The Gift He Gave Us: How W. H. Auden’s Influence Shaped Benjamin Britten into England’s Next Henry Purcell

Authors

Abigail Lilite, Cedarville UniversityFollow

Publication Date

10-16-2024

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Auden, Britten, Purcell, poetry, text setting, text depiction

Abstract

While Britten possessed a brilliant mind, he looked outward to others for inspiration, both those who had come before him, like Henry Purcell, and his peers, like his life-long partner, Peter Pears, and the poet, Wystan H. Auden. To become the great English composer he became, Britten needed to have been impacted by these different relationships. Without Wystan H. Auden’s influence on and collaboration with Benjamin Britten, the composer would not have developed as deep an appreciation for poetry within music and an awareness of the challenges of text setting. Consequently, Britten emulated hallmarks of Purcell, revitalizing tradition and asserting himself into the canon of Western music.

Volume

15

Issue

2

Article Number

3

First Page

69

Last Page

85

DOI

10.15385/jmo.2024.15.2.3

Recommended Citation

Lilite, Abigail (2024) "The Gift He Gave Us: How W. H. Auden’s Influence Shaped Benjamin Britten into England’s Next Henry Purcell," Musical Offerings: Vol. 15: No. 2, Article 3.
DOI: 10.15385/jmo.2024.15.2.3
Available at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings/vol15/iss2/3

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.