Expanded Perceptions of Identity in Benjamin Britten's Nocturne, Op. 60 Page: 15
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will occur in Chapter 4. In the final song, nature is present, but the images are not as explicit.
Shakespeare explores differences between shadow and light and between night and day
rather than any specific scene. However, Songs One, Four, and Seven are the most useful
when looking at how Britten used genres associated with nature to carve for himself a place
in music history within his country but apart from the major composers of the day. These
pastoral songs also shed light on Britten's choice of texts as another method of generating a
specifically English artistic lineage for himself.
When Britten was a young composer studying at the Royal College of Music, there
were two major movements in English music. Elgar and the "Brahms imitators" led one
side, and on the other side was the "Pastoral School," with Vaughan Williams at the forefront
and Holst, Delius, Bax, and Ireland close behind.' Britten found Elgar's music to be
disappointing. He also felt that the music of Vaughan Williams and his followers lacked
sophisticated technique. During Britten's time at the Royal College of Music, he had trouble
getting his music performed, and this made him resent Vaughan Williams even more. Later
in his life, Britten admitted that when he was young, he purposefully tried to cultivate his
technique in order to be different from the Pastoral School. In an effort to distance himself
from the Pastoral School, he longed to study composition with Berg, but that was not to be.2
Nevertheless, he found other ways to set his music apart. Whereas other British composers
drew inspiration from music of the Tudor period, Britten instead aligned himself with
'This topic is discussed in Meirion Hughes and Robert Stradling, The English Musical Renaissance, 1840-1940:
Constructing a National Music (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2001), especially 74-
75, 79-80, 95-96, 108-109. Also Humphrey Carpenter, Benjamin Britten: A Biography (New York: Charles
Scribner, 1993), 42.
2Carpenter, 39, 42, 46, 52.15
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Perkins, Anna Grace. Expanded Perceptions of Identity in Benjamin Britten's Nocturne, Op. 60, thesis, May 2008; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc6064/m1/20/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .