No matter how ironic it may sound, we must admit the truth of the statement that England is a country where the public is very musical, but there are no musicians!

This problem is all the more interesting because we know well how high the musical culture of England was in the era of Queen Elizabeth. Where did the musicians and composers disappear to in England in the 18th and 19th centuries?

It is not difficult to give a superficial answer. Great Britain was engaged in trade, acquired colonies, carried out gigantic financial transactions, created industry, fought for a constitution, played a game of chess on the huge board of the globe - and she did not have time to bother with music.

The answer is tempting, but not true. After all, this same England gave humanity great poets: Byron, Shelley, Burns, Coleridge, Browning, Crabbe, Keats, Tennyson, but can you name everyone on this list of fame; Merchant England gave birth to wonderful artists: Hogarth, Constable and Turner. The size of the chapter does not allow us to list here the names of all the masters of prose in England in the 18th-19th centuries. Let us mention only Defoe, Fielding, Sterne, Goldsmith, Walter Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Stevenson, Meredith, Hardy, Lamb, Ruskin, Carlyle.

So, the above argument is untenable. It turns out that merchant England stood at its best in all forms of art with the exception of music.

Perhaps we will come closer to the truth if we follow the train of thought of the musicologist Goddard. In his book The Music of Britain in Our Time, he writes: “English music lives first with admiration from Handel, then from Haydn, Victorian era this admiration gave way to adoration for Mendelssohn, and this adoration made Mendelssohn’s works not only the criterion, but the only breeding ground for music. There simply was no organization, association or class that was inclined to support English music.”

Although this explanation sounds somewhat crude and unlikely, nevertheless, if you think about it carefully, it is quite acceptable. The English aristocracy, as is well known, solely out of snobbery demanded Italian conductors and singers, French dancers, German composers, because she did not consider listening to her musicians a sufficiently secular thing, just as she went to travel not to Scotland or Ireland, but to Italy or Spain, to the African jungle or to the icy world of fiords. Thus, national English music could be heard only when the rising and victorious bourgeoisie felt strong enough not to imitate in the field of theater, music, opera " high society”, but to go where her mind, heart and taste lead her. But why was the English bourgeoisie able to find literature and poetry to their liking, and why did this not happen with music?

Yes, because the rising bourgeois brought with him the ideals of the Puritans, and with pious horror rejected the splendor of the opera stage, as a phenomenon born at the instigation of the devil. The 19th century had to come with its rationalism, freer thinking, more distant from religion, a more secular and, one might say, high-society outlook on life, for the English bourgeois to turn to music, for the era to come that ensures the right to a life full of lively dancing , sparkling with cheerful laughter in the opera buffa of Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900), in order to awaken an understanding of the cantatas of Hubert Parry (1848-1924), they discovered Edward Elgar (1857-1934), who, still looking askance at biblical traditions, presented the English public with a number of oratorio: “The Apostles”, “The Light of Christ”, “King Olaf”, “Dreams of Gerontius”. Elgar is already enjoying popularity and recognition. He is the king's court musician. He alone is showered with as many awards as have not been received by all English musicians famous in the history of music from the Renaissance to the present day.

But the influence of the continent's music still remains strong. Thus, following in the footsteps of Elgar Frederick Delius(1863-1934) studies in Leipzig and Paris frees him from the influence of Mendelssohn, where he meets Strindberg and Gauguin and what, perhaps, meant even more to him than meeting these great people, was meeting the city itself on the banks of the Seine , with the French people, with Gallic wit.

Delius wrote the following operas: Koanga (1904), Rustic Romeo and Juliet (1907), Fennimore and Gerda (1909).

Delius lived in a French environment and, despite a respectable desire for creative freedom, could not completely free himself from the influence of the music of the continent.

The first real English composer of the 19th century was Ralph Vaughan Williams(1872), singer of English nature, English people, expert in English song folklore. He turns to the ancient poet Banayen and the 16th century composer Tellis. He writes a symphony about the sea and London. Paints a musical portrait of the Tudors, but prefers to make English ones sound folk songs.

In the camp of English composers of the 19th century, he has a special place, not only because of his excellent technique, amazing taste and fruitfulness, but also because he has qualities that were given only to Dickens or Mark Twain: he knows how to smile indulgently, somewhat ironically, with narrowed eyes, but in a human way, as the above-mentioned great writers did.

He wrote the following works for the stage:

Lovely Shepherdesses, The Mountains (1922), Hugh the Rider (1924), Sir John in Love (1929), Service (1930), The Poisoned Kiss (1936), Sea Robbers (1937), Pilgrim's Success (1951).

Vaughan-Williams' contemporaries, innovative English musicians, are trying to develop the style of a new English opera. There is no shortage of traditions: composers of this era revive the traditions of ancient ballad operas, resurrect the spirit of Gay and Pepusha: mix sublime feelings with burlesque, pathos with irony; but most of all, English poetry inspires - a treasury of poetic beauty, a world of thoughts.

Among the English composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, we will mention only those who contributed to the formation of modern stage music.

Arnold Bax (1883-1953) became famous as a ballet author.
William Walton (1902) achieved great success with the opera Troilus and Cressida (1954).
Arthur Bliss (1891) attracted attention with his opera “The Olympians” (1949) based on Priestley’s libretto.
Eugene Goossens (1893-1963) spoke in English opera stage with the opera “Judith” (1929) and “Don Giovanni de Manara” (1937).

But the works of Benjamin Britten brought world success to English opera.

The World's Greatest Composers of All Time: Lists in Chronological and Alphabetical Order, Reference Books and Works

100 Great Composers of the World

List of composers in chronological order

1. Josquin Despres (1450 –1521)
2. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 –1594)
3. Claudio Monteverdi (1567 –1643)
4. Heinrich Schütz (1585 –1672)
5. Jean Baptiste Lully (1632 –1687)
6. Henry Purcell (1658 –1695)
7. Arcangelo Corelli (1653 –1713)
8. Antonio Vivaldi (1678 –1741)
9. Jean Philippe Rameau (1683 –1764)
10. George Handel (1685 –1759)
11. Domenico Scarlatti (1685 –1757)
12. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 –1750)
13. Christoph Willibald Gluck (1713 –1787)
14. Joseph Haydn (1732 –1809)
15. Antonio Salieri (1750 –1825)
16. Dmitry Stepanovich Bortnyansky (1751 –1825)
17. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 –1791)
18. Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 –1826)
19. Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778 –1837)
20. Nicollo Paganini (1782 –1840)
21. Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791 –1864)
22. Carl Maria von Weber (1786 –1826)
23. Gioachino Rossini (1792 –1868)
24. Franz Schubert (1797 –1828)
25. Gaetano Donizetti (1797 –1848)
26. Vincenzo Bellini (1801 –1835)
27. Hector Berlioz (1803 –1869)
28. Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804 –1857)
29. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 –1847)
30. Fryderyk Chopin (1810 –1849)
31. Robert Schumann (1810 –1856)
32. Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky (1813 –1869)
33. Franz Liszt (1811 –1886)
34. Richard Wagner (1813 –1883)
35. Giuseppe Verdi (1813 –1901)
36. Charles Gounod (1818 –1893)
37. Stanislav Moniuszko (1819 –1872)
38. Jacques Offenbach (1819 –1880)
39. Alexander Nikolaevich Serov (1820 –1871)
40. Cesar Frank (1822 –1890)
41. Bedřich Smetana (1824 –1884)
42. Anton Bruckner (1824 –1896)
43. Johann Strauss (1825 –1899)
44. Anton Grigorievich Rubinstein (1829 –1894)
45. Johannes Brahms (1833 –1897)
46. ​​Alexander Porfirievich Borodin (1833 –1887)
47. Camille Saint-Saens (1835 –1921)
48. Leo Delibes (1836 –1891)
49. Mily Alekseevich Balakirev (1837 –1910)
50. Georges Bizet (1838 –1875)
51. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839 –1881)
52. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 –1893)
53. Antonin Dvorak (1841 –1904)
54. Jules Massenet (1842 –1912)
55. Edvard Grieg (1843 –1907)
56. Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 –1908)
57. Gabriel Fauré (1845 –1924)
58. Leos Janacek (1854 –1928)
59. Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (1855 –1914)
60. Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev (1856 –1915)
61. Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857 –1919)
62. Giacomo Puccini (1858 –1924)
63. Hugo Wolf (1860 –1903)
64. Gustav Mahler (1860 –1911)
65. Claude Debussy (1862 –1918)
66. Richard Strauss (1864 –1949)
67. Alexander Tikhonovich Grechaninov (1864 –1956)
68. Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov (1865 –1936)
69. Jean Sibelius (1865 –1957)
70. Franz Lehár (1870 –1945)
71. Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin (1872 –1915)
72. Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov (1873 –1943)
73. Arnold Schoenberg (1874 –1951)
74. Maurice Ravel (1875 –1937)
75. Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (1880 –1951)
76. Bela Bartok (1881 –1945)
77. Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky (1881 –1950)
78. Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky (1882 –1971)
79. Anton Webern (1883 –1945)
80. Imre Kalman (1882 –1953)
81. Alban Berg (1885 –1935)
82. Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev (1891 –1953)
83. Arthur Honegger (1892 –1955)
84. Darius Milhaud (1892 –1974)
85. Carl Orff (1895 –1982)
86. Paul Hindemith (1895 –1963)
87. George Gershwin (1898 –1937)
88. Isaac Osipovich Dunaevsky (1900 –1955)
89. Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (1903 –1978)
90. Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich (1906 –1975)
91. Tikhon Nikolaevich Khrennikov (born in 1913)
92. Benjamin Britten (1913 –1976)
93. Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov (1915 –1998)
94. Leonard Bernstein (1918 –1990)
95. Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin (born in 1932)
96. Krzysztof Penderecki (born 1933)
97. Alfred Garievich Schnittke (1934 –1998)
98. Bob Dylan (b. 1941)
99. John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (b. 1942)
100. Sting (born 1951)

MASTERPIECES OF CLASSICAL MUSIC

The most famous composers in the world

List of composers in alphabetical order

Introduction

The fate of English music turned out to be complex and paradoxical. From the 15th century until the end of the 17th century, at the time of the formation and flourishing of the English classical musical tradition, its development was continuous. This process proceeded intensively thanks to the reliance on folklore, which was determined earlier than in other schools of composition, as well as due to the formation and preservation of unique, nationally distinctive genres (anthem, mask, semi-opera). Ancient English music European art important impulses, including polyphony, variational-figurative principles of development, orchestral suite. At the same time, she refracted stimuli coming from outside in an original way.

In the 17th century, events took place that dealt powerful blows to English musical culture. This is, firstly, Puritanism, which was established during the revolution of 1640-1660, with its fanatical desire to abolish previous spiritual values ​​and ancient types and forms of secular culture, and secondly, the restoration of the monarchy (1660), which sharply changed the general cultural orientation of the country, strengthening external influence (from France).

Surprisingly, in parallel with the obvious symptoms of the crisis, phenomena arise that indicate a higher rise musical art. At a difficult time for English music, Henry Purcell (1659-1695) appeared, whose works marked the heyday of the national composer school, although they did not have a direct impact on the creativity of subsequent generations. George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), working in England, with his oratorios established the primacy of the choral tradition in the spectrum of genres of English music, which directly influenced it further development. During the same period, “The Beggar's Opera” by Gay and Pepusch (1728), the parodic nature of which testified to the advent of an era of cultural turning point, became the ancestor of many examples of the so-called ballad opera.

She was one of the peaks theatrical arts England and at the same time evidence of the overthrow of musical art - more precisely, the movement of its “culture-creating energy” (A. Schweitzer) - from the professional to the amateur sphere.

A musical tradition consists of many factors - such as composing, performance, way of life musical life. Regulated by ideological, aesthetic, and general artistic guidelines, these factors do not always act in a coordinated unity; often, under certain historical conditions, their interaction is disrupted. This can be confirmed by the hundred-year period from approximately the middle of the 18th century to mid-19th century in England.

Music of England

High level of performance, wide distribution and deep roots in everyday life various forms music-making - instrumental, vocal-ensemble and choral - then created favorable soil for the bright, large-scale concert life of London, which attracted continental musicians to the capital of the empire: Chopin, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov... The fresh wind of modernity was carried with them by German musicians, the road to which the British Isles was widely open since the reign of the Hanoverian dynasty (from 1714 to 1901) - let us remember, for example, the weekly concerts of Bach - Abel and the concerts of Haydn - Zalomon. Thus, England participated in the intensive process of formation of the pre-classical and classical symphonies, but did not make a creative contribution to it. In general, at that time the branch of national creativity in the genres of opera and symphony, which were relevant on the continent, was undeveloped; in other genres (for example, oratorio) the channel sometimes became shallow. It was this era that gave England the now unconvincing name of “the country without music.”

It is paradoxical that the “era of silence” occurred in the so-called Victorian era - the period of the reign of Queen Victoria (from 1837 to 1901). The state was at the zenith of its strength and glory. A powerful colonial power, the “workshop of the world,” gave its nation a confident sense of self and the conviction that “it is destined to occupy first place in the world until the end of its days” (J. Aldridge). The Victorian era was the heyday of all areas of English culture: its prose and poetry, drama and theater, painting and architecture, and finally aesthetics - and a time of noticeable decline in the field of composition.

At the same time, it was precisely from the middle of the 19th century, when the crisis of the national school of composers was already obvious, that impulses of upsurge began to accumulate, which became apparent in the middle of the 19th century and clearly manifested itself in turn of the 19th century and XX centuries.

The choral movement, amateur and professional, expanded and grew. The choral tradition was perceived as truly national. English masters swore allegiance to her: Hubert Parry (1848-1918), Edward Elgar (1857-1934), Frederick Dilius (1862-1934), Gustav Holst (1874-1934), Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).

A parallel folklore movement developed, the leading figure of which was Cecil J. Sharp (1859-1924). It included a scientific direction (field collection, theoretical understanding) and a practical one (introduction into school and everyday life). This was accompanied by a critical re-evaluation of the entertainment-salon assimilation of folk genres and the penetration of folk material into composers' creativity. All these sides of the folklore movement interacted - complementing each other, and sometimes conflictingly opposing one another.

Until the middle of the 19th century, strange as it may seem at first glance, in fact english songs rarely found their way into collections - much less often than songs from Scotland, Wales and, especially, Ireland. Not without irony, Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote in the introductory essay to the book of the country's greatest folklorist Cecil Sharp, “English Folk Song”: “We have hitherto known from authoritative sources that folk music was “either bad or Irish”.”

The movement for the revival of early music - Purcell, Bach, English madrigalists and virginalists - contributed to the awakening of deep interest among performers, manufacturers musical instruments and scientists (such as A. Dolmetsch and his family), as well as composers

"golden age" of the English professional school. The heritage of the XV-XVII centuries, enlivened by performing practice, sublime critical thought, appeared as an inspiring force of national original craftsmanship.

The listed trends, at first barely noticeable, gradually gained power and, rushing towards each other, to end of the 19th century centuries have exploded the soil. Their unification marked the beginning of a new musical revival England. After a long break, this country is not separate creative personalities, but entered European musical culture as a national school. By this time, the continent was talking about English composers; Brahms predicted English music interesting future, R. Strauss supported it in the person of E. Elgar. The intensity of its evolution at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was great.

The tradition of Austro-German romanticism has long found fertile soil in England. This is a historically determined influence, reinforced by the system music education and the practice of improving young composers in the cities of Germany, was reflected in the style (primarily in Parry, Standford, Elgar). English musicians understood that the affirmation of national identity presupposed liberation from such powerful influence. However, unlike declarations, in creativity this process was slow and difficult, since the leading genres themselves - including such conceptual ones as the symphony or symphonic poem - assumed reliance on the fruitful experience of the Austro-German school. Accordingly, the extent of German influence and the degree to which it was overcome served as a criterion for the national identity and significance of the composer’s work. Indicative, for example, are the following assessments of one of the English critics: “While the music of Parry and Stanford spoke German with English and Irish accent… Elgar’s music spoke English with a German accent.”

At the turn of the century, in Britain, as throughout Europe, there was a desire to create a musical language that would correspond to modern aesthetics. The “new word” came from France. The interest in the East that arose among English musicians prompted them to pay attention to the achievements of French impressionism. This was especially evident in the works of Cyril Scott (1879-1970), Grenville Bantock (1868-1946) and Gustav Holst. True, in Scott and Bantock the world of oriental images and moods does not affect the foundations of composer's thinking. Their image of the East is conventional, and in its embodiment it is not difficult to detect many traditional features.

The implementation of this theme in the work of Holst, who gravitated towards Indian culture, reached a different level. He sought to find a deeper, spiritual contact between Western and eastern cultures, which is generally characteristic of the art of the 20th century. And he carried out this desire in his own way, not consistent with what his older contemporary Debussy was doing. At the same time, the discoveries of impressionism, associated with a new idea of ​​​​musical space, timbre, dynamics, with a new attitude to sound, entered the palette of means of expression used by composers in England - the homeland of “landscape and marina” (C. Nodier).

Despite all the individual stylistic differences, English composers of that period were united by the desire to strengthen the folk-national foundations of their music. The discovery of peasant folklore and the creativity of the masters of the Old English school as two interrelated sources belongs to G. Holst and R. Vaughan-Williams. Appeal to the legacy of the “golden age” English art was the only possible way to revive the national tradition. Folklore and old masters, establishing connections with modern European musical culture - the interaction of these trends in the art of Holst and Vaughan Williams brought a long-awaited renewal to English music of the 20th century. The themes, plots and images of English prose, poetry, and drama served as an important support in the establishment of national ideals. For musicians, the rural ballads of Robert Burns and the godless poems of John Milton, the pastoral elegies of Robert Herrick and the poems of John Donne, rich in passionate tension, acquire a modern sound; was rediscovered William Blake. An ever deeper understanding of national culture has become the most important factor the formation and flourishing of the English school of composition of the 20th century, the formation of the aesthetic ideal of composers.

First largest representatives Hubert Parry (1848-1918) and Charles Stanford (1852-1924) appeared in the new English musical revival. Composers, scholars, performers, musicians and teachers, they, like the founders of many national schools, were outstanding figures whose multifaceted work was selflessly aimed at creating a new national school of composition, capable of reviving the tradition of the glorious past of English music. Their own social and creative activities served high example for contemporaries and for English composers of subsequent, younger generations.

The formation of a new English school of composition took place during the long reign (1837-1901) of Queen Victoria. During this era, various areas of English culture developed fully. The great national literary tradition. If Parry and Stanford’s activities are closely connected with, relatively speaking, the proto-Renaissance period of the era under consideration, then the name of Elgar opens the actual creative period of the new revival.

Like its contemporaries, the English school of composition was faced, first of all, with the problems of European musical romanticism in their entirety. And naturally, Wagner’s art became their focus. The powerful influence of Wagner's music in England can only be compared with his influence then in France or with the influence of Handel in England in the 18th century.

Already at the turn of the century, English composers made persistent attempts to break away from the influence of the German classical-romantic traditions, which had taken such deep roots on English soil. Let us remember that Parry wanted to create - as opposed to Mendelssohn's - a national variety of philosophical oratorio. A major achievement was Elgar's trilogy of small cantatas, The Spirit of England (1917).

The first true composer that England has produced since Purcell is called Edward Elgar (1857-1934). He was very closely associated with English provincial musical culture. On initial stages his creative life He served as a composer and arranger for the orchestra of his native Worcester, also wrote for musicians in Birmingham, and worked for local choral societies. His early choral songs and cantatas are in line with the great English choral tradition that emerged in the 80s and 90s. XIX century - that is, precisely when Elgar created his early choral works - to the climax phase. Elgar's oratorio The Dream of Gerontius (1900), which brought fame to English music on the continent, was such a significant achievement for the composer that it generally supplanted Mendelssohn's Elijah and became the second favorite oratorio of the English public after Handel's Messiahs.

Elgar’s significance for the history of English music is determined primarily by two works: the oratorio “The Dream of Gerontius” (1900, on the piece by J. Newman) and the symphonic “Variations on a Mysterious Theme” (“Enigma” - variations (Enigma (lat.) - riddle. ), 1899), which became the pinnacle of English musical romanticism. The oratorio “The Dream of Gerontius” sums up not only the long development of cantata-oratorio genres in the work of Elgar himself (4 oratorios, 4 cantatas, 2 odes), but in many ways everything that preceded the path of the English choral music. Another important feature was also reflected in the oratorio national renaissance- interest in folklore. It is no coincidence that, after listening to “The Dream of Gerontius,” R. Strauss proposed a toast “to the prosperity and success of the first English progressive Edward Elgar, the master of the young progressive school of English composers.” Unlike the Enigma oratorio, the variations laid the first stone in the foundation of the national symphony, which before Elgar was the most vulnerable area of ​​​​English musical culture. “The Enigma Variations indicate that in the person of Elgar the country has found an orchestral composer of the first magnitude,” wrote one of the English researchers. The “mystery” of the variations is that the names of the composer’s friends are encrypted in them, hidden from view and theme song cycle. (All this is reminiscent of the “Sphinxes” from R. Schumann’s “Carnival.”) Elgar also wrote the first English symphony (1908).

Elgar's work is one of the outstanding phenomena of musical romanticism. Synthesizing national and Western European, mainly Austro-German influences, it bears the features of lyrical-psychological and epic directions. The composer widely uses the system of leitmotifs, in which the influence of R. Wagner and R. Strauss is clearly felt.

The establishment of new positions in English music came at a time of turning point in the spiritual life of Great Britain. Those were years of great trials and changes. The First World War forced many artists of this country, which considered itself a stronghold of inviolability in Europe, to react sensitively to the contradictions of the surrounding reality on an unprecedented scale. Post-war English music is dominated by a centrifugal need to look at the world with a wide-ranging view. The younger generation decisively came into contact with the innovative searches of European masters - Stravinsky, Schoenberg. The origins of "Facade" by William Walton (1902-1983) are compositional ideas drawn from Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire", but the basis of the style of the work is the anti-romanticism proclaimed by Stravinsky and the French "Six". Constant Lambert (1905-1951) surprised his compatriots by starting to work in the genre of ballet from the very first steps on his creative path, the traditions of which were interrupted in England in the second half of the 18th century; in fact, it is quite natural that the composer was attracted to this genre, which in Europe by the 20s of the 20th century had become a symbol of modern artistic quest. Lambert's ballet Romeo and Juliet (1925) was a kind of response to Stravinsky's Pulcinella. At the same time, with his other composition - Elegiac Blues for small orchestra (1927) - Lambert responded to the jazz that amazed Europeans. Alan Bush (1900-1995) connected his activities with Eisler’s creative position and the labor movement; he not only adopted the corresponding socio-political and philosophical ideas, but also developed his compositional technique, relying on the experience of the New Vienna School, fruitfully refracted by Eisler.

In the first half of the 30s, the change of generations of composers, which had emerged in the previous decade, was finally determined. In 1934, England lost three major masters - Elgar, Dilius, Holst. Of these, only Holst worked actively until his last days. Elgar, after a decade of silence, only came to life for creativity in the early 30s. At the same time, struck by a serious illness and blindness, Dilius, who lived in France, was inspired by the unexpected success of his music in his homeland, in London, where his author’s festival was held in 1929, and in a surge of strength he dictated his latest works.

By the end of the 30s, the young generation is entering a time of creative maturity. The time of experimentation is left behind, the main interests are determined, creativity rushes into the mainstream of established traditions, mastery and strictness in relation to one’s ideas appear. Thus, William Walton writes a monumental biblical oratorio (“Belshazzar’s Feast”, 1931) and follows it with large orchestral works (First Symphony, 1934; Violin Concerto, 1939). Michael Tippett (b. 1905) rejects his earlier works; He declares new works in the chamber genre (First Piano Sonata, 1937) and concert orchestral works (Concerto for double string orchestra, 1939; Fantasia on a theme by Handel for piano and orchestra, 1941) the beginning of his creative path, the first culmination of which was the oratorio “Child of Our Time” (1941). In those years, Lambert (the mask “The Last Will and Testament of Summer” for soloist, choir and orchestra, 1936), Berkeley (First Symphony, 1940), Bush (First Symphony, 1940) were working on large-scale compositions in those years.

Among the many bright and original artistic individuals with which the English school of composers of the 20th century is rich, Benjamin Britten stands out. It was he who was destined to find in his work a harmonious interaction of multidirectional (and for the previous generation of English composers, almost mutually exclusive) tendencies - the embodiment of the ideas of modernity and the implementation of the originality of national art.

britten music ensemble vocal

In 1904, the German critic Oscar Adolf Hermann Schmitz published a book about Great Britain, calling it (both the book and the country itself) “The Land Without Music” (Das Land Ohne Musik). Perhaps he was right. After Handel's death in 1759, Britain made negligible contributions to the development of classical music. True, Schmitz made his condemnation at the wrong time: the 20th century witnessed a revival of British music, which manifested itself in the formation of a new national style. This era also gave the world four great British composers.

Edward Elgar

He never formally studied the art of composition anywhere, but managed from a modest Worcester conductor and bandmaster of the Worcester psychiatric hospital to become the first in two hundred years British composer, which has achieved international recognition. His first major orchestral work, “Variations on a Mysterious Theme” (Enigma Variations, 1899), brought him fame - mysterious because each of the fourteen variations was written on a unique theme that no one had ever heard. Elgar's greatness (or his Englishness, as some say) lies in his use of bold melodic themes that convey a mood of nostalgic melancholy. His best essay called the oratorio “The Dream of Gerontius” (1900), and its First March of the cycle “Solemn and Ceremonial Marches” (Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, 1901), also known as “The Land of Hope and Glory”, never fails to evoke wild delight among listeners at the annual “promenade concerts”.

Gustav Holst

A Swede born in England, Holst was an exceptionally extraordinary composer. A master of orchestration, in his work he relied on such different traditions, like English folk songs and madrigals, Hindu mysticism and the avant-gardism of Stravinsky and Schoenberg. He was also interested in astrology, and its study inspired Holst to create his most famous (though not his best) work, the seven-movement symphonic suite “The Planets” (1914-1916).

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams is considered the most English of British composers. He rejected foreign influences, imbuing his music with the mood and rhythms of national folklore and the work of English composers of the 16th century. Its rich, sad melodies conjure up pictures of rural life. Stravinsky even remarked that listening to his Pastoral Symphony (1921) was like “looking at a cow for a long time,” and he, admittedly, put it even mildly in comparison with the composer Elizabeth Lutyens, who called the “Pastoral Symphony” "music for cows" Vaughan Williams is best known as the author of A Sea Symphony (1910), A London Symphony (1913) and the delightful romance for violin and orchestra, The Lark Ascending (1914).

Benjamin Britten

Britten was, and remains to this day, the last great British composer. His skill and ingenuity, especially as a vocal composer, brought him international recognition comparable to Elgar's. Among his best works are the opera Peter Grimes (1945), the orchestral work The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, 1946, and the major orchestral and choral work War Requiem ( War Requiem, 1961) to the poems of Wilfred Owen. Britten was not a big fan of the “English traditionalism” characteristic of composers of the previous generation, although he arranged folk songs for his partner, tenor Peter Pears. During his lifetime, Britten was known as a homosexual and a pacifist. few people knew about his passion, albeit innocent, for thirteen-year-old boys.

In 1904, the German critic Oscar Adolf Hermann Schmitz published a book about Great Britain, calling it (both the book and the country itself) “The Land Without Music” (Das Land Ohne Musik). Perhaps he was right. After Handel's death in 1759, Britain made negligible contributions to the development of classical music. True, Schmitz made his condemnation at the wrong time: the 20th century witnessed a revival of British music, which manifested itself in the formation of a new national style. This era also gave the world four great British composers.

Edward Elgar

He did not formally study the art of composition anywhere, but managed from a modest Worcester conductor and bandmaster of the Worcester mental hospital to become the first British composer in two hundred years to achieve international recognition. After spending his childhood in his father's shop on the main street of Worcestershire, surrounded by scores, musical instruments and music textbooks, young Elgar taught himself music theory. In warm weather summer days he began to take manuscripts with him out of town to study (from the age of five he became addicted to cycling). Thus, for him, the beginning of a strong relationship between music and nature was laid. Later he will say: “Music, it’s in the air, music is around us, the world is full of it, and you can just take as much as you need.” At the age of 22, he accepted a position as bandmaster at the Worcester Mental Hospital for the Poor at Pawick, three miles southwest of Worcester, a progressive institution that believed in the healing power of music. His first major orchestral work, “Variations on a Mysterious Theme” (Enigma Variations, 1899), brought him fame - mysterious because each of the fourteen variations was written on a unique theme that no one had ever heard. Elgar's greatness (or his Englishness, as some say) lies in his use of bold melodic themes that convey a mood of nostalgic melancholy. His best work is called the oratorio “The Dream of Gerontius” (1900), and his First March of the Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, 1901, also known as “The Land of Hope and Glory,” invariably causes great delight among listeners at the annual “promenade concerts.”

Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius

Gustav Holst

A Swede born in England, Holst was an exceptionally extraordinary composer. A master of orchestration, his work drew on traditions as diverse as English folk songs and madrigals, Hindu mysticism and the avant-gardeism of Stravinsky and Schoenberg. He was also interested in astrology, and its study inspired Holst to create his most famous (though not his best) work, the seven-movement symphonic suite (The Planets, 1914-1916).

Gustav Holst. "Planets. Venus"

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams is considered the most English of British composers. He rejected foreign influences, imbuing his music with the mood and rhythms of national folklore and the work of English composers of the 16th century. Vaughan Williams is one of the major composers the first half of the 20th century, who played an important role in the revival of interest in British academic music. His legacy is very extensive: six operas, three ballets, nine symphonies, cantatas and oratorios, works for piano, organ and chamber ensembles, arrangements folk songs and many other works. In his work, he was inspired by the traditions of English masters of the 16th–17th centuries (he revived the genre of the English mask) and folk music. Williams' works are noted for their large-scale design, melodicism, masterful vocal performance and original orchestration. Vaughan Williams is one of the founders of the new English school of composers - the so-called “English musical renaissance”. Vaughan Williams is best known as the author of A Sea Symphony (1910), "A London Symphony" (1913) and the delightful romance for violin and orchestra “(The Lark Ascending, 1914).

Vaughan Williams. "London Symphony"

Benjamin Britten

Britten was, and remains to this day, the last great British composer. His skill and ingenuity, especially as a vocal composer, brought him international recognition comparable to that of Elgar. Among his best works is the opera Peter Grimes (1945), an orchestral work "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, 1946) and a large orchestral and choral work “War Requiem” (War Requiem, 1961) based on poems by Wilfred Owen. One of the main themes of Britten's work - protest against violence, war, affirmation of the value of the fragile and unprotected human world - received its highest expression in "War Requiem" (1961). Britten spoke about what led him to the War Requiem: “I thought a lot about my friends who died in the two world wars. I will not claim that this essay is written in heroic tones. There is a lot of regret about the terrible past. But that is precisely why Requiem is addressed to the future. Seeing examples of the terrible past, we must prevent such catastrophes as wars.” Britten was not a big fan of the “English traditionalism” characteristic of composers of the previous generation, although he arranged folk songs for his partner, tenor Peter Pears. Neither in early years, nor in the later stages of his creative evolution did Britten set himself the tasks of a pioneer of new techniques composition or theoretical justification for its individual style. Unlike many of his peers, Britten was never carried away by the pursuit of “the newest,” nor did he try to find support in the established techniques of composition inherited from the masters of previous generations. He is guided, first of all, by the free flight of imagination, fantasy, realistic expediency, and not by belonging to one of the many “schools” of our century. Britten valued creative sincerity more than scholastic dogma, no matter how cutting-edge it was dressed up. He allowed all the winds of the era to penetrate into his creative laboratory, penetrate, but do not dispose of it.

Britten. "Young People's Guide to the Orchestra"

Since Britten was laid to rest in Aldborough, Suffolk, in 1976, British classical music has struggled to maintain its illustrious reputation. John Taverner, a direct descendant of the 16th-century composer John Taverner, and Peter Maxwell Davies create works that have been favorably received by critics, but nothing truly outstanding has yet appeared. Classical music occupies a certain niche in British culture, but perhaps not as large as its fans would like. It's featured in TV adverts and at various sporting events, and ordinary Britons may well watch the final night of the Proms on TV (if there's nothing better to do), but in reality classical music is listened to by a very small part of the nation, mainly middle-class people. . Respectable music for respectable people.

Materials used from the site: london.ru/velikobritaniya/muzika-v-velik obritanii