Benjamin Britten: Text Setting as Cultural Custodian in Art Song Paul Higgins Thesis Submitted to the National University of Ireland Maynooth for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Music National University of Ireland Maynooth Maynooth, Co. Kildare October 2010 Head of Department: Professor Fiona M. Palmer Supervisor: Doctor Lorraine Byrne Bodley For Rita ABSTRACT Benjamin Britten: Text Setting as Cultural Custodian in Art Song Proposing the thesis that, for Benjamin Britten, text-setting analysis is analogous to song analysis; this dissertation cautions that non-engagement in text-setting is to approach song as if it were instrumental music; likewise, to consider inadequately the wide-ranging musical implications of music-text relations is to limit the interpretive possibilities of song. This research approaches the analysis of song through an engagement with songs composed by Britten in the 1930s from texts by W. H. Auden. Blending insights from literary and linguistic studies with rhythmic analysis, this necessarily interdisciplinary research places song analysis in cultural context; text (poetic and musical) requires social context. Setting out with this rationale and these aims, this dissertation offers new perspectives for song interpretation, song classification and the social function of song. Poetic analysis is presented as central to an understanding of Britten’s song text setting. The mimetic possibility of song to present word and mood painting receives widespread support. This dissertation goes beyond this often considered diminutive fundamental capacity of song to represent text, and recognises a more complete representation of poetic form, the effect of individual words and word units and poetic meaning, in song. Musical language is repeatedly and consistently shown to highlight, to reinforce, to accentuate, to stress, to correlate and align with text; essentially song complements or contests verbal language. These musical equivalences are shown to be derivative of text but also become independent of text in song. Text setting is proposed not as one possible component of song analysis; rather text setting is the ultimate consolidating focus of song interpretation. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations viii Acknowledgements ix List of musical examples x List of tables xii Introduction I Background to this research xiv II Rationale for this research xv III Aims of this research xvi IV Research questions and related questions posed by this dissertation xx V Delimitations of this research xxi VI Methodologies xxiii VI.a Dissertation methodology xxiii VI.b Song analytical methodology xxvi VII Literature overview xxvii VIII Challenges encountered during this research xxviii IX Dissertation audience xxix X Note to the reader xxx Part 1: Art song: lyric poetics and music-text relations 1 Chapter 1: Britten’s art song: a direct engagement with the lyric origins of Lieder 1.1 Introduction 2 1.2 English art song in the 1930s 3 1.3 The condition of Lieder by mid-twentieth century 7 1.4 Britten’s foreign-language art-song repertory 10 1.5 Britten’s style of Lieder performance 12 1.6 Britten and the German language 16 1.7 Significance of Britten’s selection of Hölderlin poetry 17 1.8 Hölderlin cycle: poetic source and musical setting 20 1.8.1 I. ‘Menschenbeifall’ (Human Applause) 23 1.8.2 II. ‘Die Heimat’ (Home) 25 1.8.3 III. ‘Sokrates und Alcibiades’ (Socrates and Alcibiades) 26 1.8.4 IV. ‘Die Jugend’ (Youth) 29 1.8.5 V. ‘Hälfte des Lebens’ (The Middle of Life) 33 1.8.6 VI. ‘Die Linien des Lebens’ (Lines of Life) 36 1.9 Musical unity through tonal structure 38 1.10 Britten’s Lieder: a new perspective 41 Chapter 2: Text setting: theoretical approaches to the relationship of music and words in song 2.1 Introduction 44 2.2.1 Text setting: an issue of definition 46 iv Contents continued 2.2.2 Text setting: a still-evolving approach 48 2.3.1 Theoretical stance 51 2.3.1.1 Langer: music swallows whole words! 53 2.3.1.2 Cone’s contributions 55 2.3.1.3 Assimilation: appropriation and beyond 59 2.3.1.4 Coroniti’s variant reiterations 61 2.3.1.5 Lewin’s own approach: a summation 63 2.3.2 ‘A’ reading of the text 65 2.3.3.1 Mimetic techniques: strength or weakness 68 2.3.3.2 A mimetic evaluation model 75 2.3.3.3 An application of Stacey’s model to Britten’s song 81 2.3.4 Music analysis 87 2.3.4.1 Agawu’s models of music analysis: genesis and responses 93 2.3.5 Interpretation of music analysis 98 2.4 Unique ideas of song 101 2.4.1 ‘Songfulness’ 102 2.4.2 ‘Vocality’ 105 2.4.3 ‘Cantaparolation’ 108 2.5 Rhythmic musico-poetic approach to song 110 2.6 Conclusion: an approach to Britten’s art song 116 Part 2: Cultural contexts: text setting in Britten’s English- language songs from W. H. Auden, an interdisciplinary study 122 Chapter 3: Britten and Auden in the 1930s: an evolving collaborative process 3.1 Initial artistic inequality 123 3.2.1 Educational comparison 124 3.2.2 Immediate post-formal educational experience 126 3.3 Auden the poet: before engagement with Britten 127 3.4.1 Auden’s 1930s poetic style: an exposition of text-setting possibilities 129 3.4.2 Poetics for Auden 130 3.4.3 Textual meaning and ambiguity 132 3.4.4 Poetic irony and humour 134 3.4.5 Exposure to secondary poetic influences in Auden’s poetry 135 3.4.6 Auden on text and performance 137 3.5 The issue of contemporary topicality: a possible poetic limiting factor 139 3.6 The Auden Generation 140 3.7 Britten and Auden: musical collaboration 143 3.8 The evolution of a collaborative process in art song 150 3.9 Auden: a diverse influence 155 3.9.1 Britten’s Auden: a literary guide 156 3.9.2 Britten’s Auden: a political stimulus 158 3.9.3 Britten’s Auden: a social force and personal sexual liberator 161 3.10 Britten after Auden: an enduring influence 163 3.11 To Auden the last word 165 v Contents continued Chapter 4: The role of text setting and literary connectives in genre classification: On This Island a song cycle? 4.1 Introduction 168 4.2 Relevance of genre signification 169 4.3.1.1 ‘Let the Florid Music Praise’: poetic source 171 4.3.1.2 ‘Let the Florid Music Praise’, On This Island op.11 no.1: musical setting 174 4.3.2.1 ‘Now the Leaves Are Falling Fast’: poetic source 182 4.3.2.2 ‘Now the Leaves Are Falling Fast’, On This Island op.11 no.2: musical setting 186 4.3.3.1 ‘Look, Stranger, at This Island Now’: poetic source 194 4.3.3.2 ‘Seascape’, On This Island op.11 no.3: musical setting 201 4.3.4.1 ‘Now through Night’s Caressing Grip’: poetic source 216 4.3.4.2 ‘Nocturne’ On This Island op.11 no.4: musical setting 221 4.3.5.1 ‘As It Is, Plenty’: poetic source 231 4.3.5.2 ‘As It Is, Plenty’ On This Island op.11 no.5: musical setting 236 4.4.1 Britten’s On This Island : new perspectives on its classification 248 4.4.2 Bernhart’s approach to song cycle classification 250 4.4.3 Poetic form in musical unity 252 4.4.4 The contribution of textual association in the creation of musical unity 253 4.4.5 A unifying tonal scheme: On This Island reconsidered 258 4.5 On This Island : a song cycle 259 Chapter 5: Poetry as impetus for the expression of sexual awakening and realisation in song 5.1 Introduction 264 5.2.1 A framework for a sexually informed reading of song 267 5.2.2 The 1930s: a legal, artistic and social framework 273 5.2.3 Living an ‘open secret’ 277 5.3.1 The Auden factor 279 5.3.2 Auden’s text as agent of personal realisation and sexual freedom 284 5.3.3 An expansion of Britten’s sexual awareness 286 5.4 An issue of publication: works that remained waiting in the closet 288 5.5.1 Song preliminaries 289 5.5.2.1 ‘Underneath the Abject Willow’: poetic source 290 5.5.2.2 ‘Underneath the Abject Willow’: musical setting 294 5.5.3.1 ‘To Lie Flat on the Back’: poetic source 304 5.5.3.2 ‘To Lie Flat on the Back’: musical setting 309 5.5.4.1 ‘Night Covers Up the Rigid Land’: poetic source 317 5.5.4.2 ‘Night Covers Up the Rigid Land’: musical setting 322 5.5.5.1 ‘The Sun Shines Down’: poetic source 338 5.5.5.2 ‘The Sun Shines Down’: musical setting 344 5.5.6.1 ‘Fish in the Unruffled Lakes’: poetic source 356 5.5.6.2 ‘Fish in the Unruffled Lakes’: musical setting 360 5.5.7.1 ‘What’s in Your Mind?’: poetic source 370 5.5.7.2 ‘What’s in Your Mind?’: musical setting 374 vi Contents continued 5.6 Conclusion: text setting as sexual discourse 382 Conclusion and research findings 6.1 Conclusion 390 6.2 Answering the secondary research questions 391 6.3 Answering the primary research question 396 6.4 Pathways for future research 397 Bibliography 400 Discography 428 vii ABBREVIATIONS A. Abbreviations in footnotes, tables, bibliography, and discography: B Bass (voice) Bar. Baritone (voice) bn Bassoon cl. Clarinet Ct Countertenor Eng. hn English horn fl. Flute gui. Guitar hn Horn Hp Harp Mez.