This elegant hardcover book-and-CD package introduces the sights and sounds of the orchestra. After listening to the sounds of each instrument on the CD--from mellow flutes to blazing trumpets--readers may turn to the accompanying book to learn more about the orchestra and its instruments. All are invited to tour each section--string, woodwind, brass, and percussion--to discover what makes classical music so universally expressive. “This is a great book for children of all ages.”--American Bookseller

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (Book & CD)

Children's Books

Britten, Benjamin

Kingsley, Ben

Ganeri,Anita

Arts, Music & Photography

HMH Books for Young Readers

Critical commentary and information on the staging of first productions accompany the librettos of Britten's 16 operas including Paul Bunyan, Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, Death in Venice, and the Prodigal Son

The Operas of Benjamin Britten: The Complete Librettos : Illustrated With Costume and Set Designs of the First Productions

Arts & Photography

Herbert, David

Music

Columbia Univ. Pr.

The operas of Benjamin Britten: The complete librettos illustrated with designs of the first productions

H.Hamilton

These remarkable letters, never before published, constitute a comprehensive biography told largely in Britten's own words. Volume 1 accompanies him through prep and English public school and then to London to the Royal College of Music, where the young composer is plunged into metropolitan life and makes influential new friends, among them Auden and Isherwood. This was a time of prodigious musical creativity, a growing awareness of his homosexuality, and the dawning of his political convictions. It was during this time that Britten met Peter Pears, the partner with whom his musical and personal relationship was to last a lifetime. This volume closes in May, 1939, when Britten and Pears depart for the United States.Volume 2 offers an overview of a crucial period in American and British history, politics, and culture. Britten's experience of exile, his return with Pears to England to face recriminations as a Conscientious Objector and prejudice as a brilliant gay artist, and the triumph of his first major opera, Peter Grimes, are all outlined in letters which are a fascinating mix of the public and private.These first two volumes of the Selected Letters and Diaries—a further two are in preparation—make a fundamental contribution to Britten studies and to twentieth-century cultural history.

Letters From a Life: The Selected Letters and Diaries of Benjamin Britten. Volume One, 1923-1939; Volume Two, 1939-1945, Boxed set of 2 volumes

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

University of California Press

This long-awaited third volume of composer Benjamin Britten's remarkable letters covers the years 1946–51. Fresh from the astonishing success of his great first opera, Peter Grimes, Britten was vital to the post-war rebuilding of the arts in Great Britain with his visionary work as a composer, conductor, and performer. With his partner, the celebrated tenor Peter Pears, he founded the Aldeburgh Festival, which eventually grew into the international festival that it is today, and the English Opera Group. He also toured widely in Europe and the United States as a pianist and conductor. During this time he wrote many of his best-known works, including the operas Billy Budd, Albert Herring, and The Rape of Lucretia. Britten's correspondents include literary figures such as Christopher Isherwood, Edith Sitwell, E. M. Forster (the librettist for Billy Budd), and Edward Sackville-West, as well as musical colleagues from around the world including Ernest Ansermet, Francis Poulenc, Aaron Copland,and Igor Stravinsky. This volume of selected letters represents one of the richest and most innovative periods of the composer's creative life. His daily concerns and the unique era in which he lived are vividly evoked by the comprehensive and scholarly annotations, which offer a wide range of detailed and fascinating information. Donald Mitchell contributes a superb introduction.

Letters From a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Volume Three, 1946-1951

80 English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians

Karpeles, Maud

Sharp, Cecil J.

Faber&Faber

English National Opera Guides are ideal companions to the opera. They provide stimulating introductory articles together with the libretto and illustrations. This is a double volume dedicated to two masterpieces by Benjamin Britten. While Peter Grimes established Britten as a composer of international standing, Gloriana, composed for the coronation of Elizabeth II, has never enjoyed a comparable fame. The variety of mood, characterization and pace, in each, illustrates Britten's exceptional gift for theatre. Commentaries on the scores reveal, for instance, how much the popular concert extracts gain from their context in the dramas. The essay by E.M. Forster - the inspiration for Peter Grimes - is reprinted here, and Michael Holroyd discusses Lytton Strachey's controversial Elizabeth and Essex - the source for Gloriana.

Peter Grimes / Gloriana: (English National Opera Guide 24)

Reference

Overture Publishing

A Midsummer Night's Dream was Benjamin Britten's seventh major opera and had its premiere at Aldeburgh in 1960. Britten and his partner Peter Pears prepared a condensed version of Shakespeare's much-loved comedy for the libretto, using (with the exception of a single line) only the original text. In this newly commissioned guide, Andrew Plant explores the genesis of the opera's composition, including passages of recently published material from Britten's own correspondence. Philip Reed examines the musical language of the opera and has prepared a detailed thematic guide, while David Nice outlines many of the different approaches to the work in productions that have taken place over the last forty years. An essay by Philip Brett discusses how the opera reflects the central issues in Britten's work. Finally, a unique article is included which Britten himself wrote for the Observer immediately preceding the work's premiere. The present edition also contains twentyfive black-and-white and colour photographs, the full libretto, a discography, DVD guide, bibliography and website guide. It will prove an invaluable companion to opera-goers wanting to increase their understanding and enjoyment of this magical work.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (Overture Opera Guides)

Oneworld Classics

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