5 - Britten and the Cinematic Frame

Summary

In the mid-1930s Britten was beginning to make his mark as a promising newcomer. He had developed some degree of individuality under the guidance of Frank Bridge, whom Britten was always to cite as the most significant single figure in terms of establishing a meticulous technique. The Sinfonietta of 1932 was evidence of an emerging maturity – he won the Farrar Prize for composition at the Royal College of Music for the second time in that year, and the Quatre chansons françaises of a few years earlier (1928) had already demonstrated Britten's enthusiasm to seek out and absorb a wider frame of stylistic reference. But there were signs, too, that Britten was entering something of a creative cul-de-sac and required new impetus before the next steps in his artistic development might be taken. In 1934 he wrote to Grace Williams, ‘I cannot write a single note of anything respectable at the moment, and so – and on the off chance of making some money – I am dishing up some very old stuff (written, some of it, over ten years ago).’

But during 1935 and 1936 Britten's direction as an individual, a thinker and as a composer was set, and events of that year were to establish the basis of a compositional aesthetic and political sensibility that persevered and continued to grow right up to and including the composition of Death in Venice some 40 years later. In January 1936 Britten's diary opens with this optimistic entry, marking a change in fortune and direction for the young composer:

1936 finds me infinitely better off in all ways than did the beginning of 1935; it finds me earning my living – with occasionally something to spare – at the GPO film unit under John Grierson and Cavalcanti, writing music and supervising sounds for film

The final phrase is particularly significant, since Britten's role was not to be merely provider of incidental music, but rather to integrate sound into the fabric of the visual dramatic narrative – a role that would require a more detailed knowledge and understanding of the film-maker's craft. It is worth remembering, too, that the ‘talkies’ – films that could include speech, precisely timed music and sound effects – were a relatively new phenomenon and so any work in this area was likely to be both experimental and pioneering. But Britten was no stranger to film before taking up his post with the GPO Film Unit.