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Britten and the Far East : Asian influences in the music of Benjamin Britten / Mervyn Cooke.
| Author/creator | Cooke, Mervyn |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | Woodbridge, Suffolk ; Rochester, NY : Boydell Press ; Aldeburgh : Britten-Pears Library, 1998. |
| Description | xx, 279 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits, music, facsimiles ; 25 cm + 1 audio disc (digital ; 4 3/4 in.) |
| Subjects |
| Series | Aldeburgh studies in music ; v. 4 Aldeburgh studies in music ; v. 4. ^A324301 |
| Contents | Making tonic and dominant seem like ghosts -- Britten and Colin McPhee -- Bali -- The Prince of the Pagodas -- Japan -- From No to church parable: the evolution of Curlew River, 1956-64. The No theatre ; Sumidagawa and the Curlew River libretto ; Curlew River and the dramatic style of No ; Curlew River and European mediaeval drama ; The musical style of Curlew River: No and Gagaku -- The later church parables. The Burning Fiery Furnace ; The Prodigal Son -- Stylistic synthesis: Death in Venice -- The composer and his critics. |
| Contents | Audio CD: Balinese ceremonial music (Pemoengkah ; Gambangan ; Taboeh teloe ; Rebong ; Lagu delem) / arr. Colin McPhee (Colin McPhee, Benjamin Britten, pianos) (11:14) -- Gamelan music from Bali. (Kapi radja = Monkey king (3:00) ; Tamililingan = Bumblebees (10:47) (gamelan gong kebyar, Peliatan village, Ubud)) ; Tabuh teluh (unidentified gamelan, Ubud) (7:07)) -- Japanese music. Nåo play, Sumidagawa (extracts) (12:29) -- Gagaku piece, Etenraku (9:35). -- Indian music. Raag Yaman (Pannalal Ghosh) (19:00). |
| Abstract | Benjamin Britten's interest in the musical traditions of the Far East had a far-reaching influence on his compositional style; this book is the first to investigate the highly original cross-cultural synthesis he was able to achieve through the use of material borrowed from Balinese, Japanese and Indian music. Britten's visit to Indonesia and Japan in 1955-6 is reconstructed from archival sources, and shown to have had a profound impact on his subsequent work: the techniques of Balinese gamelan music were used in the ballet The Prince of the Pagodas (1957), and then became an essential feature of Britten's compositional style, at their most potent in Death in Venice(1973). The No drama and Gagaku court music of Japan were the inspiration for the trilogy of church parables Britten composed in the 1960s. The precise nature of these influences is discussed; Britten's sporadic borrowings from Indian music are also fully analysed. There is a survey of critical responses to Britten's cross-cultural experiments. |
| Local note | Little-305131060593- |
| Local note | Joyner-MUSIC LIBRARY BOOK ACCOMPANIED BY SOUND RECORDING CD-4081. |
| General note | Compact disc publisher no.: BPLCD 001. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-271) and index. |
| LCCN | 97032608 |
| ISBN | 0851155790 (alk. paper) |
| Publisher number | BPLCD 001 Britten-Pears Library |