Auld Aik Pianist Benjamin Britten

Broadcast Premiere December 12, 1971, BBC2 TV (pre recorded Nov 13-14, 1971) : Britten: Canticle IV Countertenor John Bowman, baritone John Shirley-Quirk, and pianist Benjamin Britten

1972 Broadcast Premiere January 30, 1972, BBC Radio 3 Purcell/Britten: “When Myra Sings.” Baritone John Shirley Quirk, and pianist Britten (recording of first performance: June 26, 1971)

Broadcast Premiere May 21, 1972, Maltings, Snape (Broadcast on BBC radio 3) (pre-recorded, Sept 26, 1971) Britten: Who are these Children? Pianist Benjamin Britten

178. World Premiere June 9, 1972, Maltings, Snape Vagn Holmboe: Ballad English Chamber Orchestra, conductor David Atherton

179. World Premiere July 28, 1972, Snape Maltings William Walton: Ballet in One Act (Based on the Entertainment). Pears as speaker

180. World Premiere December 17, 1972, Wigmore Hall Douglas Young: Landscapes and Absences For tenor, and string trio London Oboe Quartet

158

1973 Stage Premiere May 10, 1973, Covent Gardens Britten: Owen Wingrave

181. World Premiere June 16, 1973, Maltings, Snape Britten: Pears as von Achenbach, conductor

Broadcast Premiere June 22, 1973, Maltings, Snape (Broadcast on BBC radio 3) Britten: Death in Venice

1974 182. World Premiere ?/?/1974, Ipswich Tony Hewitt-Jones: Edmund, King and Martyr, a cantata Ipswich Bach Choir

183. World Premiere June 19, 1974, Maltings, Snape David Bedford: Because He Liked to be at Home Harpist Osian Ellis

184. World Premiere June 19, 1974, Maltings, Snape Lennox Berkeley: Five Herrick Songs I. Now is your turne, my dearest (Andante) II. Dearest of Thousands (Lento) III. These Springs were Maidens that Once Lov’d (Allegretto) IV. My God! Look on Me with Eyes of Pitie (Slow but freely) V. If Nine Times You Your Bridegroom Kisse (allegro) Harpist Osian Ellis

185. World Premiere June 19, 1974, Maltings, Snape Elizabeth Maconchy: Three Songs Harpist Osian Ellis

Broadcast Premiere December 24, 1974, BBC Radio 3 Britten: excerpts (revised)

1975 186. World Premiere January 15, 1975, Schloss Elmau Britten: Cantlice V: The Death of Saint Narcissus Harpist Osian Ellis

159 UK Premiere January 23, 1975, Fairfield Halls, Croydon Britten: Canticle V Harpist Osian Ellis

187. World Premiere June 16, 1975, Maltings, Snape : The Cool Web Pianist Clifford Benson

188. World Premiere October 1975, Parish Church, Little Missenden, Bucks Richard Drakeford: Songs of Thomas Wyatt Unaccompanied tenor

189. World Premiere October 1975, West Linton, Peeblesshire Ronald Stevenson: Nine Haiku Harpist Osian Ellis

1976 190. World Premiere January 11, 1976, Schloss Elmau, Upper Bavaria Britten: I. Birthday Song II. My Early Walk III. Wee Willie Grey IV. My Hoggie V. Afton Water VI. The Winter VII. Leezie Lindsay Harpist Osian Ellis

191. World Premiere January 14, 1976, Queen Elizabeth Hall Priaulx Rainier: Prayers for the Ark Harpist Osian Ellis

UK Premiere March 19, 1976, New Hall, University College, Cardiff Britten: A Birthday Hansel Harpist Osian Ellis

192. World Premiere March 19, 1976, New Hall, University College, Cardiff /Britten: “Oh! That Mine Eyes Would Melt” Harpist Osian Ellis

193. World Premiere March 19, 1976, New Hall, University College, Cardiff William Croft/Britten: “A Hymn on Divine Musicke” Harpist Osian Ellis

160

194. World Premiere May 20, 1976, Britten-Pears Library, Aldeburgh Britten: “O That I Had Ne’er Been Married” (from Beware! [1922-6]) Pianist Roger Vignoles

UK Premiere June 16, 1976, Maltings, Snape Arne Nordheim: Doria With the English Chamber Orchestra, conductor Steuart Bedford (The performance was broadcast later that evening by BBC radio 3)

195. World Premiere June 17, 1976, Maltings, Snape Jørgan Jersild: Puzzle from Wonderland Harpist Osian Ellis

196. World Premiere June 17, 1976, Maltings, Snape Arne Nordheim: To One Singing Harpist Osian Ellis

197. World Premiere June 17, 1976, Maltings, Snape Stig Schonberg: O sag Harpist Osian Ellis

198. World Premiere June 17, 1976, Maltings, Snape Britten: “She’s Like the Swallow” Harpist Osian Ellis

199. World Premiere June 17, 1976, Maltings, Snape Britten: “Bird Scarer’s Song” Harpist Osian Ellis

Broadcast Premiere July 19, 1976, BBC Radio 3 (from Decca recording): Britten: A Birthday Hansel

200. World Premiere August 20, 1976, Helsinki Festival /Britten: “Hymn to God the Father” Harpist Osian Ellis

1977 201. World Premiere June 1, 1977, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh : Five Sonnets: To Orpheus Harpist Osian Ellis

161

202. World Premiere June 16, 1977, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Robin Holloway: This is just to say Song cycle for tenor and piano Pianist Stephen Ralls

203. World Premiere November 10, 1977, Mandel Hall, Univ of Chicago Britten: “Lemady” Harpist Osian Ellis

204. World Premiere November 10, 1977, Mandel Hall, University of Chicago Britten: “The False Knight upon the Road” Harpist Osian Ellis

1978 Premiere of an Revised Work June 14, 1978, Maltings, Snape Lennox Berkeley: Four Ronsard Sonnets seet 1), revised Two tenors and piano Tenor Ian Partridge and pianist Steuart Bedford

205. World Premiere June 14, 1978, Maltings, Snape David Bedford: On the Beach at Night Two tenors, piano (2 and 4 hands) and chamber organ Tenor Ian Partridge, pianist Stuart Bedford and organist Graham Barber

206. World Premiere June 22, 1978, Maltings, Snape Krzysztof Meyer: Lyric Triptych Contrapunti Chamber Orchestra and conductor Michael Lankester

207. World Premiere June 23, 1978, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Robin Holloway: Willow Cycle Harpist Osian Ellis

1979 208. World Premiere June 9, 1979, Maltings, Snape Robin Holloway: La figlia che piange Harpist Osian Elias

209. World Premiere June 19, 1979, Maltings, Snape William Walton: Façade II: A Further Entertainment Pears as Speaker, English Chamber Orchestra and conductor Steuart Bedford

162

1980 210. World Premiere March 4, 1980, University of East Anglia Britten: “Beware!” (from Beware! [1922-6]) Pianist John Blakely Performed at a lecture given by Arthur Batchelor

211. World Premiere May 28, 1980, Zürich Rolf Urs Ringger: Shelley Songs Collegium Musicum Chamber Orchestra and conductor Paul Sacher

212. World Premiere June 11, 1980, Maltings, Snape Colin Matthews: Shadows in the Water Pianist Steuart Bedford

213. World Premiere June 18, 1980, Maltings, Snape Jon Tavener: Six Abbassid Songs (texts from 6th – 8th centuries) For tenor, 3 flutes and percussion Flutists Jonathon Snowden, Julian Coward, and Graham Nash and percussionist Ann Collis

1982 214. World Premiere ?/?/1982, location unknown Lennox Berkeley: Sonnet High voice and piano. This was a private performance of the song, which was dedicated to Hugues Ceunod with ‘love and admiration.’ Soprano Jane Watson later gave the official premiere at Wigmore Hall.

1983 Premiere of an Arrangement November 22, 1983 Britten: The Heart of the Matter Pears as speaker, tenor This is a revision of the original 1956 work, in which Pears revised the original sequence of texts for this performance and for publication.

1984 215. World Premiere June 22, 1984, Maltings, Snape Robin Holloway: Moments of Vision For speaker and 4 players Hartley Trio and percussionist John Evans

163

APPENDIX B

Other Premieres Performances Without Dates

In alphabetical order by composer:

Benjamin Britten: “At the Mid-hour of Night” No. 5 from Folksong arrangements vol. 4 for high voice and piano.

Benjamin Britten: “Bonny at Morn” No. 4 from Eight Folksongs Arrangements for high voice and harp.

Benjamin Britten: “Bonny at Morn” No. 5 from Folksong Arrangements vol. 6 for high voice and guitar

Benjamin Britten: “Bugeilo’r Gwenith Gwyn (I was lonely and forlorn)” No. 5 from Eight Folksongs Arrangements for high voice and harp.

Benjamin Britten: “David of the White Rock (Dafydd y Garreg Wen)” No. 6 of Eight Folksongs Arrangements for high voice and harp.

Benjamin Britten: “The Deaf Woman’s Courtship” Britten arranged this song most likely in the 1950s for joint recitals by Peter Pears and Norma Procter, though no specific performances have been found.

Benjamin Britten: “Dear Harp of my Country” No. 7 from Folksong Arrangements vol. 4 for high voice and piano.

Benjamin Britten: “Dink’s Song”

BenjaminBritten: “Greensleeves” For high voice and piano (1941?)

Benjamin Britten: “The Holly and the Ivy”

Benjamin Britten: “Lord! I Married me a Wife.” No. 1 from Eight Folksongs Arrangements for high voice and harp.

164 Benjamin Britten: “O the sight entrancing” No. 10 from Folksong Arrangements vol. 4 for high voice and piano.

Benjamin Britten: “Pray Goody” For high voice and piano (1945-6?)

Benjamin Britten: “Rich and rare” No. 6 from Folksong Arrangements vol. 4 for high voice and piano.

Benjamin Britten: “Sail on, sail on” No. 2 from Folksong Arrangements vol. 4 for high voice and piano.

Jeremiah Clarke/Britten: “A Divine Hymn (Blest be those sweet regions)” For high voice and harp or piano This was realized sometime in 1975 or 1976, most certainly for Pears and Osian Ellis.

Christopher Headington: The Healing Fountain Headington (1930-1996) mentions in his biography on Peter Pears that the tenor premiered one of his compositions. He fails, however, to name the work. It may have been The Healing Fountain (1978) for medium voice and orchestra, “an eloquent memorial tribute to Britten which Headington ranked as his finest acheivement.”1

Pelham Humfrey/Britten: “Lord! I have Sinned” For high voice and harp or piano. This was realized sometime in 1975 or 1976, most certainly for Pears and Osian.

Henry Purcell/Britten: “In the Black Dungeon of Dispair” No. 3 from Henry Purcell: Two Divine Hymns and Alleluia for high voice and piano.

Henry Purcell/Britten: “No, Resistance is but Vain” No. 5 from Henry Purcell: Six Duets for high and low voices and piano.

Henry Purcell/Britten: “Shepherd Leave Decoying” No. 6 from Henry Purcell: Six Duets for high and low voices and piano.

Tippett, Michael: For Your Tomorrows, unknown instrumentation. In the 1968 edition of Grove’s, the author of the article of Pears states, “He sang in the first performance of… ‘For your Tomorrows’ by Michael Tippett.”2 There is, however, no mention of this title in any of Tippett’s lists of works.

1 Barry Peter Ould, “Christopher Headington,” Bardic Edition Music Publishers (accessed 8 November 2003), 2 Martha Kingdom Ward, “Pears, Peter (Neville Luard),” in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 6, 5th ed., ed. Eric Blom (New York: Macmillan, 1968), 603.

165

APPENDIX C

Human Subjects Approval

166 Sample Letter

167 APPENDIX D

Letters of Consent

168

169

170

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Musical Scores

Berkeley, Lennox. Four Ronsard Sonnets (set 1). London: Chester Music, 1953.

_____. Stabat Mater. London: Chester, 1950.

_____. Variations on a Hymn by Orlando Gibbons. London: J. & W. Chester/Edition Hansen, 1951.

Britten, Benjamin. Albert Herring: A in Three Acts. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1948.

_____. The Beggar’s Opera: A Ballad Opera by John Gay (1728), realized from the original airs by Benjamin Britten. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1949.

_____. Billy Budd: An Opera in Two Acts. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1951.

_____. Cabaret Songs. London: Faber Music, 1980.

_____. Canticle I. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1949.

184 _____. Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1953.

_____. Choral Dances from Gloriana: For Tenor Solo, Harp and Chorus. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1982.

_____. The Company of Heaven. London: Faber Music, 1990; 1992 revised edition.

_____. Fish in the Unruffled Lakes: Six Settings of W. H. Auden for High Voice and Piano, ed. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1997.

_____. Folksong Arrangements: Volume I, British Isles. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1943.

_____. Folksong Arrangements: Volume II, France. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1946.

_____. Folksong Arrangements: Volume III, British Isles. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1947.

_____. Gloriana: Opera in Three Acts. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1953.

_____. The Holy Sonnets of John Donne. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1947.

_____. Peter Grimes: Opera in Three Acts and a Prologue. London: Boosey and Hawkes, 1945.

_____. The Rape of Lucretia: Opera in Two Acts. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1946.

_____. The Red Cockatoo & Other Songs. London: Faber Music, 1994.

_____. Saint Nicolas. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1948.

_____. Serenade for Tenor, Horn and String Orchestra. London: Hawkes & Sons, Ltd., 1944.

_____. Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1941.

_____. The Spring Symphony. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1949.

_____. Tom Bowling and Other Song Arrangements. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 2001.

_____. The Turn of the Screw: Opera in a Prologue and Two Acts. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1955.

_____. A Wedding Anthem (Amo Ergo Sum). London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1949.

185 _____. Winter Words: Lyrics and Ballads of Thomas Hardy. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1953.

Bush, Alan. Voices of the Prophets. London: Joseph Williams Limited, 1953.

Copland, Aaron. Old American Songs (first set). U. S. A.: Boosey & Hawkes, 1952.

_____. Old American Songs (second set). U. S. A.: Boosey & Hawkes, 1954.

Holst, Gustav. The Wandering Scholar: A Chamber Opera in One Act, ed. Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst. London: Faber Music, 1968.

Monteverdi, Claudio. Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. New Edition with English Text by Peter Pears. London: J & W Chester, 1954.

Oldham, Arthur. Five Chinese Lyrics: for High Voice and Piano. London: Novello, 1965.

Oldham, Arthur. The Commandment of Love: Sacred Lyrics of Richard Rolle. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1952.

Orr, Robin. Four Romantic Songs: for Tenor, with Oboe and String Quartet. London: Edition Peters, 1960.

Purcell, Henry. Dido and Aeneas: Opera in Three Acts, realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1960.

_____. Harmonia Sacra: Job’s Curse, realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1950.

_____. Harmonia Sacra: Saul and the Witch at Endor, realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1950.

_____. Harmonia Sacra: Three Divine Hymns, realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1947

_____. Harmonia Sacra: Two Divine Hymns and Alleluia, realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1960.

_____. A Miscellany of Songs for One/Two Voices & Piano, realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. London: Faber Music, 1994.

_____. Orpheus Britannicus: Five Songs, realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. London: Bossey & Hawkes, 1960.

186 _____. Orpheus Britannicus: Seven Songs, realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. London, Boosey & Hawkes, 1947.

_____. Orpheus Britannicus: Six Duets, realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1947.

_____. Orpheus Brittanicus: Six Songs, realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1948.

_____. The Queen’s Epicedium. realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1946.

_____. Suite of Songs from Orpheus Britannicus: for High Voice and Orchestra, realized and edited by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1956.

Rainier, Priaulx. Cycle for Declamation: From ‘Devotions’ John Donne. London: Schott, 1954.

Schubert, Franz. Gretchens Bitte: Szene aus Goethes Faust für hohe Stimme und Klavier [D. 564], completed by Benjamin Britten. London: Faber Music, 1998.

Schumann, Robert. Dichterliebe in Selected Songs for Solo Voice and Piano, from the Complete Works Edition, ed. Clara Schumann. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1981.

Seiber, Mátyás. To Poetry. London: Schott, 1954.

Tippett, Michael. Boyhood’s End: Cantata for Tenor Voice and Piano. London: Schott, 1945.

_____. The Heart’s Assurance: Song Cycle of Poems by Sidney Keyes and Alun Lewis. London: Schott, Ltd., 1951.

Wood, R. W. Three Songs for Tenor Voice and Piano. Bradwell, Essex: Anglian Edition, 1982.

Wordsworth, William. Four Sacred Sonnets. London: Alfred Lengnick, 1946.

_____. Four Songs for High Voice with Pianoforte Accompaniment. London: Alfred Lengnick, 1948.

187 On-line Sources

The Britten-Pears Library. “Online Catalogue.”

East, Leslie and Gordon Rumson. “Mellers, Wilfrid,” Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2 January 2004),

Flothuis, Marius. “Lier, Bertus van,” Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 20 October 2003),

Hall, Reg. “Tanner, Phillip,” Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 30 December 2003),

Kemp, Ian and Hubert van der Spuy: “Rainier, (Ivy) Priaulx,” Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 6 November 2003),

Mason, Colin, Hugo Cole, and David C. F. Wright. “Searle, Humphrey,” Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 24 October 2003),

Ould, Barry Peter. “Christopher Headington,” Bardic Edition Music Publishers, (Accessed 8 November 2003),

Routh, Francis. “Humphrey Searle,” Coventry University Music Web Site (Accessed 24 October 2003),

Searle, Humphrey. “Quadrille with a Raven: Memoirs by Humphrey Searle.” Classical Music on the Web (Accessed 24 October 2003),

Wetherell, Eric, “Cooke, Arnold,” Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2 January 2004),

Wright, David C. F., “Humphrey Searle,” Classical Music on the Web (accessed 24 October 2003),

Unpublished Material

Hopkins, Antony to the author, letter, 30 July 2003.

Mitchell, Donald. Interview by author, 15 March 2003, London. Tape recording.

Mountain, Peter to the author, letter, 25 April 2003.

188 Orr, Robin to the author, letter, 15 March 2003.

Schurmann, Gerard. Interview by author, 19 September 2002, telephone.

_____. Interview by author, 20 June 2003, telephone.

Strode, Rosamund. Interview by author, 14 March 2003, Aldeburgh, England. Tape recording.

Surfling, Anne, “Premiere List,” a list of Peter Pears’s first performances and broadcast premieres.

Wheeler, Pam. Email to the author, 19 September 2003.

Williams, Grace, Wales, to Peter Pears, London, 18 November 1950. Manuscript in the Britten-Pears Library Archives.

189

INDEX

Anderson, Hedli, 20 Fly,” 65; “If Music Be the Food of Love,” (first version) Ansermet, Ernest, 63 73, 89; “If Music Be the Food of Love,” (third version) Anthony, Trevor, 105 52-53, 70n.; “I’ll Sail upon the Dogstar,” 32-33, 35; Arne, Thomas, 104 Illuminations, les, 19, 99; “I Spy Celia,” 52-53, 77; “I Auden, Wystan, 17, 20, 28, 110 Take no Pleasure,” 97; “I Wonder as I Wander,” 23, 25; Austin, Richard, 41 Job’s Curse, 72, 73, 77; “Knotting Song, The,” 18; Let’s Bach, Johann Sebastian, 7, 79; St. Matthew Passion, Make an Opera!, 78, 79; “Little Sir William,” 19, 33-34, 65, 80, 86 38, 41; “Lord, What is Man?” 52-55, 68; “Lost in My Baudelaire, Charles, 39 Quiet,” 52-53, 77; “Mad Bess,”52; “Man is for a Woman Bax, Arnold, 1 Made,” 52-53, 73; “Miller of Dee, The,” 61-62, 69; Bedford, Herbert, 113-114; “Morning Prayer,” 61-62; “Music for a While, 52; “Not Behr, Teresa, 6-7 all my Torments,” 29-30, 35; “O Can ye Sew Cushions,” Beinum, Eduard van, 81 33; “Oliver Cromwell,” 19-20, 27, 38, 41; “On the Brow Bennett, Richard Rodney, 113 of Richmond Hill,” 32-33; On This Island, 14-15, 43; Berg, Wozzeck, 47 Our Hunting Fathers, op. 8, 58; “O Waly Waly,” 61-62; Berkeley, Lennox Randal, 15, 122; Four Ronsard Peter Grimes, 21-22, 24, 29, 36, 38, 41-42, 45-50, 55-58, Sonnets (set 1), 106 Nelson, 106; Stabat Mater, op. 28, 62, 99, 117, 121; “Plough Boy, The, “ 50-51, 62; 67-68; Variations on a Hymn of Orlando Gibbons, 105 “Quand j’étais che mon père,” 28; Queen’s Epicedium, Bernard, James, 121-122; Shepherd’s Warning, 121 The, 43-44, 55, 70n.; Rape of Lucretia, The, 61-64, 79, 122, 123n. 83; Rejoice in the Lamb, 105; “Salley Gardens, The,” 19, Berriman, Gwen, 40 38; Saint Nicolas, 74-77, 79, 97; Saul and the Witch at Bijlsma, Sybrand, 61 Endor, 52-55, 77, 103; Serenade, 33-37, 56, 58, 109, Bing, Rudolf, 62 117; “Seven Blessings of Mary, The,” 23; Seven Sonnets Blyth, Mary, 29 of Michelangelo, 21, 23-27, 30, 32-35, 42, 73, 115; Bonavia, Ferruccio, 24 “Sound the Alarm,” 70n.; “Sound the Trumpet,” 43-44; Borgese, Guiseppe Antonio, 17 Spring Symphony, The, 78, 81-83, 101; “Stream in the Boughton, Joy, 89n. Valley, The,” 61-62; Suite of Six Songs from Orpheus Boyce, Bruce, 97n., 99n. Brittanicus, 61-62; “Sweeter than Roses,” 59, 70; “Sweet Brahms, Johannes, 7 Polly Oliver,” 50; Symphonic Suite from Gloriana, 112; Brain, Dennis, 33 “There’s None to Soothe,” 50-51; “There’s not a Swain Bream, Julian, 121, 122, 123 on the Plain,” 32-33; This Way to the Tomb (incidental Brent Smith, Alexander, 10-11; “My Eyes for Beauty Music), 79; Turn of the Screw, The, 102, 117-121; “Turn Pine,” 10-11 Then Thine Eyes,” 45; Two Solo Anthems for Tenor, 43; Bridge, Frank, 79 Wandering Scholar, The, 78; “We Sing to Him,” 60; Britten, Benjamin, 1-6, 8, 73, 78, 114, 122; “Ach, Wedding Anthem (Amo Sum Ergo), 83-84, 86; “What neige du Schmerzenreiche,” 29; Albert Herring, 65 Can We Poor Females Do,” 52-53, 77; “When Myra 67, 79, 83, 97; “Alleluia,” 77; A.M.G.D., 16-17; “Ash Sings,” 70; Winter Words, 114-116, 120 Grove, The,” 19-20, 38; Beggar’s Opera, The, 72, 74, Brown, Lucy, 25 75, 104; Billy Budd, 78, 93, 99, 101, 121; “Birthday Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 39 Song for Erwin,” 50-51; “Bonny Earl o’Moray, The,” Burra, Nell, 11 19-20; “Brisk Young Widow, The,” 117-118; Burning Burra, Peter, 13 Fiery Furnace, The, 24; “Ca’ te Yowes,” 93; “Calypso,” Bush, Alan, Voices of the Prophets, 107-108 19-20; Canticle: My Beloved is Mine, 68-70, 72, 73, 103; Bush, Graham, 105 Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, 101-103, 119; Canticle Campion, Thomas, 39 III, 102; “Celemene, Pray Tell Me,” 61, 77; Ceremony of Carey, Clive, 11 Carols, A, 21; Company of Heaven, 13-14, 36; The, Cavelti, Elsa, 72 Courtly Dances from Gloriana, 112, 118; “Crocodile, Chaliapin, Fyodor, 42, 47 The,” 19-20; “Dialogue of Corydon and Mopsa, The,” Christie, John, 62-63 88; Dido and Aeneas, 94; “Evening Hymn,” 43-44; Clark, Kenneth, 64 “Fairest Isle,” 52-53; Fairy Queen, Coates, Albert, 13 The, 88; “Fish in the Unruffled Lakes,” 28, 70; “Foggy, Cocteau, Jean, 99n. Foggy Dew, The,” 26-27, 69; Gloriana, 109-112, 114, Collier, Marie, 123 118, 120; “Hark, the Ech’ing Air, 18, 35; Holy Sonnets Cooke, Arnold, 113 of John Donne, 55-59, 66, 69, 115; “Hymn,” 23; Hymn Cooper, Roger, 105 to St. Cecelia, 21; “I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Copland, Aaron, 16; “Dirge in the Woods,” 88; Old

190 American Songs (first set), 86-89; Old American Songs Isherwood, Christopher, 15 (second set), 88; On Tragic Ground, 87; Twelve Poems Jacob, Gordon, 39, 90 of Emily Dickinson, 88; James, George, 77, 78 Cross, Joan, 42, 45, 47, 52, 61-62, 77, 83, 86, 92n., Janacek, Leos, Diary of a Young Man who Vanished, 97n., 110 41 Crozier, Eric, 46, 62, 64, 99 Johnson, Graham, 24 Cuenod, Hughes, 107 Jomelli, Niccolo, La passione di nostro Signore Gesu Curzon, Clifford, 1 Cristo, 92 Danco, Suzanne, 99n. Jones, Robert, 79 Davis, Bernard, 89n. Kelly, Cuthbert, 12, 54 Dehn, Paul, 121, 123n. Kleiber, Erich, 93 Deller, Alfred, 105 Klemperer, Otto, 7 Dickinson, Peter, 67-68 Krebs, Helmut, 99n. Donne, John, 55 Lawson, Catherine, 97n. Doorn-Linderman, Dors van, 81 Lanigan, John, 123 Douglas, Basil, 12-13, 17, 106, 118 Lier, Bertus van, 80-81; The Song of Songs (Het Dowland, John, 79 hooglied), 80-81 Drakeford, Richard, 114 Luard, Jessie, 10, 66 Duncan, Ronald, 51, This Way to the Tomb, 79 Lumdsen, Donald, 32, 97n. Einstein, Albert, 17 Lutoslawski, Witold, 2 Ellis, Ossian, 112 Lutyens, Elisabeth, 90 Enesco, Georges, 99n. MacDonagh, Terrance, 85 English, Gerald, 123 Maconchy, Elizabeth, 90 Evans, Peter, 36 Mahler, Gustav, , 69; Ferrier, Kathleen, 81, 88-89, 99n., 101, 102 Malcolm, George, 107 Fischer, Sylvia, 110 Malli, Max, 70 Ford, Thomas, 79 Mann, Thomas, 17 Francis, John, 62, 89n. Mansfield, Katherine, 41 Franklin, Norman, 23 Marchesi, Mathilde, 7 Freer, Dawson, 5, 11 Mare, Walter de la, 39 Garcia II, Manuel, 7 Martin, Frank, Six Monologues from Jedermann, 72 Gauntlet, Ambrose, 89n. Mayer, Elizabeth, 17-18, 22-23, 42 Gay, John, Beggar’s Opera, 72, 74, 75 Mayer, William, 29 Geiger, Hans, 89n. McArthur, Margaret, 42 Gellhorn, Peter, 92n. McInnes, Campbell, 6 Gendron, Maurice, 62 McNaught, William, 53 Gerhardt, Elena, 6 Mellers, Wilfrid, 113 Gerster, Etelka, 7 Menges, Herbert, 29 Gluck, Christoph Willibald, Iphigenia en Tauride, 92 Menuhin, Yehudi, 55 Goddard, Scott, 47 Mewton-Wood, Noel, 92, 97, 107, 110 Goehr, Walter, 41-42 Mitchell, Dr. Donald, CBE, 2, 4, 24, 29, 50, 114 Goodall, Reginald, 47 Modl, Martha, 99n. Gow, Dorothy, 90 Monteverdi, Claudio, 32, Il combattimento di Tancredi e Greene, Kenneth, 121 Clorinda, 93-94, 97 Greene, Maurice, Two Solo Anthems for Tenor, 43 Mozart, Wolfgang, Così fan tutte, 27, 45, 46; Zauberflöte, Guthrie, Tyrone, 64, 74 Die, 27, 93 Handel, Georg Frideric, 28, 38, 62, 75, 89, 97 Jephtha, 89, Mountain, Peter, 89n. 97; Messiah, 38; Samson, 38 Mullimar, Michael, 40 Harewood, Lord, 83 Mundy, Clytie Hine, 7-8 Harris, Rita, 32 Niles, John Jacob, 23 Harvey, Trevor, 12-13, 92 Oldham, Arthur, 73, 79-80; Commandment of Love, Hawkes, Ralph, 19, 64 The, 97-99, 104, 107; Love in a Village, 99, 103-104; Herbage, Julian, 21, 47 Summer’s Lease, 73; Rising Holst, Gustav, 1, 79; Wandering Scholar, The, 78; Sunne, The, 73; Five Chinese Lyrics, 79-80, 97; Savitri, 49-50 Ord, Boris, 77 Holst, Imogen, 1, 78, 90, 105, 119, 121 Orr, Robin, 113; Four Romantic Songs, 85, 89;Three Hooke, Emily, 41 Romantic Songs, 85 Hopkins, Antony, 47-48; Songs of Cyprus, 32 Partridge, Ian, 67, 107 Hopkins, Gerald Manley, 17 Partridge, Jennifer, 67 Howells, Herbert, 39, 121 Pears, Arthur, 10 Howes, Frank, 47 Pears, Peter, “When Within My Arms I Hold You,” 13 Hudson, W.H., 31 Perotin, “Beata viscera Mariae virginis,” 118, 119 Hussey, Reverend Walter Piper, Myfanwy, 118 Ireland, John, 86 Pitfield, Thomas, “Winter Song,” 40-41

191 Pizzey, George, 92 Rex, 99, 122; Persephone, 93 Polacco, Giorgio, 8 Strode, Rosamund, 18, 114 Preston, Tatiana, 97n. Susskind, Walter, 41 Pritchard, John, 110 Tanner, Phil, 91 Puccini, Giacomo, bohème, La, 27, 55 Tavener, Jon Purcell, Henry, 3, 32, 79; “Alleluia,” 77; “Celemene, Tippet, Michael, 1-2, 122; Boyhood’s End, 30-32, 35, Pray Tell Me,” 61, 77; “Dialogue of Corydon and 41, 94, 97, 108; Child of our Time, A, 41-42; Heart’s Mopsa, The,” 88; Dido and Aeneas, 94; “Evening Assurance, The, 94-97; Midsummer’s Marriage, 94 Hymn,” 43-44; “Fairest Isle,” 52-53; “Hark, the Ech’ing Tovey, Sir Donald, 38 Air, 18, 35; Harmonia Sacra, 55; “I Attempt from Vaughan Williams, Ralph, 90 Love’s Sickness to Fly,” 65; “If Music Be the Food of Verdi, Giusseppe, 97; Ballo in mascera, un, 97n.; Due Love,” (first version) 73,89; “If Music Be the Food of foscari, i, 97n.; Falstaff, 97n.; Giorno di regno, un, 97n.; Love,” (third version) 52-53, 70n.; “I’ll Sail upon the Giovanna d’arco, 97n.; Luisa Miller, 97n.; Macbeth, Dogstar,” 32-33; “I Spy Celia,” 52-53, 77; “I Take no 97n.; Masnadieri, i, 97n.; Otello, 97n.; Traviata, la, 27, Pleasure,” 97; Job’s Curse, 72, 73, 77; “Lord, What is 97n. Man?” 52-55; “Lost in My Quiet,” 52-53, 77; “Man is Vincent, Jo, 81 for a Woman Made,” 52-53, 73; “Morning Prayer,” 61- Wagner, Richard, 5 62; “Music for a While, 52; “Not all my Torments,” 29- Walker, Norman, 42 30, 35; “On the Brow of Richmond Hill,” 32-33; “Pious Walton, William, 122-123; Anon in Love, 123; Ballet Celinda,” 43-44; Queen’s Epicedium, The, 43-44, 55, in One Act: Based on the Entertainment, 123; Bear: 70n.; Saul and the Witch at Endor, 52-55, 77, 103; An Extravaganza in One Act, The, 123; Façade II: “Sound the Alarm,” 70n.;“Sound the Trumpet,” 43-44; A Further Entertainment, 123; Troilus and Suite of Six Songs from Orpheus Brittanicus, 61-62; Cressida, 122-123 “Sweeter than Roses,” 59, 70; “There’s not a Swain on Warfield, William, 88 the Plain,” 32-33; “Turn Then Thine Eyes,” 45; “We Warlock, Peter, Corpus Christi Carol, 12 Sing to Him,” 60; “What Can We Poor Females Do,” 52- Webern, Anton, Four Songs, op. 12, 71; Wellesz, Egon, 90, 53, 77; “When Myra Sings,” 70 113; Alleluia dic nobis, 90 Purves, Alison, 32 Wheeler, Pam, 15 Rainier, Priaulx, 112-113; Cycle for Declamation, White, Eric Walter, 46 112-113; Williams, Grace, 89-92; “Bonny at the Morn,” 92n.; Rawsthorne, Alan, 60 “Flight,” 92; “Il etait une bergere,” 92n..; “O Rare Rehfuss, Heinz, 99n. Turpin,” 92n.; Six Welsh Oxen Songs, 90; “Song of the Ringger, Rolf Urs Flax,” 92n.; Three Traditional Welsh Ballads, 89-92; Ritchie, Margaret, 44, 52-53, 78, 92 Two French Folksongs, 92n.; Violin Concerto, 91; Rogers, Iris Holland, 41 “Watching the Wheat,” 92 Rosseter, Philip, 79 Wood, Anne, 12-13 Roth, Ernst, 117 Wood, Ralph Walter, Three Songs, 38-40 Sackville-West, Edward, 24, 46-47 Wood, Richard, 52; Scharl, Josef, 17 Woodgate, Leslie, 73 Schey, Hermann, 81 Woodward, Ralph, 24 Schnabel, Artur, 6 Wordsworth, William B., “Full Moon,” 39; “Image, Schoenberg, Arnold, 51, 90 The,” 39; “Serenade,” 39; “Snowflake, The,” 38- Schubert, Franz, 23; “Ach, neige du Schmerzenreiche,” 29 39; “Song of Shadows,” 39; Schumann, Robert, Dichterliebe, 25, 28, 32, 86; Wyss, Sophie, 15-16, 28, 35, 86 Myrthen, 24; Schurmann, Gerard, 60, 76; Five Facets, 60-61; Six Songs of William Blake, 61 Schütz, Heinrich, 118 Schwartz, Rudolf, 112 Searle, Humphrey, Put Away the Flutes, 70-71 Seiber, Mátyás, 108-109; To Poetry, 107, 108-109 Semino, Norina, 43 Sharpe, Frederick, 78 Shaw, Martin, God’s Grandeur, 75 Sheppard, Reverend Dick, 69 Shostakovich, Dmitri, Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, 12 Sitwell, Osbert, 75 Slater, Montagu, 22 Smetana, Biedrich, Bartered Bride, The, 55, 66 Steel, Bernard, 92 Stein, Erwin, 33, 51 Stein, Marion, 83 Stockhausen, Julius, 7 Stravinsky, Igor, 117; Cantata (1952), 117; Oedipus

192

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Tenor Christopher Swanson was born in Michigan on October 22, 1975. He holds degrees in voice performance from Michigan State University (1997), University of Tennessee, Knoxville (1999), and Florida State University (2004). He has studied with Paul Hartfield, Geogre Bitzas, and Stanford Olsen. Mr. Swanson has performed leading roles in such operas as The Turn of the Screw, The Rake’s Progress, Die Zauberflöte, Così fan tutte, The Crucible. He has also performed leading roles in numerous Bach Cantatas, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s The Creation, and Handel’s Saul and Messiah. Christopher is featured on the 2000 Newport Classics release of ’s Princess Ida as well as a 2002 recording of ’s opera . Mr. Swanson has taught music at Pellissippi State Technical Community College and Roane State Community College in Tennessee and is currently on the Music Faculty of Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia where he teaches private voice lessons, sight- singing, and is the director of the Opera Workshop. Christopher and his wife Jennifer have three children: Ellie Catherine, Abigail Grace, and Charles Christopher.

193