Some Notes on Britten's Church Music

Extract

Any survey of what Britten has contributed to English music is naturally dominated by his outstanding achievement in opera, on account both of its sheer magnitude and of the ‘pioneering’ element in it. This has slightly drawn attention away from the hardly less remarkable character, importance (and volume) of his output in the field of choral music, where the originality of his contribution, instead of standing out starkly against an almost blank background, is more subtly thrown into relief against, and merged into, a securely established and respectable tradition of composition. Although still apparently ‘flourishing’ when Britten grew up, this tradition was no longer very vital, and part of his achievement is to have renewed and revitalized it so naturally and uniconoclastically that we tend to take its continuance for granted without quite realising how large a part he has played in bringing this about.