Britten's Musical Language.(Brief Article)

by Philip Rupprecht Cambridge University Press, 368pp. $75

The subject of this entry in Cambridge's "Music in the 20th Century" series should be understood dearly in advance: it is not simply an analysis of Britten's musical style. What Philip Rupprecht is attempting is an investigation of the ever-absorbing unanswered question of exactly how music manages to "say things" to us, using specific examples (mostly vocal) from Britten's music.

Such attempts being necessarily exploratory, it is always worthwhile to allow an author time to build his case. In this instance, this means an introduction that defines "utterance" and similar words as they are going to be used in connection with musical-verbal interaction. This preliminary chapter also discusses Britten's response to verbal evocation in three unusual and therefore instructive cases (Our Hunting Fathers, Lachrymae, Noye's Fludde). The remaining five chapters explore important vocal works, each from a different angle (oversimplified here in a summary): varying emphases and meaning of the many utterances of the name Peter Grimes; the way in which musical motives acquire meaning and the sharing of narrative continuity between voice and orchestra in Billy Budd; perception of innocence and corruption in The Turn of the Screw; the War Requiem ...