The Musician and Composer Benjamin Britten - 1913 - 1976.



Benjamin Britten, (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British classical music, composing a range of works including opera, orchestral and chamber pieces.

He also composed a small number of choral pieces that are still sung in Anglican services to-day. Although the choral pieces number amongst the minority of his compositions, Britten first came to public attention with a cappella ‘A Boy Was Born’ in 1934. This piece was a choral piece, originally written for the BBC singers.

There is an enormous amount of information that has been published about this iconic musician. Arguably one of his most important legacies is the Aldeburgh Music Festival, which has been held every year since 1948 at The Maltings in Snape. The Aldeburgh Festival was used to host the first performances of many of Britten's compositions and is still an active music venue today.

Snape is about 5 miles from Aldeburgh in Suffolk. Aldeburgh was the home of Britten and his lifetime partner the tenor Peter Pears, for whom he wrote a number of compositions. Aldeburgh is also close to Lowestoft where Britten was born.

Sanderstead Singers have sung one of his choral compositions, A Hymn to the Virgin, both at Southwell Minster in 1994, and at Norwich in 2017.


The following is an excerpt from a recording of Britten's 'A Hymn to the Virgin' sung at Norwich Cathedral during August 2017. The conductor was Fred Irvine and the Organist was Dan Soper. The recording is a Dartworth recording.



Acknoledgement: The information about Benjamin Britten, his life and his music has been taken from an obituary published in the New York Times on December 5th 1976.

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