"It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature, and everlasting beauty of monotony." - Benjamin Britten

 

 

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist.

 

 

Born: November 22, 1913, Lowestoft

Died: December 4, 1976, Aldeburgh

Compositions: The War Requiem, Op. 66, Peter Grimes, A Ceremony of Carols, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, The Turn of the Screw, Billy Budd, Simple Symphony, Albert Herring, The Rape of Lucretia, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Death in Venice, Gloriana, Spring Symphony, Curlew River, Sinfonia da Requiem, Winter Words, Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, The Little Sweep, Owen Wingrave, Cello Symphony, Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Paul Bunyan, Cello Suites, The Prodigal Son, Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Missa Brevis, The Prince of the Pagodas, Piano Concerto, Nocturne for tenor, 7 obligato instruments & strings, The Burning Fiery Furnace, Cantata academica, Canticle III: Still falls the rain, A Birthday Hansel, Diversions for piano and orchestra, Variations on an Elizabethan Theme, The False Knight upon the road, Prelude and Fugue on a theme of Vittoria, 8 Folk Song Arrangements, The Foggy, Foggy Dew, Cello Sonata, The Miller of Dee, The Lincolnshire Poacher

Movies: Britten: Owen Wingrave

Parents: Robert Victor Britten, Edith Rhoda Hockey

Education: Royal College of Music (1930 – 1933), Gresham's School